Operation Management: Hershey Company

It is proven that Quality is everyone’s job. In order to make sure that this will be followed, QA framework must be designed. That will guarantee a systematic process of performing each one’s job. Quality was proven to be the key thing that assures the proliferation of a company. It ranges from the quality of its products to the quality of service. For that, the process must also be of quality. Also, quality people must then be key consideration. Quality Assurance is the key for any business to last long in their respective industry.

Taking a look at North America’s businesses, there are some companies who really made grasp and foothold in their respective market. Some are as old as a century or more. One thing is the same among them – they assured the quality of their output in the same way that they assured their revenue. Hershey Company is one of them. It is the largest manufacturer of quality chocolate in North America and was known for its range of confectionary products not just in America. The company had been exporting their products to 90 countries or more around the globe.

They have averaged revenue of over US$4 Billion. Some of their well-known products are Reese’s, Twizzlers, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, Mauna Loa, Ice Breakers, and Hershey’s Cookies. For some years now since its foundation in 1893, Hershey had shown its drive for innovation with their products and also with their system (SAP. 2007). Hershey Company offers variety of products therefore one of the gauge to be used to measure their quality depends on the satisfaction of the consumers. This must be the top priority then.

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The QA process must be divided on five separate portions:

1) Control system for Raw Materials;

2) Process Control System and Practices;

3) System for Sampling, Testing, Analysis and Product Acceptance;

4) System for delivering products or Shipment;

5) Disposition of Nonconforming Materials.

The first part deals with selection process of vendors. Hershey Company requires quality material as a prerequisite for its quality products. After that, lot sampling, acceptance practices, test methods, and certification procedures will follow.

The second part of QA process deals with the ability to sustain the procedure currently or traditionally produced. This will allow the company to stay consistent with the quality of their product. The third part provides assurance of the quality of the methods applied in manufacturing. This required analysis on good laboratory practices and documentation of test methods. Sampling procedures are also required and a system for maintenance of references must be made. It then followed standardization and calibration of the products and lot acceptance with product control system.

In order to satisfy the chocolate fans, there must be high regards on the shipment which managed the shelf life of the product. Here comes the fourth part of the process. This includes packaging and labeling of the chocolate products. There must also be high considerations on the quality of the shipment container. If anything went wrong, for the security of the company’s desire of achieving the approval of the market, there must be the fifth and last part of the QA process which deals with the disposition of nonconforming material.

The company should be prepared to recall or retrieve raw materials and products that are nonconforming if ever necessary. Plus, this must be done with proper caution (American Society for Quality. 1994. p. 4). That is the QA process to be applied for Hershey Company. It is apparent that it is devoted for the assurance that the chocolate products are of high quality and passed a highly defined standard. In line to the process outlined above, the company should have documentations designed to satisfy the requirement of Hershey’s policy, system, and planning.

The analysis of progress must be checked periodically. Day by day, there must be a push to meet quality objectives. There remained the challenge of innovation to constantly satisfy the craving and appetite of the chocolate consumers. Also, there are some internal and external measures that need to be met to guarantee the function of QA. Let us bring the categories for designing measures down to four categories:

1) financial;

2) customer;

3) Internal Business Process;

4) Learning and Growth. The key thing here is Auditing.

If all of these were taken into consideration, Hershey Company as an organization will be more than dynamic as an organization of people and as a market provider at the same time. The first category pertains to the long term profitability. The measures for financial consideration must include highly defined strategies. Second consideration pertains to customers which are the direct source of company’s profitability. The measure to secure this includes superior customer service that assures excellence of business to client relationship.

This is to track their satisfaction. Part of the set of measures is customer retention which aims to avoid loss of clients as competition increases. The internal business, third consideration, required the management team of Hershey to learn which process required improvement and which process must be the prime strength of the company. This way, the company can benchmark on the market of chocolate producers. The fourth consideration, learn and growth, supplied fulfillment on the attempt to innovate.

This measure pertains to the responsibility of the company to make auditing of the requirements and periodical improvement and use them in making sure that they will never be left behind in the industry (Picket, S. K. H. 2010. p. 733). These measures covered both internal and external factors in the whereabouts of the business. Moreover, Hershey, while staying as one great competitor in the business industry of chocolate manufacturing must either sustain their position or improve. The only way for the company is upward. Bounded by competition, Hershey Company also required making necessary action to stand out.

As we can notice with the way Kraft is doing business and with quality of the products, they are apparently similar with the “Hershey ways”. There is not much difference with the way they are competing. A product of Hershey has a similar or a counterpart product as of Kraft and vice versa. Thus the ability to stand out is tough. It is highly recommended to make the measures for customer retention become of higher significance. If it is no longer a question of which product is better, it will bring us to the qualification of which product is served better. Kraft and Hershey are similar thus getting stronger foothold in the market is crucial.

There is a crucial battle between the two recently which is for the takeover of Cadbury. This would be the first time that Hershey will acquire an international giant and has larger amount to continue the battle for its ownership. Kraft Foods is a bigger company but Hershey has a huge potential as the higher management will show the real worth of the company (Cox, R. et. al. 2009). Moreover it is up to them. Cause and effect relationship provides the criteria for making the QA process. What determines the success the process design is the workability and clarity of the procedures.

There remained an interdependent link between quality, standards, and control. They defined the nature of the procedures being applied by a company. These three categories direct the management style and design thus required auditing to make sure that everything is in its proper place.

References

American Society for Quality (1994).

Quality assurance for the chemical and process Cox, R. et. al. (2009).

The Emotions of Hershey’s Bid. New York Times. NY: New York industries. WI: ASQ Press. Picket, S. K. H. (2010).

The Internal Auditing Handbook. West Sussex: Wiley Publishers SAP. (2007).

The Hershey Company. PA: SAP AG Times Company

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