Term Paper on "Operations Management and Information Systems"

Term Paper 5 pages (2338 words) Sources: 20

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Operations Management and Information Systems

Quality management

The government undertakes periodic reviews of the quality of the products of business organizations. The government also mandates business organizations to comply with the set standards and regulations. Most of the review and assessment of organizations take place in varied stages. The process depends on the nature of the organizations (Sukhija 2009, p.125). The coca cola company runs 75 plants in the vast European countries. It serves around 560 million consumers and accomplishes yearly sales of two billion unit cases and above. The company boasts of numerous brands including Fanta, Schweppes, Nestea, Coca-Cola, and Sprite. The company manages a multi-facet quality control system and incorporates environmental, health, food safety and safety standards (Bell 2004). In addition, the company is seeking additional alignments with other stipulated quality standards, for instance, the latest ISO guidance touching on social responsibility (Sukhija 2009, p.233).

A quality management system outlines the various operations of a business. It entails the organizations procedures and policies, as well as support credentials like templates, forms, training manuals, and flow charts. The procedures and policies regularly applied are always complete, understandable, applicable, and consistent with the actual event. A well-applied quality management procedure describes how policies and procedures are: documented, developed, implemented, approved, and consistently revised through internal review mechanisms. This report aims at providing an analysis of the quality management system of the coca cola company limited. In addition, the report seeks to determine the status of the QMS of the company, alongside offering a link between the QMS of the company to various theories covered in the course.

The company measures key package and product quality tenets by focusing on materials and ingredients. Moreover, the company regulates all the industrial processes including bottling, manufacturing, and distribution of the company's products. This ensures that the products meet the consumers' expectations and the market at large (Sukhija 2009, p.562). The company's policies stress on expanding the beverage supplier base and portfolio. This is in line with their efforts to satisfy the growing demand for the company's products (Hays 2005). The demand grows in line with the regulatory scrutiny that would jeopardize the company's market share in case of poor quality, in operations. The global presences that the company has created over the years remain their threshold for quality (Petretti 2011). The global nature demands that the company establishes the highest standards and operations. The activity reflects at every levels of operation to achieve consistency in quality assurance (Sukhija 2009, p.623).

Quality control of the Company

The company has a department that handles issues touching on constituency and reliability as far as quality is concerned. The name of the department is Coca Cola operating requirements (KORE). It makes it possible for the company to maintain its strategic growth aspirations (Bodden 2009). This is achieved through addressing the differing business landscapes. The department achieves its objectives through building an integrated quality management program consistent with all operations, systems, and standards for production and distribution (Sukhija 2009, p.521).

KORE maintains the greatest standards in product quality and safety and health of employees. The department affects the entire coca cola system through highlighting clear specifications, policies and programs that offer operational guidance. The set procedures receive direct endorsement from the organization's leadership. The department incorporates organization and quality standards and ensures that they fall in line with consistent patterns to safeguard the performance. The system also includes preventive action with rigorous demands made when presenting new products and services. Hazard analysis mechanisms and critical management points are also included into the system standards. KORE also constructs problem solving and risk analysis mechanisms in its efforts to attain and maintain the highest standards.

Quality management theories

Sukhija 2009 suggests that a majority of organizations management frameworks originated from Elton mayo's human relations, and from Frederick Taylor's scientific management framework. The quality management theory developed from the various organizational management frameworks. Joseph Juan and Edward Deming developed the total quality management framework (Webber & Wallace 2011). The theory seeks ways of improving performance and quality, which meets or surpasses the customer's preferences. This is achievable through the combination of all the company's processes and functions in the entire organization. The framework incorporates all of the organization's quality measures including quality assurance and improvement, quality design and maintenance and quality control and maintenance. It considers all the quality measures undertaken at all levels and involving all the members of the staff.

Application of the framework

The coca cola organization widely applies aspects of the total management theory in the running of the operations of KORE. After the end of the Second World War, there were increased efforts for large-scale productions. The phenomenon aimed at meeting the steady growth in demand of goods and services led to deterioration in quality assurance (Burton 2011). To curtail this, the company adopted stringent measures to maintain the reputation of the company. Aspects of the total management theory were widely applied in the exercise that was meant to enable the company reap the positive fruits of the war. Quality inspectors oversaw the running of the main production lines. This saw to it that the degrees of failure arising out of poor quality were contained.

ISO certification

Companies and organizations aspire to receive certification as per ISO's management criteria. Even though the certification is not a requirement, organizations seek it in order to improve on the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery. ISO itself is does not offer certification. It develops quality standards. This includes management mechanisms, for instance, the ISO 14001, ISO 9001, and ISO 31000. It does not take part in certification to any of the quality standards it develops. External certification organs, most of which are private based, carry out the certification process (Pfeifer 2002, p.223).

ISO 9000:2008

This certification is a generic standards management system. It represents a cluster of standards. The certification has penetrated markets, professionals and industries that no other certification has attained.

The report deduced that the Coca Cola Company's quality management practices trickle down to its distribution networks. Its transmission and utilization of worldwide best practices enables the company stand out from the rest. Its governance, philanthropic, social and governance efforts, community investments and developmental activities have a significant contribution to the growth of the brand. The company is amongst the few to have received the award. The ISO 9000: 2008 covers a combination of other quality standards including food safety, occupational health, quality, and environmental management, amongst others.

The Lean Six Sigma

Pfeifer 2002 defines the Lean and Six Sigma as a method that analyzes quality with reference to speed. The corporate world recommends the application of the mechanism to attain high levels of efficiency in relation to the operations of the organization (Gygi, Williams Decarlo & Covey 2012). Both the Lean and Six Sigma frameworks work simultaneously and are dependent on each other during the production process (Bhote 2002). Lean focuses on speed and places an emphasis in the reduction of time wastage. The shorter the cycle of an operation, the more cycles, are likely to be attained. The six sigma centers its efforts in reducing the amount of errors in a process. It points out variations in the various data inputs and carries out a Root Cause Analysis to determine the origin of errors (Pries 2009).

The report further deduced that the Coca Cola Company applies the six-sigma methodology in its operations. The company implements the methodology under a program known as the Business Process Excellence. The program boasts of independence, and is designed to aid in the running of the multi-national company. This is in contrast to numerous organizations that do not completely apply it in the management and running of their operations. Instead, the methodology is more than a tool for improving a process or an operation. The company employs the framework to connect the enterprise parts with one another to form one important element (Pfeifer 2002, p.345).

Organizations operate on the Principe of meeting the consumer's preferences as a matter of urgent priority. Every action undertaken in the organization should meet some set standards if organizations are to fulfill their quality goals. Every quality manager recognizes that a slight low quality in performance influences distribution. This is because the impact caused could expose the organization to the risk of deteriorating market shares. A competency assessment schedule is critical at ensuring that the personnel of the organization are fulfilling their obligations. The assessment of the quality management ensures that the organization is running in accordance to its goals and objectives. It provides the organization with a concise, clear assessment of the connection between the organization and project goals in the course of the implementation process (Pfeifer 2002, p.445).

Findings

The report found out that the coca cola company employs its quality management assessment tools routinely in all its operations. The report further unearthed that the company places much emphasis on the food and health safety. This standard measure has earned the organization a… READ MORE

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