Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) have trouble with supplying spare parts to their repair shop in the middle of 2013 and causes the delay in services for more than 20 percent of their customers. I think this could be a huge damage to the reputation of BMW since the after-sale services is a crucial component of brand image especially for company like BMW which is aiming at higher-end customers. Even worse, when consumers ask how long will they be waiting to get their car repaired and the answer from BMW is “I don’t know” because they are not even able to tell the delivery date of these missing parts.

As we have learnt in lecture 7, Dell kept the “days of inventory” low since 1996 and statistics showed that Dell surpassed other computer company (e.g. Apple, IBM, HP) in terms of the revenue earned by per employee (efficiency). BMW has now delayed their services for over a week could not only disappoint its image but also significantly decrease their operating efficiency and therefore generating extra cost. BMW should solve their problems with supply chain as soon as possible because long-term negative impact on their profitability could be more devastating.

Sources:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-20/bmw-owners-waiting-for-repairs-on-supply-chain-breakdown.html

http://www.bmw.ca/ca/en/index.html