Kudler Fine Foods Operations Management
Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) was founded by Kathy Kudler in the San Diego metropolitan area in 1998. Kathy developed a business plan for the store due to a need for an upscale specialty food store in La Jolla. After opening KFF on June 18, 1998 and concluding a profitable year, she opened a second and third store (Kudler Fine Foods, 2008).
KFF has seen strong success and now must ensure continued growth by expanding services, improving the efficiency of operations, and increasing the consumer purchase cycle (Kudler Fine Foods, 2008). Each member of the organization must play a key role in achieving these objectives. Special attention must be paid to the supply chain and business processes, especially when developing a new product offering.
KFF plans to start selling organic produce in the three stores. This produce will be contracted from local growers. Operational changes will need to be made to ensure efficiency and productivity. The operations that will see change will be forecasting, purchasing, inventory management, and even advertising of the new products. Currently KFF forecasts how much of each item to carry based on historical data. No historical data exists for the new organic produce, so determining how much and how often to order will be a challenge. The three different store managers will need to work together and make use of trial an error for the first couple of months. Spikes are bound to happen during different seasons and holidays. These patterns must be recorded and applied to future orders. These forecasts will then be reviewed in the monthly operations meetings. Developing a flowchart for the contracting process will be beneficial. It is important to consider how activities associated with the process affect one another. A flowchart is a diagram that lays out the basic elements of a process tasks, flows, and storage areas (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). Flowcharts can be created through Microsoft Office applications such as Excel.
KFF has seen strong success and now must ensure continued growth by expanding services, improving the efficiency of operations, and increasing the consumer purchase cycle (Kudler Fine Foods, 2008). Each member of the organization must play a key role in achieving these objectives. Special attention must be paid to the supply chain and business processes, especially when developing a new product offering.
KFF plans to start selling organic produce in the three stores. This produce will be contracted from local growers. Operational changes will need to be made to ensure efficiency and productivity. The operations that will see change will be forecasting, purchasing, inventory management, and even advertising of the new products. Currently KFF forecasts how much of each item to carry based on historical data. No historical data exists for the new organic produce, so determining how much and how often to order will be a challenge. The three different store managers will need to work together and make use of trial an error for the first couple of months. Spikes are bound to happen during different seasons and holidays. These patterns must be recorded and applied to future orders. These forecasts will then be reviewed in the monthly operations meetings. Developing a flowchart for the contracting process will be beneficial. It is important to consider how activities associated with the process affect one another. A flowchart is a diagram that lays out the basic elements of a process tasks, flows, and storage areas (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). Flowcharts can be created through Microsoft Office applications such as Excel.
References: Chase, R.B., Jacobs F. R, Aquilano, N.J. (2006). Operations Management for Competitive Advantage. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Gomez –Mejia, L. & Balkin, D. (2002). Management. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Kudler Fine Foods. (2008). Retrieved on January 20, 2008 from Virtual Organization Portal.