Supply Chain Management Of Jaguar Land Rover: An Analysis

Overview of the Organization

In recent years the concept of supply chain management has become a very important part of the operation for every business sector. The systematic approach of managing the flow of goods and services is known as Supply chain management. The activities which are involved in the supply chain management are raw materials storage, work in progress and delivery of the finished product to its destination. It also constructs a framework and connect various pipelines like suppliers and customers (Christopher, 2016). The aim of this study is to make a clear discussion on the service delivery system of a renowned UK based automotive company named Jaguar Land Rover. In this study a further discussion on the infrastructure of the delivery systems is being done. An analysis on how the quality is managed and how the human resources in the supply chain department is being managed by the management team has also been discussed. There also exists a deep insight on the Economic, environmental and social factors which effect the supply chain operation of the selected company.

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 Jaguar Land Rover has its headquarters in Whitley, United Kingdom. The company has been formed after the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata motors from Ford in the year 2008. The performance of the company has seen a growth post the acquisition. The management team has become more strong over the years. The sales and the profits post the acquisition has increased significantly over the years (Jaguar Land Rover, 2018a). This immense growth of the company is due to the reconstruction of the supply and management operations by the top level management authorities.

The mission of Jaguar Land Rover is to create a strong partnership between the supplier and the customer of the. The Unique selling point of Land Rover is the delivery of the car to its customer. The delivery of the car is cheaper and is very flexible in nature. In 2017 the it has invested a significant amount of money to improve the manufacturing facilities of the company. It has established various trading links and has moved its production from the United Kingdom to Italy. It has aimed to increase its productivity to the new technology known as 4.0.  Industry 4.0 helps various sensors, IT machines, pieces of work and other machines to get connected for a value chain creation in one particular enterprise (Mychajluk, 2017).

Jaguar Land Rover has kept its focus on the improvement of the supply chain department so that customers do not face any disruptions when it comes to the delivery of the car. Efficient supply chain also helps a company to maintain a stable relationship between the suppliers and the customers of the company. So, to avoid any disruptions the company has done a partnership with a company named Grupo Antolin. Grupo Antolin is a Spain based automotive company who has started its journey in the year 1950 as garage mechanics. It has now become one of the largest company in the market of car interiors with an employee more than 20000. Grupo Antolin helps Jaguar Land Rover to have an efficient product line. In 2017 Jaguar Land Rover and Grupo Antolin has won Supplier relationship management award. Grupo Antolin assembles and delivers the panels of instruments and consoles for Jaguar Land Rover. The work which is Grupo Antolin is a very important work because any disruption in the delivery of the product can affect the revenue generation and the profit of Jaguar Land Rover in a huge way. Jaguar had to spend a huge amount in overtime for the production of vehicles in weekends because at that point of time it was facing issues and discrepancies in the supply chain.

Analysis

Jaguar Land Rover aims to provide the customers with the highest quality of the Italian leather, finest grain. It aims at gathering the required components which gives a perfect finishing to the product that is ready to deliver. The supply chain department of Jaguar Land Rover has various departments. They are the Quality check of the suppliers where the various parts coming from the suppliers which is assembled is checked by various quality analysts. The second department is Material planning and Logistics. This department coordinates with companies located in 175 countries across the world so that the parts arrive at the industries in correct time and there is no delay in the delivery of the end product to its customers. The 3rd department is known as the parts supply chain. In this department the dealers across the world is communicated by the company. Under this there are very departments like the Supply chain inventory management, warehousing department and the supply chain analytics team (Jaguar Land Rover, 2018b).

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The following part consists of the analysis on how the company manages the quality of the company and how it manages the human resources in the supply chain department and in other operational department.

In the recent years it has been seen that management of a company is more focussed on the manufacturing department. Various companies across the world use a unique technique known as Flexible Management System (FMS). This system helps in the Total Quality Management of the company (TQM) (Christopher, 2016). The management of the quality of the products and services to increase the customer satisfaction is known as the Total quality management.

The company should focus on the quality of all the materials that are being offered to them by various other companies. Jaguar has a team who are responsible for constantly scrutinizing the end product when it comes from the plant after being manufactured. The quality management team of the company helps the end product undergo various processes of precision and check in the quality. If there exists any problem while going through the process the end product is checked several times. After the process ends the inspectors of the company pore on each and every car and check whether everything is working perfectly or not and see whether there exists any damage in the car (Jaguar Land Rover, 2018c).

To implement the Total Quality Management of the company Jaguar has established a planning team. The organisation understand the needs of the customers and accordingly the quality of the product is maintained. Jaguar Land Rover trains its customers in such a way that it aims at producing the product with efficiency. The main points of maintaining the quality of the product is improvement of the product and the service of the organization.

The perfect coordination and planning of the quality management team of the company has helped the company to achieve various achievements. The company has set a standard for all the automotive company based in United Kingdom. The company has got an award for maintaining the international standard for quality which is popularly known as ISO/TS 16949:2002. The award was given on the basis of various factors. The factors are commitment of the organization towards the quality, management system in the leading edge and the satisfaction of the customer. The company is the first European company which has received global standard of quality. It has been recognized as one of the best company in terms of customer satisfaction and in terms of competition globally.

The supply chain management are responsible for carrying out operational management that in turn helps the employees of a company. In a large company such as Jaguar Land Rover, there are hardly chance of operations as well as supply chain management getting overlapped. This in turn has reduced the probability of turning the supply chain management system complicated. As a part of the supply chain management, Jaguar Land Rover manages contingent labour force by concentrating on operating costs instead of the headcount (Sarkis, Zhu and Lai, 2011). The HR management of the company works jointly with the procurement in order to provide a better environment to the contingent employees. The company majorly deals with the management of cost structures along with the individuals who have been driving these costs. The people associated with the supply chain management are required to comprehend the fact that if the line manager brings everything, they will not have any control over it. The people associated with the supply chain management as a result, are likely to lack an essential contract management role. The individuals are managed in the operation by making them aware about the internal market as well as the supply chain. According to Cuthbertson and Piotrowicz, (2011) the company has also worked collaboratively with its interior suppliers in order to get rid of disruption on the line of production. This helped Jaguar Land Rover to win the CIPS Supply Management Awards twice. The company also aimed to implement a project in order to support supply chain businesses. This aimed to incorporate high performance working practices by concentrating on the ability of the individuals to support skills, job design as well as other practices in the workplace with cultural and other people-related strategies. The individuals have been managed with the help of high performance working practices that placed stress on empowering them. Gosling, Towill, Naim and Dainty (2015) argued that the automotive sector recently had a problem with the supply of appropriately knowledgeable individuals to match the business development as well as new technologies. In order to comprehend the aptitude of their supply chain businesses to develop as predicted, the company initiated a deep-drive activity that involved suppliers. This reflected on the ability of the suppliers to comprehend, produce as well as prioritize a wide-ranging training policy. This helped to maximize present employee capability as well as detain proofing skills gaps. The High Performance Working for example, customized program helped to up skill the supply chain management. This initiated development of the individuals thus helping to view the supply chain of the company in a more organic method rather than just a machine (Clegg and Wan, 2013). The external engagement management of the company has helped to manage relationship with the suppliers. The lack of knowledgeable supply indicates an increasing concentration on rising high performance working as well as competence. As a result, the company turned some components of the supply chain obvious thus adapting a new working way. According to Clegg and Wan (2013) the company inherent global role while sourcing their manufactured vehicles while trading with international countries. For example, Jaguar Land Rover has been involved in the proposal of working jointly with departments such as the IT, finance as the HR department in order to manage the individuals successfully in the supply chain. This has helped to maximize the sustainability of Jaguar Land Rover. In other words, the supply chain managers have been able to produce a supply chain surplus that has created customer value. This has also provided suitable components related to the commodities as well as services to the end users at an optimal price (Clegg, Chandler, Binder and Edwards, 2013). The individuals have been trained to work jointly to produce high quality vehicles that will help to create the exact quality as well as quantity at a fair cost. The senior managers produced a traditional corporate culture that helped to avoid a bad decision related to investment. This in turn bought about high competence as well as operational profit. According to Clegg, Chandler, Binder and Edwards (2013) the company requires to implement ERP software system that will allow the management to get an easy access inventory thus providing critical decision-making purpose.  

The triple bottom line is defined as a concept that widens the concentration of the business on the financial bottom line. This includes social, economic as well as environmental considerations. Jaguar Land Rover has encompassed a new framework in order to measure overall performance globally. This has also helped the company to measure its sustainability (Slaper and Hall, 2011). The triple bottom line helped to increase the return on investment (ROI), shareholder value as well as social dimension of the company. The company aimed to hire the least expensive knowledgeable employees as well as disposing the manufacturing waste in the cheapest possible way. According to Slaper and Hall, (2011) this helped to accomplish profits thus having a positive impact on the financial bottom line. With addition to the increasing revenues, Jaguar Land Rover for example, integrated social as well as environmental standards with the policies of corporate governance. This helped to diminish the prospects of brand-damaging activities as well as blunders. The company largely focused on creating job for the employees, reducing waste through hazardous waste management as well as bringing about economic prosperity (Gimenez, Sierra and Rodon, 2012). The economic variables that have been considered by the company included increasing personal income of the employees, reducing the rate of underemployment, leading towards increase in job and distribution of employment based on sector. Social aspects indicates to social scope of a community or area and could embrace measurements of education, even-handedness and way in to social resources, health and welfare, quality of life as well as social capital (Goel, 2010).

Conclusion and Recommendations

It could be concluded that Jaguar has a team who are responsible for constantly scrutinizing the product when it comes from the plant after being manufactured. The company inherent global role while sourcing their manufactured vehicles while trading with international countries. It will be the responsibility of the company to create a complete set of measures appropriate to the task. It could be inferred that the individuals are required to comprehend the fact that if the line manager brings everything, they will not have any control over it. Jaguar Land Rover has kept its focus on the improvement of the supply chain department so that customers do not face any disruptions when it comes to the delivery of the car. A business is responsible for gauging environmental sustainability by diminishing the amount of solid waste. The High Performance Working customized program helped to up skill the supply chain management. This initiated development of the individuals thus helping to view the supply chain of the company in a more organic method rather than just a machine.  

It could be recommended that Jaguar land Rover should initiate standardization of procedure that is regarded as the major element of a supply chain strategy. This will help to raise competency thus saving both money as well as time. On the other hand, automatic purchasing is also recommended, as it will help to maintain inventory levels preemptively. The accomplishment of data insight will help to provide with appropriate information as well as timely data. In order to initiate a smooth performance it is required to monitor the employees through ERP systems. Alternatively, increasing cost awareness is also decisive that will persuade cost-related communication as well as approaches for merging costs and streamlining procedures. Operating at the most favourable inventory levels and decreasing warehouse expenses is also highly recommended for the company.      

References

Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Clegg, B. and Wan, Y., 2013. Managing enterprises and ERP systems: a contingency model for the enterprization of operations. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 33(11/12), pp.1458-1489.

Clegg, B., Chandler, S., Binder, M. and Edwards, J., 2013. Governing inter-organisational R&D supplier collaborations: a study at Jaguar Land Rover. Production Planning & Control, 24(8-9), pp.818-836.

Cuthbertson, R. and Piotrowicz, W., 2011. Performance measurement systems in supply chains: A framework for contextual analysis. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 60(6), pp.583-602.

Gimenez, C., Sierra, V. and Rodon, J., 2012. Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), pp.149-159.

Goel, P., 2010. Triple Bottom Line Reporting: An Analytical Approach for Corporate Sustainability. Journal of Finance, Accounting & Management, 1(1).

Gosling, J., Towill, D.R., Naim, M.M. and Dainty, A.R., 2015. Principles for the design and operation of engineer-to-order supply chains in the construction sector. Production Planning & Control, 26(3), pp.203-218.

Jaguar Land Rover, 2017. Jaguar Land Rover and its supply chain. [pdf] Available at <https://www.drivemidlands.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jaguar-Land-Rover-its-supply-chain-Mike-Mychajluk-JLR.pdf> [Accessed 08 November 2018].

Jaguar Land Rover, 2018a. Heritage. [online] Available at <https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/2016/heritage> [Accessed 08 November 2018]

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Jaguar Land Rover, 2018c. Quality Dependability and Reliability. [online] Available at <https://www.jaguar.com/about-jaguar/jaguar-business/safety-qdr.html>[Accessed 08 November 2018]

Sarkis, J., Zhu, Q. and Lai, K.H., 2011. An organizational theoretic review of green supply chain management literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 130(1), pp.1-15.

Slaper, T.F. and Hall, T.J., 2011. The triple bottom line: What is it and how does it work. Indiana Business Review, 86(1), pp.4-8.