A STUDY OF KEY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

A Study Of Key Operations Management Concepts

A Study Of Key Operations Management Concepts

Knowledge and Understanding of Customer Care

According to Mejia and Balkin, “Operations management is the process an organization uses to obtain the materials or ideas for the product it provides, the process of transforming them into the product, and the process of providing the final product to a user.” Mejia and Balkin also state that operations management usually refers to the firm's main product. Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) is a gourmet grocery store; one of the store's main products is the organic produce. KFF had been successful by coupling good quality food with memorable customer experience. To add to the company' success, KFF is planning to contact the local organic producers as research shows that purchasing from local growers not only supplies the consumer with fresh, healthy organic produce, it also supports the local grower and helps in building the local economy (Trobe 2001).

Heaton states that, “Consuming more organic food certainly isn't the only way to improve one's nutrient intake, but it may be the safest.” KFF would benefit by offering locally grown organic food to the consumers as many health conscious minds are choosing to buy organic and as local harvest website states that, “the best organic food is what's grown closest to you.” This would increase the customer base for KFF along with revitalizing the local growers and thus building the economy; as local harvest site states that, “We can start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible. By doing so you'll be helping preserve the environment, and you'll be strengthening your community by investing your food dollar close to home. Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen.” When the local economy improves, KFF might get more business as organic food is expensive and people tend to find cheaper substitutes if the economy is not booming.

Knowledge and Understanding of Kaizen

Impacted Business Processes at KFFIn order to take full advantage of switching to local organic growers, KFF needs to identify the weaknesses in their business process make changes to make them effective. The business processes that are impacted by this change are: purchasing, accounting, inventory management, forecasting, merchandise selection and pricing.

Purchasing: Moving towards purchasing the organic produce from local growers, would primarily impact the purchasing process at KFF. There is no purchasing department that overlooks purchasing at KFF. Each of the three department managers in each store determines requirements for the items their department sells and places purchase orders directly with suppliers using a purchase order form that is standard between the three stores. It is the responsibility of the Department Managers to obtain the best price, quality, and delivery possible. They also receive and verify all orders in terms of whether they received the correct items and quantities and in undamaged conditions. Received items are documented on an Order Received form and ...