Cadburys Purple Reign - Case Study Example

Case Cadbury World Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Executive Summary Cadbury World visit is a process that can be divided into micro and macro operations and consequently a flow chart for the process that reveals the capacity of each step and the bottlenecks therefore formulating recommendations for the same. Contents Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Micro and Macro processes in case Cadbury World 4 2.2 The process design 9 Capacity 9 Calculation 10 The projected annual, weekly and hourly demand 10 Seasonality 11 Management’s varied capacity to respond to changes in demand 12 Bottleneck in the process and amendments to increase bottleneck capacity 13 Appendix 15 Introduction Cadbury World is a visitor attraction project for the Cadbury company; a famous manufacture of chocolates. It’s aimed at giving the visitors some Cadbury experience and information (Bradley 2008, pg 98). Micro and Macro processes in case Cadbury World In regard to Cadbury World, micro processes are the ones that are to be used to compliment or give instructions to the macro processes. This can be justified under the output basis. The operations are set under the service concept ideology. Henceforth, the basis of Cadbury World process objective. The visitors’ objective is the experience and so is the managerial main objective. Therefore the operations in the entrance, the Marie Cadbury room, the packaging and finally to the demonstration areas are the Macro processes while the Shop, the coffee and ice-cream parlour, the restaurant and finally the alternative exhibition are the micro processes (Robert et al 2001, pg 126). The distinction is based on the Cadbury World’s main objective. The Cadbury World has been furnished with various materials; written walls and the brief videos together with guides which represent the input of the process (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 98). The visitors are taken through the process which represents the transformation process while the output is the experience service obtained. Micro operations do not actually lead to the main objective but form a complementary of the main objective attainment while the macro operations’ aim is actually the main objective. The shop is filled with variety products as the input. The service offered; the sale is the transformation process. The customer satisfaction and acknowledgement of the variety of products and souvenirs is the shop’s operational output. The shop is therefore a complementary to the main objective. The coffee and ice-cream parlour is the second micro operation. The parlour offers coffee, tea and ice cream (Slack et al 1998, pg 201). This is a micro operation of the Cadbury world process as it has little contribution in the attainment of the main objective; the experience. However, the parlour offers significance experience in ice-cream experience. The restaurant is also a micro operation in the case Cadbury World. The restaurant offers quite different products in regard to Cadbury chocolate products. However, most visitors visit the restaurant (Pycraft et al 1997, pg 117). The restaurant cannot be termed to be a part of the experience objective but form a complementing part in the tour. On the other hand, the alternative exhibition is micro operation but forms a complement of the macro objective. Not all visitors visit the place but an average of 95 percent of the visitors do visit. The exhibition is fitted with old machineries as input and form part of the experience. The visitors are able to view the transformation from the old machineries to improved one with the help of the staff (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 156). This forms part of the output process. The Cadbury World’s Flow chart Bull Street Shop windows (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 76-79) One guide for 30 people (Slack et al 1998, pg 86) & (Slack 1999, pg 92) (Robert et al 2001, pg 111- 117) 2.2 The process design The design is systematically arranged. Visitors are divided into groups and with a guide, they taken through in a series of steps. The number of visitors from the entrance is regulated from time to time. This means that the design is well placed to serve the purpose and efficiency is looked at. The guides are complimented with video shows, written materials, archival assets and documents. This suggests that the Cadbury World process is designed to provide adequate information to the visitors (Slack et al 2004, pg 146). On the other hand, the packaging part of the process design is not effectively arranged. Capacity The entrance of the Cadbury world tour is controlled by a ticket collector. The entrance allows 15 to 20 visitors in every two and a half minutes (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 212). The Marie Cadbury room has a maximum capacity of 70 people. The room has only 16 seats and a standing space for the rest. The same number of people from the Marie Cadbury room moves to the next area of Bournville village exhibition where the group is divided into two; men and women (Slack 1999, pg 177). The next area is the packaging plant which has a capacity of around 30 people who are led by a guide in a group. This means that the two groups which meet in a narrow path to and from the second station totals up to 60. The demonstration area has visitors led by a guide in 8 groups of 15 each in areas separated by chest high Perspex screens. This totals to a capacity of 120 (8 x 15) visitors. The shop has 3 check outs. A customer is served after 15 seconds in the 3 checks with most of them using the rear entrance having completed the tour coming from the demonstration area while a number of them go through the shop in the beginning of the tour. The visitors get to the coffee and ice- cream parlour via the shop. The parlour has a capacity of 46 people each taking an average of 18 minutes (Slack et al 2004, pg 197). The restaurant has 53 tables giving a capacity of 169 people having 5 serving points with each customer taking an average of 25 minutes. The alternative exhibition which is located 300 meters from the main exhibition has 95 percent of the visitors visiting (Pycraft et al 1997, pg 214). The capacity of the place is not explicit. Calculation The projected annual, weekly and hourly demand Venue Capacity Rate Visitors per hour Entrance 15- 20(Slack & Walley 2001) 2.5 min 15-20 x (60 min/ 2.5 min) =360 to 480 Marie Cadbury i. Original design ii. Peak times 70 x 1/3 5 min video + 1-2 min guide waiting time + 4 min filling an emptying =10-11(Robert et al 2001, pg 128) (70 x 1/3) x (60/10-11) = 131-141 70 10- 11 minutes 70 x (60/10-11) = 382-420 Packaging plant 30 3 min in the 1st station 5 min in the rest of the halts totalling up to 8 minutes(Slack et al 2004, pg 134) 30 x (60/8) = 225 The demonstration areas 15 per guide A total of 120 visitors Some visitors use 6 minutes through the area while the average time with the guides is 17 minutes 120 x (60/6-17)= 424 to 1200 visitors The shop 3 15 seconds 3 x [(60 min x 60 sec)/ 15] = 720 The coffee and ice-cream parlour 46 18 minutes 46 x (60 min/ 18 min) = 153 The restaurant 169 25 minutes 169 x (60 min/ 25 min) = 406 Venue Hourly demand (From the table above) Weekly visitors (x 13.5 hours in a week) Annual visitors For 4.5 months (Mid Aug to end of Dec). (x 19 weeks) Entrance 360 – 480 4860 - 6480 92340 – 123120 Marie Cadbury i. Original design ii. Peak period 131 – 141 1768 - 1904 33592 - 36176 382 – 420 5157 - 5670 97983 – 107730 Packaging plant 225 3037 57703 Demonstration area 424 -1200 5724 - 16200 108756 – 307800 The shop 420 5670 107730 The coffee and ice-cream parlour 153 2065 39235 The restaurant 406 5481 104139 Seasonality Seasonality has influence in the above figures. This is evidenced by the differentiated figures between the peak and the ordinary time. There are a large number of visitors in peak times which are evidenced in the calculations in the capacity of Marie Cadbury room which has only 16 seats but can contain 70 where the excess of 16 will occupy the standing space. This leads to an indefinite number of the visitors contained in the room at any one time. The other impact of seasonality can be evidenced in the entrance where 15 to 20 people are let in therefore leading to indefinite projected figure of the visitors (Slack et al 1998, pg 188). Management’s varied capacity to respond to changes in demand The first area of that exhibit a responsive action on capacity is at the booking stage. Groups of more than 20 people are required to have their bookings in advance. In addition, the maximum number of a single group is set to be 60. The management has set the maximum limit in a group in order to effectively operate even in times of changes in demand. Secondly the management has placed a ticket collector on the entrance that lets in 15 to 20 people and from time to time checks the number of visitors in the first stage in order to respond to changes in demand (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 155). Thirdly, the management has varied Marie Cadbury room’s capacity. Originally, the room was meant to hold around sixteen people but due to demand changes, the room has been allowed to hold a maximum of 70 at peak periods. It has placed 16 seats in the room but in addition created a standing space (Slack et al 1998, pg 93). The fourth step taken is the use of guides and groups in most of the areas and especially in the demonstration area. The management has made it available for several groups to tour in the demonstration area and has also hired at most 8 guides to curb demand change. The fifth step is the use of several serving points and increased capacity in the shop, the coffee and ice-cream parlour and in the restaurant. The shop has 3 points of service to quickly serve the visitors in about 15 seconds each. The parlour has 46 covers which seem to be in excess (Slack et al 2004). The restaurant has five serving points and has 169 covers to serve the change in demand. Finally, the management has offered ample parking space around three areas (Slack et al 1998, pg 116). The advance and the maximum limit in booking capacity in conjunction with varied capacity in the entrance and in the Marie Cadbury room, the number of guides and groups division, various serving points and increased capacity plus ample parking space are the ways that the management has used in response to changes in demand (Robert et al 2001, pg 203). Bottleneck in the process and amendments to increase bottleneck capacity The Cadbury World happens to have several bottlenecks in its operation. The first bottleneck is seen at the entrance. The management has placed a ticket collector who from time to time goes inside to check on the number of visitors inside the exhibition area (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 79). This limits the speed at which visitors are served. However the entrance system can be corrected by absorbing technology in the area where visitors quickly served and easily monitored. The Marie Cadbury room exhibits another bottleneck. The attendant waits for around two minutes before he opens the door and another four minutes are in filling and emptying the room (Robert et al 2001, pg 89). An automated and timed door system would do well to the area. The packaging plant is the third bottleneck area. The video and the guide briefings consume a lot of time. Some guides can be seen to read from some place. In addition, the narrow path between the first and the second station causes delays (Slack & Walley 2001, pg 78). The bottleneck can be countered by use of skilled staff and removal of the videos in the place. In addition, an alternative path should be created to curb the delay caused when the two-way visitors meet in a narrow path. The restaurant exhibits another bottleneck. The range of food choice cannot be seen from the entrance thereby increasing the time consumed by customers in choice making. In addition there are separate payment sections for each serving point (Robert et al 2001, pg 114). On the other hand, the range of food choices should be well displayed to reduce the time taken in choice making. Consequently, a single payment point would do best. Appendix Adopted from, Robert et al 2001, pg 79. Bibliography Bradley, J. 2008. Cadbury’s Purple Reign: The story behind Chocolate’s Best-Loved Brand. New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons. Pycraft, M, Singh, H, Phihlele, K, Slack, N, Chambers, S, Harland, C, Harrison, A, & Robert, J, 1997. Operations Management. South Africa. Pearson Education. Robert, J, Chambers, S, Harland, C, & Slack, N. 2001. Cases in Operations Management. New York. Prentice Hall. Slack, N & Walley, P. 2001. Warwick MBA: Operations Management Course Notes, University of Warwick, UK. Slack, N, 1999. Blackwell: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Operations Management. Massachusetts. Blackwell publishers. Slack, N, Chambers, S. & Johnson, R, 2004. Operations Management. New York. Prentice Hall. Slack, N. Chambers, S. Harland, C. Harrison, A. & Johnston, R. 1998, Operations Management. Essex. Pearson Education Limited. Read More