Discussion 3

9

Operational Efficiency General Motors

Name

Institution

1. Weaknesses that are evident in G.M.'s product life cycle.

General Motors uses the standard product life cycle where the product goes through the stages of introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Their motor vehicles are introduced in the introduction phase, where they understand the market before moving to the growth phase after applying marketing strategies. The maturity stage is shown where the products meet the market's high demands and are making revenue with high profits. The vehicles eventually face decline due to the high demands of the market and other factors like consumer behavior.

Various weaknesses are evident in the product life cycle of the company. General Motors is an international organization with plants in several parts of the world. Marketing conditions in these different parts of the world differ. However, the company uses the same product life cycle in all its regions and fails to consider the varying market conditions. The market conditions in the African region will vary from those in the Asian region. This becomes a weakness as the product life cycle in the United States may not be the same as that in the South American region or the Asian region.

The product life cycle of General Motors can be affected by other elements. The company is in the business of designing, manufacturing, distributing, and sale of motor vehicles and their spare parts. However, factors like people and price will impact the sales of the company. The length of the product life cycle stages should reflect these factors as they are the main determinants.

Generate a new product design and selection, and then determine three strategies that the organization needs to strengthen the operation. Provide support for the rationale.

General Motors depends on the United States for its revenue. This dependency is considered a weakness as the company has plants located in different parts of the world. The design of most of its vehicles has been unable to suit the other markets. The new product design should therefore capture some of the different markets. The new vehicle is designed to should look at the geographical features of some of these markets before manufacturing new products. There are some markets full of rough terrain. These markets will benefit from vehicles that are specifically for the terrain. This will remove the dependency on the U.S. market and make the brand more competitive globally. The cost of the product matters in product selection. The company should have strategies to limit the cost of production in some of the developing countries. This will allow the company to set competitive prices in these markets.

Over the last two decades, various technological advancements have changed the manufacturing industry for the better. These technologies have streamlined operations in the industry, limiting some of the costs involved in the industry. General Motors will benefit from having technologies like inventory software or other technologies to streamline operational efficiency. The company can leverage technology to help strengthen operations.

The company should be able to focus on product quality and order fulfillment. Customers are more likely to stick with an organization that produces quality products. The issue of returns will be eliminated with the introduction of quality products. Order fulfillment and product quality will ensure the company can reduce some of the costs associated with returns.

Aligning operation practice with competitive practices will help build diverse operation capabilities (Sahoo, 2020). This can be done by focusing on training and education of the staff. The staff will be trained on the various processes used to guarantee efficiency. They will then be trained on how these operational processes can be aligned with competitive practices. They will also be coached and mentored on the strategy-making them more efficient. This strategy will help strengthen operations as the employees will have access to the best-practice methods.

2. Key components of supply chain management for G.M. Determine three major issues that could affect your organization's structuring, sourcing, purchasing, and supply chain. Provide a solution to each issue.

The three main components of supply chain management of General Motors are sourcing, inventory, production, and transportation. Sourcing is the most important component of supply chain management. This is where the company makes cost savings. The sustainability report by General Motors (n.d.) suggested that the company aims to build trusting and lasting relationships with its suppliers. The suppliers of raw materials and key elements of the vehicles the company does not assemble themselves are the company's biggest partners.

Inventory management is an important aspect of the supply chain management of General Motors. Inventory includes stock of raw materials, stocks of vehicle parts that the company does not assemble, and finished products. Production will include ensuring the manufacture of quality products to avoid returns due to defects. Logistics comes in storage and transporting the finished products to the dealers or other customers. The company is a global enterprise and has many dealers who require their products to be availed at the right time and in good quality.

The three issues that can affect the structuring, sourcing, purchasing, and supply chain of General Motors include; environmental uncertainty, technology, and supply chain relationship. Various environmental issues impact on product chain like suppliers, competitors, customer behavior, government support, and technology. The environmental aspect is complex as it can be a combination of various factors which may be difficult to control. The company can resolve this issue by forming a strategic relationship with the suppliers. These relationships can lead to cost savings and other advantages, leading to the company creating a competitive advantage. The company can also observe the markets to ascertain consumer behavior and competition. Strategic decisions can be made based on the data gathered about the market.

Technology keeps on evolving, and this evolution impacts the supply chain and other aspects of the organization. Internet of Things has had a huge impact on supply chain management and could be an issue if the company takes time to make the technology parts of its strategy (Ben-Daya et al., 2019). Implementing such technologies as the Internet of Things will help the company achieve higher operational efficiency, forecast product demand, and better sourcing and purchasing of raw materials.

Supply chain relationships include strategic supplier partnerships and customer relationships. This becomes an issue when the company is unable to understand the customers' needs or build effective partnerships that satisfy the mutual need of the supplier and the company. An effective communication strategy allows the company to communicate effectively with the suppliers and the customers. This strategy eliminates the bureaucracy that may hinder the relationship between the parties.

3. Develop a total quality management tool that identifies and analyzes any future issues. Provide a rationale for developing the selected tool.

The Pareto principle is a total quality management tool that aids in decision-making. The tool helps the organization prioritize resources to yield the greatest value for the organization (Craft & Leake, 2002). The tool also referred to as the 80/20 rule, states that about 80% of the outcomes stem from 20% of the causes. One of the issues highlighted as part of the organization's problem is the utilization of resources. At General Motors, the Pareto principle can be applied to all the departments to ensure the effective utilization of resources. The company will be able to focus on actions that are more meaningful and optimize growth in effective ways. Examples could be on sales where the company will realize that 80% of the revenue is generated from a certain brand of vehicle. The focus can be on the brand, with more resources being allocated to the brand's production. This also aids in decision-making as the managers can defend why resources are allocated towards the brand which is selling.

4. Analyze three advantages in employing the just-in-time philosophy in G.M. Evaluate 3–5 potential impacts the philosophy will have on quality assurance. Provide specific examples to support your response.

The Just-in-time philosophy is one of the most popular operations strategies due to its success in the Japanese industry. The philosophy is known for inventory reduction, which minimizes waste for the company (Chan & Wang, 2011). This will be done by ensuring minimum inventory at all the supply chain stages at General Motors. General Motors will also benefit from keeping its inventory at the bare minimum, reducing its storage and inventory costs. The Just-in-time philosophy ensures products are produced based on demand. Genera Motors will benefit from this by selling all the vehicles manufactured. The company will easily adapt to any changes in product specifications from the market without fear of obsolete stocks.

The Just-in-time philosophy can potentially impact quality assurance at General Motors. The philosophy leads to an improvement in the quality of goods being produced. This is achieved due to the flexible workforce, which can make quality products with lower defect rates. The staff at General Motors can focus on making quality vehicles as there is a reduction in work-in-progress goods. The philosophy also ensures quality assurance due to increased productivity. Just-in-time will reduce the resources and time involved in the manufacturing process. This will make it possible for General Motors to quickly produce more vehicles and implement any changes to the orders.

Just-in-time will ensure a smoother production flow at General Motors. This is possible because the delays in the production process are eliminated. Eliminating the delays gives more time for quality assurance as the staff can effectively inspect the products for defects. Any defects are spotted faster and removed from the product line. This will lead to fewer defective vehicles leaving the plant.

5. Determine a qualitative and quantitative forecasting method for your operation. Next, create a table in which you identify the characteristics of the operation that relate to each method. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each method

Market research is a qualitative forecasting strategy that will be effective for General Motors. The technique involves collecting information through conversation with both present and potential customers. The information includes their needs about the vehicles designed and manufactured by General Motors. The data collected will give a better understanding of the needs of the consumers. Regression analysis is a quantitative method that will be used on General Motors. The method will be used in analyzing the cause-and-effect patterns. It will relate the sales to other variables like competition.

Qualitative Forecasting	Operation	Strengths and weaknesses
Market research	Determining consumer needs	· Provides accurate data for both short-term and long-term market research. · Requires significant time and resources.
Quantitative forecasting
Regression analysis	Analyzing cause-and-effect patterns	· Can use two or more independent variables. · Ineffective if the data is wrong.

References

Ben-Daya, M., Hassini, E., & Bahroun, Z. (2019). Internet of things and supply chain management: a literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 57(15-16), 4719-4742.

Craft, R.C. and Leake, C. (2002). The Pareto principle in organizational decision-making. Management Decision , Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 729-733. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740210437699

General Motors. (n.d.). Supply Chain Responsibility. Retrieved from https://www.gm.com/supply-chain-responsibility

Hou, B., Chan, H. K., & Wang, X. (2011, July). A case study of just-in-time system in the Chinese automotive industry. In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 6-8).

Sahoo, S. (2020). Aligning operational practices to competitive strategies to enhance the performance of Indian manufacturing firms. Benchmarking: An International Journal.