Operations and Supply Chain Strategies - Report Example

Management Project (Operations and Supply Chain Strategies) By Presented to Location DueSupply chain and the business operations are among the important aspects in a company or any other business organization. Operations comprises of all the activities that are aimed to produce value to all the major stakeholders in a company, the major processes are the generation of recurring income, enhancing the value of company and further securing the value that has been earned by the business (Gattorna 2011). Supply chain is a process and a system which involves all the parties that facilitates the movement goods and services in a company to their specific customers in the various market segments (Handfield 2008). Therefore a supply chain implies both the direct and indirect involvement of parties in satisfying customer’s requests, the parties which may be involved in a company include manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, transporters, warehouses and finally the customers. This chain is thus where the company operations take place hence there is the need for companies to ensure that there is smooth running of operations in the supply chain (Gattorna 2011). The importance of this area of study in a company is that operations and supply chain aims at ensuring that customer satisfaction is achieved which is a major objective of any company or a business entity. Operation and supply chain strategies of a company is therefore important in ensuring its success thus there is a need for the company put priority in ensuring that there are well laid strategies that are able to deliver a successful and constant flow of information, funds and products in the different stages as the company strive to meet customer satisfaction and requirements. The efficiency and effectiveness of a company operations and supply chain highly depend on the company laid down strategies that facilitates efficiency and effectiveness. Many companies have therefore invested heavily on the on the design, formulation and the implementation of these strategies (Sehgal 2011). The returns on this investment are mainly increase in sales, revenue and profitability of the company. Effective and efficient operation and chain supply strategies are those which attribute the company with the minimum costs of production and distribution while maximizing the revenues and profits of a company (Handfield 2008). Coca Cola Company is among the largest top companies in the world which manufacture beverages, bottled water and non-alcoholic soft drinks. The success of this company has been attributed the adoption of the suitable and appropriate operations and supply chain strategies. The Atlanta-based soft-drink company has expanded its operations in almost 200 countries across the globe operating in several brands. These expansions and the Coca Cola Company nature of operations has attributed to it having a global supply chain which is complex and a vast network comprising of stakeholders including bottlers, warehouses, plants, customers. This is further complicated by the existence of multiple product lines, multiple supply chains as well as the various aims and objectives of the involved stakeholders (Sehgal 2011). This nature and the scope of Coca Cola Company and its associated challenges has motivated this company to come up with strategies to ensure that the difference converge together (Gattorna 2011). This tactical and strategic move has ensured that Coca Cola Company achieves the objective of accessing reports and real-time information on the various issues concerning its operations and the supply chain that are crucial in facilitating the decision making on the proposed strategies (Handfield 2008). Operations and supply chain strategies that have been designed and formulated by Coca Cola company aims at facilitating fast and accurate flow of information and the various crucial metrics from all the global subsidiaries to the Atlanta-based headquarters. The challenge is Coca Cola Company could not obtain consistent metrics across its plants found in the global markets. This translated into the lack of adequate accurate information on the company operations because the reporting rules and standards varied. Operations and the chain supply strategies comprises of the entire company strategy of Coca Cola Company thus playing an important role in achieving its mission and the objectives, the effectiveness of these strategies has been enhance by the increased interactions with other metrics of the company including marketing, accounting, human resource, company operational design, management information system and the management of the finance (Gattorna 2011). The operations and supply chain strategies are crucial in ensuring that all these company strategies are converged togethebr (Sehgal 2011). Coca-Cola company production process involves the production of syrup which is used in the making its drinks. The major operations comprise of the manufacture and distribution of several non-alcoholics concentrates of beverage and syrups. The company itself does not produce the final product but it still owns over 400 brands. This has been achieved through franchise to other stakeholders who are part of the chain supply where they hold interests on these major parties and partners including major bottlers and distributors. The cost of this production operation mainly depend on the major largest ingredient which is the sugar which is estimated to cost $300 per ton and this cost of refined sugar sometimes escalates upto $ 500. The tightly held trade secret by this company regarding the cost of the supplies and the production operations attributes to the lack of adequate information on the production cost of Coca-Cola Company. The company income statement is estimated to have a provision of the cost of goods sold to be $10,500. On further financial analysis the results shows that there is an operating margin also estimated to be about 25% and the company net profit margin is 20.5% (Handfield 2008). Coca-Cola Company has been able to integrate its operations and supply chain strategies into its business model, they only produce the concentrates while its partners manufacture, package and distribute the coca-cola products into the various markets. To increase efficiency in its operations and chain supply Coca-Cola Company changed its strategies which had been used for decades where they started combining its business units to become one unit mostly in North America and this strategy was to be further adopted in other major larger subsidiaries of the company. This strategy enhanced the streamlining and the effective application of the information technology, supply chain operation process and the overall Company procurement process (Gattorna 2011). They also further started delivering its products directly to the major warehouses such a Wal-Mart in the bid to attract its major customer and also as a way of addressing their complaints which had been forwarded against the poor distribution services. Coca-Cola bottler has its largest bottler Coca Cola Enterprises in which it owns 35%on its shares the relationship with other bottlers is that they do not have any shares but they cooperate as well as working together to ensure that the achieve an effective and efficient operations and supply chain (Handfield 2008). In conclusion the operations and supply chain strategies of Coca-Cola Company focused at the Company metrics that would translate into profitability, developing consistent factory standards, consistent reporting standards that are feasible with the changing business and industry environment (Handfield 2008). The efforts attributed by these strategies through the implementation of SAP Business Objects supply Chain Performance Management by hiring experts from ITC InfoTech was a significant move in achieving the best operation practice and supply chain compared to its competitors, the experts were to implement both the operational and supply chain strategies that focused on the supply chain, company warehouse, delivery of the products and the overall management of the Company operations and its supply chain. There are a number of tests and the evaluation of the whole supply chain and the company operations and its performance. This is to determine the extent to which set targets, objectives and reports given on the supply chain performance in the context of demand planning, production efficiency and effective customer service is achieved (Handfield 2008). With the Coca-Cola company having a wider and extended complex company operations and the networked supply chains, it is vital and important for the this company to have an insight on what the industry practice and changes call for the improvement and advancement of the its relevant strategies basically on the determination on the end-to-end view of the general performance, root cause analysis and the value analysis (Handfield 2008). The Coca-Cola Company move on the process of aligning and converging together the operations strategies and the supply chain strategies across the line of the overall company objectives in a cost effective and a timely manner has been a major and a notable significant competitive advantage of Coca-Cola company in their expansion into the new markets as well as the development and the launch of new products and services. The Company strategy and plan on the global roll out will facilitate the management and monitor of the operations and the supply chain strategies to enhance consistent and uniform information on the company metrics and data sources (Handfield 2008). Emerald research paper review Topic: Aligning Distribution Center Operations to Supply Chain Strategy The paper provides the examination and the analysis on the role of the distribution centres in UK and further on the extent in which these operations in the distribution centres are aligned to the supply chain concepts in the current corporate world. The paper starts by examining the development of supply chain for the past few years and provides the perceived changes in the operations at the specific distribution centres (Baker 2004). Major focus is laid on the modern trends on the increased level of responsiveness to the market place demands with the fewer inventories also the extent into which the companies and organizations adjust their operations to suit the supply chain and operational strategies (Baker 2004). The research methodology is based on postal survey in the UK operational distribution centres involving the managers and the major stakeholders of the operational centres and other available resources on the operational and the supply chain strategies.The final part of the research comprise of sections having a critical conclusions on the research topic which have been drawn from the findings and the results. The examination is whether the large distribution centres in UK has the characteristics and the features that are commonly anticipated and expected to take place from the implementation of the modern supply chains strategies. This research paper also in addition goes further in providing the future challenges which are clearly examined and analyzed and at the end the areas that still needs further research and work is identified (Baker 2004). Research review Taylor & Francis Topic: An adaptive framework for aligning (re) planning decisions on supply chain strategy, design, tactics, and operations The research paper examines the wealth of the various approaches applied by the various organizations to the operations and supply chain strategies examining trend changes over a time series. Levels of development and design regarding supply chain and operations are evaluated separately on each of the levels. At each level there is a notable interrelation between the supply chain and operation strategies that are being implemented (Dmitry 2009).This paper provides a way in which the operations and supply chain strategies can be designed to work efficiently and effectively. Conceptual model describe the relation between operational strategy and the supply chain and its underlying principles in addition mathematical modeling is provided for the purpose of realization of the software environment in an organization. The paper contributes to the development of the methodological basics and the practical tools from the simple open time slots into an improvised dynamic, feed-back supply chain and operational planning (Dmitry 2009). Research review Sciencedirect. Topic: Manufacturing networks and supply chains: an operations strategy perspective The research paper examines and analyses the manufacturing networks and supply chains from an operations strategy perspective. It provides the evidence that the two aspects previously been perceived to be separate but due to the globalization of markets there is a need to integrate the two in order to study network facilities. (Olhager 2003). The paper examines the two research areas on the basis of two structural decisions that are operational strategy and the vertical integration. The book presents a typology of the network systems resulting in four major basic network configurations. Notable is that contingency that exist as a result of the configurations due to extensive coordination of activities within the Company thus the final result is basically the four coordination approaches. The configuration and coordination analyses can be used as a basis as well as the foundation for further studies and research on the concepts and theories underlying the integration of manufacturing networks and supply chain (Olhager 2003). Reference Gattorna, J. (2011). Strategic Supply Chain Alignment: Best Company Practice in Supply Chain and operational strategies. Aldershot: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Handfield, C. C. (2008). Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management. London: Pearson Prentice-Hall. Sehgal, V. (2011). Supply Chain as Strategic Asset: The Key to Reaching Business Goals, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Peter Baker. (2004). "Aligning Distribution Center Operations to Supply Chain Strategy", International Journal of Logistics Management,The, Vol. 15 Iss: 1, pp.111 – 123 Ivanov, Dmitry, (2009). “An adaptive framework for aligning (re) planning decisions on supply chain strategy, design, tactics, and operations”. International Journal of Logistics Management, Volume 48, Number 13, January 2010, pp. 3999- 4017(19). Jan Olhager. (2003). Manufacturing networks and supply chains: an operations strategy perspective.International Journal of Logistics Management. Volume 31, Issue 1, February 2003, Pages 29–39. Read More