Supply Chain Management at Coca Cola Company - Coursework Example

Find an example of a supply chain ethics decision and discuss in detail. A detailed analysis should includea view from the perspective of the person or persons who acted unethically. What could have led them to this? How could a “good” person (like you) take a path that would lead to similar actions? What steps can be taken to avoid falling into such a trap? Ethical decision making happens in organizations for example Coca Cola Company with employees creating decisions which may be judged as right or wrong, unethical or ethical. Ethical decision making in the Company may target all the various departments in the organization, for example marketing and supply. More so ethics in organization can relate to managerial decisions which entail, organizational factors like code of ethics, compliance and the culture of the organization and individual ethics. Ethical decision making process in the supply chain targets implementation, planning and controlling the effective and efficient reverse and forward flow of services and good and also their storage (Weele &Van, 10). It also targets the effective information between the origin and consumption point with the aim of meeting the requirement of the customers. The ethical decisions in the supply chain encompasses the management and planning of the activities involved in procurement, resourcing, conversion and the other activities related to the management logistics. It also entails collaboration and coordination with the partners in the channels which include customers, service providers, suppliers and intermediaries. It encompasses integration of the demand and supply management across and within the organization. The primary function of the supply chain management is to link the various business functions in Coca Cola Company and other processes in the business. Ethical decision making in the organization’s supply chain keeps on changing. The change arises due to cross-functional integration in the organization (Weele &Van, 16). The integration focuses on relationship management emphasis and aligning of the objectives. Ethical behavior has a lot of benefits such as effective recruitment and motivation, higher revenue, new source of finance and increased recognition and awareness. Coca Cola Company may risk being affected with many accusations if the chain of supply is involved in bad practices. Some examples of foul unethical practices in supply include corruption, bribery and child labor which can impact negatively on the general achievement of the company. Supply chain that is based on ethical decision is usually beneficial to the company. An example of ethical decision involving the supply chain targets the safety and health of the employees. The organization has a mandate of ensuring the working conditions are hygienic and safe. The company’s main headquarter is located in the United States of America. The country has laws and regulations targeting the safety and health of the people at the place of work. Coca Cola just like any company other company in the country has a mandate of ensuring its workers in the country and other places in the world are safe and health. The company utilizes more than one supply chain in order to reach more than one billion customers in the world. The company should ensure such regulations that are related with it are fully implemented to increase the efficiency and motivation of the workers. The employer should also ensure the employees involved in the chain of supply are able to respond to the safety procedures as per the regulations (Weele &Van, 120). The suppliers have to work closely with the consumer to introduce and implement appropriate procedures and policies related to health. The senior management representatives in the supply chains should is assigned the safety and health representatives. The place of work has to be safe and healthy to the worker and the supplier manager has to ensure the employees are able to use safety equipments such as helmets. The safety measures of the employees are of great concern. The implementation of such decisions may be expensive to the company and some companies may decide to avoid such regulations with an intention of saving on capital. The laws are against such decision and the employees in the Coca Cola company have a mandate of reporting such issues to the bodies concerned with their protection so that appropriate decisions can be done. Assessment of the safety and health decisions in the Coca Cola Company should be done regularly. The supply chain management should be able to consult relevant bodies for direction on how some policies are to be implemented. Implementation of safety and health policies in the supply chain is beneficial and motivates the employees. It also prevents the company from spending more capital on compensation of the employee as a result of unsafe environment (Weele &Van, 90). Choose an example of a supply chain sustainability / social responsibility issue and discuss in detail. Present challenges and alternative solutions. Supply chain sustainability has been identified as business value generators. It promotes performance of the Coca Cola Company. The supply chains have continued to face a lot of challenges for example the poor working conditions for the employees in the other countries since the company is a multinational corporation. Coca Cola Company has continued to strategize their programs to improve sustainability in the supply chain. Supply chain sustainability targets social, environmental and economic impact and permit good governance and practices in the organization. Sustainability in the supply chain protects, create and grow long-term social, economic and environmental value for all the suppliers and stakeholders involved in bringing services and products to the market. Sustainable sourcing is a management tool applied in a business to promote the performance especially in a competitive business world. Sustainable initiatives in the Company is aimed at minimizing risk, compliance, environmental protection and health maintenance (Cetinkaya &Balkan, 43) Implementing the initiative can contain cost and raise productivity, enhance relationships among the suppliers and customers, innovation support and enabling prosperous growth. One of the social problems affecting the sustainability of the business is corruptions. Coca Cola Company has come up with ways of dealing with corruption issues that may target the supply chain in order to ensure it remains sustainable. Corruption and bribery usually impact negatively on the supply chain. Ethical practices in a business Company are the vital aspects of sustainability especially in the supply chain. The Company is however finding it a challenge in controlling the issues. The issues have been experienced in various organizations forcing some of the top managers to resign or step down and allow investigations to be carried out. The issue has caused the company to encounter a lot of losses. Corruption is illegal and damages free market and competition of organization in the free market. Anticorruption policies should be created and implemented in the organization especially in the supply chain department to ensure that it becomes sustainable. Corruption rewards and incentivizes unethical behaviors. Economic and social growth is hindered by bribery and corruption. Bribery and corruption is not to be viewed as a simple issue. The supply management should not reward corrupt employees and heavy penalties should be employed to punish such practices. Corruption accusations in the company distort good reputation among the stakeholders involved in the supply chain. Law suits and fines imposed created in the supply chain can distort the organization’s social license (Cetinkaya &Balkan, 33). Sustainable supply chain management should implement no bribe and anti corruption policies. The move will boost the organization image, reduce the costs and more trustworthy relationships in the company will be created. Policies are to be based on values and driven by clear governance, best practices, strong leadership, best benchmarking practices, monitoring and training. Corruption is a risk to business and should be avoided at all costs. There is need to address these challenges to ensure a sustainable supply mechanism which will result to more benefits to the organization. It is a challenge for the organization to come up with effective measures to deal with the issue once and for all. Anticorruption approach to most of the activities in the company is considered vital to the progress of the organization. Employees should be motivated and the wages increased to prevent from relying on other means that are dangerous to the development of the company. Supply chain sustainability boosts trust and credibility among the stakeholders including nongovernmental, governmental organization, investors and activist groups (Cetinkaya &Balkan, 56). The relationship achieved in the process enable the company top access viable information concerning market forces and external influencers. The company is also able to secure a business environment that is considered friendly through stakeholders’ decision outcomes. A sustainable supply chain should be prepared to deal with the various challenges that affect the supply process in a variety of ways. What are different types of risk that are experienced in the supply chain? For each different type of risk, give at least two general tactics for minimizing the risk (or mitigating the effects).  A risk is the probability of a situation taking place and how it affects the organization from achieving the set objectives. The chain of supply can be categorized as either external or internal risks. Internal risks are within the supplier’s control unlike external risks which are outside the suppliers control mechanisms. Coca Cola Company faces both external and internal risks that affect the company either directly or indirectly. External risks in supply chain entail supply, business, plant, environmental and demand risks. Demand risks arise due to misunderstood or unpredictable demands of the consumers. Research targeting consumer demand can be done to help deal with the risk. Supply risks occur due to product flow interruption. The company can be able to deal with supply risk by ensuring efficient product flow and putting the necessary requirements in order. An efficient management system is also vital in ensuring the product flow is done well. An environmental risk emerges from outside the chain of supply. It is usually associated to social, economic and governmental changes. Environmental risks can affect the company in a variety of ways. The threat of terrorism and climatic factors are also part of the supply chain risks. Terrorism threats can be mitigated by putting appropriate security measures in place (Brindley &Clare, 120) Climate factors as a risk to supply chain can be dealt with by planning for the climate by putting mitigation strategies to be used in the event of the factor. Business risks are usually linked to management stability and finance. The Coca Cola Company should focus on putting the best management team in place and perform financial assessment to identify any misappropriation of funds. The regulatory compliance and the supplier facility contribute to the physical plant risks. The internal risks to the chain of supply entail cultural risks, contingency and mitigation risks, control and planning risks, business risk and manufacturing risks. The organization has to put policies and regulation in place to enable them deal with contingency risk. Planning and control risk can be dealt with by putting in order an effective management team. Appropriate planning and assessment can help prevent the risk in the supply chain. Control of business risks can be done by ensuring positive communication exist between the management, business processes and personnel to enable them deal with changes in the business environment. Manufacturing risks can be prevented by ensuring the internal processes and operation in the Coca Cola Company are put in order (Brindley &Clare, 120). . Give me typical costs per mile for water, rail, highway, and air transportation for freight in $ / ton-mile. Give specific web references that I can check for all of your numbers Truck, water, rail and pipeline services provide a complementary and competitive freight transport option. Each mode offers disadvantage and advantage in terms of speed, price, accessibility, reliability, visibility, safety and security. Organizations such as the Coca Cola Company can pay for specialized and more expensive transportation for faster delivery of products often on schedule. The value of the products usually determines the products. The United States for example registered an increase in the products transported across all modes except pipeline. 9.2 billion tons of products were moved in 2002 and generated 1.4 trillion ton-miles. In the same year rail was valued at, $205 per ton, water $371 and $725. Truck ton-miles increased by fifty six percent, water reduced by seventeen percent and thirty percent by rail. Trucks moved approximately $6.7 trillion freight worth in the year 2002. Rail shipment in 2002 recorded $ 205 freight worth. Air freight shipment was $770 freight worth with shipment by water rated at $350 freight worth (Adler et al, 18) Give two examples of supply chain measures that are used, but can lead to undesired behavior. Supply chain metrics or measurement involves use of inventory turns; fill rate and cycle time applied in supply performance. The measures can cover warehousing, distribution, procurement and distribution. Measurement is an effective determinant of supply chain performance decisions. Key performance indicators (KPIs) help the company to know their position area for improvement and strengths. The strategy can help the company to set up goals and objectives to help in dealing with the challenges in the supply chain. Use of metrics and supply chain KPIs help in managing the supply chains. Cost of inventory is one measures carried out to ensure the supply chain remains active. It measures the company’s cost associated with inventory storage. Each inventory piece you store and buy has some cost linked to it. It entails labor, freight and storage. The metric is used aid the supplier in planning their production style. The inventory turnover measures the number of time used in inventory sell. It helps in measuring the supply chain efficiency (Cetinkaya &Balkan, 43). A turnover rate that is high is considered better. Another measure used is order tracking which monitors the accuracy and status or customer orders. The visualization often expose a number of key issues such as accuracy, shipment and arrival time and the unit number shipped. If not done in time the team may not be able to respond effectively. The unit per transaction measure provides information on the purchasing trend of the customer and sales of effectiveness. The chain of supply measures can end up resulting to behaviors that are undesired. The organization should put in place appropriate supply chain measures that may not impact negatively on the performance of the organization. The management should employ appropriate tools to help evaluate the employee’s performance and come up with strategies that can help monitor their behavior. Works Cited . Adler, Nicole, et al. "Marginal cost pricing implementation paths to setting rail, air and water transport charges." 2003. Brindley, Clare. Supply Chain Risk. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2004. Cetinkaya, Balkan. Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practical Ideas for Moving towards Best Practice. Berlin: Springer, 2011. Weele, A. J. Van. Purchasing & Supply Chain Management: Analysis, Strategy, Planning and Practice. 5th ed. Andover: Cengage Learning, 2010. Read More