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Kudler Foods and Operational Management

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Operations Management
Trends within the gourmet food trade indicate growth in health related goods (). Organic produce offerings cater to this trend and provide a viable option to improve sales at Kudler Fine Foods (KFF). Moving to organic produce requires an analysis of KFF’s business processes that include supply chain management, quality control tools, and performance standards to capture those areas that may be affected by the decision to move to organic produce offerings. This paper seeks to provide analysis and identification of those processes subject to change within the company as it moves to contracting with local organic growers.
Business Processes
Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano (2005) offer, “Operations management is all about the design of effective business processes” (p. 32). Porter (cited in Janićijević, 2010) provides “Primary processes are those that directly transform inputs into outputs (procurement, logistic, production, sale), while support processes are those that provide support to primary processes (finance, information technology, research and development)” (p. 94). Within KFF the primary processes include inventory management, marketing, and quality control. Support processes comprise of accounting, information technology, and human resources.
Inventory management
Existing supply chain management at KFF is characterized by individual store ordering, grouping orders between stores to improve pricing, and the use of forecasting to identify high and low flows. Department managers identify the type of product and quantity for ordering, and negotiate with suppliers to obtain best pricing and delivery of goods and fill orders directly through the suppliers (Apollo Group Inc., 2010). Tracking ordering and fulfillment requires the inventory manager to maintain records for analysis and verifying inventory levels. The purchasing manager

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