SONY CORPORATION

OM Mini Report

Group no: 18

SACHIN M

HARIKRISHNAN

SREELEKSHMI

JULY 26, 2018

SONY
japan
 INDEX

1 SUMMERY 2

2 INTRODUCTION 3

3 DETAILS OF THE PROCESS 4-10

4 ANALYSIS 12-14

5 CONCLUSION 15

6 BIBILIOGRAPHY 17

1
 SUMMERY
The proposed study aims to understand some operation concepts taught during
the semester through the support of in-depth evaluation and discussion made in
class but also with the support of individual research in order to appraise them.
This coursework was assigned with the scope to review,
analyse and present solutions to extended the study. In addition, it allows the
students (researcher) to develop its skills and design and assess the
understanding of operations management in order to apply the range of
concepts, theories and models examined.
However, this report was applied in accordance with SONY
CORPORATION, which was designed as multinational conglomerate corporation
of this study in achieving the final scopes. In fact, through this study it was
possible to demonstrate how the analysis of operations management concepts,
models and theories such as process and layout type contributed in achieving
competitive advantage in operational objectives. Besides, it was classified and
analysed through use of appropriate operations strategy models the existing
operational strategy of SONY, providing an evaluation of its role to meet the
operational objectives.
The findings of this report were based in assessing the
mentioned aims with the support of knowledge and understanding of the
students (researcher) in order to demonstrate its ability to apply a range of
operation concepts.

2
 INTRODUCTION
Operations management is a vital part of an organization to
achieve success because it includes that activity of managing the resources to
produce and transfer products and services (Slack, Chambers and Johnston
2010). Instead, operations function is that part of the company responsible for
the function of operation management. This means that every company has an
operations function because each of them produces either product or service for
the ultimate customer (Slack, Chambers and Johnston 2010).
Therefore, operation function is one of three main core
activities of an organization, while the other two activities are (Slack, Chambers
and Johnston 2010):
 Marketing function, which is the main activity to communicate
products or services to the organization’s markets in order to create
customer requests.
 Product/service development function, whose role it is to enhance
customer interests through new products or improvements of the
existed products.
In addition to the core functions, Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2010) mention
support functions that ensure effective process of the core activity. These
activities are the accounting and finance functions, which share data to
undertake convenient economic decision and manage the financial resources of
the company. The second support function is the human resources, which is
responsible for developing and controls the organization’s members in order to
enhance the organization’s welfare.

Founded in 1969 by Sony Corporation, Sony Manufacturing Systems

Corporation, Japan is recognised as a leader in technological innovation. It is the
world's largest producer of precision measurement and positioning tools,
machinery, and scientific apparatus. With more than 550 employees worldwide,
Sony Manufacturing Systems Corporation (SMS) produces over 500 products. In
addition to its corporate office and manufacturing plants in Japan, Sony
Manufacturing Systems has sales companies in Taiwan (ROC), PR China,
Singapore, United States and Europe. Sony is mostly in to entertainment fields.
A wide rage variety product starting from music systems to movie distribution.
An absolute pioneer in every aspect dominating over years. (news.com, n.d.)
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 SONY’S MANUFACTURING UNITS

SONY has production units all over the world bus mostly concentrated in Asian
countries of course no doubts in the reasons. Sony itself is based in japan and
the labour wages and the land fee in these countries is comparatively less and
all the favourable conditions for the tech giant to flourish. The manufacturing
units are mainly concentrated in Taiwan, China, Brazil, Japan and of course in
India.
Sony has a number of offices, plants and warehouses throughout the world.
Most of the buildings and land
in/on which such offices, plants and warehouses are located are owned by
Sony.
The following table sets forth information as of March 31, 2012 with respect to
plants used for the production of products mainly for electronics products and
services with floor space of more than 500,000 square
feet:
(sony, 2016)

Facilities in Japan

Location Floor space(ft) Products produced

Sony Semiconductor Corporation 2,267,000 CMOS image sensors and other
— Nagasaki TEC) semiconductors
Kumamoto 2,122,000 CMOS image sensors, LCDs and
(Sony Semiconductor other semiconductors
Corporation
— Kumamoto TECCCDs
Kagoshima 1,767,000 CCDs, LCDs and other
(Sony Semiconductor semiconductors
Corporation
— Kagoshima TEC)
Kohda, Aichi 877,000 use video cameras, compact
(Sony EMCS Corporation — Tokai digital
TEC cameras and Memory Sticks
— Kohda Site Home)
Inazawa, Aichi 842,000 LCD televisions
(Sony EMCS Corporation — Tokai
TEC
— Inazawa Site)
Shimotsuke, Tochigi 803,000 Magneto-optical disc and
(Sony Energy Devices batteries
Corporation
— Tochigi Plant)

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 Kanuma, Tochigi 793,000 Magnetic tapes, adhesives and
(Sony Chemicals & Information electronic
Device Corporation components
— Kanuma Plant)
Koriyama, Fukushima 590,000 Batteries
(Sony Energy Devices
Corporation
— Koriyama Plant)
Kosai, Shizuoka 548,000 Broadcast- and professional-use
(Sony EMCS Corporation — Tokai video
TEC ) equipment
—
Kisarazu, Chiba 541,000 Blu-ray Disc players/recorders,
(Sony EMCS Corporation audio
— Kisarazu TEC) equipment and video conference
systems
Minokamo, Gifu 539,000 Home-use video cameras,
(Sony EMCS Corporation — Tokai compact digital
TEC cameras, digital SLR cameras,
— Minokamo Site) mobile
phones and video conference
systems

Outside Japan

Location Floor space(feet) Products

Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.A. 2,428,000 Blu-ray Disc-ROMs, CDs,
(Sony DADC US Inc.) DVDs and
UMDs (Universal Media Disc)
Huizhou, China 1,665,000 Optical pickups and LCDs
(Sony Precision Devices
(Huizhou) Co., Ltd.)
Wuxi, China 1,380,000 Batteries and compact digital
(Sony Electronics (Wuxi) Co., cameras
Ltd., Sony Digital
Products (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. and
Sony (China) Ltd.)
Penang, Malaysia 1,022,000 Optical disc drives, batteries
(Sony EMCS (Malaysia) Sdn. and audio
Bhd. — PG TEC) equipment
Tuas, Singapore 810,000 Batteries
(Sony Electronics (Singapore)
Pte. Ltd)
Bangi, Malaysia 797,000 televisions, TV components,
(Sony EMCS (Malaysia) Sdn. Blu-ray Disc players/Recorders
Bhd. — KL TEC) LCD and
DVD-players/recorders
Beijing, China 688,000 Mobile phones
(Sony Mobile Communications
Co., Ltd.)

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In addition to the above facilities, Sony has a number of other plants for electronic
products throughout the world. Sony owns research and development facilities,
and employee housing and recreation facilities, as well as Sony Corporation’s
headquarters main building, with a total floor space of approximately 1,753,000
square feet, in Tokyo, Japan, where administrative functions and product
development activities are carried out. SCEI has its corporate headquarters in
Sony Corporation’s headquarters main building and leases its corporate
buildings located in Tokyo, where administrative functions, product
development, and software development are carried out. SCEA and SCEE lease
their offices in the U.S. and Europe, respectively.
SPE’s corporate offices and motion picture and television production facilities are
headquartered in Culver City, California, where it owns and operates a studio
facility, Sony Pictures Studios, with aggregate floor space of approximately
1,608,000 square feet. SPE also leases office space and motion picture and
television support facilities from affiliates of Sony Corporation and other third
parties in various worldwide locations. SPE’s film and videotape storage
operations are located in various leased locations in the U.S. and Europe. SME’s
corporate offices are headquartered in New York, NY where it leases office space
from SCA. SME
also leases office space from third parties in various locations worldwide. Most
of SMEJ’s offices, including leased premises, are located in Tokyo, Japan.

In December 2008, SCA renewed its option under a lease with a variable
interest entity which is consolidated by Sony, for its corporate headquarters.
Sony has the option to purchase the building at any time during the lease term,
which expires in December 2015. The aggregate floor space of this building
is approximately 723,000 square feet.

PRODUCTION UNITS IN INDIA

Sony India has commenced manufacturing of its Bravia television in India on an
OEM partnership with Competition Team Technology (India) Pvt Ltd in
Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. Sony will start manufacturing two models —
both Android TVs The decision to commence local production of Bravia
television will boost company’s effort to cater to the demand of Sony TVs for
domestic customers.

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India has been an important strategic market for Sony and this development
underlines the company’s commitment to this market and in alignment with the
Centre’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. There is a good potential in the TV business as
conversion from CRTs to LCDs is expected to accelerate over the next few years.
(THE HINDU, n.d.)
According to recent reports by the economic times, SONY INDIA, the local arm
of Japan’s leading consumer electronics maker, has decided to step up ‘Make in
India’ for televisions and smartphones instead of relying largely on imports, as it
did earlier, in view of the government’s move to increase taxes on overseas
products. The company’s parent in Tokyo is in the process of finalising whether
to expand third-party manufacturing or set up a plant in India.
Reports also says, India has in the past five months increased import duties on
completely built television sets and smartphones to 20% from 15% and 10%
respectively. It has also increased import duties on components for both these
products. (The economic times, 2018)
IN CHINA

SONY corporation recently inked pact with Chinese to manufacture and sell
PlayStations, Sony’s crown jewel invention. The deal, formed as two joint
ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl, gives Sony access to an estimated 500
million gamers in China. China has had a ban on gaming consoles since 2000,
citing their adverse effect on the mental health of young people. China's gaming
market, which is currently dominated by PC, mobile and online games, is seen
as a key growth area for console makers.
The two partnerships are both with Shanghai Oriental Pearl, one gives Sony a
70% share and the other a 49% stake and both will operate out of Shanghai's
free trade zone.
Some Sony products

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 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Sony recognizes the increasing importance of global companies' responsibility
to manage their supply chains responsibly as diligent members of society and is
taking a variety of steps to structure a responsible supply chain. Sony works
with its suppliers to address issues such as human rights, labour conditions,
health and safety, and environmental protection throughout its supply chain.
(MHL news, n.d.)

The Sony supply chain stretches across the entire globe. The Group has its own
electronics manufacturing facilities in Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore,
Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, Mexico, and Brazil. Also, 44% of the suppliers'
manufacturing facilities are located in Japan, while 6% are in the US, 3% are in
Europe, 25% are in China, and the remaining 22% are in the Asia-Pacific region.
(SONY, n.d.)

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Sony Supply Chain Solution, Inc. procures more than 30,000 different parts from
nearly 800 affiliated parts suppliers to support manufacturing at more than 50
plants worldwide
The company ships finished products to dealers, distributors, and consumers in
more than 200 countries and territories. Supporting a global operation of such
vast scale, Sony Supply Chain Solution, Inc. requires total efficiency in its
information technology systems and networks as well as continuous
improvement in logistics quality
In order to stay competitive, Sony Supply Chain Solution, Inc. constantly pursues
technical innovations in electronic logistics and supply chain management. One
of the company’s leading technology and business process initiatives is an
industry standard software solution developed internally for systematically
rating air cargo and customs clearing companies. The company needed to
improve the application by quickly integrating it with disparate systems.

LOGISTICS
SONY outsources most of its logistics to various private carriers like DHL.
Country to country the carrier’s changes. Sony itself maintains strict measures
so the themselves have some mode of transports. As a part of its efforts to
reduce environmental impact from the transport of finished goods, Sony

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promotes modal shift, switching the modes of transport it uses from air to sea
and from truck to railroad.
 Sony's efforts to advance modal shift also include transport in overseas
markets. In Brazil, Sony has been switching from air and truck transport
to marine transport for freight destined for Sao Paulo shipped out of the
Manaus Plant of Sony Brazil Ltda. Since fiscal 2015, nearly all freight over
this route has been shipped by marine transport, significantly reducing
CO2 emissions from transport

 In Japan, Sony has promoted modal shift from truck to rail transport. For
large-sized products such as BRAVIA™ LCD TVs or Blu-ray Disc™/DVD
recorders, in particular, Sony proactively uses railroad, which accounts for
more than 15% of all long-distance (500km or more) domestic transport.
These efforts have gained recognition. Sony has been certified by the
Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as a
certified company in the "Eco Rail Mark" system since 2011, while
BRAVIA™ LCD TVs and Blu-ray Disc™/DVD recorders have earned product
certification. Sony also promotes domestic sea transport. In fiscal 2016,
CO2 emissions attributable to the transport of products in Japan were
approximately 398 tons lower than would have been the case if products
had been transported by truck

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 At Sony DADC US Inc., warehousing, packaging, returns processing and
distribution of optical media had previously used same size boxes. Space
inside the boxes was often left unused depending on the shipment size
and number of orders. Safety cushion material was also needed inside
the empty spaces to protect the goods during transport, which resulted
in additional expense for materials. To counter these circumstances, the
Distribution Centre improved the boxes by redesigning them into a shape
optimally suited for the size and number of products for shipment.
Finally, the Distribution Centre eliminated the wasted space in the boxes,
increased the rate of products shipped, and substantially improved
transport efficiency. The initiative also helped to reduce the amount of
cushioning material used.

 To keep stacked cartons from collapsing during transport of products and

parts in manufacturing sites and warehouses, Sony employs reusable
bands as one of packaging materials. This has contributed to the
reduction of use and disposal of packaging materials such as stretch films

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12
 ANALYSIS

SONY CORPORATION, Japan has diversified business including gaming,

entertainment, electronics, production etc. An absolute pioneer in every
business arm under it. The operations and management of Sony
corporation is flourished across the whole world. As an International
player, the company has to maintain a strict production and operation
and logistics unit to efficiently and responsibly carryout the need of its
beloved consumers. Starting from small circuit boards to large Televisions
only maintains this type of quality.

Production plant and locations

Sony has production plants across the world. Europe, US, South America,
Asia etc. Most of the plants are owned by Sony itself, then comes the
subsidiaries. We have listed the names and locations of various
production facilities of the company early in the document. As you can
see the most of the parts of Sony’s electronics products are produced in
china and other Asian countries. Obviously, the main reasons for such
activities is the support by the government to business and of course the
low wage of the employees. In a country like china which is biggest in the
world in terms of both size and population, makes a perfect location for
the company’s growth. Then comes Brazil, Taiwan etc developing and in
desperate need of job.

India is one of the biggest market for Sony products. The rich cultural and
festival seasons in this great country make a fertile market for the tech
giants and oh boy they have exploited it. In Kerala the upcoming onam
season, the company is expecting a sale of 100000cr, can you believe it.
The company has already setup production plants for Bravia TV’s in
Chennai. The huge population, availability of cheap land and huge and
young labour force makes the country unique from Sony’s other clients.
The company sees huge market opportunities in the subcontinent. The
PM’s make in India initiatives also aided the conditions favourable for the
giant to pour in investment.

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Logistics wing

Logistics and packing has become an important part of any products. To

maintain its service and brand value, Sony has put serious focus in its
logistics and supply chain wing. The company has outsourced majority of
its transportation with some private players, mainly DHL. In Australia the
Sony has outsourced its entire goods transport to DHL. Sony Supply Chain
Solution, Inc. procures more than 30,000 different parts from nearly 800
affiliated parts suppliers to support manufacturing at more than 50 plants
worldwide.
As an innovating giant, the company has tried various advanced
methodologies and even some environment friendly initiatives sparing no
expenses. The companies practice in brazil is appreciable. Switching from
air and truck transport and taking the freight to ships there by reducing
the co2 emission in the atmosphere.
The green rail project in japan and the optimized packaging initiative also
are appraisable practices by the company. These types of activities do
improve the brand name and imprints the brand name in the minds of
common peoples.

Backdrops faced by the company

There are numerous factors affecting the working of a business. This

include both internal and external factors. The internal factors can be
controlled and taken care of but the uncontrollable factors haunt the
company. Japan is a geographically sensitive country. Calamities like
Tsunami’s, earthquakes haunt the country. On march 11 2012 japan
experienced a mass earthquake and tsunami causing major damages to
various fixed assets warehouses etc. This incident caused decline in
various activities of the company and a huge decline in profit.

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 CONCLUSION
The tale of this great company started back in early 60’s, the harshest
time for any business to flourish. The company has faced many backdrops
and closure threats. But SONY has survived all the negatives and came up
to the frond. Always one step ahead of every other players. Coming up
with most innovative and cutting-edge technologies and delivers its
customers with the best products they can ever dream of. Their product
line includes variety of storage devices, power supply, entertainment, in
automobile, gaming. The company has changed the face of gaming. Came
up with some dashing inventions like play store series of consoles, were
the players able to play heavily graphical games with affordable prices.
Most of the products in the market is known by the name of a Sony
product like the product “Walkman”. A musical equipment which took
the brand name as its identity. There are many such products like a radio
the PlayStation etc. there is no such brand like SONY, which has imprinted
in the minds of the people. And they worked hard to make it like this. The
story of Sony is most inspiring.
This coursework has been conducted to demonstrate the understanding
of some operational concepts used by SONY CORPORATION, which
helped this study to make critical thinking and evaluation of standard
models such as the process and layout type and so on. In the study we
analysed SONY CORPORATIONS operations strategy with the appraisal of
models in order to state if the strategy was suitable to meet the current
operation objectives

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References
(n.d.). Retrieved from news.com: https://www.news.com.au/technology/home-
entertainment/tv/13-amazing-facts-you-never-knew-about-sony/news-
story/d3ebb2fedfd6186a4495b71d6092a627

(n.d.). Retrieved from THE HINDU: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/sony-starts-

manufacture-of-bravia-tvs-from-chennai/article7499646.ece

(n.d.). Retrieved from MHL news: https://www.mhlnews.com/archive/sony-supply-chain-solution-

inc-0

(2018, 7 21). Retrieved from The economic times:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/sony-to-make-more-smartphones-
and-televisions-in-india/articleshow/64251793.cms

SONY. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/sourcing/supplychain/index2.html

sony. (2016). japan.

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