Course: Operations Management

Code: OPM 202

Case: Lenovo

Student Name:

Professor Name:

Date: 11/16/2021
Table of Content:

Executive Summary..........................................................................................................................3

1. Introduction:.............................................................................................................................4

2. Operational Process of Lenovo:...............................................................................................5

2.1 Designing of Products:......................................................................................................5

2.2 Quality Management:........................................................................................................5

2.3 Process and Capacity Design:...........................................................................................6

2.4 Inventory Management:....................................................................................................6

2.5 Scheduling:........................................................................................................................6

2.6 Maintenance:.....................................................................................................................7

2.7 Forecasting Techniques:...................................................................................................7

2.8 Sustainable Strategies in Operations:................................................................................7

3. Operational Areas of Lenovo Needs to be Improved:..............................................................8

3.1.1 Delays in Adoption:...................................................................................................8

3.1.2 Downtrend of PC Market:.........................................................................................8

3.1.3 Trade Uncertainty:.....................................................................................................9

3.1.4 Lack of Training to Manage Digitalization:..............................................................9

4. Recommendations:...................................................................................................................9

4.1 Investing in R&D:...........................................................................................................10

4.2 Operational Efficiency:...................................................................................................10

4.3 Managing Trade:.............................................................................................................10

5. Conclusion:.............................................................................................................................11
 Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to examine the operational processes and issues by examining an

organization through qualitative and quantitative research on the operational processes of firm.

For this, Lenovo has been chosen to conduct an analysis because it is a leading manufacturing

company working across the world and is engaged in wide number of operational processes.

Since its inception, Lenovo is managing their operations quiet successfully. The company has

wide number of operations such as inventory management, quality managemnet, designing of

products, forecasting techniques of sustainable activities etc., The company is widely recognized

by the world as they are managing all their operations quiet effectively which are providing them

an immense success around the globe.

But the pandemic of Covid-19 and changing trends in the technology market has caused

disruption in their operations. To meet such issues, it has been suggested that company needs to

focus on their sustainable efforts such as invest more in research and development to improve

their information system etc., By doing all this, company could not only manage the operations

effectively but will rise again as a leading manufacturing company of the world.
 1. Introduction:

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current operational management issues by

analyzing the operational process of Lenovo, the leading Chinese multinational technology

company of the world. The company was founded in 2004 but its history footprints can be dated

back to 1980s when it was named as Legend Holding incorporated in China and in 2004, Legend

Holding changed its name to Lenovo. The company is engaged in selling PCs, smartphones,

server, TV, tablets, and numerous innovative devices. Lenovo makes product that are needed by

customers whether they are infrastructure or smart connected devices. Today, the company is a

largest personal technology firm with a capitalization of about $47 billion and having 570,000

employees. The company is currently operating in 160 states of the world and has numerous

manufacturing and research centers around the world. The company is also manufacturing in

UAE by forming a partnership with Varjor and is selling numerous technological devices such as

mixed reality and virtual reality devices [ CITATION Len18 \l 1033 ].

However, operation managemnet system is mainly regraded as an integrated set of

responsibilities, requirements and the processes of businesses that will help firms to improve

their performance and help to accomplish their objectives. Similarly, the operation management

of Lenovo play its significant role in enhancing the cost effectiveness and level of efficiency of

their business processes [CITATION Saf15 \l 1033 ]. The operations of Lenovo have always been

aligned to the model of free market competition that focuses on the realization of competitive

business model aimed to enhance the efficiency. The operation managemnet of Lenovo is based

on the manufacturing of Android smartphones where the company is using vertical integration to

have a control over development of products and operations of supply chain. Such operational
business model helps Lenovo to remain competitive in the smartphone competitive industry

[ CITATION TOM15 \l 1033 ].

2. Operational Process of Lenovo:

Lenovo is engaged in managing various operations that are playing their crucial role in

enhancing the efficiency and improving the business standards for firm. The operational

processes of Lenovo are explained below:

2.1 Designing of Products:

One of the major operational processes of Lenovo is designing the products and services

according to the demands of customers. The production involves the process such as the slide out

display is made by flexible screen with natural shape of silicon QWERTY keyboard. The mode

of keyboard with feedback visual are pressed with buttons. However., the physical form of

tablets, width, length, and size are captured by prototypes. Lenovo professionals have designed

art space workstation for work at home that provides greater productivity with mouse and

keyboard. The industrial designer Ali Ent works across to balance the beautiful form with

advance functions for customers [ CITATION Len19 \l 1033 ].

2.2 Quality Management:

The other major operational area of Lenovo is the management of the quality of its products. The

operation management of Lenovo highly emphasize on the quality standards. For this, Lenovo

relies on the code of Product Life Cycle Assessment to ensure that every stage of life of product

is taken into consideration such as transportation, manufacturing, recycling etc., This enables

Lenovo to have deeper insight into cost minimization and increased marketability of products

[ CITATION Ste21 \l 1033 ]

 2.3 Process and Capacity Design:

The company highly ensure to maximize the capacity of employees for the development of

products and its designing. For this, the company is working with 250 numerous suppliers with

real-time risk monitoring tool to ensure the efficiency in processes and have adequate capacity.

Such as the suppliers of Lenovo has been provided with Supplier Code of Conduct to optimize

their operations.

2.4 Inventory Management:

In this operational process, Lenovo use various techniques such as serialized method for having

effective control and tracking of products. The company has recently invented a new bid tool

intending to improve its efficiency and pay back heavy cash flow to partners and distributors.

The company did not spare any effort to drive higher visibility of products in supply chain to

provide more predictability to partners. Such confidence ha provided stable position to Lenovo.

However, the inventory managemnet is controlled by store managers [ CITATION Mic18 \l 1033 ].

2.5 Scheduling:

It is another key operational process of Lenovo as the operations of firm involved a combination

of manual and automation processes where automation is used for scheduling production and

supply chain processes and on the other side, manual scheduling is used for individual Lenovo

store. However, thousands of Lenovo employees’ schedules almost 300,000 different unique

materials, production processes, availability of equipment and deluge of orders. For effective

scheduling, Lenovo has leveraged sequential planning algorithms that optimize the engine of

decision making with autonomous ability of learning and leads employees to schedule the

process smartly [ CITATION Tri21 \l 1033 ].

 2.6 Maintenance:

The company highly addresses the need of maintenance for customers. for this, the company has

different teams such as IT team of Lenovo functions to maintain the IT assets of firm. The

company offers warranty programs and options of maintenance for notebook or system of

desktop, monitors etc., The company manage the process of maintenance by offering services for

households or businesses.

2.7 Forecasting Techniques:

It is another key operational process of Lenovo for which the company is using quantitative

approach. The company has adopted moving-average method of forecasting through which they

used to collect data from different customers and make forecast for future. Such as if they find

the customers are having technical issues in tablets, the company make efforts to not improve

efficiency and provide better tablets in future.

2.8 Sustainable Strategies in Operations:

The company is astonishingly engaged in sustainable operations which is regarded as the major

component of its business strategy and corporate operations. the company neither export nor

import hazardous wastes. The product development and manufacturing of Leno operations do

not involve wet processes. They draw water from municipality and only for human consumption.

The sustainable operational process of Lenovo also involves the lifting out of millions of people

from poverty etc., [ CITATION Len15 \l 1033 ].

3. Operational Areas of Lenovo Needs to be Improved:

Although Lenovo is working exceptionally its operations around the world that are not only

helping company to sustain its position in this competitive business environment but also helping

them to have competitive advantage over its rivals. Besides, having such tremendous operations,

the company’s operational managemnet is in need to improve some of their operational areas that

are lacking its efficiency. Such areas are explained below:

3.1.1 Delays in Adoption:

On of the most critical operational issue facing Lenovo is to get prepared for the arrival of 5G in

markets as the team of Lenovo is slower to adopt latest technology. The entry of 5G technology

could shake up the competitive landscape of smartphones. It has been predicted that Chinese

smartphone market will take over by Samsung and Huawei by unveiling 5G devices that will

provide negative competitive standpoint for Lenovo.

3.1.2 Downtrend of PC Market:

Another major concern for the operational managemnet of Lenovo is to overcome the issues

raised by downfall of PC market due to the rise of smartphones. It is a fact that business of

Lenovo highly depends on its sale of PCs but PC market in China is seen a downfall due to the

rise of mobile internet and smartphones. This has led new entrants to come in market and give

intense competition to Lenovo. It has now become a challenge for operational management of

Lenovo to come over the competition by introducing new products [ CITATION ZHI17 \l 1033 ].

3.1.3 Trade Uncertainty:

The other major operational issue experiencing Lenovo is the uncertainty of trade due to the

emergence of Covid-19. As it has been explained above, company is manufacturing in different

states and have numerous suppliers around the world. Due to the lockdown restriction, the supply
chain of Lenovo was disruption and operations were stopped. Similarly, US is another leading

market for Lenovo but trade barriers between US and China effected that trade of Lenovo. This

has created operational pressure on Lenovo [ CITATION Dav20 \l 1033 ].

3.1.4 Lack of Training to Manage Digitalization:

It is a fact that in this digitalized world, the digital transformation is unlocking numerous

opportunities that huge range of technologies such as from automation to AI-drive ships etc., Th

evolution of AI experiencing the increase in tsks handle by connected system an managing such

machines is a major challenge for operational management of Lenovo. It requires Lenovo to

invest in soft skills and require deep thinking about the employee’s value [ CITATION Lan211 \l

1033 ].

4. Recommendations:

Certain recommendations are explained below that could help Lenovo to improve their

operational efficiencies and increase their factors of competitive advantage.

4.1 Investing in R&D:

The operational management of Lenovo needs to be conscious of the significance of enhancing

the long-term survival. To accomplish this, Lenovo needs to improve its efficiency with regards

to forecasting the future trends of markets such as changing demands of customers from PC to

smartphones. They are in need to improve their system of information which can be done by

identifying the forecasting technologies and investing more in R&D through which they can

utilize their operations by leveraging on the prevailing data from their operations [CITATION

Hoo21 \l 1033 ].
 4.2 Operational Efficiency:

The operation management of Lenovo is in need to improve their operational efficiency in

various departments as they are slow to adopt new technologies. To accomplish this goal, the

company needs to ensure that operations of various departments must contribute towards the

achievement of desired synergies. It is an imperative for Lenovo to nurture the effective internal

communication that could help them in enhancing the interaction amongst the workers from

several departments that will ultimately help firm to reduce the issues of delays in meeting the

changing trends, manage the arrival of 5G and rebuild the efficiency of staff members [CITATION

Bak212 \l 1033 ].

4.3 Managing Trade:

The fact cannot be neglected that relation between US and China are unstable and could be

hazardous business. The operation management of Lenovo needs to uplift its manufacturing

setup from US and could integrate in UAE with more investments. It is because UAE is a hub of

business and leisure for travelers. By having assembling and manufacturing in UAE will help

Lenovo to avoid attentions of trade and will ultimately improves profitability [ CITATION Dav20 \l

1033 ].

5. Conclusion:

The paper concludes that managing the operational efficiencies in effective way becomes a

major need for every organization because in this competitive business environment, the

businesses cannot sustain their positions if they fail to manage their operational efficiencies in

effective way. The case of Lenovo has been analyzed above that clearly demonstrates that

company has a various functions and operations to perform, and company is managing it
effectively due to which they are among the top manufacturing company recognized in the

world. However, despite of their efficiency in operations, the pandemic of Covid-19 has led them

to suffer due to which they are lacking the issue in obtaining information, trade or supply barriers

has also affected their operation, inability to follow latest trends and lack of training for

managing new technologies are creating wider operational issues for the company. To mitigate

such issues, it is suggested that company needs to adopt sustainable activities such as, invest in

research and development, provide efficient training to employees regarding new technologies

and increase their operational efficiency by managing communication in departments could help

company to overcome the issues and again emerged as a most competitive manufacturing in the

world.
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