Strategic Supply Chain Management of Bakehouse

Strategic Supply Chain Management of Bakehouse Introduction Supply chain management has an important process in the business, as part of all the operations from the raw materials for manufacturing a product, to delivery on ready product to the end customer. The main focus of this module is based on the supply chain practices of an organisation that has potential to growth in the field of bakery industry. According to Wei Wu, (2013), the implementation of effective supply chain management can reduce costs, the shared information can maintain the higher market sensitivity. Supply chain involves the overall supply chain system of the organisation, including planning, operations, logistic and all the management activities such as: suppliers, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing to the end customer or consumer. The aim on this module is to review the current model of the supply chain of the bakery shop Backhaus and implementation on the literature review on SCM to coordinate different choices as an alternative for improvement on the existing Supply Chain Management. Background of the Organisation The Bakehaus as a concept was established back in 1988 in Germany, as a family business. There are twelve different products of bred as an offer to their customers, as a best seller product. The selling offer also gives a wide range of products, such as: sandwiches, salads and soups, pastries, cakes and hot snacks. (Eat Out Magazine, 2016). Bakehaus is a German bakery shop that is located in UK London- Hammersmith. The organisation is operation from 2011, and has been new to the competitive market. The shop is located on King Street, Hammersmith Tube Station. (Bakehaus, 2016). The vision of Bakehaus is to produce quality bakes products for low prices. There are 15 employees currently working in the shop. Long-term mission of the organisation is to expand, or open more shops around London, as a growing business in the industry. The products in terms of bread are based on grains and seeds from German suppliers, and there are no chemical additives or pre-mixed flower added, which gives the unique taste of the traditional German bread. Organisational Supply Chain Model The implementation of Supply Chain Management can have a positive impact on the business productivity, which will increase the improvements in returns on investments and assets. According to Lambert (2008) the main focus of the organisations is at their supply chain network, as their dependence on the SCM reflects on the competitiveness in the global market economy. (as cited from Naslund Williamson, 2010). Bakehaus sells a variety of different bakery products, but the main product is bread. When the product reaches the end consumer that represents one end of the supply chain network. The whole process of the supply chain begins from the suppliers of raw material, manufacturing, distribution and retailer or the Bakehaus shop which delivers the products to the end customer. According to the interview that has been undertaken from our team Evolution with the manager of the shop, there are eight suppliers that the organisation have a long-term relations.   The main suppliers of Bakehaus are: Watts Farms-UK for suppling vegetables, Klemme- for supplying bread. The relationship between the organisation and the suppliers is built on trust and loyalty, and its a non-contractual long term relationship, which is maintained for five years from the opening of the business.   The supply chain network for Bakehaus on their main product (bread) is direct from the manufacturer in Germany , which gives a competitive advantage on products in terms of quality and freshness. (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Bakehaus Current Supply Chain Model Adapted from: (Team Evolution Group Presentation, 2016) The costs for the transportation from Germany to UK is bared to minimum (as low as 0%), which gives the organisation additional savings that can be used in designing new products or services. The wastage on the shelf products is below 5%, and the main concept is based on freshness. BakeHaus Supply Chain Management Practices There are different levels of improvement that can be used in order to create an effective supply chain management. From the theoretical point of view Bakehause as part of their supply chain network is practicing techniques which have a positive impact on the strategic role of the organisation in terms of long term planning, consistent development and profitability and leading the organisation to competitive advantage in the market. (Cetinkaya, 2010). The two main techniques that the organisation is practicing involves: inventory management system which is used to the point of stocking the warehouses and just in time manufacturing system that is used in shop for delivering fresh and quality products to the end customer. Managing inventory plays a vital role in the supply chain network in order for the products to reach the end destination following the necessary time frame. Backhaus by applying this technique can keep their stock inventory at the lower level, which leads to more flexible supply chain. (Elms Low 2013). The inventory method that the organisation is applying within the supply chain network is called First in First Out (FIFO). 1.4 Literature Review on Supply Chain Practices There are many different theories in the literature that has been published over the years, when we look at Supply Chain Management as a practice. SCM plays a vital role in the organisational performance, as the organisations are challenged to find the best supply chain practice in order to meet the customer demands as well as minimizing production costs. (Jain, Dangayach, Agarwal Banerjee, 2010). Supply Chain Management can be defined as a network that includes facilities for producing raw material, transforming the raw material to ready products that are shipped to the end customer by using different kind of distribution channels. The main objective of the Supply Chain Management is to add value to the overall production and sales, minimising the costs, and to create a list of benefits for customers, suppliers and the organisation. (Shukla, Garg Agarwal 2011). The SCM network in one organisation can be successful, but problems can also occur. There are different ways in order to improve the current SCM. The improvements that can be used in practice, can give the organisation better performance in their SCM, and that can lead to better quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Supply Chain Management Practices includes: Agile Model, Lean Management, Kaizen, and Total Quality Management. 1.4.1 AGILE Model       Agility in organisational terms refers to flexibility. When considering agile improvement of the SCM, the main focus will be on the market. Agile model of Supply Chain practice can be applied in order for the organisation to be more flexible in terms of forecasting and dealing with the customer demands. (Christopher, 2000). In today business competitive industry, agility can play a vital role for the organisations in order to meet the needs of the customers. Agile Supply Chain which referees to flexibility, gives the organisations competitive edge in times of changes such as: environmental changes, technological changes or demands changes in the existing market. (Dhayalan, Devadasan, 2011). Just in time (JIT) is a system that has been developed in Japan in early 1970, as a management philosophy which combine the right product whit the right quality at the right place and the right time. Goddadrd (1986) believed that JIT as a philosophy has been applied to maximize customer demands at a minimum delays. (as cited from Kootanaee at al, 2013).

“Dude, Where’s My Country?” Book Review

â€Å"Dude, where is My Country† is a book written by Michael Moore and published by Penguin Books in 2004. In this book, Moore provocatively and boldly discusses several socio-political events in America. He takes on George W. Bush, the Conservative brigade and corporate wheeler dealers in America and offers wide ranging remedies which place the country’s redemption squarely on the shoulders of the liberal forces. The author dissects America’s problems in topics ranging from tax cuts, the Iraqi war, among others and demonstrates the failure of the nation-state to be a direct consequence of conservative ethos. Moore first seeks to debunk what he calls the ‘Big Lie’, that America is inherently and pervasively conservative. He terms this belief as a propagandist fib, perpetuated by the right in order to put down the liberal masses. â€Å"†¦.. So, in the tradition of all propagandists, they lie. They create an opposite truth: AMERICA IS CONSERVATIVE. Then they pound away with that false message so hard and so often that even their political opponents come to believe that it's true,† Moore asserts (Moore, 2003 page 2). To prove that most Americans are indeed liberal, Moore gives facts which demonstrate majority support for the Civil Rights movement, abortion, the Roe vs Wade ruling, the Green movement, gun restrictions, universal healthcare (or socialized medicine as he puts it), community as opposed to jail service for offenders, gay and lesbian rights and unionization. He then wonders why conservatives hold the rein of leadership in the country and proceeds to offer his ten cents worth. Chapter one poses seven seemingly rhetorical questions to Bush. Home of the Whopper† is the heading of Chapter two and it serves as an allegorical forerunner of the issues presented herein. Here, the author discusses the lies told by the Bush administration before narrating a fable featuring his great-granddaughter who seeks to find out from him the state of the world when oil and plastics were available and seeks to understand the reasons behind the failure of planning. In a sense, this chapter indicts the Bush administration for its lax energy policies and seems to suggest a bleak future for America occasioned by these policies. Chapter four is titled â€Å"The United States of Boo† and it takes the form of an essay. In this chapter, Moore demonstrates that death through terrorism is statistically impossible. As he so ably shows, there are other countless and plausible ways through which Americans can die that terrorism threats count for nothing. The ruse by the conservative war makers is a subterfuge meant to take away Americans’ civil liberties. Nowhere is this more succinctly evidenced than in the Patriot’s Act, Moore infers. The next chapter delineates ways in which ordinary Americans can reduce acts of terrorism. In subsequent chapters, Moore launches into an angry offensive tirade against George W. Bush that is laced with acerbic humor. The Bush years are summarized as a failed presidency and various facts adduced to support this claim. The war against Iraq is presented in great detail and used as an example to show Bush’s weak leadership. Similarly, the Enron debacle, the infamous Bush tax cuts and the collapse of other firms are cited as products of failed economic policies. The author lays bare the association between Bush, Osama Bin Laden and Saudi Arabia. He goes on to make staggering claims about alleged business connections between the Bushes and the Saudi Arabia nobles. Contrary to the wishes of FBI and notwithstanding the fact that only four of the 19 hijackers were non-Saudis, the Bush government shielded the Saudi Arabians from investigations while other Arabs in America were apprehended just like the Japanese were during the post world war II interment. Moore dismisses the high approval ratings enjoyed by Bush in 2004 thus: â€Å"the high ratings for Bush are not an endorsement of his policies. Rather, it is the response of a frightened country that has no choice but to back the man charged with protecting them. America has not fallen in love with Bush-it's more like â€Å"love the one you're (stuck) with. † (Moore, page 6). Railing against the â€Å"Christian Coalition†, Moore eloquently makes pitch for a presidency built around persons who live and understand America as it is. In regard to this, he introduces the â€Å"Draft Oprah for President† movement. Oprah, it seems, is the very representation of this people president that America so desperately needs. A clarion call for liberals to redeem their country from the ‘undesired’ hands of the conservatives is sounded. Moore gravely states that Democrats should not be left to â€Å"screw up† the [2004] election and instead details what he calls â€Å"Operation 10-Minute Oil Change† where everybody is called upon to do something for ten minutes daily in an effort to drive out Bush and his oil cronies. While the book is written in an easy to understand language with poignant examples, some hard facts and disturbing and weighty questions that inevitably stir up reflective thought, one cannot help avoid the feeling that it is grossly subjective and devoid of serious discourse. Additionally, ‘Dude, Where is My Country† seems like an unabashed endorsement of General Wesley Clark and the Democrat platoon. I do not agree with Moore because his book is redolent with numerous misrepresentations, falsities and inaccuracies. In page 69, he deliberately misrepresents facts about American’s dealings with Iraq, conveniently trashing the provisions of UN’s food for oil program. He gives a long list of persons supposedly aggrieved with the Patriot Act in page 111. However, according to the sources he has given, the listed persons were never in any way affected by the legislation. In a brazen display of dishonesty, Moore claims that closure of schools in Oregon in 2003 was as a direct result of the Bush tax cuts whereas they were actually due to a new law that decoupled the state’s income tax system from that of the central government. There are many other claims which cannot stand the test. They seem to have been intentionally twisted so that they can prop his claims. Some of his assertions border on the speculative. A good example of this is the unsubstantiated claim that Saudi military acted in cahoots with Bush and the Saudi government to launch them. While some claims are backed by solid fact, many others are not factual and it is precisely this reason that makes it hard to agree with Moore lock, stock and barrel.

Mutual Fund Project Essay

The fund employs a passive management investment approach. It is a low cost way to gain diversified exposure to the equity market in the United States. The fund invests in 500 of the largest companies in the United States. The companies span many different industries and the fund accounts for about 75% of the United States stock market’s value. VFINX measures the investment return of large-capitalization stocks. The most obvious risk is the volatility that comes with its full exposure to the stock market. The mutual fund portfolio’s composition is made up of 99. 45% stocks and . 55% cash. The expense ratio for this mutual fund is . 17%. This is the annual fee that shareholders are charged. It expresses the percentage of assets deducted each fiscal year for fund expenses, including 12b-1 fees, management fees, administrative fees, operating costs, and all other asset-based costs incurred by the fund. For the Year-to-Date (ytd) rankings in its category, VFINX ranked in at 24 according to Yahoo! Finance. Over the last 10 years, the fund has performed in direct correlation to the S&P 500 being that it is an index fund and there is a beta of 1, meaning that whatever the S&P 500 does, the fund will do as well. VFINX is a good choice if an investor is seeking a mutual fund that offers the stability of large, established companies and the wide exposure of a fund that holds both value and growth stocks. Fidelity Magellan Fund (FMAGX) has ridden the ups and downs over the years of the market’s roller coaster. The fund has gone through many changes over the years and one of the most important key factors to the fund’s performance has been related to the way it was managed. The fund currently has assets totaling 14. billion and its portfolio consists of growth and value stocks across the capitalization spectrum from around the world and the United States. The fund keeps about 20 percent of the holdings in foreign stocks. It is one of the world’s most known actively managed funds and has finally found some stability due to its newest manager, Harry Lange. In 2008, during the financial crisis, the management chose to stay aggressive instead of investing defensively and incurred a bad loss, which lead to the changes in management. FMAGX is classified as a large growth fund and is ranked 24 in its category according to Yahoo! Finance. The 3-year beta is 1. 7, which means that it bears more risk than investing directly in the S&P 500, however this also means that it could provide heftier returns. The mutual fund portfolio’s composition

Essay on The Human Genome Project - 711 Words

A genome is all the DNA in an organism, including it’s genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, acts, processes and fights infections. DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (bases, adenine , Thymine , cytosine , and guanine ) that are repeated millions or billions of times throughout a genome. The human genome has three billion base pairs. The order of these base pairs are extremely important and determine everything in an organism. The Human Genome Project started in the mid-1980’s and was discussed widely throughout the scientific community and public press in the last years of the decade. In the United States, DOE†¦show more content†¦The massive amount of data and related technologies generated by the HGP and other genomic research presents a wide array of commercial opportunities. These opportunities range from medicine and food to energy and environmental resources. Older companies are racing to retool and newer companies are seeking parts in the information revolution with DNA at it’s core. IMB, Compaq, DuPoint, and other big pharmaceutical companies are among those interested in the potential for targeting and applying genome data. In HGP there are two types of sequences, the draft and the high quality. To get the draft sequence, scientist determine the order of base pairs in each chromosomal area at least four to five times to ensure data accuracy and to help with reassembling DNA fragments in their original order. This repeated sequencing is known as genome quot;depth of coverage.quot; The draft sequence for the human genome was completed on June 26, 2000. To generate high quality sequencing , additional sequencing is needed to close gaps, reduce mistakes and allow only a single error in 10,000 bases. 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