OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - Essay Example J. Heinz Co’s Resources 40 2.3.1.1 Increase Competiveness 45 2.3.1.2 Long-term Sustainability 49 2.3.1.3 Corporate Social Responsibility 54 2.4 Porter’s Value Chain Framework 59 2.4.1 H. J. Heinz Co’s Porter’s Value Chain 59 3.0 Conclusion 70 4.0 Bibliography 73 1.0 Introduction H.J.Heinz Company was started in the year 1900 in Pennsylvania and it manufactures a vast range of food products throughout the world. The Company’s principal products include ketchup, condiments and sauces, frozen food, soups, beans and pasta meals, infant nutrition and other food products (HJ Heinz Company, 2005). The company is present in over 110 major locations worldwide, with leading brands on six continents. The Heinz brand is a $2.5 billion global icon and Heinz's top-15 power brands account for two-thirds of annual sales (HJ Heinz Company, 2006). With more than $8 billion in annual sales, Heinz's 50 companies have leading brands in more than 200 countries (HJ Heinz Company, 2009). In the year ending 2010, it achieved sales of $10.5 billion and gross profit of $3.8 billion (HJ Heinz Company, 2010). These positive results reflected increased innovation and marketing and dynamic growth in Emerging Markets. However, one of the core aspects of the company is also its unique lean production techniques which have played a major part in enhancing the efficiency of the company while at the same time managing to survive tough global markets especially for a US based company tackling recession. 2.0 Discussion 2.1 Evaluation on H. J. Heinz Co 2.1.1 Definition of Lean Production Lean production simply means a manufacturing paradigm that improves product quality; reduce production costs and being able to respond to customer needs quickly (Radhakrishnan and Balasubramanian, 2008). The main principles of lean focus on the methods of creating a continuous improving culture that engages employees in reducing production time and material in order to meet custome r’s needs. Lean production also concentrates on systematic elimination of non-valued added activity of waste from the production and implementation process of lean principles (Chalice, 2007), which will contribute an improvement environment performance (Radhakrishnan and Balasubramanian, 2008). The term lean production can be traced to its origins with Japanese companies more specifically in the Automobile market which faced issues like lack of resources including financial and labour. At this stage of crisis, two employees of Toyota Motors namely Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno developed this unique concept to manage such a crisis focusing solely on terminating waste in a production or manufacturing process which is called as Lean Manufacturing in the western region. 2.1.2 H. J. Heinz Co’s Lean Production Being a global food processing company, Heinz critically needs to leverage its production aligning with its strategy of waste management. While the company has extensiv ely worked on various lean production and waste management cases, research will focus on one of the major cases of the company where waste management was successfully done Amongst its other global strategies, when Heinz chose to give priority to waste management, it realized that technology would be one of the key aspects if it were to successfully compete in the industry and reduce waste. After careful analysis of several competitive applications, Heinz chose an enterprise asset

President Ronald Reagan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

President Ronald Reagan - Term Paper Example One such example of a nation with rich history of leaders is the United States. In the modern society of the United States, the president is viewed as the greatest leader of the country. The US has had its share of its own leaders, from the first presidents and community heads, to today’s president, Barrack Obama. One of these leaders of the American nation who served as a president is Ronald Reagan. He has numerous contributions during his term, but one must objectively assess these contributions, so as to fully appreciate whether these contributions and achievements had any real impact or effect. In relation, this paper will then look into the said contributions and achievements of a US president, specifically Ronal Reagan. This paper will first present an overall look at the president’s biography, especially focusing on Reagan’s term as the president of the United States. Afterwards, this paper will then present a critical appraisal of the president’s c ontribution to the country, using the different criteria provided by different secondary literatures and resources. In here, different ratings or appraisals will be given to the president and his performance, based on the said literatures. In addition, after different individual grades, an overall grade or evaluation of former president Ronald Reagan will be presented. More importantly, this paper will attempt to prove that President Ronald Reagan can be given a grade of A-, based on his achievements and accomplishments, also including numerous issues, controversies, and problems that arose during his reign as president. Biography and Overview of President’s Administration Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on the 6th of February in 1911, in a second floor apartment in Tampico, Illinois, where his parents resided at the time. The young Reagan was then raised in Dixon, and he received his education at Eureka College, graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Eco nomics.1 After he graduated, Reagan first went into the entertainment sector, wherein he served as a radio broadcaster in Iowa. He then moved to Los Angeles in 1937, where his career in the entertainment sector soared as he found roles for acting in films, and then television shows.2 Some of Reagan’s most notable films include Bedtime for Bonzo, Kings Row, All American, and numerous others. In the later years of his career as an actor, Reagan found himself serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Later, he also became the spokesman for the company General Electric (GE), where history saw to the earlier beginnings of his political career.3 Reagan was originally a member and follower of the Democratic Party, but by the late 1950s, his positions started shifting rightward and by 1962, he transferred to the Republican Party. His most notable move to the political arena was seen when, after delivering a stirring speech in 1964 supporting the presidential candidacy of t hen candidate Barry Goldwater, his leadership potentials were noticed and then brought to the limelight. With this acknowledgement of his potentials, Reagan was then persuaded to run for the governorship. Two years later, he won the said California governorship, a position he won again in 1970.4 In 1968, he ran for presidential nomination as candidate for the Republican Party, but he lost, and again in 1976, he ran for the same nomination for presidential candidacy but was defeated. Finally, in 1980, he won the said