As an integral part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) course, Year 4 students studying the Sheffield Business Management programme at SBC enjoyed a visit to the joint venture Chery –Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) facility in Changshu.
on 14th December.The visit was organised by Cheryl Chen, an alumni of SBC who is now working in Corporate Social Responsibility at JLR. Andy Ritchie and Dominic Darbyshire from SBC faculty accompanied the group along with Michael Frize, a senior lecturer from Sheffield University, who was visiting SBC for the week.
The facility was formally opened in 2014 and extends to over 400,000 sqm with a current production capacity of 130,000 units per annum. China is currently the largest global market for the gas guzzling SUV’s with over 100,000 sold last year. The manufacturing centre is at the cutting edge of automation and CAD/CAM with over 380 high tech robots handling the majority of the operations thereby allowing for a reduced workforce.
The visit included a full tour of all the main manufacturing, quality control and refreshment areas.
The Chery – JLR is set to expand over the coming years to manufacture a full range of the Land Rover and Jaguar cars as China is viewed as a key market for oversized status vehicles. The legendary footballer David Beckham will be the face of JLR in China as he represents the best of British, as a true gentleman for the local consumers.
The students found that the visit was very interesting and useful for applications of supply chain management theories and Dominic Darbyshire commented “That the case study used by the lecturer in Sheffield University for the International Marketing module, that the students are studying this semester, is this actual joint venture, so having studied the case study it was great that the students got to visit the plant, so they could compare theory with practice.”
Andy Ritchie said that from a sustainability and environmental point of view, there will be a follow-up guest lecture from a member of the JLR management team where he expects our students to rigorously question the real motives and rationale behind JLR’s socially responsible practices.
