Your assignment task

Recent signals seem to show a dramatic improvement in car sales in the UK as well as output. Manufacturing is beginning to boom once more in the US and the UK is catching up. However, some major challenges still remain as well, with some manufacturers facing difficulties (e.g. Ford, Toyota, Vauxhall, Volkswagen), particularly in the area of quality and environmental sustainability leadership in the context of a global business environment. You have been appointed as a Senior Consultant to a major UK car manufacturer to focus on the ‘operations strategy' of car makers in a global business environment and the major operations good practice they have adopted. This includes lean thinking, ‘quality leadership' and the need to ‘be green' (environmental sustainability) in an organisations operation practice. The brief is outlined below:

REPORT BRIEF

You have been appointed as a Senior Consultant to report to the Board of Directors of a major UK car manufacturer. The task you have been set is to write an analytical report to focus on the ‘Operations Strategy' of car makers in a global business environment and the major operations good practice they have adopted. You are specifically tasked to:

1. Describe the key strategic issues that UK carmakers have faced since the global financial crisis, including current quality & environmental scandals that have hit some of the major car manufacturers (e.g. Toyota, Volkswagen). In your response, consider the implications of these issues on the competitive performance of your selected carmaker.

2. Assess the lessons that have been learnt and influence that the Japanese car manufacturers (i.e. ‘lean thinking', ‘quality' leadership) have had for your selected carmaker and implications for setting up operations and/or supply chains in low cost countries (i.e. BRIC countries).

3. Evaluate the statement "Green business is good business" from the perspective of what the Operations function can contribute to your selected organisation environmental performance. Consider in your response, whether you can justify a relationship between ‘being green' and ‘being lean'?

4. Based on your responses to the above, list some recommendations to your selected carmaker to remain competitive in a turbulent and global business environment.

This report should be underpinned by theoretical principles and concepts that you have learnt on the Operations Management module. Please ensure that your report includes an Executive Summary and follows the principles of academic writing in an analytical report writing style. You must present your in-text citations and reference list following the APA 6th referencing system. Ensure your word processing dictionary is set to British English.

Advice

The information for question 1 can be extracted by analysing the background article included in this assessment guide. There have been many television and radio programmes looking back on the economic crisis and its impact on industry. This is not the focus of this task, but you should bear in mind this context and how it may influence some of your analysis and reflection.

Your main focus should be on the theoretical principles and concepts that you have learnt on the Operations Management module. This includes ‘lean thinking', ‘quality leadership' and issues around ‘green operations' - major units and themes throughout the entire module. Questions 2 and 3 require you to do further research, using the unit guides as a starting point, and for higher awards (grade bands above 65% will require you do your own supporting research - beyond the prescribed and recommended reading). The background article provides some contextual information in relation to the UK car industry.

Note: You need to address this analytical report to the board of a major UK car manufacturer. This will have a significant impact on your response, style and tone of your report writing style. For instance, there would be considerable differences between a luxury premium brand (e.g. Jaguar Land Rover) and lower cost brand (e.g. GM Vauxhall). The background article has been written specifically with a focus on the UK. However, the marker, appreciates that you may come from a different geographical area than your other peers. As a result, you are invited to change the geographical location of your study (e.g. Brazil, the ‘U.S.', Germany) if this is more suitable to your needs and interest (this means that you will need to do more research into this country - particularly press articles due to the background article focusing on the UK. This may be of more interest and relevant to you, so it is expected that this will positively reflect in your submission). If you choose to do this, then you must obtain written permission from your tutor (via email) and discuss this as part of the weekly virtual office hour. You will need to make this selection explicit in the introduction/context setting of your report.

In an analytical report - context and some necessary background are important, this is similar to an ‘Introduction' but avoid using this heading. In a report the introduction is usually termed the ‘Terms of Reference' OR ‘Scope of the Report'. Please be clear that a report is not an essay - some guidance is provided in the programme handbook on this and the study skills pages on the university website below. Also, it is crucial to understand and follow the principles of academic writing, please see the link below to refresh yourself on what this entails:

The conclusion and recommendations should focus on the intended reader - the board of a major UK car manufacturer. As suggested in the study skills guidance a conclusion must not introduce any new information - you pull together the most significant key points in a brief summary. Your recommendations must logically flow from your conclusions. Therefore, this is not an additional discussion section, discussion/findings/analysis needs to be covered in your main body. With this in mind, the recommendation section will be short - each recommendation should be presented in a list and numbered (this specifically refers to task 4 in the brief).

1. Do we [the UK] need to make things at all? Can it work?
2. Where is the profit in the car industry; if little is made on the car itself?
3. Why has there been a need to close many car plants in the UK?
4. Why has there been a rise in service industries in the UK? What does this mean for manufacturing?
5. Are we any good at manufacturing?
6. What can make manufacturing sustainable?
7. How can car manufacturers develop competences in the area of embracing and developing green technologies?

Sir Gerry offered three final thoughts on the Money Programme in 2009:

- "Green business is good business"
- "Focus on the high-end manufacturing [the smart end] as we cannot compete at the low-end"
- "Invest in training designers and engineers"

Attachment:- Assignment task.rar