OPERATION MANAGEMENT

Operation Management



Operation Management

Question 1

Cadbury plc is a British confectionery company, the industries second largest globally after the combined Mars-Wrigley. Headquartered in Cadbury House in the Uxbridge Business Park in Uxbridge, London Borough of Hillingdon, and England and formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, Cadbury was acquired by Kraft Foods in February 2010. The company was an ever-present constituent of the FTSE 100 from the index's 1984 inception until its 2010 takeover. The firm was known as "Cadbury Schweppes plc" from 1969 until a May 2008 demerger, which saw the separation of its global confectionery business from its U.S. beverage unit, which has been renamed Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc.

Political

Political decisions can affect Cadbury's, these can be either advantages or disadvantages, if taxes increase, therefore consumers decrease and sales of stock decrease. However if taxes decrease the likelihood is consumers will buy more.

Laws can also change Cadbury's income because if a law was brought out, that you could only work from 9am until 5pm, factory hours would be cut short resulting in less chocolates being produced.

The Government is very concerned about obesity. Heart problems are costing the NHS more each year.

Economic

The interest rates can have an affect on Cadbury's. If the interest rates were high then Cadbury would not want to borrow as much money for expansion. In addition, if consumers themselves were under pressure due to their loans they would again have less disposable income to buy luxury items.

If the minimum wage were brought down, this would mean more money for Cadbury has but would also result in low sales from the consumers.

Social

Trend in snacking - increase in people eating on the 'go' (Vending machines)

Local residents with small businesses near Cadbury's World would benefit from the money that is being brought in by visitors. More people are health conscious will read ingredient content.

Question 2

Question 3

Entrance Mary Cadbury Packaging Demonstration Shop Restaurant Ice cream

Room Plant Area Coffee

The process flow chart shows that it is a product-based layout.

Entrance 15-20 visitors /2.5 min 360-480 visitors/h

Mary Cadbury peak hour's 70 visitors/10-11min 382-420 visitors/h

Room

Packaging 30 visitors / 3min 600 visitors / h

Plant

Demonstration 15 visitors x 8 guides / 17min 423 visitors/h

Area

Shop one visitor/0.25 min 240 visitors/h

Restaurant 169 visitors/25min 406 visitors/h

Ice-cream 46 visitors/18 min 153 visitors/h

Question 4

The usual image of a designer is of someone who is concerned with the appearance of a product - a fashion designer or a car designer, for example. The design activity, however, goes far beyond this narrow aspect of design. In fact, all operations man-agers are designers. Many of their day-to-day decisions shape the design of the processes they manage, which in turn influences the products and services that they produce. The purchase of every machine or piece of equipment is a design decision because it affects the physical shape and nature of the operation. Similarly, every time a machine or piece of equipment is moved, a method improved or a member of staff's responsibility changed, the design of the operation is ...