Singh Autoworld Chapter 4

1. What type of product flow do they use?

We think that batch flow would be the best product flow for our company. There are a lot of customers and each have a unique taste. Batch flow allows the production of cars to be made in lots for variety. Looking to buy a car can be stressful if you are looking for a specific type, color, model, and add ins, but batch flow can make the process very smooth and flexible. Our Singh Auto World company has medium to low volume of products, but it has many different types of cars and colors so people can choose which best fits their needs. The flow of the cars would be jumbled. The market type would be customized. Also, the flexibility and cost is medium so the mid range prices of the cars are affordable and there is a variety of cars with different prices so everyone can be accommodated.

2. What type of customer order do they process?

We can use the Make to Stock customer order process. This produces finished goods and the customer buys from the inventory since they are used cars. Singh Auto World has smooth production and this is its' advantage because the cars are in good shape and we are very flexible with our products. The downside to this is the inventory since we can't fit thousands of cars. Our lot has about 300 cars and we all have different types of models so we have a pretty good variety.

3. Process Selection

     Made to stock- Singh Auto World sells used cars.  The company keeps in mind the market conditions and adjusts their inventory and car deals accordingly. For instance, if the economic conditions are not favorable for new car buyers, Singh Auto World would increase their overall inventory making sure that greater percentage of cars in the inventory will be of cheaper price range. This makes sense because increasing their inventory with more cars with higher price range would limit the choices for those affected by the poor economic/ market conditions, hence, damaging the potential sales figures.

In addition Singh Auto's process selection also depends on the consumer demand (seasonal/ trend change). If they notice that customers are buying one specific car (model and make)  for example Honda Accord they make sure they have more in stock as the demand for that specific car has gone up. Sometimes when the demand for particular model/make falls significantly, Singh Auto will offer better deals and get them off the inventory. Despite low or no demand of such cars, Singh Auto would normally maintain the inventory by certain percentage -- to ensure variety and choices for all.  It is very important for a company to be up to date with the market conditions also which vehicle is more in demand. The company has to make sure that they don’t lose customers because of less or no inventory.

4.Singh Auto world falls into continuous with low volume, multiple products and stock to inventory.

5. Yes, our company could adopt some of the mass customization methods because our varieties of top of the line cars are broad.  Our company specializes on unique cars which allow our customers to have a choice of which top of the line brand to choose.  For example our cars consist of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Bentleys.