Leadership Styles Of Harley Davidson Management Essay

leaders Styles Of Harley Davidson Management EssayIntroductionThis geek study is almost Harley-Davidson a prestigious American Motorcycle manufacturer situated at Milwaukee U.S.A, with a full grade 2009 revenue of $4.29 billion and income of $70.6 million from continuing operations. (Press discontinue www.harley-davidson.com)This analysis has its focus on a brief history of H-D, which includes the manufacturing issues and the problems it had, the mixed strategic changes do by H-D in the manufacturing process to achieve its goals. The carrying out of JIT and its effect on the plant and the product, the provider development, Supplier relationship and the efforts towards supplement Chain Management.It also includes the Risks, tolls and profits of Supplier development, the Key learning which we buzz off away from the case study and lastly it concludes with the future trends in SCM.A brief HistoryIn 1970s heavy weight bike market was in the hands of H-D. The Corporate parent AM F wanted to adjourn advantage of this market dominance by production of more bikes at a faster rate.In the process they lost the focus on feature and publish Chain Management. In 1974 the musical note of the product was at its bottom. Harley-Davidson unavoidable a desperate change to overcome these issues, in 1981, a sort out of local management was put together to rebuilt the society.Key theories, Strategic changes and slaying at H-D1. Inventory, Inventory Turns and Cash Flow A downfall in sales due to the quality problems incr take overd their farm animal level to $24 million. H-D worked on Inventory Management.Inventory TurnsThe number of propagation a union rolls over its inventory per year is define as its Inventory Turns. counting Most commonly utilized method is to divide the annual sales of the alliance per year by the average inventory level kept up(p) per year. For example, if the average sales of a company is $2,000,000 per year and the average inventory m aintained for a year is say $50,000 than the inventory turns for that particular company is 8 ( ref. give chain metrics.com)The increase in the Inventory Turns of a company, generates more free cash flow. Free cash flow is an asset, as it can be apply for other advantages rather than blocking the capital in Inventory Stock. (Ref.Marie Leone CFO.com, Supply chain metrics.com)At H-D an inventory turns of 4.5/year was increased up to a level of 28.Consequently the inventory came down to $4 million.2. Shift of manufacturing strategy from Push to Pull and JITpushing and placePUSH is the traditional style of manufacturing in which a product is manufactured regardless of its demand. The process then Pushs to the next step. It may be the selling of the product. This leads to supernumerary inventory, over stock because the production goes on without the actual demand of the product.PULL is the lean style of manufacturing in which a product is manufactured on demand. If there is no dema nd, there would be no production. This saves money as unnecessary production is avoided. Lesser inventory is maintained because what is produced is consumed. The client pull up stakes PULL the product from the manufacturing facility.Manufacturing facility is in tune with the market dynamics. (Ref.leanmanufacturingconcepts.com) inclination Thinking is an articulation of the core principles behind the Toyota Production System (TPS), admit to be the most efficient in the world today. (Manufacturing Operations and Supply Chain Management the LEAN approach David Taylor and David Brunt)Just in era Manufacturing (JIT)Just in Time ManufacturingJust in Time (JIT) manufacturing is a Japanese management philosophy applied in manufacturing which involves having the estimable items of the duty quality and quantity in the right place and at the right time.The proper use of JIT manufacturing has resulted in increases in quality, productivity and efficiency, changed discourse and decreases in costs and wastes.Goals of JITFinding customer needs and answering to it Production is tuned correspond to the customer demands.Cost effective quality standards quality should and must be the topmost priority, but it should be cost effective.Work for a tokenish wastes Elimination of wastes which are of no use for the production.Trust development in relationships with the providersSupplier relationship is of utmost importance specially in the case of single sourcing, it is a strength of company to have strong supplier relations, both in terms of materials, inventory and deliveries on time.Plant designing for utmost efficiency and easy manufacturing Plant design must ease the production process with least labour involvement. It must ensure to use the full plant potential.Striving hard for improvements on a incessant basisThis makes organization competitive and committed to the needs of the costumers, as customer demands are always volatile.(Ref.Just in Time Manufacturing, T.C.E C heng and S Podolsky Curtin University of Technology, Australia Institute for Manufacturing University of Cambridge)Changes and timber development at H-DH-D shifted from PUSH (anticipating demand) to PULL (responding to orders).Set up times were reduced drastically, it made smaller life-size feasible.H-D moved towards Just in Time manufacturing and Supply Chain Management.It invested in group problem work out program, like Quality Circle and made a policy to respond to any of the problem issues within two weeks.Employee involvement at H-D made them even more commited.An Example To me every transmission and engine bolted is red ink to my motorcycle, Doug Tearney, Final Inspector Harley-Davidson.Supplier woof and DevelopmentSupplier SelectionJIT emphasis on single sourcing.Single Sourcing is a sourcing strategy in which the company buying is beant on a single company for more or less all of the particular item or service.Suggestive qualitative aspects used for supplier evaluation Design, development and process capacity.How capable the management is? financial know-hows and structure of cost.Environmental Regulation Compliance.Longer-Term Relationship Potential.(Ref. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management, Cecil C. Bozarth and Robert B. Handfield)Supplier developmentSupplier development can be defined as any activity that a buyer undertakes to improve suppliers movement and/or capabilities to meet the buyers short-term, long-term supply needs.Or in other words, Supplier development can be loosely defined as the process of working collaboratively with suppliers to improve or expand their capabilities.(Ref. http//www.nist.gov/mep/manufacturers/supplier-development.cfm)A supplier development program must aim for improving the performance of a supplier and helping them to get what they need to be triple-crown in supply chain.Important functions of supplier development programsProviding information about products, expected sales growth, etc. Sup pliers need to beat extensions of their customers.Training in the application of lean and quality tools.If suppliers had more information about the intact supply chain and had a true lean transformation underway, they would become more profitable and provide a better quality and lower-cost product, on-time.(Ref. http//lean-supply-chain.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-is-supplier-development.html)(Ref.Avoid the Pitfalls in Supplier Development Robert B. Handfield, Daniel R Krause, Thomas V .Scannell and Robert M. Monczka)Supplier Management at H-DSupplier OptimizationH-D cuts its supplier base from 320 to cxx and established performance requirements. Suppliers must have MAN, JIT, Statistical Operator check over and Employee Involvement.Supplier problems and SolutionsH-D required JIT at Supplier end, but suppliers had problems with it as they lie with with different types of customers. They ended up with Just in Time warehouses, which leads to quality problems.For JIT at supplier end, proper advance scheduling was given by H-D.Piston supplier KSG adapted to H-D requirements. It changed from producing to two months inventory, to producing as per the requirement.KSG did the entire process from arced to packaging in ripe a space of 35ft with two-three operators, with unbelievable throughput time. antecedently the same work was done with fifteen operators scattered all over the plant.Ultra Tool the metal stamping company, a supplier of H-D, had great mastery with MAN program. At Ultra tool for a number of operations on a part it required part movement. A prison cell was designed at Ultra Tool that reduces the part movement to just 10 feets.The parts were taken to a particular area in this cell and it included tooling as well. It made the process fairly quick. commonness of purposeHarley improved the processes at Ultra Tool in fall back it had no price rise from this supplier for 3-4 years.(an example of mutual benefit to Customer and Supplier).Risks, cost and be nefits of Supplier DevelopmentSupplier development involves the cost which is incurred by the Customer company and no immideate returns are visible for it.This depend upon the need and the value of the product that the funds are allocated for the trainings and development of suppliers