An evaluation of the effectiveness of the techniques used by the business (Cadbury) to plan production and product development

The advantages of this type of forecast are:

• The data helps Cadbury to reduce wastage and produce the amount of products that customers would purchase.
  
• The data is reliable if collected properly/accurately.
  
• The forecast helps Cadbury to make products efficiently as it helps Cadbury to set a target of the amount of products needed; there are always enough products to supply to customers.

I think that the time series method is quite successful for Cadbury as there have been no shortages of the amount of products that they produce, so the customer’s demands are met. However precise information about this is not available to the public. Therefore I am going to use the information that I have produced about an imaginary firm I have used in E4 of my assignment.

The most profitable product that the imaginary firm produces is the mugs, making a profit of £10,500 for the first quarter of the year. I think that this is excellent as this firm is selling the mugs well and making a reasonable amount of profits from them, the mugs are batch produced and are everyday household objects.
I think that the profitability made from the mugs could be increased by the following methods:

• The firm does some research and find out what types of designs the customers are interested in purchasing. This would help to increase the sales, as customers like to have mugs with designs that they like and match with the rest of their kitchen accessories/items. If the firm shows that they are interested in giving the customers what they want then customers are very likely to purchase mugs from the firm.
  But a problem that would arise is that customers don’t need to much mugs as they can be reused again and again so at some point the firm will need to stop producing mugs and withdraw it from the market as the demand will decrease.
  
• The firm could sell the mugs in multi packs as a set as well as individually and this will help to increase the sales of the mugs as most customers prefer to have a set of mugs the same design.
  

From the figures of wastage and production I suggested that the saucer department of this firm should be closed down as it was costing the firm too much to continue to produce saucers to sell to the customers as it was not making its potential profit. The department that I suggested should have an increase in production was the teapot department this was due to the fact that it was the second most profitable product that this firm produced (along with the saucers but I have explained why it wasn’t possible for the firm to continue to produce them). I think that if the firm improved the strength of the teapots then they would be more successful in the market as customers would realise this and want a teapot that is strong so it lasts longer.
 
How the production process is monitored

The quality assurance system that Cadbury use is total quality management (TQM). For Cadbury’s TQM is a method of ensuring that their products are of a high standard of quality and a method to monitor the production of products.
To monitor the production process Cadbury employ supervisors to inspect the product at each stage of production.

I think that the quality of the products that Cadbury produce are of a high standard.