Operations Management and Service Excellence
Table of Contents
1.1 Four Vs analysis in a Comparative manner 3
1.3 Company’s Design Analysis. 9
2.2 The strategy of global operations in case of Starbucks and encompassing the macro-environment 11
2.2.2 The chosen operation’s role area for the global operations strategy. 11
2.3 Capabilities, key requirements as well as the challenges of the company. 12
2.4 Analysing and evaluating the operational area that has been chosen. 13
2.4.1 Resource and capability management 13
2.4.2 the effect that is left on operations performance by supply chain operations. 14
2.4.3 The way of addressing the problems and challenges. 14
2.4.4 Utilization of appropriate theories or concepts application. 15
2.4 Recommendations for the company. 16
Introduction
This assessment would be helpful of the purpose of the development of a comparison between the organisation Starbucks and the organisation Geggs by the creation of 4 Vs profile of both the companies. The comparison of the current operations performance of the two companies would also be done with the help of a polar diagram. The difference in the market of operation of both of the companies would be identified. Subsequently, the influence of the performance profile and four Vs of the two companies are leaving an influence upon the customer service design as well as the store layouts are going to be identified. In the second part of the assessment the supply chain management area of operations are going to be analysed and the way in which supply chain management is being affected by and is leaving an impact on Starbucks for responding to the micro and macro business environment would be identified. The requirement, capabilities as well as the challenge that re associated with supply chain management would be analysed. On the basis of the analysis that has been done recommendations are going to be derived.
1.0 Part A
1.1 Four Vs analysis in a Comparative manner
The inputs gets transformed into outputs in the operations of the company and the analysis of this operations can be done with the help of the utilization of the elements of variations, volume, variety and the company operation’s visibility which are the four parameters of the four Vs analysis model. The application of the four Vs analysis is done for the purpose of analysing and comparing the operations of Starbucks and Greggs.
Starbucks
Variety: it is denoting the vast range of food that are being produced by the company with the intention of meeting the demands of the customers. The company Starbucks is providing huge variety of products to its customers due to the reason of the fact that the company brings about alterations in the products by customizing it as per the requirement of the customers. Due to the reason of the high variety that is provided by the company to the customers, they are capable of meeting the varied requirement of the customers and satisfy them.
Volume: it is the volume of the input required in ore to meet the demands of the customers. The company Starbucks is not selling its products in bulk quantities and this is making the requirement of volume of the input to be low.
Variation: this parameter is signifying the yearly fluctuations in the demand of the products. The rate of variation of the demand of the food products of Starbucks is low because the store is consistently visited by the customers throughout the year with a slight increase of customer arrival in the Starbucks stores in the festive seasons.
Visibility: the parameter of visibility in the 4 P analysis of visibility is determining the ability of the customers for seeing as well as tracking the entire process of operations of the company. The visibility that is provided to the customers by the company Starbucks is medium (Gibbons, 2011). Although the company do not have transparency on the operations of sourcing the raw materials, the company is eager to show the customers to show the process in which the preparation of the food and beverages are done in the outlets of Starbucks.
Greggs
Variety: It is signifying the different types of products that comprises of Greggs’s products. The variety in the products of the organisation Greggs is high (Copland, 2017). However, the level of variety of the company Greggs is slightly lower than that of the organisation Starbucks. This is due to the reason of the lesser extent of customization in the products.
Volume: when the consideration of the amount of input that is required by the company Greggs is done then it can be determined that the parameter of volume for the company Greggs is more in comparison to the organisation Starbucks (Kane, 2012). The volume of the food that is consumed by the customers of Greggs is high making high volume inputs requirement. However, the company needs to be very careful about the volume of inputs that are required for the purpose of dealing with the risk of over or under production.
Variation: the degree of fluctuation of demand that is faced by the company Greggs is very low. Mover, it can also be told that the degree of variation is lesser in comparison to the degree of variation of the organisation Starbucks as the consumption of all sorts of bakery products that are done by the company is uniform throughout the year and does not have the probability of a high increase in some specific period of time (Copland, 2017).
Visibility: the extent of visibility that is provided by the company Gregg is of similar extent in comparison to organisation Starbucks. The way in which the preparation of the bakery related products are done by the company Starbucks is not known by the company but the time when the compilation of the different basic ingredients is done is visible to the customers.
Comparison of the 4 V analysis of the company Starbucks and Greggs
(Source: Gibbons, 2011)
1.2 Analysing the comparative performance of company’s objective and mapping the performance in a polar diagram
The analysis of the performance objective can be evaluated with the help of the analysis of the parameters of speed, quality, dependability, cost and flexibility.
Starbucks
Speed: the objective that the company Starbucks has is the fulfilment of the expectation of the customers by providing them superior quality food products as well as superior customer experiences at home. In addition to these the company Starbucks ensures that they are not making the customers wait long before being served with the food. However, the company ensures that the speed is not too high that the customers would not be capable of enjoying their experience in the outlets of Starbucks (Paryani, 2011). The company lets its visitors to get engrossed in some book reading time before they are served with food.
Quality: the company gives high importance to the quality of the food and beverages that they are serving to the customers. This is one of the moist significant factor that is being the reason of the creation of the positive identity of the company for its customers. The company not only ensures that the qualities of the products are being maintained in the food and beverages, but it is also ensured that the quality is being maintained in the type of service that is being provided to the customers.
Dependability: the maintenance of dependability is done by the company by ensuring that the trusts of the customers are not being broken. The company Starbucks consistently provides the same quality of beverages and food. The company ensures that it is acting with consistency by means of obtaining feedback from each and every customer who visits the store.
Cost: the cost at which the organisation is providing its products to the customers is one of the most significant factors determining the profitability of the company. However, the company is making high expense with the intention of providing its customers with fresh and superior quality beverages and food. This is making the cost of the products of the company high (Paryani, 2011). However, this cost can be minimized by certain extent via the means of the implementation of technology in the operations of the company.
Flexibility: it signifies the capability of the company to match with the fluctuations of demands and the latest food trend that are taking place in the market. In this respect the company Starbucks is maintaining high flexibility at it identifies the latest food trends in the market and keeps them ready to customize their products as per the new food trend.
Greggs
Speed: The speed with which Greggs is serving its customers is high and it is also higher than Starbucks. The serve their customers as soon as possible and this is made possible by facilitating strong internal communication in the company.
Quality: Greggs serves its customers with excellent quality of bakeries. The quality can be considered to be similar to the quality of the products of Starbucks.
Dependability: The Company Greggs is highly consistent in terms of the quality of food that they are serving the customers as well s the time in which they are being serves (Copland, 2017). This is making the company as dependable as Starbucks. However, the dependability rate is slightly reduced due to the reason of the high volume of customer that is needed to serve on certain times.
Cost: the cost at which the food products of Starbucks are sold is slightly low in comparison to that of the organisation Starbucks. However, it is quite high in comparison to the food products of other bakery stores.
Flexibility: the provision of flexibility is provided in the bakery items of Greggs is high as it introduces new items by performing market research at regular interval (Kane, 2012). However, the flexibility of Greggs is not as high as that of Starbucks due to the lower extent of customization in the products.
Polar Diagram of Greggs and Starbucks
(Source: Paryani, 2011)
1.3 Company’s Design Analysis
Starbucks
- Designing the customer service process
Starbucks
The importance that the company Starbucks is giving to customer service is extremely high. The company Starbucks pays high importance to the service that are provided to the customers and this is the reason due to which the company consistently obtains feedback from the customers.
Greggs
The company is highly dependent on the customer service for the purpose of differentiating itself from other companies. Superior customer service is ensured by providing high speed delivery to the customers and providing a minimum waiting time (Kane, 2012).
- the layout of the typical store
Starbucks
There are different types of store’s structure of Starbucks such as the drive thru, sole drive thru, cap driving thru, interior and kiosk in the exterior as well as cafes.
Greggs
The company maintains a typical store format as that of any bakery shop and the other layout of the store has a food-on-the-go concept.
2.0 Part B
2.1 Overview
The type of operational area that is being chosen to be analysed for the company Starbucks is its supply chain management operation. This operation of the company is highly significant due to the reason of the need of falicitating the customers with fresh food at a high speed. This operation is also significant for meeting the fluctuation of demand in the Starbucks stores. The company Starbucks makes the application of a integrated and centralized supply chain as the company is highly involved in each and every step of the operations of the supply chain. This is taking place from the point when raw coffees are being sourced by the company till the time when the finished products are being served to the customers.
2.2 The strategy of global operations in case of Starbucks and encompassing the macro-environment
Starbucks- Global operations strategy
The retail strategy that the company Starbucks follows is maintaining loyalty and repeating business among the company’s target market. The strategy is encompassing hiring and then training the counter servers who extremely knowledgeable. These counter servers are also educating the customers regarding the speciality coffee sold by Starbucks as well as other associated products. This is done for providing the customers with the opportunity of letting the customers take a bra and get a relaxing atmosphere at the outlets of Starbucks (Myerson, 2012). The global operations strategy of Starbucks is supported by the retail mix. The selection of the sites of Starbucks outlets are done highly visible locations and the centralized cities are serving as regional centres or hubs for the purpose of rolling out the operations into nearby markets.
2.2.2 The chosen operation’s role area for the global operations strategy
The role that is played by the supply chain management operations with the intention of supporting the globally spread operations strategy of the company is that via the assistance of the functioning of the supply chain in an effective manner the company is capable of maintaining the retail outlets of the company at varied locations that are spread throughout the world (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014). The company also has the strategy of letting the customers get the idea of the supply chain procedure of the company by letting the counter servers to educate the customers regarding the exquisite locations from which the resources of the company are being collected.
2.3 Capabilities, key requirements as well as the challenges of the company
The requirements of the organisation Starbucks encompassing the supply chain’s operations is mentioned below:
- It is the prerequisite of the company from the supply chain that the application of the supply chain management tools are doe in the operations of the supply chain. the activities in the supply chain management that are required to be identified are tracking of accuracy with which the inventory are being tracked, the cost of each items in the supply chain, the count of items that are being picked, the storage cost, the labour cost of the individual items as well as the percentage of the products that are being shipped in an accurate manner (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014).
- Another requirement of the company Starbucks from the operations of the supply chain are its ability of adjusting controlling itself with respect to the workflow or the demand of supplies. This is required in order to support the processing as well as the ability of the company Starbucks to customize its products (Schönsleben, 2016). It is also required that the supply chain is made flexible and adaptable for the purpose of meeting the changes in the market that are taking place with a rapid speed.
- Furthermore, it is also required that the supply chain operations for Starbucks is performed in an automated manner with the assistance of the implementation of the supply chain management technologies (Schönsleben, 2016). This would not only be helping the company to obtain full transparency of the supply chain’s operations, but also help in obtaining higher efficiency and speed of the supply chain operations.
The capabilities of Starbuck’s supply chain management are firstly, the supply chain management technological tools would be providing the company a clear visibility of the way in which the products are passing through the supply chain. The second capability is that the management of inventory as well as the optimisation of the supply chain operation is another capability (Winter and Knemeyer, 2013). The company identifies the warehouses that can be utilized, the presence of excess stock and process of storage management of the excess stocks to minimize food wastage.
The challenges being faced regarding the supply chain is firstly, the increase of the complexity of the supply chain because of the increase of the number of channels using which the products such as the coffee bean are being sourced and the high number of channels to which the resources are being supplied. The second challenge that is being faced by the company is the improvement of the speed of the supply chain operations without compromising with the quality of the service (Winter and Knemeyer, 2013). The third challenge that is being faced is the rise of the expenses of supply chain management on the grounds of the rise of the fuel cost is leading to the increase of the cost of production of the food and beverages. This is minimizing the profitability of the company.
2.4 Analysing and evaluating the operational area that has been chosen
2.4.1 Resource and capability management
The manner in which the managing of the capabilities and resources are done is dependent on the demand management process implemented by the company. The application of a methodology is done for planning, forecasting, and management of the products demand. The capability that has been gained by the company has been obtained with the help of the feedback that has been obtained by the company (Meredith and Shafer, 2019). The capabilities of supply chain and resources of supply chain are also managed by the optimization and controlling of the workload that is left on the supply chain. The capabilities and resources that are present in the operations of supply chain is dealt with by means of the planning of system implementation. It is also the capability of the company for the consideration of the all parameters related planning of the supply chain.
2.4.2 the effect that is left on operations performance by supply chain operations
The effect that is being left by the supply chain’s operations on the operations of the organisation Starbucks is that the food and beverage delivery by the company gets improved and the company would be capable of delivering freshly sourced food and beverages to the customers. Another effect that is being left by efficient supply chain can be elaborated as the organisation becoming capable of efficiently dealing fluctuations in the demand as a result of which the company minimizes the chances of the wastage of products (Tayur, Ganeshan and Magazine, 2012). Moreover, with the help of the functioning of efficient supply chain the company becomes capable of sourcing superior quality coffee from around the word and supply them to the stores of Starbucks which are located in different parts of the world.
2.4.3 The way of addressing the problems and challenges
The problem or challenge that might be faced in the supply chain management operations is the highly complex nature of the supply chain management operations. The way of responding to the complexity is the implementation of the information technology and computing tool of supply chain management (Tayur, Ganeshan and Magazine, 2012). When technology gets implemented in the supply chain management then the transparency of the entire procedure helps in overcoming the challenges.
Challenge is also being faced by the company at the time of dealing with the fluctuations of demand that are taking place in the market of operation of Starbucks. In order to overcome this challenge the response that is implements is the application of the data analytics tool that would be helpful for making predictions regarding the demands.
Another challenge that is faced in the supply chain management operations of the company is errors and inconveniences in the process. Errors in supply chain might lead to sourcing of wrong products which might hamper the company’s efficiency (Meredith and Shafer, 2019). This challenge can be responded wit the help of the SCM technological tools which is providing visibility of the entire system, and reducing the chances of error or resolving the errors by their early detection.
2.4.4 Utilization of appropriate theories or concepts application
The application of the resource dependency theory is done with the intention of the management of company’s supply chain. This theory would be helpful for the purpose of analysing the fact that the external resources are leaving on the operation f he company Starbucks (Myerson, 2012). The significance that the resource dependency theory has is that the evaluation of the volume of the resources can be done, the implementation of resource control can be implemented and with the help of the application of this theory control on the way in which the resources are being allocated for the supply chain management task can be identified.
The resource dependency theory
(Source: Tayur, Ganeshan and Magazine, 2012)
2.4 Recommendations for the company
It is recommended that the company makes the application of the supply chain’s strategy for the purpose with the intention of managing the supply chain. the integration of the supply chain operations management is needed to be done by strategically mapping the entire supply chain via the means of the supply chain management tools. The visibility of the value chain of Starbucks are required to be done for the purpose of tracking the movement of the products via the supply chain.
2.5 Conclusions
Hence, it can be concluded with the assistance of the assignment that the supply chain operations of the company is a very significant operations of the company, it was also identified that the efficient operations of the supply chain management operations would be helpful for the purpose making the company function in an efficient manner.
Reference List
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Gibbons, P., 2011. Notes from the field: Transforming the Starbucks experience. Journal of Enterprise Transformation, 1(1), pp.7-13.
Jacobs, F.R., Chase, R.B. and Lummus, R.R., 2014. Operations and supply chain management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Kane, G., 2012. The green executive: corporate leadership in a low carbon economy. Routledge.
Meredith, J.R. and Shafer, S.M., 2019. Operations and supply chain management for MBAs. Wiley.
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Schönsleben, P., 2016. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management within and across companies. CRC Press.
Tayur, S., Ganeshan, R. and Magazine, M. eds., 2012. Quantitative models for supply chain management (Vol. 17). Springer Science & Business Media.
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