Slavery In the Chocolate Factory Essay Example for Free

Slavery In the Chocolate Factory Essay â€Å"Quality is the measure of excellence or state of being free from deficiency, defects, and significant variations, (Nader, 2009). Quality of a product can be mainly assessed from a manufacturer and a customer point of view. From a customer point of view, product quality is perspective as each individual perceives quality differently. Ultimately, product quality is the capability of the product to fulfil customer expectations as required from the users. Quality from a manufacturer’s perspective depends on company size, culture, financial resources, human resources, market pressures and company strategy. Due to the availability of a large number of products in the market, different industries have put forward different parameters that allow a product to be judged against the competition. For example, an electronic product may have quality parameters such as performance, reliability, safety and appearance that has to be met (UNIDO, 2006). Process quality Process quality targets the life cycle of a product from the beginning, design, development, roll out, updates and product support. Both product and process quality are combined together and quality control measures put in place to ensure the final outcome is of a high quality. Interaction between product quality and process quality In order to produce a quality product it requires a quality process. This involves maintaining the process operating at a level that complies with required quality criteria. When the quality of a process varies it will have a direct impact on product characteristics and hence product quality. For example, a metal producing plant has processes such as cutting, machining, bending and coating. The smoothness, hardness and thickness etc of the metal are directly impacted by the quality of the processes. Once the metal is manufactured, the customer will judge it against the product specification and make a judgement on quality. (McGraw-Hill, 2002) Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is a company that prides itself on product quality. As a result of this it led to an increase in customer demand and an increase in market share. To maintain the high quality of the end product while meeting demand, Jim Harris and co. put in place procedures that assisted them to retain quality throughout the different stages of the production process. The following table provides a summary of the quality techniques used in the production line: Table 1 Quality Techniques in Production Line Production StageQuality assurance and quality control techniques used to maintain quality of the process Bean Cleaner†¢The precise process associated with separating the waste from beans. †¢Once cleaned, storing the beans under specific climate and humidity controls Roaster†¢Roasting different types of beans separately. †¢Human tasting Winnower†¢Precise process associated with separating cocoa beans from the shell Melangeur†¢Quality testing of the product for texture, taste and physical properties Conche†¢Quality testing of the product done through a scrape gauge to measure the level of smoothness Tempering and molding†¢Human testing for texture, snap and taste Packaging†¢Check quality after the production line General†¢Blind tasting at different stages †¢Hiring skilled operators †¢Calibration of equipment All the above processes will assist in maintaining the quality of the final product. While using third party companies with the productions process, product quality is maintained by random sampling and testing to ensure the product meets required specifications. Quality process analysis Quality control measures are put into place before and during the production process to ensure the raw materials and processes are of acceptable quality. To ensure a high quality product at each stage of the production process quality techniques can be used such as quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC) and through means of continuous process improvements. By implementing these strategies business risks with regard to quality can be managed. However, a cost benefit analysis is required to be carried out to determine if the extent of quality assurance and quality control is beneficial to the business. The final inspection of the product is used for quality assurance as well. There is a fine balance between quality and cost of any product. If the product maintains a higher than required quality and the cost is high due to this very requirement, demand will decrease. Therefore, quality should be maintained at a level where it is sustainable so that a the product can be cost effective to face a competitive market. In the case study, Harris’s team experiments with different techniques to reduce the time required to prepare the chocolate at different stages of the process of chocolate making. It is clear that with the changes in the processes of chocolate production, the final quality was sometimes so much affected that the pioneers of the factory refused to endorse the change. This proves that there is an undeniable interaction between product quality and process quality. However, the decision was made to make changes in the process only after so many trials, testing and tasting. This demonstrates that, In order to make a good quality product a series of quality processes are required. To maintain quality process a series of quality control systems are required. In a process quality control scheme the sequence of the steps is very important as some processes will be critical which would reflect largely in the quality of the final product. The following table details each process where Harris and his team have incorporated quality control schemes to minimise variation. Table 2 Harris’s Quality Control Schemes in the process Process sequenceQuality control Raw material quality controlPurchase BeansFind the farmers who grew the highest quality bean Ferment beans properly before dried and shipped to US Process quality controlBean CleanerThe precise process associated with separating the waste from beans. Once cleaned, storing the beans under specific climate and humidity controls. RoasterRoasting different types of beans separately to optimize the flavor. Operator monitor the temperature and taste the sample. WinnowerPrecise process associated with separating cocoa beans from the shell. MelangeurUse historical melangeur to perform task. Operator determined the time of completion based on look, feel, and taste. Ball MillIt provide quality benefits by decreasing the amount of flavor degradation. The resulting chocolate be tested and evaluated for quality. ConcheAeration was an important step for the quality control as bubble will created when blades moves. Quality testing of the product done through a scrape gauge to measure the level of smoothness Tempering and moldingHuman testing for level of stability, glossy surface, smooth feel in the mouth and snap. Quality control when transporting liquid chocolate to third-party molding. Finished product inspectionPackagingOwn packing in order to keep a close eye on quality. Third-party pacing as they have better equipment and quality control. Quality control at when re-melt and re-temper procedure. Check quality after the production line. Critical control points (CCp) can affect the quality of the finished product. However, not all steps in the process are considered as critical points. Specification or guidelines can assist in maintaining quality of certain products. These set regulations and standards such as to ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 that need to be complied with in a process. Transport or shipping becomes critical points because for example, the basic problem with transporting chocolate in containers is its relatively low melting point. Solar radiation and other external influences (heat sources, such as double bottom tanks, engine rooms) may cause the temperature in the container to rise considerably and exceed the melting point, so making enormous quality degradation inevitable. Process Bottlenecks. A bottleneck in project management is one process in a chain of processes, such that its limited capacity reduces the capacity of the whole chain (Wikipedia, 2012). The capacity of the production process is determined by the slowest chain task. These slow tasks are referred to as bottlenecks and they have an impact on the throughput of a manufacturing process. Bottlenecks in a manufacturing process refer to resources that requires the longest time in operation to meet demand. One of the characteristics of bottlenecks is that it makes the operating rate of the non-bottlenecks operate below 100%. Hence increasing capacity of the bottlenecks helps to reduce the time required for the entire process. However when one bottleneck is eliminated then another bottleneck is usually formed (Imaoka, 2009). The bottlenecks in the process can inhibit flow, cause inventories, and prevent throughout from matching customer demand. This chapter identified the capacity of bottlenecks throughout the process, analysed the management and improvement methods in order to make progress towards Scharffen Berger’s goal. Process flow diagram. The first step to create a process flow diagram is to define the process boundaries. The process boundaries are the entry and exit points of inputs and outputs of the process. The input of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker process is the raw chocolate bean and the output will be packaged chocolate ready to sell. Once the boundaries are defined, the process flow diagram is a valuable tool for understanding the process using graphic elements to represent tasks, flows and storage. Figure 1 is flow diagram represents Scharffen Berger Chocolate maker production process at earlier 2005: Figure 1 Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Production Process The symbols in a process flow diagram are defined as follows: Rectangles: represent tasks. The equipment capacity, process capacity, duration and flow time are listed under each of the task. Arrows: represent flows. Flows include the flow of material and the flow of information. In this case the flow represents flow of raw bean, roasted bean, waste, Nibs, and chocolate. Triangles: represent storage (inventory). Storage bins commonly are used to represent raw material inventory, work in process inventory, and finished goods inventory. The process flow diagram linked tasks in series are performed sequentially. Tasks drawn in parallel such as two Conche machine and different packaging options are performed simultaneously. In the above diagram, raw bean is held in a storage bin at the beginning of the process. After the last task, the output also is stored in a storage warehouse. Scharffen Berger typically kept on to two monthes of inventory in stock for each of its major products. Process performance measures. In order to identify the bottlenecks in Scharffen Berger Chocolate manufacture process, the process performance measures become essential, this aspects include: Capacity – The capacity is its maximum quantity that the equipment capable to perform in once. This parameter can affect the process rate and utilisation of equipment. Process capacity – The process capacity is its maximum output rate, measured in units produced per unit of time. The capacity of a series of tasks is determined by the lowest capacity task in the string. The parallel tasks is the sum of the capacities of the two strings. Flow time – The average time that a unit requires to flow through the process from the entry point to the exit point. The flow time includes both processing time and any time the unit spend between steps. Duration – The duration is the total running time of each of the task in a week unit, it can be one shift a day, seven days a week. The inventory in the process is related to the throughput rate and throughput time: WIP Inventory = Throughput Rate x Flow Time This relation is known as Little’s Law, named after John D. C Little whos proved it mathematically in 1961 (Barton et al, 2002). The process bottleneck improvement. The process bottleneck occurred at the slowest flow rate of the series task in the process. The bottleneck can be found by comparing the process capacity. Saving time in the bottlenecks activity saves time for the entire process. Saving time in a non-bottleneck activity does not help the process since throughout rate is limited by the bottleneck. If the next slowest task is much faster than the bottleneck, then the bottleneck is having a major impact on the process capacity (Starnes, 2000). Operating hour The first bottleneck of production capacity throughout process was identified as operating hour. Before Harris manage the Scharffen Berger, in order to avoid overtime payment to employee, the business only operating one shift per day. The equipments such as Conches, Melangeurs, were not efficiently used. Harris calculated each completed conche could be worth over $30,000 in sales and industry average 40% in contribution on sales. It would be worth to pay overtime and increase productions. Conche operating The second capacity bottleneck throughout the process can be identified as conche operating hour. Scharffen Berger owned two Conches used to refine, mix and aerate the chocolate. The disadvantage of this machine is time consuming, each 1400kg bath of chocolate liquor typically spend 48 to 72 hours inside of the conche machine. Figure 2 indicate the identified bottleneck task (red colour) in the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker process in earlier 2005. Figure 2 Conche Bottleneck in Scharffen Berger Process The production rate of Conche is the slowest compare with other tasks. The total capacity for two Conche is 2800kg, and it’s requiring 40-60 hrs to finish each operation, Conche working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The capacity of the melangeur is 115kg and requires 1. 25hr to finish the job. The working duration of melangeur is 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. By applying production rate formula: By comparing the production rate, the bottleneck of the process can be identified as conche task. Two conche working 24hours a day compare with melangur only work 16 hours a day, the maximum working hour of melangur can not be reached as it constrained by slow operation of conche. In order to improve bottleneck of conche, the ball mill has been introduced as it can perform most conche tasks effectively. Instead of 40-60 hours, the ball mill can grain particles from 100 microns to 25 microns in three hours. The conche would still be needed for its aeration mixing function. The total operation time for ball mill and conche can reduce to 15 hours instead 40-60 hours. Melangeur operating After the company decided to use ball mill instead of conches, melangeur becomes the capacity bottleneck throughout the process. The capacity of the ball mill and conche is 1400kg and requires 15 hours to finish the job. The working duration of melangeur is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By applying production rate formula: Since the production rate of melangeur only 1472 kg/day, the melangeur becomes the capacity bottleneck throughout the process. Figure 3 show the new flow chart as the ball mill introduced. The melangeur was used to grind the nibs; this released the cocoa butter and turned the dry nibs into chocolate paste. The company recently located a used melangeur that could be purchased and refurbished for $50,000. Figure 3 Melangeur Bottleneck in Scharffen Berger Process Molding process The last bottleneck affect the production capacity process could be modelling process. The larger, faster modelling equipment would be prohibitively expensive, and several third party co-packers had excess capacity and would be able to model more Scharffen Bergers chocolate. Harris thought Scharffen Berger might avoid the resulting duplication of the tempering and modelling steps by transferring the liquid chocolate directly to the co-packer. Figure 4 shows the operating process when the modelling and packaging task been given to the third party and co-packers. Figure 4 Third Party Molding and Co-Packer for Scharffen Berger Process In this stage, the process boundaries at output point will change from chocolate ready to sell to liquid chocolate. The modelling and packaging task has been withdrawn from operation process. But the challenges is transporting liquid chocolate was a very tricky, expensive and require high level of quality control with third parties. Future improvements The following lists some methods that can improve the operation process for Scharffen Berger Chocolate maker: Add additional resources to increase capacity of the bottleneck. For example, an additional Roaster or Cleaner machine can be added in parallel to increase the capacity. Reduce work-in-process inventory. Reduce the lead time such as reduce the cooling time after roasting the coffee bean. Move task away from bottleneck resources. Increase availability of bottleneck resources, for example, increasing the daily operating hour for melangeur from 16hours a day to 24 hours a day. Minimize non-value adding activities. Such as reduce transporting time, rework, waiting time, testing and inspection time. Redesign the chocolate type for better manufacturability – can improve several or all process performance measures. Quality Process For a Premium Quality Product The main aim of any organisation is to provide customer satisfaction by providing product and services. Quality of an end product requires production design based on customer feedback which not only minimises loss but also provides competitive advantages. In Scharffen Berger Chocolate maker case study Scharffen berger prioritises specific areas to achieve a high quality product . These areas are as follows Raw material- Scharffen Berger prided itself on using the highest quality beans available from countries such as Ghana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Domician Republic, Madagascar, and other countries. Scharffen Berger blended up to 9 varieties of beans to make each type of chocolate unlike other companies that used only 2 different types of beans. Steinberg and Scharffen travelled to remote regions near the equator to find farmers who grew the highest quality beans and to ensure that these farmers allowed there beans to ferment properly before shipping them. 2) Cleaning Prior to being roasted, beans were poured into a large bean cleaner machine that separated cocoa beans from objects like dust, small stones and twigs 3) Roaster To enhance the flavour all cocoa beans were roasted before they could be sent to make chocolates. Scharffen Berger roasted each kind of bean separately in order to optimise flavour. The sample was tasted by them regularly in order to check whether the roasting is complete. According to Harris, â€Å"practice of tasting† is the best methods of measurements at each stage of the chocolate production process. Once beans were roasted they were used within a few days in order to optimise flavour. 3) Conche Once the chocolates left the melaunger there were still some small nib pieces that needed to be ground further. This was done in the conche. Other premium quality products were also added in the conches which broke all the ingredients down to microscopic pieces. Experiments were also done with powdered sugar in order to reduce the time for Conching but found the taste unacceptable. 4) Tempering and moulding This process was to be done in a specific sequence with a certain degree of stirring. It was used to avoid duplication of the tempering and moulding steps by transferring the liquid steps to co-packers 5) Quality Control This was the most important step performed in order to get a premium quality product. Operators measured the quality of the product by examining its look and texture, breaking it and tasting it. At least once in 15 days, Scharffen Berger management and machine operators got together to calibrate their perceptions and standards for acceptable quality by blind testing the beans and chocolate at various stages of production. 6) Equipment Balmill : using Balmills can increase the capacity of production at least 75%. In addition, it will be extra beneficial for the products with high sugar content by decreasing the amount of flavour degradation that can occur when a premium product is over-processed and excessively manipulated. New equipment such as ball mill will assist in increasing capacity and efficiency of the process. 7) Quality Control: Operators measured the quality of chocolate by constantly examining its appearance, texture, tasting and breaking it. The quality of the product is checked at various stages to test if it is good to be sold. As a result of these quality checks the number of defects in the final product is reduced and will also lead to an overall increase in organizational performance. In addition this will also have a positive flow on effect on customer confidence and customer satisfaction of the product which will yield further increase in demand. 8) Every two months, management and machine operators calibrate their perception and standards for acceptable quality by â€Å"blind testing†. 9) Operating time: Increased conformance to legislation such as carbon emissions by reducing operating time. For example the existing conches are operated 24 hours a day and seven days a week. By replacing the conches with the new ball mill, Harris (Chief operating Officer of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker) and his team will reduces the operating time of machinery and increase the efficiency of the process. Adantages of high quality product Advantages of developing high quality products are, Increase in demand needs increased supply. Addressing the bottlenecks of the production process and improving stages of the process will assist with increasing supply. Increase in customer satisfaction and improving the business output. Using Quality Assurance techniques to check the product at various stages by tasting or testing to ensure that the final product obtained is of premium quality and meets customer expectations will lead to increase in business growth as the customer numbers will increase. Quality improvement is a planed managerial activity. It involves identifying potential improvements, prioritized potential areas of improvement and planning and the implementation of projects and improvements’, (Foster, 2010). Scharffen Berger prioritized potential areas of improvement. Then these improvements were planned and implemented in several stages in order to achieve a premium quality product. Every year, more than 30,000 people toured the factory and many of these visitors bought the products during these tours. By demonstrating how good the quality of the processes was, Scharffen Berger won the confidence of his clients. Moreover, quality processes can be used to manage risks in the production line. As a result quality processes can be used as a risk mitigation strategy by business. In the case of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, the types of risks that can be minimized by quality processes are quality of raw material, appearance, texture, snapping and tasting. In addition to risk management, customers in general are willing to pay an additional amount of money for a premium quality product. Hence there is a niche market for these chocolates. In order to satisfy customers in this market the business needs to follow high quality process development techniques and produce an end product that will satisfy their high expectations. Innovation leads to high quality process development in the long term and an increase in system efficiency. Hence overtime this will result in competitive advantages over the other products and a greater market share in the industry. Another benefit of high quality process development is that it will lead to standardization or bench marking. Benefits of standardization includes for instance, increase in cost effectiveness (e.g. decrease in manufacturing cost), improve negotiating power with third party companies, simplify support and training, simplify purchase of raw materials, procurement, upgrade and disposal of plant materials and economies of scale in manufacturing, training and testing. High quality process development will also minimise the failure costs of the product, both internal and external. Reasons for using a high quality process The aim of Scharffen Berger chocolate maker is to produce premium chocolates. In order to produce premium chocolates Harris and his team requires high quality process development. Some of the reasons for using a high quality process development are as follows: Another benefit of maintaining supply to future demand is the perceived quality of the product by the customers will improve due to an increase in customer satisfaction. It also improves aesthetics of the Scharffen Berger Chocolates such as taste. Increases reliability of the production line with automation for example the use of the ball mill. It gives the company the opportunity for continuous improvement. For example Harris and his team carried out many investigations to reduce bottlenecks and to increase capacity of the existing production line. As an outcome of their investigation they decided to incorporate a new ball mill. Quality management is incorporated into the production line to ensure consistency of the quality of the product is maintained. This can be reflected in the case study by Harris and his team employing a skilled workforce. Quality assurance is maintained throughout the production line to ensure the high quality of the end product. For example Harris and his team undertook extensive testing and tasting of the product at various stages of production. This report aims to explain the issues underlining the Cocoa industry mainly in South Africa. It relates to child trafficking and the actions that corporations such as Nestles and Mars are taking in order to tackle this issue. Lastly it will conclude the actions one can take as a manager in order to resolve these issues using different theories and approaches. Child Trafficking Child Trafficking is in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948-2008 which states that all humans have a choice to work to just and favourable conditions of work. It also states that everyone should be paid fairly and equal to their work. Lastly it states that everyone has the right to rest and limitation on working hours. Children in South Africa. India and other countries in general arent given any of these things. It is the duty of the people high in power to enforce these rights onto their people by putting strict restrictions which can lead to punishments if broken. Dealing with an issue on a large scale is difficult as it is extremely difficult to keep an eye on such small areas of an operation. Due to the high number of production and harvesting it is easy for companies such as SAF-CACAO to keep their secrets hidden from their buyers e.g. Nestle. However Chocolate manufacturers arent bothered by these issues as their main objective is to maximise profits. Due to the high volume of Coco they buy even a small percentage of increase in price per kg of coco can lead to a huge rise in costs in production. Nestle signed an agreement to end child labour in 2001 however they have failed in this because they didnt carry out checks on their suppliers in South Africa. Reports show that 1. 8 Million children are currently in danger of being used as slaves (Humphrey Hawksley, 2012). Companies such as Nestle and Mars can still deal with this issue by boycotting SAF-CACAO and other companies using child labour because this can reduce their profits and pressuring them into bankruptcy. â€Å"The world must shift the focus of trade from being driven solely by profits to serve people-cantered development† (Yash Tandon Executive Director of South Centre). If Nestle stops buying from unfair suppliers then this in return promote a better image of their business which will likely to increase their sales and customers will be more happy with Nestles actions. According to McGregor’s theories X Y SAF-CACAO is currently following the Authoritarian Management Style . This is because they are irresponsible and dont take into account the views of their workers and the conditions they are living through. Cultural differences are also playing a major role in this because South Africa is mainly collectivist based and due to this children are trafficked into slavery and even though this is bad they dont really have a choice because if they return to their parents they will probably be punished for not bringing them any money. Due to the lack of education in areas around ivory coast there is a misunderstanding and unethical views on the age at which a child should work. Parents expect children to work and pay their families regardless of their capabilities and the dangers of them being kidnapped. Dealing with these issues wouldnt be possible unless us as customers boycott Nestle and other firms that are buying chocolates from unethical companies. Buying Fair-Trade products is an alternative which we can all resort to even though it is more expensive it is at least ethical. There are many other firms that promote anti-child trafficking such as Freedom Matters , Anti-Slavery. These influence people to replace their normal purchases with fair-trade products. However there is no strict action that anyone can take to stop child trafficking. As a manager of a firm that uses suppliers in Africa it would be wise to set main priority to fight child trafficking, first step would be to enforce the Human rights law in all the companies operations in order to make sure all the operations within the business as well as the businesses that the firm is dealing with all are following this law. Secondly monitoring the origin of cocoa will be carried out to check exactly where it is made and whether the farms are using children to harvest the crops. If this is the case then social services and the police will be notified. Another way to deal with this issue will be to reward suppliers who operate ethically by offering them higher prices for their cocoa. These suppliers can also be monitored on a monthly basis to check if they are working under the human rights act. In majority of growing countries it is very easy to buy someone by offering them a lot of money to do something bad. Due to this it will only be wise for someone high in power to carry out checks on a businesss production because they will likely to be the only people that will give truthful information. Bibliography FairTrade. (2013). What is Fairtrade?. Available: http://www. fairtrade. org. uk/what_is_fairtrade/default. aspx. Last accessed 1st December 2013. Foodispower. (2013). Slavery in the Chocolate Industr. Available: http://www. foodispower.org/slavery-in-the-chocolate-industry/. Last accessed 1st December 2013. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1945). Preamble. Available: http://www. un. org/en/documents/udhr/. Last accessed 1st December 2013. Douglas Mcgregor. (1960). Douglas Mcgregor Theory X,Y. Available: http://www. businessballs. com/mcgregor. htm. Last accessed 1st December 2013. Humphrey Hawksley. (2012). Nestle failing on child labour abuse, says FLA report. Available: http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-africa-18644870. Last accessed 1st December 2013.