Operations & Project Management

Operations & Project Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This project aims to provide analysis and evaluation of current and prospective review of the operations and quality management processes, procedures, and systems within an organization (Coca-cola). The report will further evaluate the company’s competitiveness in accomplishing its critical premeditated goals. Information management systems are assessed imperatively concerning such operations management processes.  The report entails an analysis of various operations and management issues. The project subsidies towards the generation of the appropriate and concrete understanding of several operations management matters are recognized.

INTRODUCTION OF AN ORGANIZATION (COCA-COLA)

The drink Coca-Cola was initiated in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacologist, John S. Pemberton (1831–88), at his Pemberton Chemical Company. His certified public accountant, Frank Robinson, picked out the beverage title and confined it in the elegant calligraphy that came to be the Coca-Cola brand. The Coca-Cola Corporation, an American company, was established in early 189os and today affianced predominantly in the production and transaction of sweet liquid and focus for Coca-Cola. This sweetened carbonated drink is a culturally institutional in the United States and international representation of American flavors. The company similarly manufactures and trades other soft drinks and citrus beverages. With beyond 2,800 products accessible in over 200 nations, Coca-Cola is the prevalent beverage producer and distributor globally and one of the leading companies in the United States. Control centers are in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-cola has been operating for a powerful spell and has established a satisfactory economic improvement concerning industrial, marketing, and supply of miscellaneous non- alcoholic drinks. (Tikhonov, pp. 23-63, 2019)

The firm’s operations involve manufacturing different kinds of liquid refreshment products such as sparkly beverages, ready-to-drink non-alcoholic beverages, non-carbonated energy drinks, and preferential and carbonated liquids. (Tikhonov, pp63, 2016)

1. Challenges facing the organization

Coca-Cola has been offering various carbonated drinks, tea, ready-to-drink coffee, juices, and sports drinks. (Chua, pp. 53-64, 2020) Additionally, the coca-cola Amatil (C.C.A.) deals with varied rage condiment materials, triturates, and inducement that is broadly appropriate in various water products. Its professional operational efficiency, coca-cola, has significantly subsidized its progression internationally and in the domestic market.  Back in 2011, the firm got net income amounting to $ 9262000. (Chua, pp. 53-64, 2020)  A report released by Forbes revealed that the soft drinks firm net income endures to experience growth. However, in consideration of health concerns coca-cola, products are losing the market. According to the research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2010 dietary guidelines, coca-cola hasn’t yet been involved in producing healthy products. This is considered as an operational weakness for the company. Either there have been several reports about the adverse effects of drinking coke. Back in 2008, coca-cola products were rumored to be containing pesticides, while in the following year, the company was criticized for deceptive marketing. (Chua, pp. 53-64, 2020)  These two have hugely impacted the coke’s operational Management.

Subsequently, coca-cola faces extreme competition from other soft beverage companies such as Pepsi and other fresh competitors regardless of its optimum marketplace standpoint. To deal with the challenge, the company is frequently dedicated to increasing its investment in the international market.  (Lacy-Nichols, pp.101793).

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In the meantime of its inception, the coca-cola firm has recognized itself as an international leader in the management and operations outlook. One of the motives after the company’s achievement relays on its efficiency in bottling amenities and manufacturing coordination. The company’s production mechanism covers production systems, consisting of essential inputs, transformation subsystems, and productivities. Other practices constituting the manufacturing process comprises storage and packaging. As a result, coco-cola has been prosperous in tapping the excellent prospects in the world marketplace.

(Charantimath pp. 105-200, 2007) defines operation management to comprise diverse practices that the organization incorporates to assure progressive maneuvers. Operation management focuses on developing dynamic assets, systems, and supply chain. All these coca-cola hasn’t fully affected. Therefore operation management is essential as it empowers a firm to offer products and amenities that correspond to market prerequisites. An organization should integrate different issues in an attempt to maintain its competency. These comprise managing statistics systems, conservation strategies, risk/threat management, product programming, and account management and material conduct and worth perfection. (Dirgantara pp. 105-119, 2020) The case study explains how the coca-cola Amatil incorporates different operations management conceptions to generate and withstand an extremely competitive advantage. The basic operations management concepts assessed comprise value regulation(Dirgantara pp. 105-119, 2020)

1. Principles in maintaining quality management of the Operations Management practices.

The coca-cola incorporation aims at assuring that its consumers realize the best level of approval by devouring the firm’s production. One of the features the coca-cola management team takes into considerations in the production process is quality assurance. According (Keller & Schaninger, pp. 66-126, 2019), statistics and quality shield different produce or amenity appearances that construct gratification amongst the consumers. Attaining the desirable product value is only achievable if the firm incorporates the required progressions and aspects. In an attempt to reach the desired quality, the coca-cola firm assures that it is reliable in its daily operations, abide by with the effective articulated techniques, and accomplishes haste and excellence in the conveyance of its products and services. (Keller & Schaninger, pp. 66-126, 2019)

As the various alterations within other companies, Coca Cola Company is incorporating the concept of overall excellence management as one of its main commercial approaches. As a result, the firm contemplates overall quality management as an extensive organizational model. Among the components that a company should emphasize is the quest to attain organizational success through quality improvement. However, the coca-cola has yet not fully perfected in this process. Quality improvement entails several processes for an organization to incorporate to ensure efficient operation. Through the quality improvement, coca-cola needs to ensure rapid growth and more satisfaction of its consumers. (Ibrahim, & Abu Name,pp.1-12, 2019)

In the long run, contented consumers develop loyalty to the company, and as a result company’s growth is realized due to improved revenue. In its operation, a company boosts the realization of an appropriate quality upgrading level through numerous techniques. Coca-cola hasn’t yet ensured effective control and setting of efficient quality standards, which, if we’re fully achieved, new ones would have been formulated. The quality improvement also takes into consideration workers’ training and development. The training aims to diminish the probability of failure. (Ibrahim, & Abu Name,pp.1-12, 2019)

Unadventurously trained and experienced employees infrequently make practical blunders, charging the firm’s assets and capital. Coca-cola needs to advance its training processes and make it feasible by creating an inclusive employee training platform.

Alternatively, coca-cola can consider a position to cultivate the opportunity of subcontracting training services from prominent human resource training corporations. Conversely, outsourcing has been costly for coca-cola. Therefore, it is vitally important for the coca-cola managing team to make certain that training practices remain all-inclusive, which includes incorporating both top and lower-level workers as well as a senior manager. (Ibrahim, & Abu Name,pp.1-12, 2019)

Impact of productivity, workflow, and quality on organizational competitiveness

The productivity of coca-cola products is strategized to target the international market. Products are ever affordable are neither designed for a specific category of customers. Coca cola’s lately productive initiatives indicate its aggressiveness in implementing productivity initiatives to offset world market competitiveness. Currently, the firm’s on-going productivity targets generating annualized savings of above $ 3 billion per year from 2019.

Coca-Cola’s 3Q15 operational margin deteriorated to 20.8% from 22.6% in 3Q14, as the profits of the current production database were counterpoise by functional variations, exchange headwinds, and sophisticated promoting savings. The operating margins for PepsiCo (P.E.P.), Dr. Pepper Snapple (D.P.S.), Cott Corporation (C.O.T.), and Monster Beverage (M.S.N.T.) were 8.6%, 20.8%, 3.9%, and 38.6%, correspondingly, in 3Q15. ( Li, X., pp 3, 2019)

Liquidity Ratios of Coca Cola Company

Current Ratio of Coca Cola Company. ( Li, X., pp. 3, 2019)

( Li, X., pp 8, 2019)

To sustain quality organizational competitiveness, Coca-cola has implemented productivity initiatives that include additional in-line molding apparatus to ten P.E.T. bottling lines, which excludes the constraint to convey bottles to an industrial plant, improved or closed seven distribution facilities and closed four plants. The firm enjoys productivity investments to denote 15%-17% of its operational expenses. Coca-cola has implemented zero-based planning and reduced headcount above 1700, signifying 10% of non-bottling staff. To maintain its workflow, the company has strived for margin enlargement by combining the better prize realization and operational efficiency advantages helped by lower service charges. Due to competition in the soda industry, coca-cola spends much of the time promoting its brand both through modern and traditional channels to promote its brand and products. Coca-cola operational managers launched the company’s taste feeling campaign to unite its brands. Besides outdoor ad campaigns and T.V. ads, active managers have added to serve the company’s ads across social media and the internet to entice more customers. For competitive customer engagement, coca-cola uses media accounts to connect with its followers and fans. Either the coca-cola, operational Management set more than 13250 promotional films on the official YouTube channel. As competition deepens in coca-cola Company, the Management focuses more than ever on the social image and status. Coca-cola has heavily capitalized in C.S.R. sustainability and rising a justifiable supply chain and industrialized system.  Either coca cola’s price chain utilizes numerous means to maintain its competitive market status, product patents, finances and marketing, individual employees’ skills, and production and equipment.

However, despite the measures implemented by coca-cola to maintain its market competence, the company still seems to be influenced by unstable workflow and quality on organizational competitiveness.  While thinking about coca cola’s entrants`, Pepsi emanates to attention. The two corporations have been in a race with each other for over a time. Coca-cola has yet not diversified in to come up with unique ingredients in its flagship drink products. The two firms’ beverage goods, for instance, bottled water, orange sap, and milk.  Outstandingly, if inclinations endure deteriorating within the outshining beverage enterprise, Pepsi can leverage its other product lines. Coca-cola absences the same prospect due to heaving reliance on the carbonated drinks industry and lacks divergence exertions in other productions. This could lead to coca-cola being left susceptible.

Either coca-cola is facing a high threat of substitution. There are mass organizations in the United States and worldwide, which deals with supernumerary products such as teas, coffee, milk, fruit juices, and carbonated drinks. Moreover, these products are of low prices for buyers who decide to purchase alternative beverages delivered in the markets. Subsequently, the value of these alternates is equivalent to coca-cola.

With considerations to the saleable drinks industry, customers have chances of negotiating supremacy; this directly affects the coca-cola productivity in terms of profits. Coca-cola doesn’t unswervingly retail to their customers. Instead, it is subject to concentrate and syrup sales to independent bottling partners. (The Coca-Company,2017).  The company’s realization is determined by fiscal settings and cost-effectiveness of supply establishments such as grocery stores, food chains, and marketing machine firms. In due course, coca-cola is forced to sell its beverages to distribution networks and other consumers at low prices sufficient for the customer to gain profitability and built customer reliability.

Another competitive force of analysis is; the coca cola’s dealers. Coca-cola has endeavored in regulating pricing by creating contracts and deliberate corporations with dealers. Nevertheless, coca cola’s usage of products in business such as manufacturing sugar, fruit juice distillates, and other products cost can vary. Coca-Cola’s 10-K report, “Surges in the charges of our finished products occasioning from a sophisticated cost of components, other raw ingredients and packing constituents could shake affordability in some marketplaces and moderate Coca-Cola coordination sales” (The Coca-Cola Company, p.14, 2017). Uncertainty, if considerable proliferation in the cost of raw materials takes place, coca-cola would have no ability to pass the fluctuation to consumers. Consequently, more extraordinary supplier appraising upturns operational costs, which reduces the firm’s productivity and adversely upset negotiating influence with purveyors.

The notion after the improvement of the code of consciences is autonomous in the light of the point that coca-cola considers all employees and staff are obliged to establish standards. The company has familiarised the fair share of ethical and regulatory challenges due to scale and corporate degree. (The Coca-Cola Company, p.14, 2017).  Coca-cola has been experiencing potential ethical and operational issues comprising but not restricted to concerns with third party dealers, cyber retreat, and legal cases.

The role of management information systems in assisting strategic goals

Being the world’s largest beverage company, coca-cola sells its products in over two hundred countries worldwide. Because of its size, monitoring the finances and logistics of the global enterprise is crucial. Either having the right kind of information system can mean failure or success.

Coca-cola started with an old system called legacy systems. It was inefficient. It was not user friendly, and this attributed to a lot of expenses.  Financial plans were manually conducted on spreadsheets and submitted as hard copies. It was complicated to update information and a huge issue due to global expansion. As coca-cola expanded, an integrated business management system was implemented for handling different aspects of the worldwide corporation. Strategic Enterprise M management was incorporated (S.E.M.). This has provided them with a business organization for investments, data warehousing for information collection, and data analysis. The system is also creating commercial reports and monthly transactional predictions. It is currently implemented in coca-cola, and all collected data offers standard statistics the company can track financial health and growth.

Currently, the coca-cola information system is also used by other organizations to evaluate and consolidate the data.  Therefore, the essential purpose of the information system in achieving strategic goals is to capture data information essential and used to decide on an organization. Therefore coca-cola has been applying information systems in countering the problems and solving composite complications.

However, coca-cola needs to maintain a closer partnership with an information system to minimize the expenses incurred in attaining its strategic goals. Statistics show that the company is using millions of dollars each year in upon digital marketing. However, the figure is expected to continue rising, and nearly this entire amount is spent on IT-related. This is too much expense, and coca-cola marketers ought to think more seriously about the due course’s digital frequency.  There is an urgency for expanding mobile adoption and the need for marketers to build a direct connection with the consumers via mobile tenders that would be pressed for websites in social media and loyalty programs.

The information technology department has done much to modify the coca-cola freestyle since its radical fountain slot machine became technologically-operated. (Oduntan, 2019)Consequently, it has become effectively composite and very much thoughtful in the initiative-formulation of the resource environment. The company should embed a computer on the fountain machine for being circulated with surgical precision for a more diverse beverage brand.

Despite the previous informational efforts for achieving strategic goals, coca-cola needs to initiate some extra steps to choose and assess the computerized information.  The first step should involve the establishment of a piloting committee and a project committee as well. The committee’s aim will be overseeing the company’s strategies, hence making significant resolutions, issuing policy and guidance, and making accounted expenses. (Guo et al., pp. p.106630, 2020)The project committee would usually perform the department’s needs, ascertain the organization’s necessities, appraise the dealers` suggestion, train the necessary recruits, and contrivance the preferred structure.

The second step should include assessing the workload, staff, operational necessities, and physical layout. Such assessment requirements would usually be founded on both the coca cola’s vision statement and strategic plan.

The third step would include developing the information petition as well as proposal requests.  The information document application would be designed to meet the introductory information from the dealer’s general variety. This kind of information would be essential as it would be applied in deciding if to call for a proposal to a specific supplier. (Xiao, & Zhang, pp232-239, 2020).

The proposal document’s presentation will call for in-depth detailed information and issue the buyer with a detailed description of the appropriate classification. The prescribed data is either contained in the submission for the application file. Coca-cola would interact with computer specialists for assistance to make sure that its mission prospers. (Xiao, & Zhang, pp232-239, 2020).

The managers and senior staff in the information system should generally be responsible for executing the technology within the coca-cola industry, guiding the system work, and supporting the entire experts and the rest of computer-related personnel. The following job functions would significantly contribute towards securing coca cola’s future information.

• They are safeguarding internal and external data attacks.
• They are assuring that the authorizing laws of software are abiding.
• Advancing the programing and backing up of structure’s hardware and software.
• The Management of the predicaments that frequently include some sophisticated mechanical software and hardware problems.
• Affirming that all information technology systems run efficiently to provide worthy antiviruses, email delivery, and facsimile amenities. (Xiao, & Zhang, pp232-239, 2020).

                                             Data, tool, and methodologies

To develop project specifications methodologies, scheduling tools have been used to create the project specifications, scheduling, control, and evaluation to effectively implemented and successfully managed the project. To come up with accurate data, the research has extensively relied on data from coca-cola online websites, surveys, and interviews. The report includes the primary data obtained from Yahoo finance for the coca-cola organization. The collected financial data was from coca cola’s income statement and balance sheets from years of 2016 to date to carry out economic exploration using liquidity, commotion, liability, and viability shares.

REFERENCES

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Lacy-Nichols, J., Scrinis, G., and Carey, R., 2020. The evolution of Coca-Cola Australia’s soft drink reformulation strategy 2003–2017: A thematic analysis of corporate documents. Food Policy, 90, p.101793.

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