The present study is based on the evaluation and analysis of a manufacturing company. In the study, General Motors have been selected, wherein company mission, vision, products, managerial authorities and functions will be discussed. Further, the study will emphasise on the planning and control areas, with the related issues, along with this study will also cover two situations of decision making in the GM. After considering entire analysis, recommendations will be drawn to assist the company in overcoming the related issues while gaining success on a long-term basis
Part A
Company’s name
The selected company for the present task is General Motors.
Establishment year
The company was established on September 16, 1908.
Vision and Mission
General Motors is an international company involved in operations based on social responsibility. Its mission is to offer products and services of high quality so that their customer derive premium value, employees share growth and success and stockholders gain sustained investment returns (General Motors, 2018). The vision of GM is to be the leading company in products and services related to transportation (David, David and David, 2016). By considering this aspect, the company will gain more customer enthusiasm by ongoing improvement driven by innovation and teamwork of GM individuals.
Managerial highlights
GM managers have involved the implementation of the design of the organization. They have established roles, procedures and relationships to suit the aspects of the organization. The company is able to enhance probability through organizational design that the mutual efforts of members would be successful (General Motors, 2018). The GM Company has been developed in a beauracratic way whereas the managerial authorities have been designed in a hierarchical manner. Further, this has allowed specialization and grouping of individuals who conduct related tasks in arrays (Babafemi, 2015). The GM bureaucracy has improved rationale, logistics and most significant the effectiveness. However, it has some drawbacks such as lack of flexibility and rigidity.
Products focused
General motors deliver a range of vehicles and products to complement the driving needs of clients. There are eight different automotive brands under the GM; Cadillac, Chevrolet, Jiefang, Baojun, Buick, Holden, Wuling and GMC.
Line function and Staff function
The GM Company makes use of divisional structure inline function and staff functions. Each is the function classified into divisions (Maielli and Haslam, 2016). A division generally has all essential resources and data. Thus General Motors can make a difference on the basis of geographical aspects. Figure 1: Line function and Staff function of General motors
General Motors possess a wide overview of functions and field in which they compete and strive to attain success in the same. The role of line and staff, the types of rewards that will encourage individuals in achieving their objectives, and the skills required to become a leader (Helper and Henderson, 2014). This overview states that which functions sets the company apart from becoming a better and independent business.
Part B
General Motors carefully considers the warranty parts repairs trends to make integral decisions regarding the parts necessitating analysis. The challenging part is logistics, in this GM obtains parts from around 9000 dealers in the US, Canada and from other parts of countries. GM dealer was previously required to do packaging of parts and addressing them to the opt suppliers in over 200 location and with high shipping costs to deliver the same (Gereffi and Luo, 2015). Further, UPS supply chain solutions provided GM with an all over material recovery solution, from package shipping to inventory management, with the advanced technology for streamlining and controlling the supply chain of GM (General Motors, 2018).
Primary activities: The GM primary activities are inclusive of product designing, marketing, distribution, resource purchase and production lastly the customer service.
Product designing is the core element, with the appropriate tools that GM have used, have established power and strength; GM is simultaneously offered power and fuel-effective cars.
It is essential to purchase the appropriate products, as there is low bargaining power of suppliers in GM, so the organization can opt for best prices from suppliers (Gereffi and Fernandez-Stark, 2016).
GM is the largest car manufacturer in the US; the production is on the peak level. However, the methods used by the company have reflected inadequacy, as the production was higher as compared to demand.
The marketing and distribution efforts of GM are not effectively conducted by GM and did not appeal public (Gao, Hensley and Zielke, 2014). This could be done by showcasing cash in the display, statements to get the automobile of the company to make use of trucks to ship parts to dealers.
Customer Service and support usually support the customers, if the customer wants any help regarding the purchased product. GM has a number of 800 which can use by the customer if the customer has any enquiry or problem or want any further detail.
Logistics
GM has combined into one internationally based sourcing procedure from 27 various purchasing firms. Leading industry-wide improvement in yearly productivity was considered over the past few years. The company has also formed an alliance with logistics organization to manage the overall logistics network while optimizing the supply chain. A model BTO was implemented in enhancing the efficiency of distribution channel, which made a significant reduction in supply chain costs (Singla, Sethi and Ahuja, 2018). Along with this centralization enabled less overlapping and optimization of the brand. Moreover, the Retail inventory management system aided in connecting inventory management system with the customer service.
Part C Business strategies
Some of the strategies used by General Motors are MRP; it makes use of material data, stock data and MPS to determien requirements and obligations for materials. It makes use of recommendations to discharge replenishment material orders, and as it is an output based on time-phased, MRP had made recommendations for rescheduling open orders. Further, it had been created while there is a requirement for elements, to make every end product. The planning horizon is based on the leads time for production and purchasing (Heizer, 2016)
MRP related with time-phase is attained by discharging material bills, adjustment on the available quantity on order and balancing the total need for lead times.
MRP, considered at through level, while taking limited capacity into account by capacity requirements planning. Along with the MRP output reaching the production and purchasing stage of the active control.
Master Production Schedule (MPS), it is a plan of production and purchasing production at the product level of the individual end by considering the time period. Furthermore, the planning horizon is based on the lead time of production and purchasing, having relatively smaller time units (Robinson, 2017). MPS servers an effective schedule with an estimated built schedule by particular configurations of product, planning and the MPS output is considered as the input to Material Requirements Planning stage
Competitive position
Apart from other automotive manufacturing companies, General Motors uses MPS and MRP strategies to make its production cost-effective and aligned with available resources that are a proper sign of competitive advantages. MPS shows the requirement for the individuals end time by time and quantity basis. This considered the estimation, production plan and other related considerations like capacity availability, material availability, backlog, managerial policies and objectives (Drucker, 2017). These strategies help GM in attaining a better competitive edge in the automotive market, while it helps in making better production and purchasing decisions which thereby sets the GM apart from other competitors.
Information required for manufacturing or selling budgeting
While preparing, manufacturing budget company is required to make a decision on the number of raw material stocks they want on a quarterly basis. This is identified as a proportion of the next material needs of the quarter. The company addresses the units, in a material budget and then integrates the budgeted costs at the end (Drucker, 2017). Furthermore, the company is also required to know the amount the quantity and amount needed for the direct material for every unit.
Part D
Monitoring of manufacturing and selling plans
In manufacturing plans, the production of products is done from bills of materials that show the needed parts. In doing so, the products are regarded as kits and are produced from the formula that states the required quantities to form a specified amount of product. Further, the products are maintained as inventory items and are at the time shared among company location, and the ultimate product reaches to the customer.
Once the sales and manufacturing plan is established, it is significant for the company to effectively communicate it to the involved stakeholders, so that they can assist the company in reaching their sales goals. The manufacturing and sales plan of the company is also required to determine steps to consider the overall effectiveness; it is inclusive of the sales targets, tactics and strategies in both plans(Chesnutt and Blanck, 2014). Moreover, the issues in the plans can be solved by identifying the motivational aspects that can encourage the customer to make purchasing decisions. Measuring results, rewards and recognition strategies must also be considered to monitor these plans. Further, the sales plan can help the company in monitoring the sale sand performance while making continuous improvements.
Implementation of Balance Score card
Balanced scorecard allows manufacturing companies to trace their progress and determine prominent indicators that will measure performance and progress and what aspect might aid and fix them alongside (Tadayon and Halavi, 2016). The development of technology road-map was done to consider the development stages of new amenities in producing and designing to accommodate demand and needs of markets while developing best suitable products for the current market.
Thus, performance scorecard helped the company and management team to concentrate on the strategic measures, forces in the industry and the evolving market. Along with this, it also helps in developing staff so that they can conduct their responsibilities wisely while delivering outcomes in a reliable manner (Oakland, J.S., 2014).
Part E
Two situations wherein decision-making is presented in GM are presented as below:
Product and capacity design: Within this area of strategic decisions, operational managers are focused on optimum utilization of available resources and adoption of standards for effective production procedures GM deals with such considerations by operational management aspects engaged with cost reduction and productivity maximization. Minimized costs encourage the company to establish competent prices while increasing returns. This contribution is possible, due to the general strategy of GM and in-depth growth strategies which are engaged in cost leadership(Graham, Harvey and Puri, 2015). Further, the GM’s capacity design is based on the product model, variant or types that it produces. In the same context, GM has various aspects of operational standards for capacity. In the operation management, strategic decision area flexibility is also inclusive. This enables GM operation manager to make sure that manufacturing procedure is efficient and productive in terms of changes and issues in manufacturing and automotive industry.
Design of products and services: The decision-making in strategic areas considers how to meet the design needs of product in terms of GM’s operation management. For instance, the specifications for the manufacturing industry are inclusive in GRM planning, and cost-effectiveness determines that operation managers adopt in plants of GM (Schwartz, 2017). These specifications consider the applied quality standards and GM operational sustainability. The operation management targets in the decision area are to increase productivity within the limits of operations on the basis of product design.
Part F
Conclusion
According to the key findings of the entire study, three main points on which company can emphasise are the value chain of the company which is required to be more optimal in terms of logistics, customer service and supply chain. Two other significant points are planning and controlling process, in which company must drive its strategies while controlling the manufacturing plans to stimulate growth in global market.
Recommendations
By considering the above analysis, recommendations can be made that, General Motors is required to concentrate on the issues related to controlling and planning for ensuring a clear path on the road of success. General Motors, on the other hand, must adopt strategic reforms for the business flexibility. These reforms must also deal with the issues and weakness of the company while spotting opportunities to beat the competition and cope up with the emerging issues. The planning and controlling process that is been utilizing can be more effective in nature so that it can help the company to have continuous growth and success in the automotive industry they are prevailing. However, there is the scope for improvement in these areas, on which company work and ensure that this issue won’t rise again. The company can implement an aggressive dealership strategy for expansion in international markets along with the expansion of distribution channels to enjoy low transportation costs.
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Chesnutt, E. and Blanck, M.J., GM Global Technology Operations LLC and General Motors LLC, 2014. Method for remotely controlling vehicle features. U.S. Patent 8,731,155.
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General Motors, 2018.
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