Essay on Operations Management: Challenges, Solutions, Strategies for Profitability

Operational management challenges help businesses in creating solutions to their current and perceived problems. Future problems are tackled by analyzing the trends of the industry and creating a sustainable yet profitable solution. In most cases, businesses have to rethink their operational and marketing strategies for them to make decisions that will positively impact their profits. During diversification, companies must consider how to manage their overhead costs in a way that ensures regular cash flow (Ahmed, 2019). This will help them in keeping up with the competition and meeting any regulations whose breach may derail organizational progress. While analyzing the Volkswagen Group and coming up with a new product, one has to understand their vision. The company aims at distributing their vehicles across the world while offering financial services to its clients. One of the products that the entity may be required to develop is an effective electric vehicle, which eliminates the need for the use of carbon fuels. Despite having a robust marketing wing, the company has been in major emission scandals that may derail its future progress based on past performance. Developing a fully electric model to handle the issues that derail the improvement of their mechanical products would help Volkswagen in winning consumer confidentiality and market credibility.

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Given that the world is gravitating towards the use of electric vehicles in a bid to curb carbon emissions, the Volkswagen Group can develop an affordable and credible vehicle. Credibility is critical since the company has been engaged in an emission scandal. A user analysis shows that most consumers in Asia and Europe are in need of low-budget electric vehicles since the same helps them in saving fuel costs (Volkswagen Group, 2020). Nonetheless, the efficiency of the vehicle since it reduces the chances of mechanical failure. The company must also consider collaborating with other manufacturers who have invested in electric vehicles to ensure the efficiency of their product. Partnerships with companies such as Tesla would be important in ensuring that their car meets the specific road requirements for their production. Tesla is one of the companies that have managed to get electric vehicles; some of the developed nations and relying on them for a partnership would facilitate the sustainability of Volkswagen’s idea.

To create an appropriate design, the company has to analyze the shortcomings of the previous innovations. Volkswagen, in the past, has been accused of manufacturing vehicles that are not environmentally friendly. The design, therefore, must incorporate a segment for interviews and reviews where the company management will engage potential users on some of the features they expect (Babich, 2018). This way, Volkswagen will limit their chances of creating a product without market feasibility. One of the performance-related issues that the entity has faced in the past is cheating on emission tests. In 2015, Volkswagen Group was called out for installing defeat devices in their vehicles (Mansouri, 2016). A such, the Environmental Protection Agency could not capture any emission flaws since Volkswagen had conducted their tests on the labs as opposed to handling the same on the roads. In the long run, the company lost consumer confidence in Europe due to the health and workforce threats they had created (Mansouri, 2016). Thus, the company, while developing a new product, must curb any loopholes that may necessitate a repeat of the incident.

Conclusively, it suffices to lay out a proposal for the development of a fully electric vehicle by the Volkswagen Group. This innovation will help in improving their sales as well as coping with the environmental needs of the present world. However, the company has to develop a protocol that reduces the chances of any operational loopholes that may result in inefficiencies and a drop in consumer confidence.

References

Ahmed, A. (2019). Operational Management Challenges. Bizfluent. https://bizfluent.com/facts-6944348-operational-management-challenges.html.

Babich, N. (2018). A Comprehensive Guide To Product Design — Smashing Magazine. Smashing Magazine. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/comprehensive-guide-product-design/.

Mansouri, N. (2016). A case study of Volkswagen unethical practice in diesel emission test. International Journal of Science and Engineering Applications, 5(4), 211-216. https://ijsea.com/archive/volume5/issue4/IJSEA05041004.pdf

Volkswagen Group. (2020). Volkswagen Group. Volkswagenag.com. https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/group.html.