It is critical to understand the relationship between Barilla and their distributors to see why the order fluctuation varies in an extreme, yet cyclical manner. From the distributors perspective, Barilla’s canvas periods offer different product discounts ten to twelve times per year and usually last about four to five weeks. During this time distributors can purchase as much product as desired to meet both current and future demand. Each canvas period promotes a different product, encouraging distributors to buy a particular product during the canvas period to receive anywhere from an 8-10% discount on the total order. Although this ensures that Barilla can sell their finished goods inventory methodically, it also creates the large demand spikes every four to five weeks indicated in Exhibit 12.
Executive Summary My decision is for Barilla SpA is to implement the JITD system. This will replace the old system of the GD and DO placing orders to Barilla sales people, and put the responsibility back on Barilla to accurately forecast demand. One of the major problems in Barilla’s supply chain is the huge fluctuations in demand, and the JITD system will allow them to smooth out the peaks and valleys in the current supply chain. Barilla will face push back from their own sales force, as well as their distributors, but as long as Barilla can gain the trust of their distributors and sales force, they can make the transformation a success. The JITD will be most successful with larger customers, so they should start out by getting the largest ones to sign up first.
Some initiatives that are taken are pinpointing locations for distribution centers to make sure shipping goes a lot quicker and creating IT systems to send returns to suppliers faster. If Coca Cola does not make sure to invest money in storage and inventory, they can be overcome by competition. Operations: The factories of Coca Cola have to be able to cope with a huge demand of people wanting to drink beverages produced by the company. Therefore, also this activity has to be treated with high efficiency. The company sells their syrups to authorized bottling and canning operations, who, after their job is finished, deliver us with the Coca Cola we all know.
Milton Hershey successfully integrated the business with the community and the relationship was one of mutual beneficence. The current leadership was mainly concerned about money and not leadership. Not to say that money is not an important factor, but the special relationship between the survival of the town and Hershey Foods required strong consideration. The Attorney General had it right in declaring that HTC needed to make changes. Still, selling Hershey foods was not the answer.
The problem of ‘panic ordering’ can also be eliminated as the company should have enough inventory to serve its customers and thus panic ordering will stop even if they were to take place the first time the customer’s order. The reason the problem is caused is because the customer service actually determines the transfer amount. The department has little knowledge over optimal level of inventory and they actually determine the whole production plan as it is directly related to the transfer amount. Mr.Charles Scout should be allowed to manage
There are reasons for firms to outsource their productions. Large retailers such as Walmart had tremendous negotiating power over its contract manufactures, firms had to continually reduce prices in order to compete in the market. As a result, they have to looking for oversea vendors where the labor cost is very low, in order to cut costs and make profits. In addition, contract vendors helped Mattel address the highly seasonal nature of its business. There were three problems in the Mattel’s toys which were lead excess paint, defective design and misuse by customers.
Fletcher’s corporate headquarters had even encouraged plant managers to act as separate entities. In addition, each plant bought many items from local suppliers. Fletcher's decentralized approach to procurement was indicative of its overall strategy toward dealing with its constituencies including employees, customers, shareholders, and communities. As demand for defense industry products heated up in late 2001 and it became clear that this trend would continue into 2002, Fletcher faced increasing competitive pressures to drive prices down, and company management recognized that dealing with such a fragmented supplier base was hindering “efficiency” at the company. Jean Dalmer, the company’s president, hired an experienced materials manager, Bill VanDyke, as Vice President of Corporate Procurement, a new position in the company.
Adaptation Strategy Wal-Mart has recognized the shift in the spending habits of our consumers. They have realized that many consumers no longer purchase the products they want, but strictly the products they need. Wal-Mart’s strategy is to provide the products in high demand at the lowest possible cost. The company adhered to their strategy by implementing tactics such as, increasing the inventory in areas of necessity, such as food, health, and beauty, and decreasing the inventory on items such as apparel and home décor. Food consumption is not an option; it is essential.
The employees will interpret their future from the appointment. For example, if the top manager team is consist half Kraft and half Cadbury, the Cadbury’s resourses will be allocated equally. If the team is consist mostly “Cadbury”, the employee’s worries about losing job will greatly disappear. 2) Kraft didn’t have candy product line before merger. And Cadbury has entered countries where Kraft lacks market share, such as India.
The company hired Agnes Albanese and gave her the support from top management to improve their pricing and purchasing. Her solution to this problem was to change the policy which allows the home office to control each region’s procedures and notify these changes by e-mail. She pushed to implement this new policy immediately hoping that the change would benefit the company during the upcoming peak sale season. However, her methodology to the problem did not impact current pricing and purchasing practices (Cummings & Worley, 2009). The main cause of the failure of Albanese’s approach was lack of creating a proper implementation plan.