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Kudler Fine Foods is a profitable upscale specialty and gourmet food store with three locations in La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas, California. Kudler’s mission is to provide customers with the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment (Apollo Group, Inc., 2006). Customers visiting Kudler stores demand specialty and fresh organic foods. To keep customers satisfied, Kudler must offer excellent quality products and ensure product availability.
The company, founded by owner Kathy Kudler, realizes the need to offer an increased organic product line because consumers are demanding organic products. According to the Associated Press, “Growth in sales of organic foods has been 15% to 21% each year, compared with 2% to 4% for total food sales” (2006, p. 1). By making changes, Kathy has an opportunity to increase operational efficiency and retail sales in its three stores by changing its supply chain to contract with local growers of organic produce. The impact of a change in the supply chain will force Kudler to examine the possible risks and opportunities, and make changes to its operations to ensure it can provide quality products to satisfy customers. By having the right quality control tools and performance measurement standards, Kudler can continually move forward to improve operations, develop supplier relationships, offer new products, expand the business and customer base to maximize profits, and satisfy loyal customers.
To ensure the competitiveness of a company the company has to understand how processes work and the processes have to match the needs of the firm. This paper will identify Kudler’s current business processes and how its processes may ...