Running head: COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT
Module 6, Assignment 2:
Company Analysis Report
Scott Jackson
Operations Management: Solutions to Business Challenges B6029
August 4, 2012
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COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 2
Supply chain analysis
A typical supply chain is a structure of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources engaged in conveying a product or service to customer from supplier. Supply chain involves transforming natural resources, raw material and components into a finished product that is distributed to the end customer. In complicated supply chain systems, used products may be brought back into the supply chain at any juncture where residual value is recyclable. This may involve a variety of stages. In food processing industry the supply chain stages include:
Producers (raw material producer, farmer)
Processors (processing factory)
Wholesalers
Retailers
Consumers
Producers Processors Wholesalers Retailers Consumers
Producers (raw material producer; farmer)
They are the key input in a supply chain; they provide necessary material which needs to be processed to get the final desired product by the consumer. In Archer Daniels Midland
Company (ADM) they include cocoa farmers, soy farmers, palm farmers and beef and dairy farmers. As a producer the following inputs are of necessity to influence the quality of the end product to the consumer quality of seed planted, care given to the plants during growing period, harvesting stage, post harvesting practices and delivery to the factory.

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT
Quality of seed planted
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Quality of seed planted is the varietally of pure seed with a high germination percentage, free from disease and disease organisms, and with a proper moisture content and weight.
Quality is guaranteed through both proactive and retroactive methods. These comprise precautionary maintenance, for example growing and appraising every seed lot, as well as constantly choosing for accurateness to type, vigorous quality programming from the ground to pack, third-party quality authentication, customer quality contribution, and retroactive quality response to the seed producers. All the way through this diversepronged advance, ensures that only the highest quality organic seed is presented to the farmers for planting. Seed quality considerations offer precious information on the appropriateness of seed for planting, exactingly their potential for germination, the rapidness of their emergence from the soil, their ability to ascertain uniform, energetic seedlings, and their creation of healthy crops with good yields. consequently, in the food processing industry, quality of seed planted by the farmers serves as the basis for price differentials, facilitates the analysis of seed shared problems and their apparent causes, and provides seed producers with a decision tool for their a range of operations, including storage and marketing. In conclusion seed planted by the farmer directly affects the yields that the farmer delivers to the industry.
Human capital and machinery
Cultivation is essentially intended at growing the variety of crops inhabitant to each diverse local area within the world's ecosystem. Special technologies and mechanization systems should be provided that suits the state of the cultivation carried to certain

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 4 locations for each production phase. In meeting the demands of each local area it is compulsory to form an assimilated system in which researchers, developers, manufacturers, and distributors are in attendance locally and are involved in joint efforts to solve farmers’ mechanization problems locally (Clarke, 2000). as a result the agricultural production and productivity has witnessed much increase. The form of human resource or machinery the farmer utilizes in the farm has to greater extent influence on quantity and quality of the yields, which also directly affects the products that are processed or manufactured by the company.
Processing factory (Archer Daniels Midland Company)
There are many factors or inputs that influence processors in the supply chain; they can be grouped into internal and external inputs. The challenges include twisting costs, a multifaceted supply chain, ever changing consumer preferences and food safety and compliance.
Processing industry is exemplified by a complex supply chain relating multiple channels from the persons/ranches to the manufacturer and to the distributor. Inclusive precision is required across functional processes to build real time and fact founded choices.
Resolution that puts together the processes of procurement, planning, manufacturing and distribution tackles this need.
Distribution is also one of the key challenges. Most processors have evolved from processing to stock actions to a demand determined type where the completed product is shipped directly to retail outlets. Products nowadays do not stagnate in a distribution center after production. Every order fleeting through the plant is tailored for a specific

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 5 customer, and has a definite delivery date. This implies that operations need to be well managed, ensuring that production orders are programmed and carried out on time, and delivery conditions are regularly achieved.
The pressure to reduce operating costs, develop top line revenue, control procurement instability and integrate planning and execution, not excluding customer pressures to improve customer service and provide visibility into inventory status are also key challenges. Therefore there is need to balance the often conflicting goals to be able to maximize operations.
The solution provides a elastic planning system with actualization into inventory status of both raw material and finished goods. Such system allows the company to minimize inventory of both raw materials and finished products, advance customer service and enhance capacity utilization.
Food safety compliance is an increasingly crucial matter in the food industry, brought about by an increase in media and regulatory attention, and associated penalties for aimed organizations. This leads to tarnishing the brand image and eroding of market share.
Improved process supervision through quality management systems and food safety standards requires to be monitored during the production process.
Today’s consumers; from those who want healthier options to others who require more handy packaging and exclusive flavors. The increased volume and diversity of products is influencing plants to design their lines supported on shorter production runs with extra changeovers. Achieving these requirements requires operational flexibility. Companies must be in a position to easily insert new products to the mix, make changes and quickly

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 6 implement new operational procedures. These changes must be executed while meeting high sanitation and environmental regulations. This helps the organization drift from a manual system to a fully incorporated system. The benefits is in inclusion of full supply chain visibility, managing stake holders, customers and vendors, managing appropriate inventory positions, controlling manufacturing and combating frequent change of personnel through the deployment of industry best practices.
Wholesalers
There functions are not only to facilitate an affective functioning of manufacturers and retailers, but also help them accomplish more with less cost.
One function of wholesaler is to eliminate the need for a different distribution channel by the producers themselves. Determining the order of a product in the market is very cumbersome for the producer. Wholesalers help producers know how to adjust their production capacity with the changing demands of the market. Wholesalers sometimes buy huge inventory that transmits the risk of selling the products. Wholesalers have also got outstanding transportation facilities for delivering the stocks in time and appropriate the customer feedback.
Impacts of e-commerce and IT
Electronic commerce and the Internet are essentially changing the nature of supply chains, and redefining how consumers study about, select, purchase, and use products and services.

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 7
E-commerce permits company of all sizes to exchange cargo documents electronically over the Internet. Using e-commerce, company reduces costs, get better data accuracy, restructure business processes, enhance business cycles, and alleviate customer service.
It will give the company more flexibility in managing the increasingly composite movement of products and information between businesses, their suppliers and customers. It closes the link between customers and distribution centers.
E-commerce is a crucial support of logistics and transportation services for both internal and external customers. E-commerce helps companies deliver better services to their customers that accelerate the growth of the e-commerce enterprises that are critical to their business, and reduces their operating costs.
Impact on Human Resource
Human resource management is the process of interrelating and copping with the internal workforce of the company to manipulate their working patterns and persuade their performances to better the prospects of the company they are working for. It has allowed human resource managers to distribute their routine administrational duties in an effective way.
Plan to improve Operating Processes
One of the important parts of the Company is the operating systems. There are different operating processes in any given Company in connection with the supply chain (Harmon,
2003). The main supply chin elements include Transportation, Supply, Inventory,
Location, Production, and Information. The three specific operating processes of the

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 8
Archer Daniels Midland Company that we are going to create an improvement plan for are; information, transportation and production.
The first process that we are going to come up with an improvement plan for is production. The performance improvement for this element is taking the production team for refresher courses. Production is the main process in any production Company like
The Archer Daniels Midland. This Company produces food ingredients, feed ingredients and animal feed, biofuels and generally products that are used to make food. Its production process will determine everything else in the Company for example the sales, income etc (Harmon, 2003).A good production plan is hence vital for this Company. The improvement plan is to come up with a system of retraining the production team by the
Company sponsoring them for refresher courses in turns. The aim of these refresher courses is to make sure that the team is up to date with the latest technologies in the
Agricultural sector and food technology. When the team acquires these new and improved skills then they will be able to use them in the production of the Company’s products hence promoting efficiency, productivity and quality of the products (Wisner &
Stanley, 2008).
The second process that we are going to look at is the transportation process. The performance improvement for this element is improving the reliability of the workforce team to and from work and also increase the number of delivery vans for the Companies products to the customers. Transportation process in any given Company is very key for its operations and growth (Wisner & Stanley, 2008). A good transportation plan needs to be put into place in order to keep the flow of goods at its best. Since the Archer Daniels
Midland Company deals with production then a good transportation process in the

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 9
Company is quite vital. Transportation ranges from the transportation of the workforce team to the transportation of goods and services offered. The existing transportation process in the Archer Daniels Midland Company needs some improvement as sometimes the transportation of employees to work is not reliable. The improvement which needs to be made is organizing the transportation of employees from the start of the year and reviewing the arrangement after every two months. When the transportation arrangement becomes reliable then efficiency of work is going to improve as there will be good management of time by the employees (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012). This is also going to improve the productivity of the employees as they are going to reach to work on term all through the year. Also an increase of the vans for making deliveries to customers is to be considered in this plan since the productivity is expected to go high and so the demand for the products is expected to go high too. This is going to help in the delivering of products to customers on time and in tern improving the efficiency of the Company
(Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012).
Information is the other process that we are going to come up with an improvement plan for. The performance improvement for this element is to organize seminars for famers with agricultural professionals to help the improvement of their agricultural products which are brought to the Company for processing. Information is used in this context to mean creating awareness of a certain product, service or need to intended buyers or purchaser and is mostly done through electronic media, print media etc. Information is so essential in any profit making business or Company like the Archer Daniels Midland
Company (Blecker & Bajic, 2008). Information has a big influence on the sales that the

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 10
Company is going to make hence good Information plan and strategies are vital for the growth of a Company. The Archer Daniels Midland is Company dealing with agricultural processing producing food ingredients, feed ingredients and animal feeds. The
Information strategy of this company needs to be well formulated as it will help in making good sales of these products. This is because there are so many other different companies which are competing with it and therefore the advertising structure is going to determine how well it will do compared to those other Companies. The newest advertising strategy of the Company is the establishment of good advertisements related or focused to the famers since everything the Company does is related to the famers
(Blecker & Bajic, 2008). This Information strategy can be improved by coming up with a new plan that incorporates civil education to famers on the best crops to grow at different specific places. This is to be done by professionals who are contacted by the Company to reach to a group of famers selected by the Company too. The professionals will offer advice and guidance on the best farm products suitable for the given environment and on how to grow or practice agriculture in the best way possible. This plan is going to motivate the famers to look into ways in which they improve their agricultural products and this in turn is going to help the Company at the long run. This is because the famers are going to bring good agricultural produce to the Company which in turn is going to help the Company produce quality food ingredients and animal feed. This therefore improves the quality of the products of the Company and its productivity too (Blecker &
Bajic, 2008).
Explanation of the Results of Performance Improvements Regarding Product or
Service

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 11
This improvement process in the supply chain is going to bring great results in the products that are produced by the Archer Daniels Midland Company. This is because when the production team goes for refresher courses they are going apply the new skills that they get in producing the products a factor which is going to contribute to improvement of better and quality products. Reliable transport is also going to make efficiency improve and as a result services in the Company will be improved (Harmon,
2003). The seminars with the famers are going to improve their agricultural produce a factor which is going to improve on the quality of the products made by the Company from the produce of these farmers. These changes are quite important to the customers of this Company because they are going to improve the quality of the services provided to the customers for example the delivery of goods to the customers and they are also going to ensure that the customers enjoy using the products because the quality of is going to improve owing to the improvement in production measures by the production team. The changes will very much improve the value proposition and competitive position of this
Company as services to customers will improve while at the same time quality and effective production is applied (Harmon, 2003). This will make the Company gain more customers for its products compared to its competitors and gain more popularity too.
These changes will bring about lasting capabilities and improvements like opportunities to come up with new improved skills of production by the production team and also new and improved skills too for the famers through the training seminars with the agricultural professionals. These lasting capabilities will work well for the improvement, enlargement and boosting of sales for the Company (Harmon, 2003). These are major improvements for the Company and if applied to the later then it is evident that they will yield good

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT 12 results. The key performance indicators here are good customer service and product quality improvement.

COMPANY ANALYSIS REPORT
References
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Blecker, T., Huang, G. Q., & Bajic, E. (2008). RFID in operations and supply chain management: Research and applications . Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.
Bolstorff, P., & Rosenbaum, R. (2012). Supply chain excellence: A handbook for dramatic improvement using the SCOR model . New York: American
Management Association.
Harmon, P. (2003). Business process change: A manager's guide to improving, redesigning, and automating processes . Amsterdam: M. Kaufmann.
Poirier, C. C., Walker, I., & APICS--The Educational Society for Resource
Management. (2005). Business process management applied: Creating the value managed enterprise . Boca Raton, Fla: J. Ross Pub.
Wisner, J. D., & Stanley, L. L. (2008). Process management: Creating value along the supply chain : text & cases . Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.