“Process Strategy
Introduction
A process refers to the procedures undertaken to ensure that a product or service satisfies the needs of the end users. It is mainly concerned with planning developing implementing documenting and reviewing the system procedure. This is meant to ensure that the product is availed at the right place and time as well as in the intended manner. All procedures have an impactdirect or indirect on the product or service. A new concept of continuous improvement aims to set benchmarks against which performance should be measured (Russel 1995).
Pretzels are snack foods with unique shapes and a hard shiny outer surface. The production of pretzels is machine-intensive. Pretzels are considered healthy mainly because they are fat free. This has led to the growth in their market base thus realizing a whooping $560 million a year within the United States market. Pretzels are unique in their shape texture flavor and the moisture level. The hard pretzels with low moisture levels appeal to the consumers because they have a longer a shell life compared to the soft pretzels. Pretzels are made using pretzel dough. The main ingredients include flour yeast water sugar and shortening. All these ingredients have a significant impact on the product (Heizer&Rende 2011).
Bill of Materials
The bill of the materials also known as BOM is a list of raw materials or inputs components as well as the quantities required in manufacturing the product. In the case of pretzels the bill of materials would be as follows: flour might be the most important ingredient containing starch and protein. Gluten is a product made by adding water to flour which can be stretched. Therefore it facilitates pretzels to be made in unique shapes. The flour used in pretzels preparation is called soft wheat flour. This flour has about ten per cent protein content. The flour accounts for between 60 and 75 per cent in the dough and this is the critical component in pretzels recipe. Yeast and leavening agents are also other materials. Yeast is added to the dough to trigger the production of carbon dioxide during fermentation. Leavening agents also assist in the metabolism during fermentation. These agents are broken down to carbon dioxide when exposed to water. Shortening is a form of solid vegetable fat and oil. It is associated with volume increase and allows the dough to be soft for a while. In addition shortening gives the pretzels the crumbly texture. Fat accounts for about 3 per cent of the dough recipe. Other important ingredients include water making up 30 35% of the dough recipe. Salt sugar and additives are responsible for the pretzels taste (Hoseney 1994).
Process Strategy
Process strategy is a plan that aims to ensure that cost quality and production flexibility are enhanced. Process strategy enhances the product to meet customer requirements and attain the forecasted cost and managerial goals. Four main process strategies can be used. They include process focus repetitive focus product focus and mass customization. Process strategy mainly aims at low volume of output yet high variety (Booth 1990). Product focus is appropriate for the pretzel industry and can be depicted in the flow chart as shown below:
Product focus
This implies that the product organizes facilities. The strategy entails high volume of output and low variety. The production-runs involved are long to enhance efficiency. The product focus is machine-intensive and is suitable for pretzel production. This strategy also enhances a scenario of few but similar inputs with the output varying in shape size or packaging. Product focus is characterized by special purpose equipment and in essence the pretzel production has been done by use of automated machinery. Pretzels production is faced with numerous standardization measures. This is also a key characteristic of the product strategy. In this case there are few new or unique orders and most instructions are the same. In the product focus strategy inventory levels are low. The product focus also enhances simple scheduling and establishing output rate to meet the forecast. Thus it is appropriate for the pretzel business (Heizer&Rende 2011).
However in the product focus fixed costs are quite high. A company adopting the product focus should ensure that it effectively attains over-absorption of fixed costs. This will ensure that there is maximum utilization of the plant and a guarantee of high returns. In addition an improvement in the pretzel-making machine should focus on design. This facilitates the production of pretzels (Booth 1990).
Once the dough is an oven it takes approximately 14 minutes to prepare 12 pretzels. The total time in producing the 12 pretzels is 36 minutes. Thus it takes about (36/12) 3 minutes to produce a pretzel. Assuming that 6 hours are available at night which is (60*6) 360 minutes; then the total available production at night will be (360/3) 120 pretzels. It takes 30 minutes to complete an order of six pretzels. Therefore the time it will take to complete an order is 30 minutes.Hence this translates to (300/30*6) 60 orders per day. Therefore the current capacitynumber of orders that can be completed in one night is 60 orders. The time utilization based on the above computations is 60*30 = 180 minutes. For the break-even point: (TC=TR) TR=$3*120/6=$60 while TC=$10. Hence the BEP will be (60/10) six. Therefore if I charge $3 per 6 pretzels and fixed costs are $10 per day the break-even point in dollars is $6.
Conclusion
Process strategy is a plan that aims to ensure that cost quality and production flexibility are enhanced. In the production of pretzels process strategy is implemented using the product focus.”
