Undergraduate Major Project � Integrated Case Study

Undergraduate Major Project - Case Study of Supply Chain

Introduction of Supply Chain and Current Market Strategic Issues

“West Cornwall Pasty” is a “fast-food chain” enterprise in the “United Kingdom”, this organization is founded in 1998, and this company was owned by “Mark and David Samworth”.  This company focused on enhancing the quality of its products and uses the best ingredients in selling products.   This company provided various types of food products such as stuffing full of steak tender, hand-crimped, cronies potatoes, Swede buttery, and onion pasty is famous in the company markets.  This company's food quality is very good and delicious; the company maintained the customer's needs and satisfaction in the current markets.  The company's authentic pastry and deep filling are making the customer's cravings.  This company's current production quality is the best and the company marketing strategy is good for the company. The company is best for fast food making; company food is too yummy and increases the customer's satisfaction.  But after this pandemic condition company's overall prices are down approx “£7.1m loss”, During this 2020 lockdown condition company run significant losses, and the company lost their pre-taxation.This company's marketing strategy is average and the company maintains proper hygiene and good technology, and the company share price values are average.   Based on the current situation this company is facing some strategic issues, and challenges, such as supply chain issues and current market values issues. 

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Strategic challenges and their solution

Strategic issues 

This company facing “supply chain strategic issues”, in this pandemic condition company facing the supply chain issues, company suffer from a “lack of traceability”, the company could not fulfil the customer's demand and need, the company's productivity is low, and the company's production values are also suffering from strategic issues (Everett, 2018). The condition of the poor storage is bad for production, and this company's transportation policy is not good in the current market, after this COVID-19 company faced industrial storage issues. This fast food business cannot focus on the storage of raw materials, raw materials issues are creating low productivity, and the bad proclivity is affecting the company’s supply chain, and not full fills the customer's satisfaction (Gkogka et al.  2020).  Inadequate communication affects the company's supply chain management, communication is an important part of the business, but currently, the company is facing inadequate supply chain issues for the lack of communication between the parties and marketing teams (Dann, 2019). The company marketing team's responses are not good and appropriate; they hamper the company supply chain policy management.  Company supply cost is not good and more efficient for the market value and warehouse practices and bad transportation is hampering the company's food safety and quality (Aday, 2020).  Manufacturing issues are badly creating an impact on the company's supply chain policy; the company marketing strategy is not good for the customers and the company market policy.  This company cannot create better processes are enhance the supply chain strategy, company facing a lack of raw materials, which influences the supply chain issues.  In this pandemic situation, a company faces e-commerce and technology issues that create a gap between supply and demand, and the company mainly faces inappropriate marketing problems (Aldous, 2020.).  Supply chain management members must do some hard work to increase their efficiency strategies for the growth of the business. Nowadays customer choices are at a high level, especially in fulfilment speed. This means each and every working part of the supply chain need to carefully assess and monitored to make sure that the product is should be bought actively and effectually. The company cannot focus on good productivity and innovative supply chain strategy, lack of demand and productivity is increased supply chain issues in the company's current markets. Transparency is important for every company, company currently facing a lack of transparency, it is increased the low productivity in the company. Company promotion and brand promotion are not goods; they create fewer brand demands (Cappelli, 2020). This company's product quality and production value are not appropriate, it is not fulfilled the customer's satisfaction in the current markets; Maybe it badly affected the company's supply chain.  This fast food company's process and packaging are averages in the current market, and the company doesn't create various types of supply chain management. The company's lack of communication badly impacts the other parties (Zhao et al. 2019). Lower profit and seals create a lack of traceability, and the “food supply chain” stands to generally be caused by “West Cornwall Pasty's” operating outdated methods and traditional document tracking or manual checks. This concluded the delay in the sharing of information in the markets and company.

Figure 1: Supply chain strategic issues

(Source:  Gartner.com)

This company faces the Current market “financial strategic issues”; the company marketing management plan is not good and not beneficial for the company. Companies are facing a lack of financial management issues.  The economic plan and timetable and shareholder's market value are good for the company's growth and implementation. but this company suffering from a bad budgeting plan affects the company's economic condition. A budget plan is important for the company and the budget focuses on the company's goals and purpose in the current market. This company's bad economical plan is hampering the company budget plan (Duan et al.  2020). Lack of productivity also decreased the company earning revenue; in this pandemic situation company's productivity condition is not working properly.  Company financial team managements are not good for the company's budget planning, during this pandemic, condition company share market prices are low, and the company facing supply chain issues (Susesti, 2020).  Included the lack of cash flow is hampering the company budget, and company supply chain management is not good for enhancing the economic team's purposes. Bootstrapping is hampering the company's financial condition, this process is finding out the lead and investor funding and it is a wonderful way to company be backed against the “wall financially”, the company is not balancing this method it decreased the company's market value in the current market. Poor accounting managements hamper the company's economic condition, the company's economic team management does not work properly and it badly impacts the company's financial condition (Singh et al. 2019).  After this pandemic company share market process is also down, and it's badly hampering the company's current market values. This company's production quality is not good based on the current market, Company's customer satisfaction policy and marketing management are not good, and sometimes the company cannot follow the company goals and purposes, including the bad economic condition. The company does have not better innovation ideas and the company does not implement better technology may sometimes affect the company's marketing strategy.  Unnecessary expenditure affects the financial condition, this fast food company does not expend their money on useful strategies and plans, and it creates bad economical issues (Ruan et al. 2019). Inappropriate financial strategic management is hampering the company's business plan and prospects, and the poor quality strategic management and strategic gap provided the bad economic condition in the company.  Bad leadership quality and plan badly impact the company's work performance, company work Performance is improved the company's production and financial condition.  The marketing plan issues hamper the company's economic condition and the company budget plan.

The fast food sector is one of the fast-growing and highly competitive sectors in UK but this sector is facing issues regarding economic downfall ad poor customer’s involvements. Moreover, increasing competition rate due to the existence of several fast-food chain companies namely  Subway, Co-op Food, McDonald's,  Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Greggs is responsible for increasing threat regarding competitive rivalry significantly (Scrapehero.com, 2022).  High competition rates and variability in customer demand contribute to encouraging innovations and improvements in food quality concerning customers' health consciousness, which can be recognised as a strategic issue for fast food chain industry.

Personalising marketing strategies of the different organisations is associated with developing smart kitchens with utilisation of current technology and advanced data analytics processes adopted by market players in fast food industry. Several significant challenges in the strategic implementation process of fast food industry involve tendency of consumers to prefer healthy foods for a healthier lifestyle that is affected customers' involvement in fast food industry.  As observed by Suhartanto et al. (2019), constantly changing customers' preference towards healthy food plays a significant role in enhancing customers switching power that signifies the importance of maintaining and improving food quality to reach customers' requirements for enhancing customers' involvement and satisfaction.

Figure 2 : issues in different industries after COVID19

(Source: Ons.gov.uk, 2022) 

On the other hand, the food and beverage industry is facing issues regarding supply chain and labour storage. Challenges include supply chain is associated with issues regarding poor transparency of customers' demand and quick delivery process that have to improve. Labour shortage-related issues involve higher labour costs that are approximately 29% to 30% (Ons.gov.uk, 2022). Increasing labour costs affected the overall profitability of business due to increasing expenditure that is related to business issues for the fast-food industry in UK.  COVID-19 pandemic situation is responsible for the economic downfall of UK that is responsible for increasing price of every component such as energy, and raw materials for fast food companies as well as labour costs.

Increasing cost rate refers to another issue of the fast food industry that comes from increasing COVID-19-related expenditures, developed kitchen technology and online service process. Developed kitchen technology leads to increasing e electricity costs for fast food organisations. According to the governmental annual report, around 60% rise in energy prices in the fast food industry is higher than other scores comparing 38% for all sectors (Ons.gov.uk, 2022). Those factors indicated a noticeably challenging situation for the fast food industry that has to improve by adopting a strategic development process concerning the reduction of cost, increasing labour storage and reaching customers' requirements and demands with quality food.  

Challenges

Worldwide food companies are facing some remarkable challenges for long years. Customer demands efficient product transformation, an increase in the quality of the products and profit margins etc. There are some factors that are moving market dynamics to a point where food companies should correct their flaws and faults to grow their business. This fast food company faces various types of challenges such as storage issues, protection employees, and Cargo Theft issues.  In this current situation company, customer needs and requirements are rapidly increasing, but the company cannot fulfil the current customer's satisfaction and needs. Not adequate storage creates facing low productivity challenges.   Smart technology creates a bad impact on the company's current market policy, Company technology is good but this not balances the current smart technology, technology implementation is important for decreasing the company facing challenges.

Many food companies could not focus on customers' needs. They don't try to focus on this. For that reason, they lack innovation and transparency in their company. Food companies should focus on customers' demands and try to apply these. They should try new varieties of old products, add some new products and of course with better taste and health. Product or item Innovation is not only focusing on or understanding the customer's demands but also satisfying those (Rudolph et al. 2021). They should give detailed information about their products and give confirmation about how eco-friendly their products are. Food companies should create websites and attractive labels and share this with customers to attract more future customers. This company supply chain disruption is reducing the company's growth and productivity.  Employee retention badly impacts the company's reputation and market values (Banaeian et al.  2018). During this pandemic situation company suffered food supply chain challenges and worker retention which affected the company's goals and purpose. 

Food companies need to understand that customers need better landscape quality and compliance just as the varieties in new products. Poor landscape quality will give a bad impact on customers. Companies should take an active and responsible approach to quality and management. This company faces supply chain marketing plan issues, and irregular storage hampers the supply chain policy.  In the pandemic situation, the global supply chain faces proper storage and manufacturing issues (Miranda, et al. 2019).  A “plastic ban” is one of the challenges in the current food company, the waste management programmes and manufacturing challenges facing the current fast food industry.  Technological challenges have decreased productivity in the company, sometimes the company cannot focus on aims and the proper knowledge about the technology, which creates an impact on the company's current economic conditions (Ebner, 2021).  Customer error leads the more stress on the supply chain issues and the loss of productivity. If the company facing not a proper supply chain management challenge, the company's supply chain is not fulfilling the company customer's demands and needs (Browning et al. 2021). Every company focuses on the green environment and creates a plastic ban policy, create also new management plan in the company. 

Profits and loyalty of the consumers are effectively impacted by the selling information of products. To make a good image in today's competition, companies should think in a different manner for the growth of the business. They should add online home delivery features for customers as this will be beneficial for both customers and the company. “The modern customer demands” create the facing challenges for the company, the company cannot meet its customer's demands, Company employees' safety and security challenges, and this company suffer bad economic conditions and the country's rapidly increased growth and population bad impact the company's productivity. A high population badly impacts the company's retention of employees (Stephanidis et al.  2019), and the growing population creates challenges in the company's storage capacity, and also agricultural capacity.  Company food and food loss challenges face the current company after this pandemic increased food loss and waste.  The bad practices of the food production chain, impact the bad productivity conditions in the company. The bad production badly impacts the company's finance. These types of challenges face the food company.

COVID-19 pandemic situation plays a significant role in changing the socio-economic behaviour of UK by influencing customers' health consciousness and increasing costing of resources for making business. In this aspect, fast food industry is facing issues regarding increasing costs and reduction of customer preferences and involvements that resulting in poor sales for different fast food companies namely "West Cornwall Pasty Co". Throughout, the annual sales report of “West Cornwall Pasty Co" it has been identified that company has lost around  £7.1m for sudden shutdown during Covid-19 pandemic situation (Cornwalllive.com, 2022).  Parent firm of "West Cornwall Pasty Co" namely Ginsters the owner of “Samworth Brothers” has faced a significant economic loss above £31.6m  in this pandemic situation. 

Increasing the taxation rate of UK leads to increasing costs for “West Cornwall Pasty Co" that is responsible for a deficit profit of around £1.7m t in 2019. Developing restrictions in motorway service and railway stations in 2020 leads to create supply-related issues for procuring raw materials and delivering fast food to customers led to effects on sales rates and made losses due to governmental schemes. Expenditure in 2022 was approximately £4.3m due to increasing energy prices and labour costs that affect financial performance of parent company signifies "an incredibly challenging year" for "West Cornwall Pasty Co" as well as “Samworth Brothers”. "Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme" has claimed £11.3m and £338,000 for purchasing governmental approval after COVID-19 that is an example of increasing cost of fast food industry as well as "West Cornwall Pasty Co" (Cornwalllive.com, 2022). Those additional costing led to reduced profitability due to impacts of an external situation and economical downfall. 19% sale rate has decreased due to increasing customers' health conciseness after COVID-19 pandemic situation. 

Solutions - an organisation-level solution to the impacts of these challenges 

The issues that are faced by West Cornwall Pasty in recent years are a disruption in the supply chain and financial management. “Supply chain management (SCM)” is the flows and relationship management between the ‘line’ (or chain) of procedures and strategies that produce importance in the shape of services and products to the top customer (Slack & Brandon-Jones, 2018). The objective of the management of the supply chain effectively is to ensure quality, speed of service and delivery, credibility, dependability, flexibility, sustainability and control costs in a business. Due to the recent development of issues such as Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic etc., the supply chain of “West Cornwall Pasty” faces a lot of issues including the disruption of the supply chain. The existing type of supply chain that the organisation follows is the “partnership relationship”. A “collaborative or partnership” relationship is defined as a long-term relationship between the elements of supply chain operations and it contains a commitment to working together during the timeframe to obtain a mutual advantage (Slack & Brandon-Jones, 2018). These associations highlight collaboration, regular exchange, knowledge sharing, and collective issue unravelling and occasionally even sharing of profit. But considering the current scenario and the issue that is faced by “West Cornwall Pasty” the “collaborative or partnership relationship” in the supply chain is not advisable because to prevent the issue of the supply chain instead of long-term collaboration and commitment the organisation need an effective short-term solution and speedy recovery from this situation. For attaining the required objective one suggestive measure can be taken and that is to change the supply chain management method from “collaborative or partnership” to “transactional”.  “Transactional relationship” describes the product purchasing and service of supply in a fashion of market purely. This type of supply chain management always tries to find the best choice with the suppliers that can provide the raw material at a reasonable price and fast delivery of material. Supply of each material involves separate suppliers and this relationship can either be long-term or short-term. This whole relationship is entirely dependent on the final contract between the supplier and the company. Market-based contracts in transactional relationships can help to minimize the purchasing price and that way the organisation can increase their marginal profit and resolve the financial issues also that they were facing due to the fluctuation of their current value of the market share. Other benefits of opting for a “transactional relationship” in supply chain management are, this can help in retaining the competition between the suppliers that are alternative options for that supply and this can directly help with finding the best possible supplier from time to time in dynamic market conditions. If there is a change in demand the company can adjust the type and number of suppliers and can be able to choose the cheaper alternative in a faster way to redirect internal shifting. 

“Transactional relationships” can help to avail a more extensive variety of sources of innovation and it is useful in assessing a supplier before any implementation of a potential move or experimental strategy for recovering from certain issues (Kerzner, 2022). As the organisation is facing challenges to meet barely, transactional relationships can be helpful for them for irregular or one-off purchases. 

In the current scenario, the organisation is facing big financial and resource-based problems that need to be improved in an integrated manner. As these issues are deeply related to the foundation of the organisation, the company needs to obtain a “continuous improvement strategy” for recovering from these challenges. This strategy adopts an approach for performance improvement by incorporating incremental steps of progress. The process of continuous improvement is not about promoting progress in every small step but delivering significant advantages on the completion of a large one. The major benefit of a continuous improvement strategy is that it delivers “streamlined workflows”. It can also reduce project operation costs and prevent overages. This process has inherent flexibility in the development of strategy and helps to take advantage of the opportunities that are important for “West Cornwall Pasty” to overcome its present challenges. It will help the organisation to save cost and time and along with that keep the product quality up. Finding the improvement opportunities and then considering the changes together can help in building effective strategies for continuous improvement.

COVID-19 pandemic situation is responsible for bringing huge changes in food consumption behaviour and diet plan of consumers due to increasing awareness about being healthy.  Concerning the healthier tendency of consumers, Fast food industry has to modify its food processing process by replacing healthier ingredients. Moreover, changing of service process through maintaining COVID-19 restrictions is required to reach customers' demands and preferences. Using preservatives in food leads to affecting human health that signifies the importance of reducing the use of preservatives in food production process. A healthy label on products is associated with instruction about product ingredients that helps to learn about their ingredients and calorific value.

Eliminating artificial and unhealthy ingredients and including healthy ingredients will be beneficial for fast food companies namely "West Cornwall Pasty Co" to reach health-conscious customers that will contribute to increasing sale rate and regaining financial performance (Westcornwallpasty.co.uk, 2022). The inclusion of labelled ‘gluten-free’,  and ‘sugar-free’ in product packages helps to attract health-conscious customers that have to `adopt "West Cornwall Pasty Co" to deal with challenges regarding the tendency of customers for shifting to healthy foods. Utilising organic ingredients in food processing plays a significant role in increasing food quality with a healthy variety that makes a positive impact on human health. Apart from that, it can be stated that utilising healthy ingredients, organic masterpieces are an identical solution for "West Cornwall Pasty Co" because it helps to reach health-conscious customers and increased sales rates.

The increasing variety of nutrient-rich foods is a remarkable idea for the business development practice of "West Cornwall Pasty Co" because it helps to improve food quality concerning the interest of health-conscious customers.  As researched by Abdullah et al. (2018), increasing sales rates and customer involvement can be recognised as a significant element of ever-growing financial performance that leads to overcoming threats regarding market competition and high expenditure with significant profitability. Increasing the sale rate helps to strengthen economic conditions to take risks for further improvements in business processes that have to adapt to achieve a recognisable market position and enlarge market size.

Investing in Automation is important for minimising labour costs and increasing the effectiveness of the service process.  "West Cornwall Pasty Co" is facing issues regarding poor labour state and increasing rate of labour costs after COVID-19 pandemic situation. According to Duong et al. (2020), this situation can be managed by encouraging autonomous technology in food processing process because it is capable of making tasks with less time and less effort.  Autonomous technology is required a one-time investment and helps to increase productivity with less effort that helps to overcome regular costing for labour storage and increased profitability.  As argued by Yousefi et al. (2019), applying artificial intelligence in working process is associated with encouraging autonomous technology that is required by technology experts for marinating the working process. Digital technology plays a vital role in organisational innovation by encouraging online service processes as well as an autonomous operational process.  Therefore, "West Cornwall Pasty Co" have to invest in technological advancements and innovation of healthier food for overcoming issues regarding increasing cost and labour storage as well as market competition through increasing sales rate and market size strategically. 

Implementation – a plan to put a solution into practice 

The implementation of a “continuous improvement strategy” needs to adopt a cyclic model named as “DMAIC Six Sigma improvement cycle” (Kerzner, 2022). This experimental approach starts with specifying the issue or issues, partially to comprehend the extent of what ought to be accomplished and partially to determine precisely the necessities of the procedure of improvement. The parts of this cycle are “Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control”.

There are some techniques that can be described or introduced to help improvement in operations. These are “Scatter diagrams, Cause-effect diagrams, Pareto diagrams” etc (Slack & Brandon-Jones, 2018). These methods are helpful for finding the problem's root and provide practice for structuring group sessions of brainstorming. The aim of the Pareto diagram is to distinguish between necessary and less important issues and can be helpful in assessing the areas that need further improvement and decision-making.

The development of a proper supply chain involves four stages and are,

The selection of products and suppliers for the purpose of development: As all the suppliers cannot be developed for services and products, it is important to select appropriate suppliers for strategic services or products. Those with moderately feeble present performance but with the possibility for advancement are the potential to be appealing, as suppliers whose information is especially significant, or where swapping to other suppliers is challenging.

Formation of a project team and gain the development of buy-in suppliers: Formation of such a project team that can bring all the stakeholders together and discuss in detail the overall issues. Achieving ‘buy-in’ can demand considerable effort, time and sensitivity in the earlier phases of the process of supplier development, particularly if the management of suppliers could be somewhat defensive of the initiatives taken for development.

Agreement on measures and goals for the development of suppliers: 

Development of suppliers demands explicit scoping in phrases of costs, key deliverables and timelines to assure that both “West Cornwall Pasty” and its suppliers' consent on the key factors that comprise success. This phase should also implicate the evaluation of risks so that leaders of the project can evaluate potential strategies for mitigation. Currently, “West Cornwall Pasty” is facing the challenge of keeping up the quality of products at a reasonable price for that the authority must invest more time and money in finding replacements for existing suppliers that can deliver the raw material at lower market value. 

“Internet of Things (IoT)” and Logistics: Distribution or logistics is the activity of hauling products from suppliers to the consumer.  “West Cornwall Pasty” operates “first-party logistics (1PL) and second-party logistics (2PL)” where the company outsources the service of logistics over a particular supply-chain segment (Westcornwallpasty.co.uk, 2022). Considering the extensiveness of the organisation, implementing internet-based communication “Internet of Things (IoT)” has an effective impact on distribution and logistics. An “IoT” is a web of material entities (such as equipment, products, devices of materials-handling devices, etc.) that have implanted software, electronics and sensors in them that can assemble and transfer data. Connected with “global positioning systems (GPS)” it allows the immediate pursuit of people, trucks and materials, allowing warehouses, suppliers and customers and logistics companies to transfer knowledge of the situation of products in the network and their future destination.

For controlling the dynamics of the supply chain all the supply and information channels need to be aligned properly, and the efficiency of operation should be increased all over the chain of supply. The techniques of forecasting and information-sharing systems should be implemented throughout the chain of supply. For achieving those "Blockchain technology” need to be implemented in the network of the supply chain. “Blockchain technology" has considerable potential for the management of supply chains because it handles multiple practical issues faced by the managers of supply chains. The networks of supply are usually complicated and implicate many functions. However, for a dispersed “ledger network”, the bigger the count of nodes, the better protected it is, so the inherent complicatedness of the network of supply truly boosts the technology of blockchain. There are a huge number of transactions required for the greasy running of networks of supply. In this situation, blockchain solutions are particularly valuable if the network of supply transits the boundaries of the nation and certifications, customs, and various additional documents are needed by multiple authorities of regulations. Implementing blockchain technology secures the trust and credibility between the organization and its suppliers and that is helpful to achieve effective construction and management of the supply chain.

Further implementation plan for the above solution concerning current challengers of “West Cornwall Pasty Co" indicates the importance of marketing for informing customers and encouraging brand awareness.  Marketing plays a significant role in encouraging brand awareness and reaching potential customers through providing updated information, promotional message and developing customer loyalty.  Customers' awareness regarding the current innovation "West Cornwall Pasty Co" is important for increasing sales and customers involvements. As stated by Abbas et al. (2019), major functions of marketing are buying, financing, selling, transport, risk bearing, warehousing, and standardisation.

Each function is associated with different activities that contribute to delivering products to potential customers and earning revenue through performing the promotion of products and services concerning customers' demands.  "West Cornwall Pasty Co" is modifying its product by using organic and healthier ingredients and eliminating artificial ingredients in products or services that can be announced through the marking process. Learning about that information through the marketing process, customers prefer to purchase their products that help to increase customer engagement and sales rate in a strategic way.

Moreover, a marketing plan contributes to creating and maintaining demand for products through advertisements that help to develop a reputation and beat market competition effectively. As opined by Tafesse and Wien (2018), the company have to utilise social media marketing tactic to encourage brand awareness and reach health-conscious customers with information regarding innovation of healthy food with organic ingredients.  Social media marketing process is associated with creating profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube and updating the promotional status on that profile. Developing user-generated content with the inclusion of developed tactics, namely hygienic food processing with autonomous technology, and using organic ingredients concerning health consciousness of customers helps to attract potential customers through personalising o products and services. This aspect, using user-generated content for advertising products of "West Cornwall Pasty Co" will be beneficial for increasing customers' awareness about the product and services.

Social media platform features communication option as well as comment, share and likes that helps to reach potential customers directly and develop a business relationship. Through this tactic, "West Cornwall Pasty Co" enables to increased customer base and sales rate with an effective brand reputation that will contribute to achieving ultimate goals through overcoming current challenges in fast food industry. Interaction with customers by an organisation through social media platforms helps to learn about customers' suggestions and requirements that are significant ingredients for further implementation. Customer information helps to provide an ever-growing development process for "West Cornwall Pasty Co". Apart from that, it can be stated that the implication of the solution process has to increase with effective marketing in social media platforms through creating content and advertisements.

Conclusion

This report concluded the fast food company's marketing issues and challenges, this report concluded the supply chain issues and the marketing plan. This report analyses the company marketing plan and company financial issues, including the company's current challenges and the company marketing strategy implementation process.  Determine the company's customers' services process and company.  Analysis of the company supply chain process and the company's current market value or company productivity,  also give the reports gaps, such as implemented productivity, new technology and smart technology. The discovery of current issues and problems, that “West Cornwall Pasty” is facing, a number of solution techniques and their implementation processes are discussed in previous parts. The solution techniques for preventing supply chain management issues involve the adaption of “Transactional relationships” in place of existing “collaborative or partnership relationships” in the supply chain. Along with that, the suggestive measures also involve the implementation of a “continuous improvement strategy” by adopting the “DMAIC Six Sigma improvement cycle” with the help of “Scatter diagrams, Cause-effect diagrams, Pareto diagrams” etc. Implementation of the “Internet of Things (IoT)” and "Blockchain technology" in the supply network can help to overcome the challenges of the organization.

Recommendation of improving and solving the issues of Supply chain

After analysing the issues, this report provided some recommendations for improving and solving the issues, such as Supply chain visibility describes an organization's capability to follow each and every item present in their product. Managers should Increase visibility by giving their dealers the power to check the directory for understanding the current situation. Providing the dealers, customers and staff members with the power of accessibility will take off large pressure on communication and inventory planning.

To increase the efficiency of supply chains, companies need a complete and effective project plan that works on particular objectives. An effective project plan works as a framework and provides strategic investments in supply chain abilities evolving a distribution strategy, making interacting channels, detecting risks and opportunities, cross-sectional decision making and supply chain advancement process. 

Developing the efficiency and quality of the supply chain requires cooperation among team members and also other departments. Improving better visibility in the supply chain, effective enhancement in training, well-developed technology and project plan will give success and achieve each and every goal of the company. Good technology implementation is help increase productivity and encourages market promotion. Focuses on the new strategy to improve the company production and implement the company marketing strategy. 

A good management plan is to implement the net strategy; the best new strategy implemented is to encourage the company marketing plan. Good leadership practices are implemented in the company's marketing strategy. New inventions and collection resources are important for the improvement of the supply chain.  Effective communication with the parties it is improved the marketing plan and enhances the company's growth.  Including the various types of vegan food and providing good quality products improve customer satisfaction, focusing on the food quality and maintaining food hygiene is improved the company's reputation. Brand promotion is important to increase brand productivity, focusing on the customer's needs and requirements are improving the customer's services. 

References

Books

Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.

Kerzner, H., 2022. Innovation project management: Methods, case studies, and tools for managing innovation projects. John Wiley & Sons.

Davies, A., Dodgson, M., Gann, D. and MacAulay, S., 2017. Five rules for managing large, complex projects. MIT Sloan Management Review.

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Browning, S., Beymer-Farris, B. and Seay, J.R., 2021. Addressing the challenges associated with plastic waste disposal and management in developing countries. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, 32, p.100682. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211339821000149

Cappelli, A. and Cini, E., 2020. Will the COVID-19 pandemic make us reconsider the relevance of short food supply chains and local productions? Trends in Food Science & Technology, 99, p.566. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7138154/

Dann, H., 2019. Productions and perceptions of bath and trap vowels in Cornish English (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sheffield). https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27283/

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