South Korea and Manufacturing

Autoedge internal and external position is precarious at the moment. The company is in an competitive environment that is being influenced by a variety of factors that are forcing the company to consider various organizational changes such as cost cutting moves. Furthermore, other internal issues are also compounding their situation. Recently the company has had some instances of severe quality issues that have made the market skeptical of the company's ability to manufacture products that bring value to the consumer.

In fact, these quality problems were so significant that they caused the stock price to be reduced form over fifty dollars a share, to four dollars a share. The company obviously has to make some dramatic changes in order to survive their current situation. The first thing the company will want to make an objective is to investigate the source of their quality issues.

Any further quality issues would likely be the end of the company's ability to mitigate any of the damages that they have incurred relative to their brand management. Since the company was able to operate in South Korea for some time, it is unlikely that the country is unable to manage their production facilities in this territory.

For example, if the company had issues with the South Korean workers being able to efficiently and effectively manufacture products then they would not have been able to operate in this location for as long as they have. Therefore, the source of the quality issues is likely to be a factor related to human error or possibly a change in the manufacturing process as opposed to a deficit in the capabilities of the South Korean workforce.

Furthermore, there are other successful operations that are high-tech oriented that are doing well in these country. For example, Hyundai Motors is an automotive manufacturing organization that is based in South Korea and they have experienced tremendous growth throughout the last few decades and have recently overtaken the American icon, Ford Motor Company, for the fourth spot in the industries top producers ranking (The Chose Ilbo, 2009). The East Asian countries in general have shown their ability to use manufacturing to be able to grow their economies at an unbelievable rate.

South Korea is also among other countries who have not slowed in their production high-tech power sources like nuclear power and have demonstrated that this is that nuclear power remains a safe, cost-effective method for providing energy (Moniz, 2011). Hyundai has been able to manufacture their products in South Korea with a continuous dedication to total quality management and the manufacturing capabilities have led to the current level of success.

Hyundai is able to produce vehicles in South Korea that are of comparable quality to the competition in the same class for much less and therefore its manufacturing techniques give it a competitive advantage in many international markets. Therefore, again it is safe to assume that Autoedge has at least the potential to successfully manufacture products in this country and the problem likely lies in some other factor related to manufacturing. For example, South Korea is a collectivist culture and the U.S.

is one of the most independent countries in the world. This could be the source of some of the management issues that the country is facing. There are undoubtedly many challenges to introducing its manufacturing operations into new cultures as.