Q4: What are the key elements of agile manufacturing? ANS: Following key elements of agile manufacturing as mass customization, empowerment of employees, manufacturing automation, supply chain networking and technology utilization. See in figure Mass Customization: Mass customization is the system that uses information technology, flexible process and organization structures to deliver a range of produce and services that meet the specific needs of individual customers at a cost nearly as low as that of mass produce items. It is a vision for performing a company’s process in a truly customer-centered manner, resulting in products and services that are corresponding to the needs and desires of each individual customer. Empowerment of Employees: Empowerment has three main dimensions, namely, training that targets work content improvement, teaming that fosters joint authority and responsibility for decisions and actions in work groups and involvement in decision making that includes methods of work and motivation. In industries faced by unprecedented market instability and product complexity, fully empowered employees can be seen as the principal assets in the agile factory. Therefore, a wide range e if …show more content…
It has become crucial to mobilize resource capabilities across corporate boundaries and delivering superior solutions ahead of competitors. Moreover, companies are developing strategic partnerships because so many different critical technologies are required to create today’s sophisticated products to the extent that no one company can maintain leadership in all of them. The sharing and seamless flow of both physical and non-physical assets between companies can lead to pooling synergy and optimizing total assets that are potentially available to companies, despite leading to increasingly complex underlying dynamics of the supply
Manufacturing – within a business the manufacturing department works alongside several other departments such as marketing and purchasing to make sure that they manufacture products efficiently. Manufacturing is generally a long process as detailed designs of products have to be assembled before construction can begin. Manufacturing varies can depend on the organisation type large companies are likely to manufacture products themselves, and they tend to do this on a large scale in order to be able to buy resources in bulk in order to save a substantial amount of money. Small businesses tend to design their own products but may not have the ability to manufacture; therefore they usually hire other companies to manufacture for them - this can be quite costly, so they commonly perform manufacturing on a large scale
Some Lessons from the Assembly Line After reading through Some Lessons from The Assembly Line by Andrew Braaksma, I first believed that the main point of the story is to describe the author's experiences with Blue-collar work and college. One of the things I find interesting about this is how the author chooses to explain his thoughts on the topic via describing his own life experiences. By showing us his experiences with both, we're able to understand just how much of a discrepancy there is between blue-collar and college life. I reread the article and now believe that the main point is to show college students not only why college is important, but also how hard the alternative to college blue-collar life can be . The article's
Core Competencies Core competencies are capabilities possessed by an organization that “when applied to create products and services, make a critical contribution to corporate competitiveness” (Edgar & Lockwood, 2011). Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company. The corporation’s core competencies are the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems. By leveraging those competencies, Lockheed Martin delivers a broad portfolio of products and services—including high-performance combat aircraft, laser weapons systems, and unmanned combat vehicles. Business Objectives
Assembly Line What would you do if there was only one way of building a newly invented machine? Would you want a faster and easier way to build it in order to mass-produce it? Well, in the early 1900s some manufacturers had introduced a new way of production. This is known as the assembly line, which can be used for automobiles. Expanding on the use of the assembly line, one example is when it was used by Henry Ford.
Slow speed will give more time while fast speed of technological disruption may give a business little time to cope and be profitable. Technology analysis involves understanding the following impacts: Recent technological developments by Nordstrom competitors Impact on value chain structure in services sector Technology 's impact on product offering Impact on cost structure in the
After the end of the American Civil War, there was a long period of republican dominated politics. These republican politicians heavily favored industry, and as a result the United States quickly became an industrial powerhouse in the world. Many entrepreneurs, some of which include John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, staked their claim in American industry and shaped the post-war nation. The growth of American industry led to major shifts in the structure of American economics, disagreements over the role of the American government, and changes in American lifestyle. The growth of big business resulted in major shifts in the structure of American economics.
Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/4f4b3c8e-d521-11e3-9187-00144feabdc0 The Workshop at Macy's. (n.d.). The Importance and Value of Supplier Diversity to Macy’s -. Retrieved from
Education and application of that knowledge is crucial to building a successful business. To achieve the goals or dreams one must weigh the benefits of studying and preparing to become an entrepreneur. The objective at hand is to educate, observe, and analyze all aspects of business. One must become informed to improve the chances of having wealth and happiness in the pursuit of owning or managing a business or corporation. Studying a business’s many types and functions offer career goals and typically provide professional development and skills to succeed in any profession (Bethel University, 2011).
Corporate Strategies Vertical Integration Verizon implements a value chain analysis to understand the parts of the daily operations that create value, and those parts that do not. The value chain analysis is used to determine the level of competition, the type of products and services the consumer needs, and to figure out the ways that Verizon can stay sustainable and remain the market leader in the industry. This is vital because if done correctly Verizon will be able to gain high returns within the telecommunications industry by creating greater value to the customer. Verizon breaks their value chain into primary and support activities. The primary activities are research and development, infrastructure, marketing and sales, and customer
Systems are deployed consistently with high standards to be the best in class for the operational performance. Continued long-term focus on maximizing profitability and returns from every asset is key for all the business segments. This long-term approach has positioned each of Exxon’s business to be at the top of their respective areas of competition, which allows Exxon to maximize long-term shareholder
Employee Empowerment Employee empowerment involves the workforce being provided with a greater degree of flexibility and more freedom to make decisions relating to work. Individuals are allowed to take personal responsibility for improving the way they do their jobs and contribute to the achievement of organizational goals. The four dimensions of empowerment in accordance to Spreitzer’s (1995) study are defined as follows: i. Meaning: The value one places on the importance on a given job, based on the individual’s own standards and ideals (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) ii. Competence: The ability or capability of the individual to perform tasks or responsibilities assigned.
Suppliers are one of the most important elements for any business. The power of the suppliers depends on the volume of suppliers existing in the market and the uniqueness of their products or services. Apple outsources micro-chip from Intel for high processing technology. The power of customer depends on the purchasing volume, availability of substitutes, price sensitivity and buyers’ incentives. The consumers of Apple have a flexible variety of product line from its competitors.
Process Strategies The process strategies, for such a large manufacturing company, would need to be varied. The production process type would be determined by the product life cycle stage at that time (Thayer 2004).Product life cycles for items such as smartphones and tablets do not generally follow the standard life cycle stages. The maturity stage can be interrupted by discontinuation or irrelevance of a technology, which recommences the cycle (Giachetti & Marchi 2010). Incidentally, during the product life cycle of these items, a cyclic improvement of both process and product is required to stay in contact with market changes.
Coordinate with customer relationship management to identify customer articulated needs 2. Select materials and suppliers in conjunction with procurement 3. Develop production technology in manufacturing flow to manufacture and integrate in to the best supply chain flow for the product/market combination G. Manufacturing Flow Management The manufacturing process produces and supplies products to the distribution channels based on past forecasts. The production process has to be flexible to respond to market changes and Mass Customization must absorb.
Growing customer expectations result in shorter life cycle of products and this means that companies should make their processes more and more flexible adopting modularity and product platforms in order to overcome competitors. Companies who fail to meet dynamic customer needs are doomed to fail. To illustrate this we can consider Tata Motors that designed a car selling at $2500 having identified the need for cheap vehicles and introduced market-pull innovation. Though having some negative feedbacks on its security it is affordable for many families in India.