INTRODUCTION:
The brand name (BMW) was established around the year 1913. During this period, the previous owner of a German aircraft company and a distinguished engineer, K. F. Rapp had established a business in order to manufacture aircraft engines (McDonald, 2005). He had started the company with the name of Rapp Motoren Werke in the city of Munich (originally, the company was based out of a suburban location. The primary reason behind setting up the company at this location was the presence of a major customer (Gustav Otto Aircraft Company) at a nearby location. Rapp quickly met success in his business of manufacturing aircrafts. However, he continued searching for new dimensions in order to keep his company growing. Keeping his efforts steady, he successfully secured a large order to build a huge amount of V12 engines on behalf of various companies which found themselves unable to cater to the continuously escalating demand for these engines (McDonald, 2005).
IMPORTANCE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT FOR BMW:
For diverse firms such as BMW, the field of operations management is extremely important. Following points stress the importance of operations management in BMW:
Team Management- Team management is an important aspect of Operations Management as it outlines the working methodologies of an organization (McDonald, 2005). Further, this aspect gains even greater importance in context of multidimensional organizations like BMW as it largely supports cross functional teams in order to better solve problems (McDonald, 2005). BMW believes that just by looking at it, cross functional teams often look inefficient and messy but they are extremely efficient at solving problems that require diverse thinking. In accordance to the management’s belief BMW suspended its classic hierarchy and switched to networks in order to improve efficiency also helped BMW in keeping ahead of its competitors. The management at BMW still turns