3.0 A method of innovative thinking:
How a company is doing business in context of managing performance and operation is measured by considering few issues like cost, quality, speed and dependability. Today we are living in technological era and here the success of the business organisation depends how effectively they can use the modern technologies in the whole business process and make the whole operation process fully automated. Basically, the modern organisations adopt this strategy to make the operation fully automated just because of reducing the production cost and to bring extra pace in the production process. Honda Automobiles is well aware of using fully automated system in the production and operation process and that’s why they have fully automated machineries and systems in their different manufacturing plants. But today’s technological era, the consumers of motor vehicles are really hankered after the new features in the motor vehicles and they don’t hesitate to switch to different company if they find something innovative features in some other motor company’s vehicles. To exploit this trend of the consumers, innovation is necessary and Honda is well conscious about the fact and that’s why they have well developed R&D centres where there are lots of talented people working relentlessly to bring something new features in the motor vehicles of Honda. Due to worldwide economic recession, consumers are looking for good and innovative vehicles but in affordable price. To give response to this economic change and to remain competitive in the markets, Honda has adopted the strategy of shifting manufacturing plants in those places where the communication is very easy, less time consuming and at the same the labour cost is very low. And as a part of this strategy, Honda now has different manufacturing plants in different parts of the world where labour cost is low and communication is very good. But, sustainability of success in the automobile industry depends on how well customers service the companies are providing after selling the vehicles. To gain success and to sustain it there needs a good customer service and Honda has been able to attract and retain customers just because of well-designed customer service along with good quality and innovate motor vehicles. At the time of designing customer service, it is necessary to know about the demands and needs of the customers and Honda is doing the same. In the administrative and marketing teams of Honda, there has a good workforce which is working relentlessly and smartly to know about the needs and demands of the customers by keeping open communication with them. And on the basis of the collected information, Honda makes its customers service which has the potentiality to provide utmost satisfaction. To keep continuous flow of supply in the markets, Honda products both short term and long term life cycle products. And, in a nutshell, by maintaining all the features which are necessary to gain excellence in performance and operations, Honda has been able to serve the customers with innovative, quality motor vehicles but in low prices. In fact, it is to be though that the success of Honda in recent time are all about investing lots of money for R&D and to become able to bring innovative and friendly products in relatively affordable prices (Parson and McLaren, 2009).
As it is mentioned earlier that, the main strength of Honda Motors is its enriched R&D department which has the potentiality of bring such innovation in the vehicles which will make the customers to think about their vehicles. Relentless works of R&D department, Honda has already brought lots of innovations in their vehicles and going to add few more striking features in their future generation motor vehicles. One of such innovative invention is Jet engine which they are going to use in their motor vehicles. The main feature of this jet engine is that it will make the car faster but without making