Lincoln Electric is a production company headquartered in the U.S.A. It is recognized worldwide due to its arc welding products. From the beginning, Lincoln Electric established its position in the welding industry and now it is considered as the leading producer of industrial electric motors. Also, Lincoln Electric has established itself as a leading manufacturer of arc welding products. The mission of Lincoln Electric Company defines the future status of the company and gives a bigger picture of the company’s desire.
The mission of The Lincoln Electric maintains certain core values that the employees and other staff members abide by to achieve the business’s objectives and a set of goals. The company’s core values help maintain a healthy relationship between the distributors, customers, suppliers, employees, and shareholders. According to the mission statement of The Lincoln Electric Company, it is the responsibility of the organization to realize and support its mission and core values. Lincoln’s business strategy tightly focuses on maximizing profits and satisfying the needs of its customers.
The use of innovative human resources and incentive systems has helped Lincoln Electric to dominate the welding industry and overcome all the economic forces. The human resource system includes the use of employees’ stock ownership, the creation of Employee Advisory Board (EAB), incentive bonuses, and an employee suggestion system. The strategic plan of the Lincoln Electric includes technology development, product mix, marketing, design and production (Schnaars, 2008). The essential elements of Lincoln Electric operational efficiency include leadership, employee accountability, and management of change, risk control, risk identification, and knowledge sharing (George, Below & Acomb, 2001),
The leadership of Lincoln Electric has played a significant role in its state of continuous improvement. Leadership quality at Lincoln Electric began with its founders, the Lincoln brothers. The younger brother, James Lincoln, joined the company from Ohio State University as a senior manager and introduced effective management practices and innovative human resource policies. From the leadership qualities presented by Lincoln Electric managers, the issues of change in the company’s operations were managed in a professional manner. The management of change ensured that the company’s success was not affected by the changes made in the production process.
However, there are three tasks undertaken by Lincoln Electric at some point in their business history that did not align with their operational strategy. These functions include eliminating, forming strategic alliances, and outsourcing materials. The task of forming strategic alliances plays a significant role in strategic importance but rarely contributes to operational strategy. However, strategic alliances need monitoring and follow-ups. Even though these alliances could not contribute much to the operational effectiveness, they could be affordable and could help run operations smoothly.
Eliminating and outsourcing tasks has high impacts on successful operational strategies. However, they do not affect the operational effectiveness significantly. Less relevant materials and equipment could be outsourced because they are not worth using in the operational strategies. Outsourcing does have weaknesses in the sense that the operation could face production and demand imbalance (Mahadevan, 2007). Elimination tasks are not important to the company’s strategy although these works could never end. Elimination tasks need careful consideration because it is important to understand why they are done. Overdoing the elimination tasks could damage operational strategies of the company.
The production structure of the Lincoln Electric involves innovations and production of a variety of welding products. Lincoln Electric Company manufactures arc welding products and consumable products such as welding sticks. Technology plays a significant role in the production structure of the company. Award-winning engineers act as a pillar of Lincoln’s success. The production structure of the company depends on research and development. Lincoln Electric spent over 2% of sales on research and development carried out by experienced engineers.
Lincoln Electric remains the leading manufacturer of both arc welding products and consumable products. The production process is characterized by producing arc welding and consumables at the same time. Also, Lincoln Electric employees provided solution services for their clients. Employees are trained to solve customers’ process problems. A successful production company should consist of a design and production plan. There are three enablers aligned with long-term plans at Lincoln Electric. The three facilitators include maintaining quality production, demand accountability, and financing the strategic plan (Aikens, 2005).
Maintaining quality production could come with advantages and disadvantages. However, the pros are much more than the cons. High production quality in the welding industry will ensure that most consumers gain trust in a quality product. With high-quality production, Lincoln Electric gets an advantage over its competitors in the welding industry. Quality production and quality services strengthen the relationship with the clients. Besides, quality production needs a little more of financing. Therefore, the company will have to invest more money in producing quality products. Outsourcing materials from rival companies could come in handy for Lincoln Electric, but could kill the strategic plan of the enterprise. However, outsourcing materials from other companies could cut the cost of production and save manufacturing cost. In the same way, financing the strategic plan could help invent new methods and improve production. The main problem for implementing operational strategies could be the money needed to establish a plan successfully.
Reference
Aikens, C. H. (2005). A Corporate Force: Managing for Excellence. Indiana: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
George, L.M., Below, J.P., & Acomb, B.L. (2001). The Executive Guide to Operational Planning. California: Jossey-Bass.
Mahadevan, B. (2007). Operational Management: Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. LTD.
Schnaars, S. (2008). Marketing Strategy. New York: A Division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.
