Case Study :
Nissan Motor Company Ltd.: Building Operational Resiliency by William Schmidt and David Simchi-Levi
Executive summary
To begin, we are introduced to a back story about the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that happened
on March 11, 2011. This was one of the five most powerful earthquakes to date which was not only
an earthquake but also a tsunami and a nuclear emergency. This leads us to the topic in question, the
heavy blow to the Japanese economy. The earthquake damaged over 125,000 buildings and was
expected to cost 16.9 trillion yen to recover. (Schmidt, Simchi Levi) This catastrophe eventually
started to throw off production across the automotive industry within and outside of Japan affecting
three of its major automotive operations: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. We are then introduced to a
little history behind Toyota and how they have prospered over the years.
Nissan, who took the biggest hit, luckily had an emergency response plan in regard to earthquakes,
long before the 2011 earthquake had occurred, they immediately consulted with their higher ups to
ensure that business kept rolling. Nissan ensured supplies were sent and they kept open
communication and shared updates where possible.
Some of the practices that Nissan utilized during the 2011 earthquake disasters will be discussed
now. For one: sharing information, they were able to immediately loop in their global networks and
brought in two staff members from each to Japan to gather information. Next: allocating supply,
Nissan was able to understand/scope the situation and act in such manor. They supplied the
necessary components/parts to keep business afloat. Third: managing production, Nissan took note
of their inventory and slowed down their production in a way that wasn’t going to hurt the company.
The slow down of production rather than a complete halt, enabled them to outsource and figure out
any alternatives. And lastly: empowering action, Nissan made their actions fast and efficient.
Delegation of authority were modified briefly so that critical decisions could be made faster, which is
essential during such an incredible emergency.
Statement of the problem
Let’s talk recovery. Each manufacturer had their own issues that came along with the disaster. Nissan
had plants near the area of disaster, Toyota suffered significant damage due to its larger production
site, and lastly Honda mostly suffered its business from the supply chain. As with any major
inconvenience to normal production, this was a lesson learned from each company. 1 What is
Operation resiliency??2. What are the 3 components of operational resilience? This disaster allowed
each manufacturer to see their faults in their disaster planning, and just how much they rely on their
centralized manufacturing site, which in turn hopefully opts for a better turn of events if this were to
happen again.
Discussion and recommendations
Overall, this case study was very interesting to read and take a deeper dive into. I had no idea the
affect these manufacturers had with the 2011 earthquake. And as a matter of fact, I thought that
Toyota was the only one that would have been severely impacted, shows how much I know about
cars! The structure of the text offered a brief background before diving into its true content and I
thought it was very organized. I would have liked a little more information about Honda, but it makes
sense since they weren’t affected as much as Toyota and Nissan was.
A global company’s supply chain is vulnerable to numerous disruptions. Such interruptions can disrupt
the smooth running of business and disrupt entire organizational systems. Therefore, Nissan could
have taken various measures to assess the risk of interference, including: Nissan’s Global Disaster
Control could have identified risks better and strategically. You could have identified, quantified,
prioritized your risks, and designed an effective mitigation plan to reduce their severe impact.
Additionally, tsunami risk could have been identified via Delphi techniques as it helps identify
potential
My take away about this case
In order to avoid such massive effect of such devastating natural as well as accidental disasters, Nissan
should maintain the database that involve all the data and information related to the employee details,
in-transit inventory, manufacturing operations, production processes, stock details as well as other
business-related [Link] a collaborative and strong relationship with the primary and
secondary suppliers would help the company in knowing the suppliers who would serve best
alternative [Link] company has aimed to improve resiliency through reviewing the disaster risk at
its quickly expanding sites in the overseas market, and to strengthen the measures across the entire
supply chain, which includes secondary, tertiary suppliers and beyond. This makes the company less
vulnerable to adverse disruptions in the future.
The disaster had destroyed and damaged the coastal factories as well as the plants, and had adversely
affected the supply chains. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan all had suffered severe setbacks. For each
location the company had immensely began recovery operations. The recovery committee emphasized
on many practices, including supply allocation, production management, information sharing and
empowering actions.
Reference
Google. (n.d.). THE LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS OF MODULAR INSTITUTION STUDY AS PERCEIVED BY
GRADE 12 STUDENT. Google. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from [Link]
sourceid%3Dchrome-instant%26ion%3D1%26espv%3D2%26ie%3DUTF-8
Google. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2022, from [Link]
sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https
Simchi-Levi, D., & Schmidt, W. (2013, August 27). Nissan Motor Company Ltd.: Building
operational resiliency. MIT Sloan. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from
[Link]
resiliency
Nissan Motor Company: Building operational resiliency – 1220 words: Case study example. Free Essays.
(n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2022, from [Link]
building-operational-resiliency/