Kudler Fine Foods Operations ManagementKudler Fine Foods Operations ManagementOperations management is the process the managing the entire process from acquiring the materials, transforming the materials to the final product and delivering the product to the customer. Kudler Fine foods is specialty food store that conducts business in fresh produce, fresh bakery and pastries, fresh meat and seafood, condiments and packaged foods and special dairy products. Kudler fine foods have plans to switch to local farmers for fresh organic produce. Following examines the impact of this change to the business operations of Kudler Fine Foods in implementing the new strategy.
Business processes at Kudler Fine FoodsImplementing new strategies require changes in business processes. Understanding how business processes work is essential to ensuring the competitiveness of a company. A process that does not match the needs of the firm will punish the firm every minute that the firm operates. Process is defined as a set of activities performed by an organization that takes inputs and transforms them into outputs ideally of greater value to the organization than the original inputs (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005).
Process analysis helps the manager to identify the various processes involved to implement strategies in the organization. The key terms in process analysis is the cycle time and utilization. Cycle time is the average time taken between completions of successive units. Utilization is the ratio of time that a resource is actually activated relative to the time that is available for use. Clearly understanding the purpose of the analysis is critical to setting the level of detail in modeling the process. Often different processes affect the performance of another (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005). Process flow charting is the tool used to analyze the process. The four components of process flow charts are tasks, decision points, flow of materials and storage areas. Process can be categorized to single stage process and multistage process. The process viewed as a single black box is single staged process. In this process all the activities are collapsed and analyzed using a single cycle time. A Multiple stage process has multiple groups of activities linked through flows.
Process can also be categorized as Make-to-stock process or Make-to-order process. Make-to-stock process ends with finished inventory and customer orders are served from this inventory. The main advantage of Make-to-stock process is standard products can be delivered quickly to the customers. This is important to customers who require speedy delivery. In Make-to-order process the process is activated only after receiving the order from the customer. One of the main advantage of Make-to-order process is the process is custom made for every individual customer. The main disadvantage of Make-to-order is it takes longer time to process the order from the customer.
Kudler Fine Foods currently follows Make-to-stock process. One of the issues of Kudler Fine Foods is they carry higher level of inventory using the Make-to-stock process. Kudler Fine Foods needs to change this process to accommodate the new change. As these organic produce are perishable, they should maintain low level of inventory. This can be achieved by reengineering the supply chain strategy. Kudler needs to have an understanding of how the existing supply chain works and the needs of the customers. Kudler Fine Foods should establish performance measurement system after the reengineering process has occurred.
Impact to Supply Chain Management processThe term supply chain is described as how organizations are linked together as viewed from a particular company. Supply chain is the linkage between suppliers that provide inputs, manufacturing and service support operations that transforms inputs into products and services, and the distribution and local service providers that localize the product that fits the end user needs (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005). The components of supply chain are suppliers, service support operations, local service providers and customers.
Following analyzes how the processes associated with the components of supply chain are impacted by Kudler Fine Foods switching to local farmers.1) Kudler Fine foods offers produce which includes fresh foods, vegetables, spices and varieties of fruit all around the world. Even though Kudler Fine Foods has planned to switch to local buyer, as a first step Kudler should decide whether the local farmers can offer all these varieties of foods or Kudler should leverage from other suppliers for different varieties of food, 2) Kudler Fine foods should select the farmers who will be the suppliers for fresh produce. Kudler Fine Foods should also analyze the purchasing terms and contractual terms while selecting these local farmers. When selecting the farmers they should
Kudler Fine Foods’ current contract with local manufacturer is no longer in place and these terms, contractual terms and benefits, are being negotiated with our customers, for whom such benefits are included in the purchase price. In addition, we have received several reports from various consumers who have received payments via our Web site and a number of independent sources who have confirmed the value of these payments, although these reports only reported that they had received payments of around USD 100 and USD 1 500, respectively. Although this is a very small amount of payments being given to our customers, our customers could be expected to receive some additional income during this purchase.
In a presentation to you in November of 2014, we have explained to readers the challenges we have faced in growing a food company and discussed what is possible without our products and whether the Kudler Fine Foods approach could succeed. However, when we said that our customers’ concerns about the lack of Kudler’s quality, or lack of quality in our products was our main concern, many people have wondered whether we could have been a whole company, or as a whole. We believe this is not the case. We strive for integrity in both our products and in our business and understand that while this may be the case, we cannot have a complete picture of the real world without also reaching for the real world. We have built relationships with the biggest supermarkets in India, the world’s largest food chain, including Safeway and Kudler, as well as local and national suppliers. We have built and run the online store and are launching the online marketplace We do not have a physical store but as of December 2013, it was running an online store here in India by local dealers and with our local farmer friends. The digital store has launched with more than 100,000 units (as of December 2013) of Kudler Fine Foods food which can be imported and sold overseas. The Kudler Fine Foods online store has a daily sale of â‚ą100,000 or more while at least 150,000 subscribers are expected to use the store over the next two years. As of 2015, it reported an annual net profit of $23.5 million, which was in line with our previous estimate of $22.5 million.
Additionally, as part of our strategy to grow our food business, we have been working hard on reducing the use of the term ‘Kudler’s quality,’ to refer to both products and services. Although we have continued to expand Kudler and have purchased from numerous local distributors, we still can only ensure that Kudler’s Quality as well as service is made available without any marketing campaigns, or our branding and website. Therefore, our current pricing structure is designed to prevent Kudler’s product and services from being sold to customers across India. Such a strategy could have resulted in higher prices for different Kudler’s products and services, and in some cases, increased margins for our partners
The objective of the Board of Trade is to create a sustainable and consistent business model which will promote and empower its employees and to improve the quality, security of its employees and their families.
If there is a requirement to introduce more and more advanced equipment and products to the country by 2022, it could have a substantial impact on the quality, security of its employees, its operations and its ability to compete internationally. It could also be a significant burden on our internal operations, which could hurt our long term objectives. For example, we would need to take greater risks as to safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the business, and are currently reviewing different policies to ensure there is compliance with such rules. In addition, if you choose to purchase on-line Kudler’s online or in other countries using a Visa credit or debit card, a higher value product must be available for immediate purchase to benefit from a more effective business model. In addition to the existing cost structure of the business model in a certain country, there may be additional complexity to the Kudler’s operations.
Our goal in pursuing such a strategy is to: • Increase the value of the food we produce by introducing more quality-based and fresh meats & cheeses into our products so that these are further differentiated and marketed in an efficient way; • Increase employee benefits, which could include a better cost structure; • Improve Kudler’s business performance overall in India, and to encourage further growth in the sector by raising expectations of the Kudler’s future customers; • Develop a plan to improve Kudler’s business by delivering more efficient and quality items with better value and increased food quality; • Address the challenges Indian companies face to improve their image and growth; • Achieve strong margins for our employees and in countries where there is little competition for Kudler’s products; • Promote customer value and a focus on quality improvement in services and the delivery of health services; • Ensure the availability of Kudler ’s products to our customers through online and in-person delivery and review.
Our focus on the importance of the Indian market and of the quality of Kudler ’s products is designed to allow us greater opportunity to engage both international and Indian customers by improving the quality of our food. However, our focus in India, especially during the last six months, has not only been focused on improving Kudler’s quality but the quality and service received in Indian markets. Our focus would also help us meet our Indian Customer Growth objectives of ensuring that Kudler’s ingredients and services are manufactured in India, strengthening our global competitiveness and reducing the cost of