Introduction
Strategic management and planning are concepts that have become conventional applications in the management of any organization. Strategic management plays an important role in formulating strategies that will enable the organization to develop and sustain practices that will enable the organization to achieve its goals and targets and more so to anticipate the future.
Therefore, in its nature, strategic management requires cooperation and liaison from all levels of the organization from the top-level management to the factory floor managers. In addition, strategic management has adopted ways and means of gaining control of the supply chain, whereby management goes beyond the factory and managers begin managing suppliers and distributors of the product.
John is the general manager of Fast Freeze Foods Ltd and this task is a challenge he has to face. This paper focuses on the successes of his management in managing the performance of the company to ensure success in such a turbulent industry as the company is operating.
Nature of operations
In understanding the nature of operations that occur within the company, this paper chooses to focus its attention to the internal environments that characterize the organization. The aspects of internal environment that are of importance in this study are the technological, management, marketing and the physical resources (Christensen, 1997).
The first important aspect of the organization is its board of directors. The organization’s board of directors consists of individuals with concrete management skills in their respective capacities. The factory manager, John has vast experience in the factory management given the long period of time he has worked with the company.
Secondly, the marketing manager has shown his extemporary capabilities through his work in marketing which has given the company a hedge over its competitors who unlike the company, rely on the open market for selling their products (Bandrowski, 1990). The management of the company is strong and efficient thus giving the company an added advantage.
In addition to strong management, the company has an advanced processing machine, i.e. the blanching machine that has improved the company’s ability to satisfy customer quality demands.
In this case, the company has a competitive advantage over the competitors whose technology appears more primitive compared to that of Fast Freeze Foods Ltd. Another strength that this company enjoys is that it has gained control over the supply chain enabling it to control its source of raw materials (Bandrowski, 1990).
Additionally, the company enjoys an efficient communication system with the customers and therefore, it is able to know the customers’ requirements and tailor the products to suit the customers’ needs.
Despite all strengths that the company enjoys, several weaknesses face the company. Chief among the weaknesses is the fact that the company lacks enough capacity.
This means that the company is unable to meet short run increases in demand and therefore it stands the chance of losing some of its customers (Christensen, 1997). Again, the factory experiences some internal inefficiency that result to the wastage of processing time.
Main stages in the processing
The first step in the processing involves feeding the pods into the segregation batches, which have three lines. The first and third lines have a capacity of twelve tones per hour while the second has a capacity of ten tones per hour.
The peas go into bulky feeders up to the weighing belt then to the ‘pod and stick machine’ where they are cleaned by removing the pods and other extraneous substances. The peas loose approximately 10% of the weight and another 10% is lost when converting these clean peas to frozen peas. At this stage, the segregation of batches is important since it enables the separation of grades.
The next step is blanching. This step comprises of small hoppers known as ‘scacos’ which enhance the smooth flow of the peas into the blanchers. The batching process includes heating the peas for approximately 90 seconds at 980c.
The next step entails a cooling process followed by a quality analysis of the peas. It involves sampling of the cooled peas and determining the quantity of the starch present in the peas.
The next step involves freezing whereby the peas are fed to three freezers with a capacity of 10, 7.5, and 10 tons per hour respectively. The freezers lower the temperature of peas to levels below 180c before they are emptied to bulk pallet containers, each of about one tone capacity.
The final stage in the processing involves packaging and labeling the peas for traceability before they are transported to the cool store. The three main processes are cleaning of the peas to remove unwanted materials, blanching process and the freezing process.
Design & effective capacity
The first important step, segregation, is carried out in equipment, which have an operating capacity of 12 tons for line 1 and 3 and 10 tons for line 2. Cumulatively, this is the operating capacity of 34 tons an hour. The operating capacity (design capacity) is equal to the effective capacity and therefore at this stage, the factory is operating at full capacity.
In the second step, blanching, it is assumed that its operating capacity is the same as the operating capacity of the preceding step. The first and third blanching machines have a capacity of12 ton each while the second machine has a capacity of 10 tons.
However, the effective capacity of these is 9.6 tons for 1 and 3 and 8 tons for machine 2. This is because of the 20% loss in weight the peas loose in stage one. Therefore, the blanching machines are operating below capacity by 2.4 tons for the first and third machines and 2 tons for the second machine.
The design capacity of the freezers is 10 tons per hour for freezer 1 and 3 and 7.5 tons per hour for freezer 2. However, the supposed effective capacity for the freezers to ensure efficiency in the process is 9.6 tons for freezers 1 and 3 and 8 tons for freezer 2.
This shows that freezer 1and 3 operate under their capacity while freezer 2 is operate at its capacity but does not service its requirement. All factors held constant, the efficiency of the firm’s operations is 98.9%
Graphical presentations:
Figure 1: Stage-by-stage actual output compared with designed output.
Figure 2: cumulative design capacity compare to effective capacity.
Figure one shows a stage-by-stage analysis of the effectiveness of the operations. From the graph, it is clear that the stage two and three are experiencing inefficiencies whereby the capacity of the firm is underutilized except for stage three where freezer 2 is designed below capacity.
Figure 2 gives an overall picture of the design capacity and the effective capacity where, generally speaking, the company is operating below capacity.
Summary and Conclusions
The first problem that John has to address is dealing with the supplier who has gained a better bargaining power through the operation of the work groups. The company needs to find a means of having absolute control over the raw materials, which might be purchasing the farms.
Secondly, the design capacity of the factory will need to be increased especially that of the segregation lines and freezer 2. This will enable the factory to run at its full capacity without lags or excess.
Lastly, the management will need to address the aspect of employee turnover since it enhances a low output of the firm-inefficiency. This may include automation of some processes, which will enable the firm to retain most of its employees.
Reference List
Bandrowski, J., 1990. Corporate Imagination Plus. New York: Free Press.
Christensen, C., 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.