Business Context and Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Context and Operations - Essay Example Convenience food business is increasingly growing as this helps the nutrition needs of busy career bodies. HCF’s supply chain has to meet the growing demands of the consuming public. Some suppliers did not meet schedules, so HCF has to apply innovations in supply chain by introducing in-house manufacturing of a special kind of sauce. This paper will talk about operations management and supply chain relations. Introduction Consumption of chilled food is increasing in many parts of the world. One of the main reasons for this is convenience; chilled foods are convenient to prepare. Hadrian’s Country Foods (HCF) started by supplying chilled foods to family and friends. HCF’s founder, Dr. Andrew Smith, saw the need for chilled foods with nutritious ingredients. As the company grew, it started to meet numerous problems and challenges in management and supply chain. HCF must introduce an effective supply chain and operational management. Products have to be consistent w ith new lifestyles and new product innovation (NPD) must meet consumer demands. HCF has to improve its operations in delivery of products and services to improve supply chain relationships. Task 1 HCF’s Operations Management Operations management is transforming inputs into outputs, or the production capability of the firm. In terms of quality, operations management focuses on internal activities of the firm, such as ‘process control, process improvement, product design improvement, and design of experiments’ (Foster et al. 2011, p. 2286). HCF receives ingredients from its suppliers, transforms the inputs into products, and makes the supply chain moving until the product reaches the retailers (the supermarkets) and end users. The company has to introduce innovations and create new menus with ingredients that boast the health of consumers and meet the delicate taste of consumers. Improvement of processing operations must consider how it can enhance operational per formance to satisfy customers. HCF has two kinds of market: B2B and B2C markets. Challenges and Opportunities Product innovation must be continuously introduced because of competition. The company has to stimulate the market with its diverse chilled foods and introduce new delicious menus to meet consumers’ demands and taste. Products have to be consistent with new lifestyles and new product development must provide customer satisfaction. HCF has to conduct regular research and development as a regular activity and a focus for R&D should be how to reduce operational costs. R&D can experiment on new health foods as competition is growing in the food industry. Innovative ways of reducing costs can be discovered. For example, packaging is significant in reducing operating costs. An example of effective packaging for food items is ‘combined transit and point-of-sale packaging’ which saves labour time through faster shelf loading and easy access to product and uses le sser resources. The total distribution cost influences the demand side as this affects price. For some fast-moving commodity like chilled foods, the cost of distribution and retail selling affect the total product cost which represents about 50 percent of the product price (Coles 2003). Reducing costs, especially in distribution, attracts retailers like supermarkets. Information technology (IT) application to shorten workload is another opportunity to improve production and distribution. IT can enhance the â€Å"