Operations and Supply Chain Management concepts/tools
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Executive summary
The paper has discussed the steps the B.F. Goodrich can use to ensure that they improve the decision making process that has been seen to be one of the disadvantages leading to the deterioration in the returns of the company. The paper has discussed he concept that can be followed by the company in solving the problem that they face and the paper puts across that the company can use the concept of aligning the demand planning across the supply chain. This has been seen to encourage focus of the company on the market demand and hence leading to the improvement of the market position.

Background Information
This report is based on B.F. Goodrich Corporation whose origin is based back to the time of Benjamin Franklin Goodrich who had followed an indirect route in the rubber industry. This is because he had pursued a course in medicine and education but later ventured into the business industry. B.F Goodrich had a tough experience during the periods when it was starting and the first product that it dealt with was products produced from cotton. From the early times of the company history there was a dedication to research and development in the rubber technology and always applied the earliest technology in the production of rubber tires.
The products was diversified after the first world war due to the demands created at the time. B.F. Goodrich also expanded to the production of chemicals which included the adhesive capable of bonding rubber to a metal and also useful in the protection of pipes and tanks from corrosives materials that they contain. One of the challenges that was faced by the company was competition from the other rubber production companies which came up. The company has developed and is today dealing with plane actuation systems and landing systems which include, aircraft wheels and brakes, aviation technical services, landing gears and the components of the aero plane engine.
The electronic systems that the company deals with include, sensor and integrated systems and also intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems (Kim, 2005). The interior systems include the customer service and the aero structures. The facts on the company is that it is located in Lakes Parkway, Richfield and has operations in eight countries, with the manufacturing and repair maintenance of the aerospace industry supplies. The problem at hand is from how own work and in the report we will state the problem clearly and describe it. Since the problem that has been selected is a single operational problem we will still introduce a number of issues for the purpose of information. The main problem of the firm is how to make an operational decision making.
The report also brings forward the concepts on the operation and supply chain management that can be applied in the problem that is faced by the firm and a specific concept is selected and described that can be used in the solution of the problem that the company has faced. The concept should also entail the discussion on the ethical repercussions that are violated by the management of the company by the decision making that they take for the purpose of acquiring a contract from the government (Mentzer, 2001). The results will be analyzed and a comparison is made about the operation of the company before and after the implementation of the proposed solution.
Problem description
The problem at hand in B. F. Goodrich Company is the ethical issue due to the lie that they had so as to attain a government contract. The management of the company lied about the conditions of the tiers at the time a government contract was announced and this was discovered to be a lie because the brakes had not passed the test drive but still the management gave wrong information in form of data. The whistle blower was Mr. Vandivier due to the discovery of the dangers of the process of falsifying the data that was forwarded to the corporate offices by the management of the B.F Goodrich. The driving force that made the company to falsify the data on the brakes was to ensure that they secure a contract from the government. The company therefore forwarded wrong data as compared to the data that had been recorded on the working of the breaks the previous year when a test drive was done by experts.
The stakeholders as we have seen include the management of, B. F. Goodrich company, the government, and the corporate offices. The management should take the initiative of apologizing on the ethical issue that they have violated and come up with new information stating the facts as they are. The corporate offices on the other side should be careful on any king of information that they receive to ensure that all the information that is received is valid and up to date. There should be supporting evidence on the since in case of wrong company receiving the contract the lives of many individuals is put at risk. The employees if the company also have an obligation to ensure that the data that is submitted by the organization is correct as per the operation of the machine at hand to ensure that they do not go against the law.
Operation and supply chain management concepts/tools
The concepts of management that possibly be applied in the problem of B. F. Goodrich include the following seven principles, adapt supply chain to the needs of the customers, customize logistic networks, align the demand planning across supply chain, differentiate the products that are close to the customers, outsource strategically, Develop information technology that supports multi-level decision making and adopt both service and financial metrics. In the first principle where there is the adaption of the supply chain to customer needs we can see that professionals on the supply chain and the people doing business have a main factor in common which is the focus on the needs of the customers (Pryke et al, 2009).
The customers can be divided into smaller groups for a better understanding basing on factors such as the sales volume or the profitability that the company can get. For the case of B.F. Goodrich the management instead of relying only on the contracts that the government offers, it should go out and look for the needs that the market needs and redesign their products to ensure that they are of high quality so as to attract more customers.
The second principle, customize logistic network show that after the market segmentation for smaller business groups, the company should come up with strategies to ensure that they reach the groups independently and the views of the employees should be taken into consideration. The employees have information on the best ways that the company can follow and be assured of the success instead of only depending on one common market source as the management of B.F. Goodrich has done. The information that they get from the employees is important also in raising the sales of the company since the number of segments that can be convinced increases depending on the exposure that the employees have.
The alignment of planning across the supply chain is another possible principle that can be employed in the B.F. Goodrich Company and make sure that the profits made by the company are enough without having to lie their ways into making revenues as the management has done. The supply chain practitioners are well trained to share demand data with the partners that are involved in the process of trading to ensure that there is no excess stoke that is possessed by any of the partners. The products close to the customers should also be differentiated for easy working of the organization in the process of satisfying the needs of the consumers.
Another possible strategic principle is to ensure outsourcing of the work that the company is involved for the purpose of simplifying the work and also getting a quality product since the company choses from a number of experienced companies and hence leading to the assembling of quality products leading to the manufacturing of a quality product. The put up of the information technology support decision making also goes a long way in ensuring that there is consistency and will equip the company management team in understanding any possible deficiencies that may occur and then the determination of the best technology that the company can use. Adaptation of both the service and financial metrics is yet another operation concept that the company can apply and be assured of high revenue returns.
Application of operations and supply chain management concepts/tools
The operation or supply chain management concept that B. F. Goodrich should follow is to align the demand planning across the supply chain. In this case the company can be able to understand the demands that are needed in the market and hence avoid depending only on the contracts that are provided by the government which at times is seen to be an easier way that the company can get revenue with minimum cost. The principle ensure that the business gets to the target revenue that has been set by the company management as well as following the low of the country to the later (Stadtler et al, 2005).
The concept also allows the company to make well informed decisions on the market needs and the easiest legal ways that can be followed to attain the maximum returns and with the minimum cost. The forecast on the profits that the company can get is also done when the company uses the principle above and also the loss performance that can be recognized. This will help the company in developing possible measures that can be taken to counter the situation especially in the case where a loss is foreseen in the performance of the company.
When B.F. Goodrich Company uses the concept is can be able to identify the portfolio of the profitability that can be seen from the sale of the products and also in exploitation of the market opportunities that can be seen in the field and hence help in the minimization of the market losses. According to Information Resources Management Association (2013) the competitive advantage of the company is also improved in using the principle above since the company can be able to use the capacity of the third party to improve the effects on the market. The production of the company can be calculated to ensure that the products produced are of high quality and not defective, this calculation on the basis of aligning the demand across the supply chain involve the calculation the company production capacity in hour, calculation of product standard minutes and the line efficiency.
The factory capacity is calculated in hour and the product of the machines that are used in the process of production and the number of hours per day that that company is at work. In B.F. Goodrich Company the working hours are 8 and there are 150 working machines therefore total factory capacity is 150*8=1200 hours.
The product SAM, there is a list of product category that is manufactured and get the standard minutes of the products that are produced in the company for instance suppose B.F Goodrich produce a brake pad for an hour by one machine. The data that is collected from the manufacturing engineer in the company is used in the calculation of the efficiency of the machines by getting the percentage of the minutes used by each of the production lines in this case 60*100/480= 12.5% for the company.
Analysis of expected results
As we can see from the data above the company operates for a very short time for a day and to ensure a higher product value the company should increase the working hours in a day. The factory capacity can therefore be improved by increasing the working hours in any given day. This will ensure also that the standard minutes of the products is increased which improves the quality of the product that is being produced by B.F. Goodrich. The company can also be able to move forward and have a competitive market position with the lowest cost in the manufacturing process. The process of calculating the standard minutes of the product we can be able to optimize the management of the supply process and this will ensure that the information that the management receives is implemented. To ensure that the calculation is credible also the data on the company history has been put in the analysis for that the information is put in place.
Conclusion
B.F Goodrich is a big company and the management should by all means ensure that they follow the ethical procedures in the process of decision making. The company as we can see from the report can be able to follow the principle of supply chain management or concept to come up with the ways to solve the scenarios that may occur in the organization process. The company can also be able to look for alternative ways of increasing the revenue instead of depending on the contracts that are provided by the government which may encourage issues.
The issues include the production of wrong information for the purpose of getting the favors by being given the contracts which may lead to death of the uses of the products that are supplied by the organization. The analysis of the processes that the company can employ shows that none of the steps can be put in the place and reduce the end products provided there is well execution of the processes. The management that took part in the process of submitting the wrong data should however be put under investigation and they should be in a position to explain the reasons that made them come up with the poor decision making process.

References
Information Resources Management Association. (2013). Supply chain management: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. Hershey, Pa: IGI Global (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 17033, USA.
Mentzer, J. T. (2001). Supply chain management. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Kim, B. (2005). Supply chain management. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons (Asia.
Pryke, S., & Wiley InterScience (Online service). (2009). Construction supply chain management: Concepts and case studies. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stadtler, H., & Kilger, C. (2005). Supply chain management and advanced planning: Concepts, models, software and case studies. (Springer e-books.) Berlin: Springer.