Operations Management - Essay Example

Honda Motor Company, Ltd. was initiated in 1948 with its head-office in Japan. Takanobu Ito currently serves as the president and chief executive officer (CEO) and the company enjoys a total of ?86 billion as its capital. The main products of the company are automobiles as well as motorcycles along with power products. The total amount of existing employees including its 378 international subsidiaries is 187094 (Honda Motor Co., Ltd, 2012). This Japanese multinational corporation is the producer of automobiles as well as motorcycles.

The corporation was the first to provide a luxury brand of car namely Acura. The operations manager of the corporation is required to properly plan all the activities in order to make future decisions. The planning process needs to be properly organized to ensure proper delegation of the tasks that are intended to be performed. Discussion Supply chain of Honda The ultimate goal of Honda Motor Company is to boost up the sales by increasing the efficiency of the company in different sectors which are research and development (R&D) as well as manufacturing process.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the technique of enhancing the performance of companies. The process of SCM is known to facilitate the company in terms of performing all the activities effectively for manufacturing products which would be able to satisfy the demands of the customers. The inventory or resources of the company should be maintained in a successful manner. SCM is the method of coordinating the process of production, location, transportation as well as inventory to manufacture products which are to be offered in the market.

Honda needs to formulate plans with regard to five different areas for increasing the effectiveness of its production process. The five areas which are to be improved are as follows (Stevenson, n.d.). Production The company needs to manufacture products in accordance with the need of the market and the products should be competent of satisfying the customers which would further help Honda to enhance its market share. The production process needs to be appropriately structured in order to enhance the capacity of the plant as well as control the quality of the products along with maintaining the equipments used in the production process (Stevenson, n.d.).

Inventory The inventories or stocks of the company require being properly organized to sustain a proper and smooth flow of materials as well as reduce the cost of holding stocks. Therefore, it is required to formulate methods which will help in maintaining an optimal level of inventory (Stevenson, n.d.). Location The production plant or facility should be located in a place which would be deemed to be effective for carrying out the production process as well as storing inventory. Manufacturing of the products should be performed in an efficient manner and the inventory should be stored in a place which would be easier in terms of accessing the materials at the time of need in the production process (Stevenson, n.d.).

Transportation The material or resources required for manufacturing products should be procured with the help of enhanced means of transportation. An appropriate form of transportation system should be used for procuring materials which would prove to be sufficient enough for the production process and prevent storing huge amount of stocks to minimize the storage expenses of the