Nissan Motor Company Building Operational Resiliency

The automotive industry has remained in high demand and retained its revenue despite the challenges caused by the recent economic issues. Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. is one of the organizations that has managed to overcome the crisis and thrive despite the dire circumstances. Due to its operational resiliency and focus on flexibility in it supply chain management, Nissan has managed to cope with the challenges in question.

Overall, the framework that Nissan has developed and applied to manage risks and disasters has been delivering moderate results. Specifically, the response to a recent tsunami has been prompt and allowed reducing the extent of damage caused to the organization and its supply chain. Currently, Nissan’s risk management approach consists of four key elements, which are information sharing, allocation of supply, production management, and action empowerment (Schmidt & Simchi-Levi, 2013). The specified techniques have served Nissan well to shield the organization from multiple risks. For instance, when addressing the outcomes of the earthquake that occurred on March 1, Nissan managed to retain balance between manufacturing and sourcing due to a perfectly built localization technique (Schmidt & Simchi-Levi, 2013). Therefore, the current tool for managing risks, while being mediocre in forecasting the emergence of certain risks and threats, has proven to be sufficient for handling the effects of multiple crises.

However, in hindsight, certain choices could have been improved. Specifically, Nissan’s risk management approach, particularly, the identification of factors that could have disrupted its SCM system, could have been updated. Namely, Nissan should have introduced a more comprehensive and nuanced assessment of external factors causing potential disruptions for the organization. Likewise, the range of disaster management strategies could have been more diverse so that the company could adjust to specific circumstances.

Reference

Schmidt, W., & Simchi-Levi, D. (2013). Nissan Motor Company Ltd.: Building operational resiliency. MIT Management.