Transforming resources
INTRODUCTION
• How is the most widely recognised product in the world made? • How are the required quality standards met for every single unit of that product? This case study answers these questions by outlining the manufacturing processes for Coca-Cola - the most widely recognised global brand from London to Lagos, Los Angeles to Lahore. It is sold in more and more markets, creating thousands of new jobs in the local economies. The brand is owned by The Coca-Cola Company which works with franchisees across the world. These franchisees perform the bottling and canning operations and are also known as packagers.
This illustration shows how manufacturing operations convert inputs into finished outputs. Coca-Cola’s bottlers and canners are concerned with a range of processes involved in transforming resources into the bottles and cans of drink that we are familiar with. There is a difference between transforming resources and transformed resources: The transformed resources are the materials (the cans, bottles, liquids, etc.) and the information which are processed to create the finished product.
Packaging
For many years, Coca-Cola was produced in glass bottles. Because of the high cost of distributing bulky bottles, they had to be manufactured close to where the bottling took place. Today, this is no longer so important since new packaging methods have revolutionised the process. Advanced bottling and canning technology makes Coca-Cola cans and bottles very light but extremely strong. The Company has invested a lot of time and money in research and development to ensure the most effective life cycle impact of its packaging. By using the minimum quantities of materials in packaging, the cans and plastic bottles are simple to crush or to reprocess at the end of the initial life cycle.
Manufacturing Coca-Cola
Primarily, Coca-Cola is manufactured by franchisees who are the world’s leading bottling