The Car Production Industry - Case Study Example

Running Head: PRODUCTION CHAIN IN CAR PRODUCTION INDUSTRY AND CSR. Production Chain in Car Production Industry and CSR : Date: Production Chain in Car Production Industry and CSR Production chain is a step by step procedure followed to bring something in to existence, normally in the car industry it is majorly essential that, technology, resources and labour force is properly organized to ensure that a good framework is laid down for service delivery which will in turn lead to effective performance of the institution, thus minimizing the possibilities of scenarios which may prevent the organization from achieving its targets. Production chain therefore involves the process of collecting the resources to be used as inputs in production of various commodities or items in order to get a sustainable output, for example, in our case of car manufacturing industry, it is of great importance to ensure that materials like metals, rubber, glasses and other essential components are first brought in place then plan on the necessary procedures beginning from drawing of the model and the prototype(AME info, 2004; Ghodratollah et al, 2009; Balmer and Gray, 1999; Cox et al, 2004 and Carroll, 2000 ). On the other hand, corporate social pesponsibility is the act of a company or an organization to ensure that its activities work in a way that it benefits the society in which it surrounds. The company should also ensure that employees and customers’ needs are well gathered for and as a result lead to proper relationship amongst the parties involved thus leading to a sustainable developmnent owing to the fact that each and every member of the society will be feeling considered and hence contribute to the success of the organization in whichever way possible (Bloom and Gundlach, 2001; Darren et al, 2009; Fernanda, 2006). Since production chain should be taken as a single service delivery aimed at achieving a common goal, it should always be appropriate that all the interelated components are brought together, for instance, as a result of variation in characteristics involved in making different types of cars such as speed, capacity and modes of operation which in a way may varry according to the various operations the car undertakes(IB chamber, 2002). For instance, a heavy commercial vehicle will definitely be made in a way that it will not speed beyond a certain limit being exceeded by a small car. As a unifying factor, it is important that over time, the designing and development of processes be improved. This requires making further improvements on the existing car models. This should be done to ensure that the firm or the company maintains its customers and furthemore coming up with what the competitors in the market cannot attain. In essence, production in car industry normally requires that all the departments in an organization are involved. for instance, the purchasing department will be responsible for the acquisition of raw materials to be used in the actual making of the car, the manufacturing department will ensure that the actual car is made to work, the human resource department will make sure that the labour force is hired and its employees rights and welfare is taken into consideration, finance department is responsible for making the necessary payments to staff and further ensuring that all transactions made by the car production industry are well accounted for, sales department is accontable for all the sales, that is; making sure that the organization is able to achieve the targets as per the needs of the organization and finally the marketing department core responsibility is to ensure sustained competetiveness of the industry by making sure it sources for more markets for the products coming up from the car production industry. Taking all the departments into account, it is appropriate to employ good corporate social responsibility as this will ensure that proper morals and code of conduct are put in place and thus ensuring that no worker suffers damages owing to the fact that, in the car production industry more risks are encountered due to the nature of materials being used in the manufacturing process. as a result, proper compensation schemes need to be established to make sure that if an employee suffers, compensation is promptly made(Åhlström, 1999; Almgren, 1999; Freeman, 1983; Guay, 2004). The main processes involved in the car production chain is normally in two stages that is; the manufacturing and the service delivery processes. Manufacturing is the act of transforming the raw available materials into more usable form of components or parts which now have value to the consumers. The most important stages to be undertaken in the manufacturing process include: acquiring of raw materials,fabrication, assembly, testing and distribution of the already made products that is; the cars. Acquisition is the act of getting the raw materials from the source to be used in the actual process of manufacturing of cars. Procurement involves the securing of leases from the owners of the natural resources, were metals can be extracted for the making of the various car parts, making contacts with the suppliers, certifying or assesing the qualification of the suppliers, ensuring that the raw materials procured from different suppliers meet the required standards demanded or set by the car industry and further it deals with the company logistics. Fabrication is the process or the act of making raw materials more appropriate for use in achieving a set target in the production, for example in the car industry the Main fabrication processes encountered are like die casting of aluminum to obtain the valve covers, extruding of molten steel to get bars and rods used in the making of frames and car chases, making of car body parts from sheets of metal, molding of plastic parts from resin and weaving and dying of fabrics for the making of car seats. However in reality fabrication varies with the kind of production for instance in the car production industry there is a lot of fabrication being done as compared to an industry like oil production as it only engages in the extraction process. Assembly involves the activity of joining or putting together various parts or components in order to come up with a more advanced type of product. Assembling normally involves welding, bolting, gluing and snapping together of various parts in order to come up with the desired product or car. In the assembly process, the form or shapes are not changed but only remain as they were. The only alteration which may arise is that of painting of the body parts of a car. In car production, assembly includes the joining of the various parts of sheets of metal in order to come up with a car like frame work, which is then joined by welding the sheets or parts together. After joining is completed the frame work is then painted in order to come up with the desired color of the car. However joining and painting is not only the final work done in the assembly process but sub assembling is also done to ensure that some other activities like making the wiring connections of the car, installation of the suspension system, placing of the engine on the framework, putting in place the transmission system and finally ensuring that the car seats and its windows are well fitted to give way or room for the testing of the car. After testing the car is delivered to the sales agent. Testing is the process of analyzing the functional capability of the already manufactured product and it involves finding out whether the manufactured product works according to the targets needed, for example testing involves calculation of the number of revolutions an engine makes over a given time, the speed the car is able to attain, after which it will be decided if repetition is going to be done on the ready product if it is found not to meet the required targets. However testing cannot be carried out for all the functional parts of a car since undertaking some tests requires more time or will end up spoiling some parts, for example the testing of an airbag may end up spoiling the dash pot (Twigg and Slack, 1998). Distribution is the act or process of transporting the already manufactured and tested product from the point of manufacture to the point of use or to the customers’ base. Packaging is at times included in cases where the cars have to be shipped to far points of sale, and in that scenario cars are packed in containers before shipment is done (Barnes, and Morris, 2000). At times distribution becomes a very tedious process as it involves sourcing for orders from the customers and making the necessary transport procedures which include routing of the trucks and ships to be used in undertaking the distribution of the cars. However, due to the current trend of green house emissions, the process of distribution had great hit back owing to the legislations which limits the use of certain cars in some nations because of the levels of smoke being emitted (Wheeler, 2004; ). Service delivery processes involves the act of ensuring that the already made product meets the needs of the consumer and further allowing for the making of parts which can be used in making replacement for what might wear in the course of using the product thereby giving the consumer an easier time whenever a breakage or wear results. Corporate social responsibility needs to be greatly put into emphasis as far as car production is concerned as it gives or guides us on how to deal with various uprising situations. For example, in the car industry it is relevant while dealing with the employees, the suppliers of raw materials and in making contacts with the environmentalists as (Konar, 2001). In addition, for corporate social responsibility to be attained, it is important that an organization puts in place structures to instill or implant legal, economic, philanthropic and ethical responsibilities as a whole (Hockerts and Moir, 2004). Legal responsibility involves adherence to the laid down statutes of the law concerning the car production industry, that is; an organization should work in accordance to the law by not going against it, this makes the employees to work without fear of being victimized incase one raises a complain against the organization. In addition, it is very important that laws governing environment are stated and followed by the car producing industry as far as its production processes are concerned. That is, the government should give guidelines on the amount of explorations to be done while searching for metals to be used in the car industry so as not to degrade the environment. Economic responsibility entails the production of quality cars at a reasonable price which the consumers can buy and maintain with ease, wealth creation which also involves setting in place charitable organizations which will in turn help the needy in the society and thus bringing about a balanced kind of society and finally it is of great need for the organization to give advice to the society by giving guidelines on how to achieve economic sustainability by producing of more economical models of cars (Sturgeon, 1999). Philanthropic responsibility is a kind of responsibility an institution can undertake to help the needy members of the society, For example a car industry may donate a vehicle to a community to be carrying the elderly to hospitals and through this activity, car producing industries will have attracted more customers because of the impression they create through such deeds (Masaaki, 2007). Ethical responsibility is the ability of one to be morally upright or work according to the laid down rules from a given setting, normally, a community or people from a given religion. As a result of being morally upright, the organization will be able to excel as it will be working hand in hand with the society as far as production is concerned. In conclusion the car production industry should be able to put in place tight measures to be followed in manufacturing or coming up with the required types of cars according to the set standards. To achieve this, procurement department should critically check on the kind of materials brought in for the purposes of manufacturing since procurement is the first chain of production. The manufacturing process should operate within the given standards, and ethical issues should be taken into consideration. Finally, corporate social responsibility should be fully structured in a way that each company adopts it. 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