MANAGEMENT

Strategic and Operational Issues

Executive Summary

Leyland Trucks is a UK based company that manufactures heavy trucks and tractors. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of PACCAR Inc. The company has won many awards regarding its Assembly plants and products. Some of these awards are the UK Overall Manufacturing Excellence, Truck of the Year and the Gold distinction for Safety. Leyland has the position of being a market leader in countries such as Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom and Czech Republic. It has the position of market leader in the heavy tractor segment of the European Union. The company also has the position of market leader in Russia and Taiwan for its heavy trucks. In order to sustain their position of being the market leader and further increase its market share, the company has developed the strategy to initiative the process of continuous improvement. This change in the production process has enabled the company to reduce its cost of production and the quality of its products. The lean system has resulted in automating the manual processes in the assembly line. Leyland Trucks was the first company to initiate the use of robots to paint brush the truck chassis.

Executive Summaryii

Introduction1

AB Volvo1

Scania AB2

Daimler AG2

Discussion2

Products of Leyland Trucks2

DAF LF Range2

DAF Hybrid LF Range3

DAF CF Range3

DAF XF Range3

Body Building4

Customers of Leyland Trucks4

Markets Supplied by Leyland Trucks4

Market Position outside European Union5

Market Order Winners and Market Qualifiers5

Operations of Leyland Trucks6

Continuous Improvement in Leyland Trucks6

Operational Issues7

Operational Issues Faced by Operational Managers8

Processes and Techniques8

Manufacturing Process of Leyland Trucks9

Findings and Conclusion10

References11

Appendix13

Strategic and Operational Issues

Introduction

Leyland Trucks was founded in 1896. It is one of England's leading manufacturing companies. It was acquired by PACCAR in 1998. Since then it has become the centre for the designing developing and manufacturing of light and medium trucks for the parent company. Leyland Trucks is based in Leyland, Lancashire. It operates out of Europe's most advanced manufacturing truck facilities called the Leyland Assembly Plant which employees over 800 people. The company has won many awards includes the UK Overall Manufacturing Excellence Award for two continuous years in 2009 and 2010, the Queen Enterprise Award and the Green Business Award. It has also received Gold distinction for Safety for 17 years continuously. There products have also received a number of awards that include International Truck of the Year, UK Fleet Truck of the Year.

The company gets almost fifty percent of its sales from European Union and the rest of the sales are from countries across the globe (www.hoovers.com). It has a market share of 16 percent in European Union for heavy segment and 19.1 percent market for heavy tractors. In countries other than European Union the company has one of the leading positions in contrast to its other western competitors. The top competitors of Leyland trucks are:

AB Volvo

AB Volvo is one of the largest truck, construction equipment and buses makers of the world. The company makes most of its production and profits from Volvo Truck unit in North America ...