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Kudler Fine Foods Operations Management

Introduction

Kudler Fine Foods has several important issues in terms of its operations management. Kudler Fine Foods has made the decision to start contracting with local growers of organic produce. This will affect Kudler Fine Foods in many ways. This paper will identify those business processes at Kudler Fine Foods that could be affected by the change. It will also touch on Kudler Fine Foods supply chain and describe the quality control tools and performance standards that Kudler Fine Foods would need to put in place to ensure the effectiveness of its operations.
Business Processes
A process is any part of an organization that takes inputs and converts them into outputs that, it is anticipated, are of superior value to the organization than the original inputs (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano, pg 154, 2005). Understanding how Kudler Fine Foods processes work is vital to their business (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano, 2005). There are many factors management needs to consider when setting up a process (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano, 2005). Some of the processes related to this new change are purchasing, quality control and standards, inventory management and operations systems.
Quality Control and Quality Standards
One important aspect of operations and logistics is purchasing. Although there is no purchasing department in any of the Kudler Fine Foods' stores, standard purchasing procedures are in place. Each of the three departments from each store determine requirements for the items sold and their department sells and places purchase orders directly with suppliers using a purchase order form that is standard between the three stores. The Department Managers' responsibility is to then obtain the best price, quality and delivery possible. Since quality can be defined as consistently producing what the customers wants while reducing errors while the customer is awaiting delivery, there needs to be a Quality Control Unit at Kudler Fine Foods to test the orders and ensure that...