Operational Planning for the Southern Port Food - Case Study Example

SOUTHERN PORT FOOD Background Southern Port Foods is UK based food manufacturing company that manufactures food and distributes to retailers. From it, several companies have been developed including Eastern Foods and Tropical Foods. The company has over 500 stores in places like Ireland and United Kingdom. (Baker, D. J., 2010) The following is the discussion on the report of the company. Figure1. Food Distribution by Southern Port Foods Discussions Operations management has proven to be a hard concept for many players in the food manufacturing industry to successfully conceive, particularly on the management of resources. (Benjamin, N., 2004) This is despite the fact that managers have systems and tools at their disposals. There is a new characterization of the global market place through dynamic makeup and substantial size. (Boghosian, H., 2010) To maintain their optimal performance in the ever changing global landscape, Southern Port Food operation management grasped this reality which is considered to be facing the entire food industry. This was the only way through which they would ensure that they not only remain relevant in the industry, but also remain competitive. (Brown, L. 2013) It was incumbent upon the operation management at the Southern Port Foods to stay side by side of the trends and to engage proactive systems that would ensure it took advantage of the changes. Some specific challenges that the Southern Port Food was faced with included, but not limited to; technological advancement, globalization as well as redefined marketplace. (Calabrese, R. L., 2009) Globalization has no doubt radically changed the manner in Southern Port Foods operate its business. The company has been forced to appreciate different techniques to deal with the change. (Carlsen, R., & Willis, D. A. , 2007) Southern Port Foods, could- and in most cases, had to- , base their operation in many other countries or other new locations in order to minimize cost of operation and also maximize efficiency of the performance. The company adopted this approach from other companies, which were not necessarily in the Food industry, such as Toyota Company, which is an automobile company with headquarter in Tokyo in Japan. (Contini, F., & Lanzara, G. F., 2009) This company has made several investments in other countries including the United States of America. However much companies like Ford and GM, would assume pride on being stooge domestic manufacturers, Avalon, which is a Toyota model is appreciated as one of the American-made cars (Devine, T., & Maassarani, T. F. 2011) Southern Port Foods has also had varied with the information system and the advancement of technology. The company made advancement in its management in an evaluative manner, by venturing into modern technology, especially in the realms of communication. (Farrell, K, et.al, 2012)Technological advancement such as global positioning, systems (GPS) and the Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) have transformed the manner in which inventory management is now conducted by Southern Port Foods. (Feldmann, D., 2012) Further, the technological advancement has transformed the manner in which planning is undertaken and as such, most of the planning done by Southern Port Food are now precise, and with the ability to narrow margin of error that may be realized by the operations managers in the company. (Freeman, M., & Mathison, S.’ 2009) Southern Port Foods has appreciated the fact that technology hastens development. It is also clear that the global marketplace remains a new priority so far as redefining is concerned. With the increasingly growing population, which also depends on the resources that are limited, Southern Port Foods has been forced to focus their priorities on sustainability. Considering that there are social and political pressures that the company faces, Southern Port Foods has tried to include other forms of food that are nutritionally recognized to be healthy. (Gerson, S. J., & Gerson, S. M., 2007)Some of these foods include those with low calories. Southern Port Foods has demonstrated that it has savvy operation managers to realize that these changes in the marketplace are inevitable and requires flexibility. (Glick, B. 1989) Another issue that has been addressed insofar as challenges facing Southern Port Foods is concerned is Human (Gould, P., 2003) Resource Management. Human resource management needs to be strategic, particularly when in food manufacturing Industry. This kind of strategy is viewed by Southern Port Foods to be concerned with creation of plans to source, plans to store and plans to disposing off of materials that may be needed in the process of doing business. (Hay, R. D., & Lesikar, R. V., 2007) Southern Port Foods has overtime been faced by new challenges which are unique to the industry especially in the field of strategic resource management. This is because the industry is dependable and produces basic commodity to people. One of the ways in which the Southern Port Foods has attempted to address the challenges that they face was by first understanding the nature of those challenges. (Iacone, S. J., 2005) To this end, the report will attempt to highlight on specific issues that surround ethics in the supplier sourcing. First, all Southern Port Foods have benefited much through application of strict guidelines in the selection process of their suppliers. This process however poised challenge to Southern Port Foods. (Jiambalvo, J., 2007) Sourcing of raw food was a hard task to companies like Southern Port Foods particularly in places where the company have to rely on small scale suppliers of the food. (Kimberley, N., & Crosling, G. M., 2008) This challenge came regardless of the ethical considerations that the suppliers posses or the honestly they observed as they conducted their businesses. Southern Port Foods had chosen to reward the suppliers who produced food that is to the standards stipulated by the laws. This kind of food included the compliance with the laws and policies that govern the production of Genetically Modified Food (GMOs). Such acts are part of the ethics that determine the supplier sourcing that a strategic human resource should consider in the food manufacturing industry. (Lessig, L., 2008) This is the similar challenge that Southern Port Foods has faced. There is a strong gamble with the choices of the suppliers that the company has. This puts the company into risk of failing in the compliance. Southern Port Foods need to reconsider the dealings that it has with the suppliers to ensure that their sourcing is sustainable and acceptable. Away from the supplier sourcing, another critical observation that had been made by the strategic human resource is the pricing. This is one area that Southern Port Food is facing. Pricing of raw materials particularly when it comes to food products can fluctuate much more than the finished food products by the Southern Port Foods. When this happened, the Southern Port Food faced very serious challenges with the pricing of the finished products. (Lubbers, E., 2012) One way in which the Southern Port Foods dealt with this problem of pricing was by pre-negotiating or negotiating time-bound price and placing such on contracts with their suppliers. This was done through insisting on single purchase price regardless of the fluctuation in the suppliers’ prices. In return, Southern Port Food made promise and guarantee of purchasing from the suppliers without change of other suppliers. The issue of supplier did also present unique challenge to Southern Port Foods. This was because sometimes production inputs were not available or presented in required quantities. An example of this situation was a case of when Southern Port Food, which was relying on fish from the local economy. For instance, it was not certain that the local fisherman would bring the same sizes and quantity of the fish that they supplied. This may be as a result of the changes in the climate or weather patterns. In cases like this, Southern Food ensured that they had standby suppliers to help them deal with such problems. This is an attribute that required strategic human resource management. In some cases, The Company was forced to resort to suppliers who supplied in large quantities though with low qualities than those suppliers with whom they have contracts. This also came with a higher price considering that there was fluctuation in the prices. In a way, this process also acted as an advantageous process to the company, since it Southern Port Foods discover new and reliable suppliers. Another very important aspect of human resource management that resonated with the case of Southern Port Food is the human resource as a situation in itself. Southern Port Food obtained a significant level of financial advantage by outsourcing internationally in different regions within a country. This approach did present a new challenge particularly to the strategic human resource management. For example, the company was forced to operate with different legal permits especially when dealing with the human resources that govern employment relationships. Problem with the spreading human resources in different places and regions also presented challenge with the production material and ultimately the quality of the output that identifies the company. This is one of the challenges that the Southern Port Foods had to address. For example, in the case where Southern Port had to locate its production facility in China, while at the same time sourcing their supplies at Guatemala. It meant that the Southern Port Foods had to meet shipment cost. Proposed plan for Southern Port Foods There are critical aspects of operational planning that the company needs to consider. First, the company needs to consider the four basic issues in operation planning, which entail, funding, organizational structure, physical resources, and planning important dates. For Southern Port Foods to successfully manage its core business, it will mean that the company recreates its programs and plans in a way that is profit oriented, such as increase of trending services within the food manufacturing industry. This will be a determinant of what the clients will be paying for the goods. It therefore follows that for Southern Port Foods to successfully formulate a good operation plan, the entire funding spectrum should be evaluated critically. The second thing that Southern Port Food needs to consider is the Organizational Structure. There is a need for the company to consider factors that relate to: key personnel in the organization; the type of position that these individuals occupy; the grouping of jobs that is always categorized in terms of the respective committees, or within the sections of the organization; the relationship of the key reporting personnel; and last but not least, the amount of authority that is delegated to the personnel. Observing physical resources is also something that Southern Food needs to consider in their grand project. (Stauber, J., & Rampton, S., 2012) The ability of the Southern Food to implement the project will depend on the tasks and the strategies that have been put in place. 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