Causes And Consequences Of Bmw's Quality Problem

Causes and consequences of BMW’s quality problem:

From the case study “BMW: the 7-Series project, there were seen many quality related problems with their new launched products. Below are mentioned some of the causes and its consequences.

Cause 1: BMW uses different materials and tools for their prototype model as compared to the production model.

Consequences: As a result this does not confirm the desired results in the final product.

Cause 2: They use parts such as designer’s drawing and clay model in their first stage of prototype instead of pre-production tools.

Consequences: i) As a result it camouflages the problems related to design and manufacture, lowering the chance of discovering and fixing these problems. Most of the parts of their

Consequence: this could be time consuming as adjustments are to done in design, if incase the supplier comes across some problems in the commercial production phase. Sometime the required tools and material might be unavailable or they are unable to supply.

The following things can be done to improve the launch quality at BMW:

i) Reducing down the space between the prototype and production process by using similar tools and materials. This would cut cost and time. ii) Sudden switch-over approaches as well as cross- training their worker. This will improve the flexibility and ability in exchanging the design and production of different models. iii) Pre productions tools can be used in early prototyping, for making most of the prototypes parts. iv) BMW involves its suppliers in the final phase, but including the most reliable suppliers, early in the development process and using their experiences and skills to improve their efficiency in disaster

Chairman von kuenheim must execute the new prototyping ways to compete against new Japanese entrants into the luxury car market. Investment in changing to a more automated process will possibly spare BMW DM 100 million for each product launch in the future, despite the fact that the underlying investment will cost them DM 50 million. Moreover changing the production process will empower BMW to adapt with the organization 's needs, including early identification of issues in the design process, improvement of the assessment of both production rate and product quality, and the ability to streamline operations. This change will likewise better satisfy the customer 's demand of a stylish car and high expectations of reliability and