Productivity and Process Improvement Research Paper

Productivity and Process Improvement - Research Paper Example Bread is an essential meal for breakfast because of its convenience, relative durability and adaptability, potentially low cost and nutritive value. People who live around green Valley Bakery like bread to an extent that they have changed the man must eat slogan into if man has to eat, he must eat bread. Therefore, the demand for bread is quit high. Unfortunately, this local bakery normally fails to meet this demand leading to bread importation from other towns. However, local people prefer bread from Green Valley because it is always fresh and tasty. The bakery management claims that it is normally unable to meet demand because of low productivity that results from low supply of basic ingredients especially flour, high cost of labor and lack of modern cooking equipments. Therefore, they produce very little while demand is almost twice of what they produce. This shortage is normally worse during weekends, when it is hard to locate fresh bread. Therefore, if Green Valley Bakers can im prove their productivity and processes, they are more likely to reap great profits that can even help it open chain bakeries. Productivity Measures In order to achieve its vision, the company has to take into account productivity measures that will help it improve its production and production processes. First, to deal with the problem of supply of ingredients, the company can choose to merge with a wheat flour miller or large scale wheat supplier. The company can then choose to sign contracts with such companies in order to ensure a steady supply. Such a measure will ensure that it is able to get sufficient flour and other ingredients on time as Laraia, (1999) observes. With enough supply of raw materials, the bakery will be in a position to produce enough bread for its loyal customers. The other issue that the company faces in its activities is poor and traditional equipments. These equipments are slow and can only accommodate few pieces of bread at a time. To deal with this probl em, the company must employ modern baking equipments like dough molders, dough mixers, and dividers. Though they are expensive in the short run, they produce significant results in the long run that will help the company achieve its goals (Torres, and Feld, 2010). Modern baking equipments like electric ovens have a large capacity that can accommodate many pieces of bread at a time. On the other hand, they are very fast and the bakery can manage to cook very many pieces of bread and cakes. With such improvements, the bakery will meet the high demand for bread to its local residents as well as other towns in California. The bakery also faces problem of high cost of labor that increases the cost of production. With high cost of labor and low production units, the bakery will definitely incur losses and will never achieve its vision and goals. To deal with the situation, the management can choose to employ cheap labor, even if it means importing workers from other areas with high labor supply. On the other hand, it can choose to increase the productivity per worker so that counter the high cost of labor. The bakery should ensure that it is able to produce at the breakeven point, that is, where productivity is able to meet the cost of production. Key Processes The key processes that are involved in the manufacturing process of bread include preparing the dough by mixing all the required ingredients like flour, yeast, oil, salt, and sugar. The dough is then cut into