International delivery of Coke products(supply chain management) - Essay Example

Every firm has a functional supply chain that is continuously improved to enhance firm operations; this paper sets out to discuss the international delivery of coke products/ supply chain management. The Coca-Cola company is a multi-billion international beverage company that exclusively licenses and markets over 5oo nonalcoholic beverage brands; most of the beverages marketed by Coca-Cola are primarily glistening beverages, but the company also markets still beverages like waters, enriched waters, juices, ready teas and coffees, and energy/sports drinks.

Some of the sparkling nonalcoholic products marketed by the Coca-Cola Company include Coca-Cola, Diet-Coke, Fanta, and Sprite; the company has various segments such as Eurasia and Europe among others, bottling investments and company. Coca-Cola is the world’s most powerful brands that has dominated the global soft drink market for more than a century now due to its highly visionary and excellence oriented operational framework. The company’s extensive and complex supply chain includes a number of different organizations such as plants, bottlers, warehouses, and customers, in addition to multiple product lines that follow multiple supply chains though with different objectives.

With such vastly complex network, it is quite a challenge to achieve real time information on which to base tactical and strategic decisions in the company, thus the need for effective supply chain management. The Coca-Cola Company has involved ITC and SAP consulting to enhance its Supply Chain Management and to achieve further visibility- the main objective of the collaboration is to create a supply chain and decision making strategy through fast information and metrics (Hochfelder). For instance, Coca Cola’s challenge accessing accurate information to compare, in addition to the challenge of inconsistencies in the reporting rules in new ventures was adequately addressed through the integration of supply chain management with SAP, and this system went live with the launching of Coca Cola North America.

This integration was a key milestone for the company because it enabled the company to match the supply chain goals with business goals effectively, providing guidelines into firm to end user supply chain processes to help achieve consistency in its processes. Coca Cola’s supply chain guiding principles entail focusing on metrics needing no manual intervention, focusing on metrics to initiate profit stability and metric stability through the supply chain, in addition to, focusing on industry principles that are not coke precise and development of a robust system for reporting changing hierarchies with changing businesses.

The Coca-Cola company complex supply chain network cuts across continents to reach consumers all over the world; for instance, the company has acquired some independent bottlers such as the Carlifornia based Scramental Coca Cola Bottling Company in a move to enhance distribution effectiveness (Enterprise Labeling). The company has also devolved the distribution of its products to local bottling companies all over the worl