Resources
The resources that Cadburys need are:
- Raw materials
- Equipment/machinery
- Buildings
- Land
- Labour
- Money/capital
The raw materials that Cadburys use would be the ingredients that go into their confectionary; these would be things like cocoa beans, milk and sugar.
The equipment that Cadburys use would be the machinery that they make their chocolate with, and that takes the boxes of chocolates to the distribution centre. Also the lorries that take the boxes of chocolates to the shops to be sold.
The buildings that Cadburys need would be the factories, the distribution centres and warehouses they hold ingredients and chocolates in.
The land that Cadburys need would be the land on which the factories have been built, such as Bourneville. They would also need the land for the warehouses to hold any ingredients or final products.
The labour for Cadburys would be the workers that worked at the Cadburys factories, at the warehouses, distribution centres and taking the chocolate and ingredients from warehouses or distribution centres to the shops or to the factories.
The money for Cadburys would be the amount that they spend on ingredients and workers and other things that Cadburys need. And the profit that they gain once they have sold their chocolate.
Added value
At each stage of production the product will have value added until the final value is achieved and the good or service is sold to a customer.
Value added is the difference between the value paid for the inputs used in production and the value of a business output.
Inputs (one chocolate bar)
Cocoa beans – 5p
Milk - 10p
Sugar - 8p
Value of output
Chocolate bar sold for £1.50
Added value = Value of output – value of inputs.
Added value for chocolate bar = £1.50 – 5p – 10p – 8p = £1.24
The value that has been added isn’t a profit. Calculating the value added doesn’t take into account other costs such as labour, rent, electricity or transport.
Use of technology
There are many different ways Cadburys could use technology in their factories. These are
- CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing
- CAD - Computer Aided Design
- CNC - Computer Numerically Controlled
- CIM - Computer Integrates Manufacturing
CAM is where the computer helps to control the machinery.
CAD is where the product is designed on screen with problems solved before prototypes are made.
CNC is where machines are helped to perform very specific, precise tasks.
CIM is there the whole factory is linked and controlled by computers.
There are lots of advantages and disadvantages to using these types of technology in the business.
The advantages include things like
- Greater efficiency
- Higher output
- Lower unit cost
- Fewer routine/boring jobs
- Better quality products
- Research helps find better products
- Better customer service
- Better management of information
- Identical products
- Up to date technology or products
- Quicker
However there are some disadvantages, these include things like
- Can be expensive to introduce and need to sell a large volume to become profitable
- Greater risk
- Technology is constantly changing so can become outdated quickly.
- Fewer workers required- more redundancy.
- Lower job satisfaction can happen as technology takes over.
- Workers need training for machinery.
- If the computer breaks production stops.
Technology can help improve efficiency because a large output can be produced by machines increasing productivity and once the machines are paid for the unit cost is lower.
Quality control
There are many types of quality control such as TQM, Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Kaizen.
Quality control is the methods used by firms to make sure the products are to the right quality. This is usually done by inspecting the product at every stage of production.
Quality assurance is the steps taken by a firm to ensure that there is a known standard of quality built into all its products. All stages of production are checked, raw materials must confirm specified standards, and quality standards such as BS5750 or Investors in People may also be used.
TQM (total quality management) aims at making all employees, at every level of the organisation responsible for quality. Everyone is responsible for the quality of their own product.
Kaizen is the continuous improvement always throughout the business.
I would recommend that Cadburys use Quality assurance as their quality control method. The advantages for this method are:
- Easier to check
- Better to be able to compare to a good quality product
- Customers know what they’re getting
- Consistent quality
However there are some disadvantages, these are:
This method is better than the others, as there is a consistent quality and customers know what they’re getting.
Also there are fewer disadvantages with this method than with any of the other quality control methods.
Efficiency
There are several ways a business can try to improve efficiency levels.
Training the workers in order to give them more skills or knowledge is clearly a cost to firms. They will often have to pay experts to train employees and will also lose the productive time of employees whilst they are training. However this increase in cost should be more than offset in the long term by improvements in the workers productivity levels. This is because training should enable workers to work more quickly and more accurately (produce better quality products).
A better-motivated workforce will work harder and take pride in their work. This should increase the speed of production and also improve the quality of products that are being produced. There are many different financial (e.g. bonuses) and non-financial ways (e.g. empowerment) for businesses to motivate their workers.
Investment into new, higher technological machinery can have a number of advantages.
- Longer hours can be worked
- Increased speed of production (machine can perform repetitive and complicated tasks more quickly)
- Increased accuracy and therefore less wastage
Using better quality materials can reduce the amount of time wasted on rejected or defective products. A business should ensure they find the supplier who can supply the best quality resources, but at a competitive price and also with reliable delivery
Conclusion
To maximize customer satisfaction through high quality goods and services Cadburys could use Quality assurance as their quality control method, as this has many advantages that would help them save time, make more and make better quality products.
They could use technology to improve their goods; this would also save time as they could fix any problems they find very quickly which would also save a fair bit of time.
If Cadburys were to improve their workers motivation they could make more products, in a shorter time, this would be a massive advantage to the company as they would be able to deal with large stock orders and get a larger profit which they could use for new machinery and other essential things.
By using good quality raw materials to make their chocolate they ensure the products that their customers are getting are the best that they can supply; if they used rubbish materials and had an unclean work area then they wouldn’t have customers as people wouldn’t like it as much as if they used good quality products and had a clean work space.
