Operations management - Essay Example

? Operations Management Contents Contents 2 Executive summary: Operations of Rolls Royce 3 Introduction: Rolls Royce 4 Rolls Royce: Its operations 5 Issues and challenges: Rolls Royce 7 Roll of engineers in Rolls Royce operations 8 Reference 9 Executive summary: Operations of Rolls Royce Rolls Royce Limited started its operations in the year 1906 after a famous deal struck by their founders namely, Sir Henry Royce and Charles Ross. The company started its operation in UK before the world war. After the world war, Rolls Royce set up another unit for its operation in the US. The company has produced several world class models over the years through its operation. Silver Ghost is the foremost model which made an unprecedented run after its launch. In 1973, Rolls Royce which was nationalized earlier was demerged into Rolls Royce Motor Cars and Rolls Royce. After a series of takeovers, Rolls Royce Motor Cars now runs as a subsidiary to the German automaker BMW. While Rolls Royce Motor cars are focused at car manufacturing, Rolls Royce is focused at providing integrated power systems to the world. The company looks at long term future prospects and place customers in the heart of their operation by providing customized luxury cars to their valued customers. The highest reliability and quality standards in their operation have helped them increase their operational revenues and profit by several folds as compared to last decade. The company faces issue and challenges in the competitive market scenario. The company has relied on its core values and mission statements and strategized plans to counter these challenges. The company has remained environment friendly by modifying their processes of operation and mitigating the level of emission of green house gases. The engineer plays a vital role in meeting the demands of their customer and providing the company with a sustainable operating growth. Introduction: Rolls Royce Rolls Royce was created after a famous lunch between the two eminent founders of the company. The founders of the company are namely Sir Henry Royce who was a successful engineer and Charles Rolls who was a mechanical engineer and had a passion for cars. These two legendary figures struck a deal and started a venture on car dealership which became history for the years to follow. The company was started in 1906 and the famous model of ‘Silver Ghost’ was launched in 1907 which ran a non-stop 14371 miles before entering the list of legends. The company had its factory in the starting stage in Manchester and later moved into a custom built set up for its operation in Nightingale Road, Derby. After the world war, Rolls Royce started its production of cars again and set up a factory in the US in 1921. It was there that Rolls Royce manufactured the R-engine looking at the Inter-continental sea-plane contest. The engine set a record air-speed and won the trophy (Rolls-Royce plc., 2013, p.1). Later on the engine was developed and used in aircrafts. Rolls Royce developed the new model of Phantom that had the capability to set new benchmarks in the car industry. Several models of cars developed by Rolls Royce over the years are exclusive in their designs, structure of their chassis and innovative body built. Some of the world class and eminent models that have pioneered and shaped the automobile industry are Silver Wraith, Silver Dawn, Silver Cloud, Silver Shadow, Silver Spirit, etc. As a result of expansion of its operations, Rolls Royce, the unique corporation founded in the year 1906 was divided into Rolls Royce. as well as Rolls Royce Motors in the year 1973. After the demerger from the original company, Rolls Royce is a chief provider of power systems as well as services in the world. The Rolls Royce places customer, innovation, growth and profitability at its core values of operation (Rolls-roycemotorcars., 2013, p.1). The company provides integrated power systems and has long term strategic plan of substantial size of order book, entering into long-term service agreements with their customers focusing at excellent future growth. Rolls Royce: Its operations Rolls Royce has demerged into Rolls Royce Motor cars and Rolls Royce. in 1973. While Rolls Royce Motors have focused on the manufacture and operations of its cars, Rolls Royce have since been focusing on operations in aerospace, power systems and the defence sector. The ownership of Rolls Royce Motor cars was taken over by Vickers during 1980 to 1988. After that the company was owned by Volkswagen. Since 2003, the manufacturing rights of Rolls Royce motor cars were handed over to BMW. Rolls Royce has been running as a subsidiary of BMW who has continued to retain their assets and production of cars under their brand names. Rolls Royce Motor cars which now operate as a subsidiary to the German automaker Bentley Motors Limited run a production mix of the Rolls Royce and the Bentley brand of cars. Rolls Royce has its factory of operation at Good wood in West Sussex in UK. As a market trend, Rolls Royce Motor Cars have observed that there is a growing demand in the market for bespoke cars. Rolls Royce has been expanding its operations for manufacture of bespoke cars to the meet the increasing demand of the customers. This would see a large number of engineers, designers, and support staffs for project management to surge into the area of operation in the recent time. Rolls Royce Motor Cars have also noticed an increasing demand of customized bespoke features and have shaped their operations in line with the customers’ demands. This makes each of the models of Rolls Royce Motor Cars a unique masterpiece among contemporary cars and also provides the owners as their unique fingerprints which are unmatched to any other individual car. This has produced a wide range of super luxury cars out of the operations of Rolls Royce Motor Cars (Wheeler, 2004, p.8). As a result of increase in operations mainly due to the increasing demand in the bespoke products, Rolls Royce Motor Cars is on the curve of recruiting additional engineers and designers and support staffs for their manufacturing, engineering and project management divisions of their operation. The increase in production also results in the increase in marketing, sales and finance operations of Rolls Royce Motor Cars. A few examples of the uniqueness of customized cars created by Rolls Royce Motor Cars include availability of picnic sets matched with the colour and style of the interiors of the car, luxurious interior materials to meet the demands of the customer and also adequate storage capacities for meeting the customer’s requirements. The operations of Rolls Royce Motor Cars have remained at the pinnacle of the industry for over 100 years and have been versatile in their style of production and services (Wood, 2003, p.15). The other division of Rolls Royce has been retained a leading position through its operation in providing an integrated power systems service in the sectors of civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine, energy and nuclear sectors. The group has strategically entered into booking large size orders and entering into long-term service agreements. Booking enhanced order size has helped the group to increase their operating cash flow in the business and increase the margin of profit. Long term service agreements have given them the scope to increase their operating efficiency by looking at the long term value of the relationship with their customers. The long-term strategy of operations has helped Rolls Royce. to increase their revenue of operations to double the value from the last decade and also increased their underlying profit to five times the value as compared to the last decade. For example, looking at future growth, the company has invested 467 million pound sterling into capital projects. Thus the company Rolls Royce has not only grown in its operations of providing luxury cars which are unique in their style and design but at the same time also increased their operating profit in line with the growth in revenue. Rolls Royce has been able to achieve this by implementation of strategies like use of advanced technology, investments in research and development to support their innovative moves. The organization is committed to deliver the highest quality of performance through their operation thereby ensuring health, safety and environmental standards. Rolls Royce is committed to full compliance of all its legal aspects of operation and it has been reported that the company had no prosecution them in 2011 (Mezzanotte, 2005, p.6). Issues and challenges: Rolls Royce There are a lot of issues faced and challenges countered during the operation of Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce is a global leader in the automobile sector and integrated power systems and has a global code of business ethics. The issue of sustainable development at the topmost level of high-value business is a concern that has been well addressed by its management through corporate governance. The economic development of the world drives the social development which depends on availability of clean, reliable and affordable energy. Rolls Royce has been able to face these challenges through timely re-orientation of their manufacturing and processing facilities. Their areas of operation id focused at reduced levels of emission of green house gases like carbon-dioxide there allowing the society to maintain its balance. Emerging market competition in the automobile and integrated power systems has been managed by the company by maintaining an excellent value chain and good relation with all their stakeholders, creditors, and suppliers. The company also has a core risk committee to consider and strategize according to their business and market risks. Roll of engineers in Rolls Royce operations Rolls Royce offers apprenticeship programs to engineers at the entry level. The program offers the young and dynamic engineers with full learning opportunities and also provides them the industry exposure with on job training and performance. Being a world’s leader in the automobile sector and integrated power systems, the engineers play a vital role in the operations of Rolls Royce. The company places their valued customers at the heart of their operations. Thus providing the customers with unique masterpieces of their cars, the innovative initiatives and creative ideas of their engineers are of vital importance. The flexibility in the design is implemented through engineering drawings which are created by their engineers. The efficiency and reliability of the cars and the integrated power system are supported and serviced by the knowledge and expertise of their engineers. The engineers of Rolls Royce are widely distributed in their engineering departments, project management units and service areas of operation. The world class quality of their engineers have enabled them to retain their position at the pinnacle of the automobile industry and integrated power systems in various sectors such as civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine, energy and nuclear sectors. Reference Rolls-Royce plc. 2013. Our brand. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rolls-royce.com/about/brand/. [Accessed on 07 March, 2013]. Rolls-roycemotorcars. 2013. History. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/history/. [Accessed on 07 March, 2013]. Wheeler, J. C. 2004. Rolls Royce. ABDO; USA. Wood, J. 2003. The Rolls Royce. Osprey Publishing; Great Britain. Mezzanotte, J. 2005. The Story Of The Rolls Royce. Gareth Stevens; USA. Read More