1.Create an operations plan for your NAB company using the template in the text as a guide (p. 214 | Operations Plan Preparation Form - Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your eBook). Extract appropriate information from the NAB Company portfolio, where applicable. Other required items in the template should be filled in using your personal preferences..
2.Provide a rationale for the competitive advantages section using appropriate functional-level and business-level strategies to explain the competitive advantages. â—¦Note: Much of the research pertaining to the hints provided here can be found in the NAB company portfolio..
a) Consider whether you will rent or buy your facilities or outsource production to an existing company.. One of your biggest expenses as a startup non-alcoholic beverage company will be transitioning from a small batch prototype of your beverage to production on a large scale. Research the equipment you will need (vats, refrigerators, burners, ovens, bottling equipment, and so on), whether you will rent or buy, how you will maintain and clean it, and so forth. Consider how you will ensure quality control. What capacity do you intend to reach?.
b) Deliberate your inventory control. Where do your supplies come from and what is your turnaround time to produce your beverage once you have received an order?.Hints: Consider your distribution method. Refer back to your notes for the SWOT analysis assignment in Week 2 of class..
3.Describe your research and development activities and explain how they will contribute to the company..
Answers:
An Operations Plan for the NAB refers to a detailed plan that is used in provision of a clear picture regarding how a section, department, or even a whole team in an organization will contribute towards the attainment of its strategic goals. For the case of NAB situated at the County fairs and known as Chi-Yog and which has been in operation for the past seven years, the organization is run by Melinda Cates through the help of her close and trusted friend who earned an MBA from the Strayer University and whom she requested to put up the organization’s Business Plan. The friend also agreed to become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or President of the company for the next 5 years (Tan & Netessine, 2017). Based on the company portfolio, it is quite evident that it actually takes a total of $.56 in order for Melinda Cates to make one bottle of the Non-Alcoholic Beverage. But it is also important to note that her rich uncle who dies left Melinda with some equipment to help her start a “small NAB business”. This means that Melinda will not have to spend any other additional costs in purchasing new equipments that will be used in the business. That apart, it is quite prudent to note that the business entity is only a startup and therefore even though it already has a specific recipe for various beverages, they have not yet started making any significant sales. The company plans to in future recruit some employees and even develop its own organizational and hierarchical structure.
Rationale for Competitive Advantages
The business (Chi-Yog Company) is well aware of its competitors who manufacture the Non-Alcoholic Beverages (NAB) such as Pepsi and the Coca-Cola Companies whose wide and broad network distribution actually presents them with an opportunity for “significant power pricing” (Barbera & Gurnari, 2018). This had made the prices of the carbonated soft brings to actually become similar as a result of the competition. Owing to the fact that two companies indeed hold approximately 70% of the market share for the beverage drinks, it will be important for this new business entity to make its prices to become lower as opposed to those of their competitors so that they can make a name for themselves (Ling, 2017). The business should also make plans of investing in such big and prestigious companies through using the “Consumer Staples Select Sector”. It is prudent to note that the “American Beverage Association” or the ABA is not just only a trade association which is tasked with the responsibility f representing the non alcoholic beverage industry is America but it is also tasked with the responsibility of providing a very neutral forum in which members can effectively convene or meet in order to discuss the numerous common issues afflicting them while also ensuring that the tradition of having “spirited competition’ is also enhanced and maintained in the market place in America. This is quite essential in that easy and every company in any mature company aims in being disruptive in a mature industry such as this one so that it can create a clear competitive advantage among all the firms (Fryer et al, 2017).
As it stands in the company portfolio, it can actually be asserted that it will be important for the business to at first rent the numerous equipments that it uses in the production of the soft drinks and then make a decision to buy them later. This is based on the fact that the business is still a new business entity and therefore it cannot have the money to fully purchase the facilities and even outsource its production to a current company (Pineli et al, 2017). Even though the business will be renting the equipments that it will be using to run, it will be important to ensure that they are kept in good standards so that the owner may force the business to purchase them if they are in bad shape.
In order to transition itself from just a “small batch prototype” of the beverage to a large scale production, the business entity will make effort to ;prioritize the type of equipment that are mandatory such as refrigerators and bottling equipment at the expense of the others. To ensure quality control, the firm will ensure that all the products that it manufactured have actually been tested and approved to be of high quality before they are finally released to the market. Quality checks will thus have to be carried out to ensure (Raksong et al, 2017). The capacity that the firm will intend to reach will highly be based on the total sales that have been made. To stay ahead of new developments, a research department will be put in place to keep abreast with any newest developments in the sector.
A description of the research and development activities and how they contribute to the company
The company will have to ascertain the type of competitors it has and ascertain their prices before making up the prices of their products.
Technology Plan preparation Form
The materials and equipments that will be used in the organization will have to be ascertained. The company will have to ascertain the materials and equipments that it will have to lease or purchase.
Rationale for Personnel Needs
The needs of employees will have to be ascertained so that all the needs are well captured.
Management Plan for the NAB Company
The company will be managed by the owner who is Melinda Cates and the CEO
The Company’s Management Plan
The company will ensure that all the needs of the stakeholders are fully considered.
Rationale for Management structure and style section
The company will be headed by the Melinda Cates and the CEO then by employees.
References
Barbera, M. and Gurnari, G., 2018. Water Reuse in the Food Industry: Quality of Original Wastewater Before Treatments. In Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in the Food Industry (pp. 1-16). Springer, Cham.
Botelho, R., Araújo, W. and Pineli, L., 2017. Food formulation and not processing level: conceptual divergences between public health and food science and technology sectors. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, pp.1-12.
Greenacre, L., Jaeger, V., Martin, J., Patrick, S., Nguyen, Y. and Fryer, W., 2017. Self-reference bias in students' and managers' selection of target market segments. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(1), pp.39-48.
Ling, X., 2017. Customer Relationship Management: Case study Coca-Cola Company.
Prungkiat, C., Pratoom, K. and Raksong, S., 2017. Strategic Organizational Knowledge Orientation and Firm Performance: An Empirical Research of Beverage Businesses in Thailand. AU-GSB e-JOURNAL, 9(1), p.104.
Tan, T. and Netessine, S., 2017. At Your Service on the Table: Impact of Tabletop Technology on Restaurant Performance.
