OPERATIONS

Maintaining & Improving Operations

Maintaining & Improving Operations

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis on the ways of maintaining and improving the operations. The paper discusses the components of supply chain of an organization and the potential problems related to all these components. The paper discusses the different approaches used by the organization in order to solve these problems. The company chosen is Tesco Plc.

Company's Background

Tesco is a significant international retailer. As a global business, the company perceives itself as having a vital role to play in helping to minimize its environmental impacts. Although based in the United Kingdom, Tesco PLC has developed into an international grocery and general merchandising chain, employing 440,000 staff worldwide and with sales exceeding £59 billion (in the year ending February 2009) (Bolstorff, 2007). Operating income exceeded £3 billion. These figures make Tesco the largest British retailer in terms of both combined sales and domestic market share, and the third largest in the world after Wal-Mart (United States) and Carrefour (France). It is claimed that £1 in every £7 of UK retail sales goes the way of Tesco.

Component's of Supply Chain Management

In order to make analysis of components of supply chain management, I have chosen Tesco. Tesco is the world's largest retailer, and is continuously bringing improvements in its product portfolio. The supply chain of Tesco is a very effective and is a great support towards enhancing the productivity of Tesco. Following are the main six supply chain components of Tesco:

Production

Production is a core element in Tesco's supply chain. Tesco takes its important production decisions based on the needs and demands of customers and market, quality, capacity and volume of goods (Lambert, 2008).

Problems & Approaches to solve the Problem

In the component of production, Tesco faces the problems of change in the customer's demands. The demands of customers change rapidly that creates problem in production for Tesco. The innovation of new technologies is also an important problem faced by Tesco in the component of production (Jespersen, 2005). It is necessary for Tesco to understand all these problems in order to satisfy the customer's needs and tastes and provide them the best quality. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Tesco conducts research on a regular basis. Tesco conducts research mainly through the survey's, questionnaires and feedbacks from the customers. Based on such results, Tesco makes decisions on its production patterns and improve its production component of supply chain management.

Supply

Another important component of Tesco's supply chain is supply. Supply means outsourcing the required material of production in order to produce the products and services (Hugos, 2006). It is a very important component, and Tesco provides high attention to this component. In order to maintain the low cost strategy, Tesco provides high emphasis on the quality of product, maintain flexibility in the prices of products, and enhance the velocity in order to determine the input's supply.

Problems & Approaches to solve the Problem

The main problem faced by Tesco in the component ...