Background of the Coca Cola Ltd - Research Paper Example

?Total Quality Management Table of Contents Background of the Company: Coca Cola Ltd 4 Organizational Strategies 4 Products & Services 5 Production System and Job Design 6 Process measurement and analysis 7 Location Decisions for Facilities and Operations 8 Conclusion 8 Introduction: Coca Cola Ltd Intense and stiff competition poses as hindrance for the various companies to operate in the diversified markets and maintain their market share. The advancement in technology and telecommunications has increased the chances of the companies to enter into the diversified markets. It has also enabled the companies to break the traditional barriers of the marketing environment at the same time. Total Quality Management (TQM) was initially adopted by Department of Defense during the mid 1970’s and the main focus was to improve the productivity, timeliness and quality of goods and services (Feinberg, 2000). The various marketing challenges have led to the emergence of the Total Quality Management (TQM), which lays emphasis on the fast and timely supply and delivery of goods. TQM is instrumental in improving the productivity of the organization since the evolvement of the concept. TQM approach helps in improving the quality of services and goods on a continuous basis, which involves participation of individuals at every level and phase of organization. This concept also helps in the integration of activities which constitutes of various managerial systems and is the prime determinants of the sustainable competitive advantage. Being one of the leading beverages of the world, Coca Cola believes in creating long term value and training the employees in such a way that they understand the changing market trends and forces which will shape the company’s future. The strategic mission of Coca Cola would be to develop international standards and create value, which would make a difference in the organization and to the people (Coca Cola, 2013b).The vision of the company is to develop a framework which serves as guide to the employers, employees and organization (Coca Cola, 2013i).The various TQM programs developed by the management focus on producing high quality beverages by adhering to the environmental standards. The author of the study will deal with the various facets of TQM concept and its application in Coca Cola Company. The study will also highlight the operational procedures and the management systems of the company. The study will give an insight into the various TQM practices of Coca Cola regarding the production of goods and services. Finally, the study will conclude with recommendations for the improvement in Coca Cola’s process measurement and management systems. Background of the Company: Coca Cola Ltd Coca Cola is regarded as one of the leading beverage corporations of the world which is headquartered in Georgia. The company specializes in manufacturing carbonated beverages throughout the countries worldwide Except Cuba and North Korea. The carbonated cola beverages was initially formed by John Pemberton in the year 1884 and by the year 1886 the company sold 3 version of carbonated cola drinks to various business individual units. The main objective of the company was to lay emphasis on the needs and requirements of the customers and provide a congenial work atmosphere. Presently, the company offers more than 3500 products in more than 200 countries worldwide (Coca Cola, 2013a).The company tries innovative and unique methods to develop core products which suit the taste bud of the customers and also cater to their needs. Presently, the company manufactures carbonated beverages in varied flavors, juices, energy drinks and juices. Organizational Strategies The marketing strategy of the company includes the manufacturing of carbonated beverages and satisfies the customer needs and requirements. One of the major objectives of the company is to understand the customer needs. Understanding the customer requirements is essential in developing the products as per the customer specification. Customer hygiene and satisfaction plays a pivotal role in Coca Cola and the management is required to focus on accurate market planning which helps in the formulation of plans which has the potentiality of satisfying customer wants. The company has invested huge amount of money in bottling investment and shared value collaborations for improving the customer service operations. The company imparted training and development programs which focused on innovative development and production system by collaborating with DEKA R&D Corporations. The main objective of the program would be to manufacture high quality beverages and through innovative methods by maintaining sustainability. The quality awareness program is conducted periodically which helps in implementing several TQM approaches in an effective manner to make the employees aware of the product that needs to produced for customer’s satisfaction (Cassidy, 2000). The management leadership programs have been provided by the management of Coca Cola to make them aware of the increasing obesity in the developed nations which have become a growing concern for the common people as well as the government. To combat against the growing problem of obesity and various other health problems, the management has conducted programs, like Triple Play which provides nutritional requirement about the beverages offered by the company and also the various methods to combat obesity (Coca Cola, 2013c). Products & Services The main objective of the company is to manufacture high quality products by inspiring creativity, optimism and passion and also abiding by the production policy. The company manufactures carbonated beverages in cola flavors, juices, bottled water, energy drinks etc. The company thrives on producing high quality innovative products continuously and it has been successful in manufacturing innovative carbonated cola beverages. During the 1980’s the company introduced a cola drink which had low calorie and sugar content under the brand name “Diet Coke” (Coca Cola, 2013f). This decision was actually made to enhance the brand image of the company and also to manufacture a drink which is strongly associated with the common people. At present the company specializes in manufacturing cola, lime, orange and lemon flavored fizzy beverage, juices, bottled water, energy drinks etc (Coca Cola, 2013e). The manufacturing of high quality beverages is largely influenced by the TQM approaches which focus on benchmarking systems (Blakeman, 2002). The benchmarking system laid emphasis on the referencing and judging value and the quality of the beverages (Blakeman, 2002). The TQM approaches implemented by the Coca Cola management focus on setting high quality value standards that can be compared with the actual production. Production System and Job Design To enable the production of proper and hygienic beverages the company has established high quality assurance standards which give customer reliability and assurance. The company has developed a quality assurance and commitment control system which ensures that the products and beverages meet international certifications of assurances. This international certification helps in actually delivering high quality beverages and then testing the products accordingly as per the quality assurance mechanisms. The Coca Cola assurance mechanism framework encompasses the international framework and standards like ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. The quality policy designed by the company is based upon three key elements which are the symbol of quality, customer satisfaction and becoming the responsible citizen of the world. Coca Cola has developed a quality system known as Total Country Connectivity Measure (TCCM) which is an integrated total quality system which focuses on the production and distribution system worldwide and also by maintaining the environmental standards. TCCMS ensures the development of high quality beverages; the process has become part of the corporate culture. The main objective of this approach is to ensure whether the management system executes their activities smoothly in cooperation with other activities. TCMMS model is actually a pyramid model which has three facets like quality, safety and environment and consists of four main layers, such as commitment, policy, audit and control (Coca Cola, 2013g). Commitment focuses on providing high quality and innovative beverages to corporate and individual customers. Policy includes manufacturing of high quality beverages by adhering to environment, safety, quality standards developed by the company (Coca Cola, 2013h). These policies are mentioned in the three facets of the pyramid model. The control policy helps in maintaining quality control policy in accordance with the quality management systems and ensures the compliance with the standards of ISO 9001:2001. Audit helps control and compliance with the regulations to ensure performance within the managements system. Control helps in checking whether the activities are adhering to the quality management systems. The job design has been done in a structured format and it believes in promoting quality through leadership commitment and involvement. The quality compliance of beverages is done periodically with onsite audits. Process measurement and analysis The superior bottling operation facilities at Coca Cola have enabled the company to deliver beverages to more than 23 million customers with a diverse portfolio of 500 brands. Presently, the company owns more than 250 bottling partners which deliver performance based on the operational excellence program designed exclusively for the bottling operations (Coca Cola, 2013d). The operational excellence program focuses on checking whether the bottling procedure is occurring as per the developed standards. The quality of the beverages and packaging are focused on checking the ingredients of the products and also regulating the bottling, manufacturing and distribution facilities and ensuring whether these products meet the specific company requirements (Coca Cola, 2013e). To enable the consistency in performance, Coca Cola is governed by the Coca Cola operating requirement which was again replaced by TCMMS system in the year 2010 also known as Coca Cola management systems. A governance process was implemented which ensured that each and every management system implements documents and safety measures. Location Decisions for Facilities and Operations The location decision of manufacturing and bottling the beverages is pre decided and is highly dependent on the nature and the manufacturing process. The company invests huge amount of money in its bottling operations and facilities. Since, the company does not own most of the bottling units it is not possible for the management to decide upon the location of the bottling units hence the flagship markets of the company are located near Eurasian and African region. Most of the bottling units are located near prime location of Western Europe, Asian and Latin American regions. The company believes in manufacturing beverages and products in various locations which are suitable for manufacturing purposes. Conclusion Thus, it is observed that TQM mechanism and approach followed by Coca Cola are significant and excellent and facilitates the development of high quality beverages and products. These approaches help in implementing error free method and also undertake an error free attitude which helps in discarding the non value added work. Coca Cola needs to perform its function based on actions and also helps in fulfilling the desired goals and objectives. Apart from manufacturing high quality beverages the company should also focus on marketing the products ethically and conduct an awareness program which requires the management to lay emphasis on the ethical manufacturing, filtration and processing of drinks. Thus, it is suggested that the company should focus on implementing a leadership program which would be costly yet effective. References Blakeman, J. (2002). Benchmarking: Definitions and overview. Retrieved from http://www4.uwm.edu/cuts/bench/bm-desc.htm Cassidy, M.P. (2000). Streamlining TQM. The TQM Magazine, 8(4), 24-28. Coca Cola. (2013a).Our company. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/ . Coca Cola. (2013b). Mission, vision & values. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values Coca Cola. (2013c). Coke triple play. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coming-together/ Coca Cola. (2013d). Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/annual-review/2012/pdf/TCCC_2012_Annual_Review.pdf Coca Cola. (2013e). Quality. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/quality Coca Cola. (2013f). Product description. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/brands/product-descriptions Coca Cola. (2013g). Brands. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/brands/the-coca-cola-company/ Coca Cola. (2013h). Product safety & organization. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/brands/the-coca-cola-company/ Coca Cola. (2013i). Mission, vision & values. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values Feinberg, S. (2000). How managers defeat TQM. The TQM Magazine, 8(2), 24-28. Read More