Reference no: EM131528285

Case Study: Willy Woowah's Chocolate

Chocolate maker Willy Woowah's has had a poor second quarter due to problems with its operations causing weaker than expected sales. The company which is focused on selling its novelty toy chocolate to the us marker said that sales were lower that expected because of issues in the manufacturing process that had a major impact on its quality and distribution.

The problems included a two day shut down due to a delay of materials from a supplier. Operations manager, Kevin Howard said there were two main issues that caused that delay. "We received some large orders which put our stock levels under pressures. Due to our agreement with our dairy supplier, they are only able to deliver every other day. This pushed deliveries back another 24 hours, Kevin said.

To make matters worse, there was a critical breakdown in the original wrapper machine. "The machine has been in the business since we began operation 22 years ago. It really has been a lot," Kevin laughed.

Willy Woowah's global chief executive Bert Alfonso said "we are pleased with the brank building as the marketing investment is working. We just need to meet the needs of the marker. Consumer demand remains strong, we need to meet that demand at competitive costs. "

Questions:

1. Outline a technology strategy Willy Woowah could implement to improve the operations. Explain the impact this could have on two stakeholders.

2. Outline three differences between the operations of a manufacturing business and a service business. Provide an example for each.

3. Discuss a corporate social responsibility issue, Willy Wowah's needs to consider from each element of the operations system.  

4. Describe two quality management strategies and explain how each can improve the quality of the chocolate at Willy Woowah.

5. Describe the elements of the operations system as they would apply to Willy Woowah or another business you have studied this year.

6. In order to improve efficiency, Kevin is looking at global strategies. Propose, describe and justify TWO global operations strategies Kevin could implement to maximise efficiency.