Agile Electric Organisational Structure

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Agile Electric Draft

Table of Contents                                                                        Page No.

Problem Definition……………………………………………………………………3

Organizational summary………………………………………………………………4

Problem Identification………………………………………………………………....5

Situational Analysis……………………………………………………………………6

Alternatives……………………….…………………………………………………...7

Final Recommendation……………………………………………………………….9

References……………………………………………………………………………10

Problem definition:

The major problem which is identified is lack of quality. Quality is always built up with the supply chain. As supply chain involves the distribution of products and agile electric was lacking in that only. The failure occurs because the partner, ECPL which they choose for the sourcing of the part was not efficient in their operations. As they were not having experience to handle large orders and also the problem increases due to faulty capacitor which was supplied by the supplier of north America. (Agile Electric-Quality Issues in a Global Supply Chain.Pdf | Bartleby. 2012)

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE:

The focus of this case study is on number of challenges which were faced by agile electric and automek in the supply chain. Automek is a multinational company and agile electric is auto manufacture of electrical parts, plastic parts for automotive industries. This case study describes the results of choosing wrong suppliers in the supply chain. Agile provides its services to automek and instead of having so many problems in their supply chain, final assembly of the product was completed. The main reason for choosing agile electric was the cost benefit as the workforce was reasonably priced and workers were technically skilled and there was well established IT and electronics. Due to all these there were having 20-30% of cost saving over competitors. But saving in the labour cost and having OS 9000 standard results into ultimately more cost in long run. (Agile Electric-Quality Issues in a Global Supply Chain.Pdf | Bartleby. 2012)

Problem Identification

One of the biggest reasons as to why the company gets incorporated is to earn profits. Profits provides the company a chance to grow as well as provide the necessary funds to research and develop. However, this case study is full of situations where defects are found in each part of the supply chain. Another issue being that even though the company’s, from Tier 1 through Tier 4, had ISO certifications that adhere strictly towards the quality standards and specifications. Even though the companies were ISO certified, the case study is prone to situations where product recalls had to be done. This is a major issue especially in a safety conscious automobile industry. The following are some of the problems that are identified within the supply chain and quality standards all the way from OEM to Automek, to Agile Electric, to ECPL, to BIPL.  ("Agile Electric: Quality Issue in A Global Supply Chain", 2013)

• Defective Capacitors
• Tolerance limits were not mentioned
• No method to evaluate the effectiveness of PCB’s
• High variation of quality standards from one company to another company
• Resistance problem
• Contamination of the PCB surface due to lack of cleanliness
• Solder failure and burn-out issues
• As the parts were very fragile, the chances for the capacitors to crack were very high.
• Lack of proper communication between Automek and Agile Electric regarding who’d be held responsible for the deeds of Tier 2 supplier.

There is no doubt that the problems are way too much and frequent in this case study. Any Global Supply Chain Manager would be worried about such a network of companies were faulty products keep on coming without knowing from where the problem has originated. Automek Inc. requested a proper containment plan from Agile Electric to identify the root cause in order to fend off the situation of frequent product recalls. But by the looks of the problems that are highlighted above, was it really possible to address all the issues within a short frame of time and bring the quality standards back on track? Did the situation arise due shoddy management on the part of Automek Inc.? Were they wrong in relying on Agile Electric to manufacture an actuator assembly which they had never done before? The Indian auto component sector had grown too quickly within the last 2 decades but had it also kept pace with the quality requirements and standards? The case study reveals that all the parties within the supply chain claimed ISO 9000 certification, but was strict adherence towards the quality standards and practices? Or was it that the certification was acquired by some faulty practices in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India? There is every reason to question the legitimacy of these certifications owing to the problems that have been highlighted above.

Furthermore, below have been mentioned some instances where the quality standards of the ISO 9000 have been breached and violated. ("Agile Electric: Quality Issue in A Global Supply Chain", 2013)

1. Composition of chemicals not within the defined specification;
2. Absence of vacuum pressure method at the drilling station;
3. The temperature of copper in the plating tank was higher than the required specification.
4. Absence of tolerance limits in many processes, therefore it became difficult to assess whether the processes were in operating limit or not.
5. High amount of variation in the Plating Thickness. ("Agile Electric: Quality Issue in A Global Supply Chain", 2013)

Situational Analysis: -  This is one of the important analysis which helps the company to weigh the internal and external factors that helps the company to nullify the affects of threats and exploit the opportunties. Following are the list of Strenghts, Weaknessess, Threats and Opportunities.

Agile Electric: -