Kudler Fine Foods Case Study :: Kudler Fine Foods Case Study Analysis

Kudler Fine Foods is an organization that wants to evolve and mature as a company and implement practices that illustrate their growth as a company. One particular practice that Kudler Foods wants to implement is reaching out and contracting to local farmers to gain access to organic foods for sell within all three branches of Kudler Foods (UOP,2008). By implementing such a new system changes will have to be made primarily within the company’s operations management. This paper will discuss the needed changes and alterations that need to occur in order to maintain their efficiency as a company. In addition to the operations management changes, supply chain, quality control tools and performance standards will also be accessed in regards to how they are impacted by the introduction of the sale of organic foods. Operations management is the process an organization uses to obtain the materials or ideas for the product that it provides, the process of transforming them into a prod uct, and the process of providing the final product to a user (Gomez-Meija & Balkin, 2002). Under operations management there are 3 stages that consists of the process that a company typically accesses or follows through with. They include: acquiring inputs, controlling the conversion process, and delivering the output (Gomez-Meija & Balkin, 2002). In the eyes of Kudler Foods, acquiring inputs would be receiving organic foods from local farmers and growers. Acquiring product for Kudler Foods is typically done by purchasing from distribution centers and warehouses. Each of the managers will individually place an order with suppliers using a standard purchase order form based on their department’s needs or wants (UOP, 2008). In terms of price, there is not a standard price for items. Department Managers are just instructed to find the best possible price leaving disparities in costs between each store. With the implementation of organic foods, Kudler Foods should consider setti ng universal accepted prices amongst the stores and local farmers. The managers should still order their products based on their stores supply and demand. A universal or joint ordering system can result in waste or unused products. Organic foods is a special circumstance item because typically especially products such as produce, they have a short shelf-life. Which becomes especially important when purchasing organic foods, which is widely known to be more expensive than non-organic foods (2002) So, it would be best to keep the separate ordering system in place.