The process of production at Goodyear has undergone various process
             modifications and changes over the year. Goodyear has been always
             encouraged changes and improvements in the material procurement and tire
             manufacturing process. This paper will discuss the improvement in the
             downstream supply management of the tires to the company dealers and
             private tire dealers. At present, the feedback procedures utilized between
             dealers of the product is as shown below.
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             (IBM, 2004).
             The process that is set in place at this point appears to be
             adequate. There are however, concerns about the long -term robustness of
             the IT system that has been in place. Most IT systems get obsolete very
             fast. And ensuring the compatibility of systems is often a major
             consideration. Any replenishment operation has a set of processes and a
             pre-defined methodology for completion of a task. OEMs have defined and
             set limits of the safety stock for the tires. They need to complete their
             processes within the allotted time. There is no value addition while a
             product is kept in inventory. The cost of holding products in inventory
             and shrinkage cost also increase the cost of tires. The stage at which the
             tires are introduced in the car manufacturing process is generally the
             final stage. By this time, most of the value addition has already been
             undertaken for the manufacturing process. If there is a shortage of tires,
             maximum costs for these car manufacturers would be held up. The idea of
             balancing flow (and not the capacity) throughout the plant is important for
             the car industry. There are a wide variety of tools within TQM that can be
             effectively used in the tire industry. Many of these tools such as JIT and
             MRP are already effectively implemented within the processes of the tire
             industry.
             The main ...