Operations Exellence Asignment

Operations Excellence Assignment
The two products I am going to analyse for this assignment are cars: one would be the Nissan Altima and the other one the Chrysler 200 (before Sebring). The Nissan Altima being the product that accomplished and delivered operations excellence and the Chrysler 200 the car that failed to accomplish and deliver operations excellence. The information that I am goingto provide is based on the North American region and all the charts and data of both cars will be from 2009 and the beginning of 2010.
First, I am going to give a little background history about both brands and how they tried, with these cars to deliver operations excellence trough operations strategy. Then, in the operations strategy matrix I will identify the intersections which were criticalto deliver operations excellence and why the Chrysler 200 failed to do so. Finally, I will identify were the two brand’s key operation strategy improvement are and give my conclusions.
A little history of the Nissan brand: It all started in 1933 after buying Tobata Casting Co and aiming to produce 10000 vehicles a year. Their first strategy was to sell its Datsun vehicle in Japan and inAustralia clamming to have an industrialized company. Afterwards Nissan bought Graham‐Paige Motors Corp “For the manufacture of passenger cars and trucks”. Later on when the Second World War started Nissan produced engines for planes and boats, but after the war finished it took many years to start production again. Once they started production again they faced many different problems which whereholding them back. One of the problems was between labour‐management it lasted around 100 days! On the end the problem was solved by mutual trust from both sides. By the mid fifties (1958) Nissan decided to enter the Australian rally competition winning thanks to their Datsun 210 model. “The two energy crisis of 1970s triggered a rapid increase in exports of Japanese cars”‐ Nissan global‐. From then onNissan was seen as a small car company. It was not until 1993 that the Nissan Altima was introduced replacing the Stanza, which was developed in Nissan’s California studio in the USA. From 1988‐1999 Nissan was almost at bankruptcy but thanks to the alliance with Renault and the Nissan revival plan (NRP) the company took a new shape and got ready for the future. From ten years ago until todayNissan market share in America has increased. According to Jorge Cruz CEO of several Nissan Outlets in Mexico the Altima was “The fastest four‐cylinder of its class when introduced and was developed as a mid size vehicle for the masses”.
Chrysler was founded in 1925. “After the World War 2 Chrysler gained a reputation of well‐engineered cars brand”‐ New York Times (2009). Since then Chrysler hasbecome one of the three big brands of American cars, which are: General Motors, Ford and finally Chrysler. Through the next years Chrysler was not able to maintain
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high sales, which led to it being bought by Daimler‐Benz in 1998. But since the shareholders did not get the expected results it was sold again in 2007 to Cerberus Capital management. In November 2008 both General Motors and Chryslerasked for help from the government and thanks to that both survived. From the years until today Chrysler market share has shrined by half. Previous to the Chrysler 200, the brand introduced the Sebring in 1995 and because of the poor interior and bad engine the sales were low. The Sebring convertible on another hand being really cheap compared to other convertibles sold quite well. In 2010Chrysler introduced the 200 to replace the Sebring, the 200 being a redesigned version of the Sebring made by the new administration from Fiat. The new Chrysler features improvements such as better engine and more technology but lacks the refinement of other competitors on this segment.
To describe why The Nissan Altima delivers Operations Excellence in a better way than the Chrysler 200 I will use...