Operations and Information Management: Food Supply Chain for Refugees

This report examines the operations management principles within a food supply system designed to provide aid to refugees in Cameroon. It begins by critically appraising the current inventory management strategies, highlighting the creation of an inventory management team, fine-tuning forecasting methods, identifying high and low demand products, auditing stock, maintaining safety stock, reducing disaster risks, and utilizing automated software. The report then details key operational steps, including supplier evaluation, auditing, contracting, and importing, emphasizing the importance of trust-building, quality control, and cost-effectiveness. Two potential failure points are identified within the contracting and importing stages, noting challenges in securing consistent supplier agreements and maintaining food quality during import. Finally, the report suggests implementing a lean approach to improve the production system, focusing on team involvement, continuous evaluation, and incremental changes to enhance the overall efficiency and reliability of the food supply chain.

Running head: OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Operations and Information Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary:
The main aim of this report is to discuss the importance of operation management in business
processes. In this context, this paper deals with the food supply system for the refugees in
Cameroon. To evaluate the food supply chain first of all the inventory of the current food
supply system has been critically appraised. Following that detail, illustration has been given
of the key operations involved with the food service system. In next, two cases of the key
operations have been identified where the service of the food to the refugee peoples can be
failed. In the further discussion implementation of the lean approach has been done and key
findings from the lean approaches have been discussed to assist the current food supply
service.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...................................................................................................................3
Inventory Management within the food service system:...............................................3
Key operations involved in the food service system:.....................................................5
Supplier Evaluation:...................................................................................................5
Supplier Auditing:......................................................................................................5
Contracting:................................................................................................................6
Importing:...................................................................................................................6
Identification of the cases where the delivery system might fail:..................................6
Contracting:................................................................................................................6
Importing:...................................................................................................................7
Utilization of the lean approach in the production system:............................................7
Commit throughout the organization:........................................................................8
Revisiting new routine regularly:...............................................................................8
Incentivizing:..............................................................................................................8
Measurement of the results:.......................................................................................8
Communication:.........................................................................................................8
Patience:.....................................................................................................................8
Repeat:........................................................................................................................9
Identification of the key findings discussing the extent to the lean approach:..............9
Involvement of the entire team:.................................................................................9
Evaluate:.....................................................................................................................9
Implementing small changes:.....................................................................................9
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................10
References:...................................................................................................................11

3OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Introduction:
The operation management is a typical type of management area which deals with the
controlling and designing the process of the production and used for redesign the entire
operation in the business for service or goods production (Brown and Bessant 2013). The
main responsibility of this type of management is ensuring the efficiency of the business
processes in terms of using less resources as much as possible also with use of less resources
it is the responsibility of the operation management to ensure that the business is able to meet
the requirement of the customers involved with it (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus 2014). The
operation management is primarily concerned with the organizing, planning and supervising
the processes of the production.
In this paper, a case study of the operation management will be analysed briefly
which is food assistance to the refugee peoples in Cameroon. In this context mainly the food
service system to those refugee peoples will be analysed briefly. To analyse the food service
system of the current case study how the inventories and the assets related to the food service
system are managed properly will be evaluated. Following the evaluation, the key operations
which are involved in the food service system will be illustrated in detail. Thereafter two
points will be identified in this context where the supply system may fail to perform the
operations regarding the food supply. Following that lean approaches will be identified which
can be applied to the production system to reduce failures which can occur within the system.
Further, three key findings will be discussed which can assist the service system.
Inventory Management within the food service system:
Within the current context of the food service system to the refugees of Cameroon the
inventory is managed perfectly aligned with the requirement of the current food supply chain.
In this context, the inventory is managed efficiently by following some steps. These essential
steps are the creation of inventory management team, fine-tuning the forecasting,
identification of the low and high demand products, audit of the current stock, safety stock
inventory system, disaster risk reduction and using an automated food inventory management
software (Wild 2017). Using the above approaches currently the inventory of the food service
system to the refugees are managed very well.

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(Figure 1: Basic Inventory Management)
In this food service system, the inventory management team has played a very much
important role. In the internal case of the food supply service, there can be various types of
wastages (Fredendall and Hill 2016). An effective inventory management team can
efficiently point out the wastages within the current food supply system. By figuring out the
wastages point and by the rectification of this point currently the food service system in this
context is performing very well. Thus this team is optimising the current food inventory and
helping the supply chain to fulfil its targeted goal.
In this food supply service, the forecasting is a very much important point. It is very
much essential for the food service system to efficiently determine the actual requirement of
the food which has been done by the current food supply service system very much
efficiently (Daganzo 2014). By the determination of the food requirement, the inventory can
be saved from excessive wastages. For forecasting, the food supply service has used the
previous figure of the food demand and gradually developed a demand graph. This has
helped the current food supply service to effectively utilise the inventory of the food supply.
In this type of food supply service, it is not mandatory that all types of food will face
the same demand among the refugees in Cameroon. Considering this point the food supply
service has effectively identified the foods which are having low demands and high demands
(Lanfranchi, Giannetto and Zirilli 2014). From this analysis currently, the food service
system is producing the high demand foods comparatively more than the low demand foods.

5OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
By this type of approach the current food supply service not only saving the low demand
foods from the wastages but also it is meeting the current food demand by the supply chain.
Auditing of the current stock is also very much important for the food supply
operation in the current context. Without perfect auditing of the stock, the current supply
chain will not be able to manage the inventory properly (Suryanto 2016). For this reason, the
current food supply service perfectly audits the inventory on a regular basis. By the perfect
audit of the current inventory, the current supply chain will be able to determine what the
requirement of the inventory is and can refill the inventory according to the requirement of
the supply chain. Thus this implemented approach by the current supply chain is very much
important for the efficient food supply operations.
Safety stock inventory is another type of approach which is taken by many
organisations. In this type of inventory management system, an extra batch of inventory is
stored for emergency purposes (Radasanu 2016). This type of approach is very much useful
in the sense that the regular stock can be finished at any moment due to some extra demand.
Thus this type of approaches has been taken by the organisation to manage the inventory in
emergency situations perfectly.
The disaster risk reduction is one of the most important approaches to manage the
inventory properly. The main approach aim of the disaster risk reduction is the minimization
of the losses occurred due to the natural disasters and manmade disasters (Alexander 2013).
In this approach, the risks are minimized by the implementation of the preparedness and by
strengthening community resiliency. The disaster risk reduction is very much important in the
sense that the natural disasters and the manmade disasters can destroy food stocks, crops and
the infrastructure which can create a massive disruption in the supply chain.
The food management software is also very much useful to manage the inventory of
the supply chain. In many of the cases, manual approaches to inventory management can
create mistakes in the system. An automated approach of inventory management can be very
much useful in this case (Kafetzopoulos, Psomas and Kafetzopoulos 2013). This software can
easily track the stock level of the inventory and create an alert when the stock level is low.
This is very much useful to replenish the stock within time. Also, this software can use the
batch tracking to reduce the spoilage. Thus this type of software is used for the food service
system.

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(Figure 2: Food Management System)
Key operations involved in the food service system:
There are various key operations that are involved with a food supply system which
presents the logical operational flow of this system. The key operations involved with a food
supply system are the evaluation of the suppliers, auditing of the suppliers, contracting and
importing.
Supplier Evaluation:
Evaluation of the suppliers is very much important in the sense of trust building. In
this evaluation process, various types of aspects are checked which includes criteria for food
safety, environmental monitoring, sanitation procedures and food defence programs. If the
supplier is able to pass this criterion, then auditing of the supplier is done.
Supplier Auditing:
The supplier audit can be performed in two ways. First is the internal audit and second
is the external audit. In the case of the internal audit, it is performed by the supplier itself.
The external audit is performed by some third party organisation (Chen and Lee 2016). The
audit is performed to check whether the supplier is able to meet the requirement of the food
supply chain. If the supplier fails in the internal audit, then the supplier will be rejected.
External Audit performed by some independent organisations in which business process of
the supplier is reviewed which include employee training, quality programs and

7OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
manufacturing process of the supplier. External audit is the best option to remove any kind of
biased decisions from the process of evaluation.
Contracting:
Contracting is one of the key operations which is involved in a food service system. A
contracting has been done when the supplier passes in the audit process. The suppliers mainly
sign two types of contract. One is the full-time contract, and another is the occasional
contract (Roberts 2015). As this food supply chain deals with the refugees of Cameroon full-
time contract is not needed in this case. It needs to be ensured that the supplier is ready to
sign an occasional contract. As per the Contract, the supplier needs to supply the food till
there is demand for food among the refugees of Cameroon. If the supplier agrees with this
contract, then a contracting has been done between the supplier and the organisation.
Importing:
Importing is the last key operation involved in the food service system for the
refugees in Cameroon. Importing is the process of collecting food from the supplier. In this
process of food collection, various aspects need to be considered. The main two aspects are
the cost of importing and quality of the food. First of all, it needs to be ensured that the cost
of importing is not too much high as there is no revenue generation from this food supply
chain too much cost in importing can create a problem in the food supply chain. Thus a
cheaper way of importing need to be determined to import the foods. While a cheaper way of
importing has been implemented it also needs to be ensured that the quality of the food
remains intact. If the quality of the food degrades in the important process, then the food will
become waste (Alli 2016). Thus the process of importing and the quality of the food need to
balance among each other so that optimal food supply chain can be achieved.

8OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
(Figure 3: An Importing Scheme)
Identification of the cases where the delivery system might fail:
From the above discussion, it has been assessed that the delivery system of the food
might fail in two cases. These two cases are the process of contracting and importing.
Contracting:
In the process of contracting the current food delivery system might fail. The prior
reason behind this is that most of the supplier wants a steady and constant food supply chain
where in this case the supply rate is variable. Also, another reason behind this is that the
supplier is not getting a full-time contract. It indicates that the contract can be terminated at
any time by the organisation when the food is no longer required for the refugees. Due to this
job security related issues arises due to which many of the organisation does not want to file a
contract with this type of organisation (Jarosch 2015). Now if the organisation failed to find a
perfect food supplier who can meet the requirements of the Cameroon refugees, then the
whole supply chain will be failed. Thus the process of contracting can be failed in this
context.
Importing:
With the process of contracting it has also been observed that the process of importing
can also be failed in this context. As there is no revenue generation for the organisation, it is
very much important for the food delivery organisation to ensure that the food importing
costs are minimal. As the importing costs of the foods are very much low for the

9OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
organisation, the quality of the food might be compromised as there can be a delay in the
food importing system. Also, the quality of the food can degrade due to the cheap
transportation system. In both of the cases, the food cannot be used by the organisation as a
part of the food supply chain, and it becomes waste for them (Kafetzopoulos and Gotzamani
2014). now if the organisation wants to maintain the quality of the food up to the mark during
the importing process, then the organisation need to implement a faster food importing
process and need to use a quality delivery service provider which can ensure that the quality
of the food is not degraded during the process of importing. This two criterion can increase
the charges importing which are again a problem for the organisation. Due to these two
reasons the process of importing of the organisation might fail in this case.
Utilization of the lean approach in the production system:
The theory of lean implementation describes that it is the typical method of
minimizing the waste within a production system without reducing productivity. This aims to
minimize the waste as the waste can create a problem in the production system. As per this
theory, the waste is created due to the uneven workloads and due to the overburden.
In this case, it has been assessed that the lean approach of continuous improvement
mindset can be utilized to reduce the failings which have been observed from this report. In
this case, the lean approach of continuous improvement can help to mitigate both the issues
raised in this report about the food service system (Boer et al. 2017). To implement the
approach of continuous improvement total seven steps can be followed. The seven steps are
discussed in the following section.

10OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
(Figure 4: Diagram for Continuous Improvement)
Commit throughout the organization:
To implement continuous improvement in the organisation first of all the organisation
need to prepare mentally. To prepare mentally for the change in the organisation, every one
of the organisations needs to commit towards the same goal.
Revisiting new routine regularly:
The continuous improvement involves various types of tiny changes which need to be
followed for the overall improvement of the organisational process. Thus this tiny changes
must be revisited regularly, and the routine is the key to maintain it.
Incentivizing:
As it is very much important for the organization to ensure that everyone in the
organization is following the change for the continuous improvement (Owen 2013), the
peoples of organization can be incentivized for following the tine changes which will ensure
that the changes for the continuous improvement are followed in a proper way.
Measurement of the results:
The continuous improvement is a metrics-driven lean approach in which the terms
such as the bad and good becomes very objective. Continuous improvement is an effective
process, but it consumes a large amount of time. At the initial stages, the benefits cannot be
visualised properly which can be seen in the later stages after proper implementation.
Communication:
As the continuous improvement is a very much lengthy process, it is very much
important to keep the other peoples motivated towards the implementation process as many
peoples losses their hopes very early (Dobre 2013). Thus the main way of keeping the
peoples motivated is an effective communication about the initiated implementation of how
this change can improve the organizational process.
Patience:
As the implementation of the continuous improvement is very much longer process
patience becomes an important factor in this case (Singh and Singh 2015). The peoples of the
organization need to be patient for continuous improvement and need to show a serious
commitment towards the process of continuous improvement.

11OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Repeat:
All the above process are very much important to achieve continuous improvement
within an organization. Thus it is very much important to repeat the above processes
whenever required to achiever the process of continuous improvement in the organization.
Identification of the key findings discussing the extent to the lean
approach:
From the discussion of the lean approach of the continuous improvement, it has been
identified that there are total three aspects which can help in the food service system to align
it with the operational performance measures. These three aspects are the involvement of the
entire service team, evaluation and making small changes.
Involvement of the entire team:
This one of the three processes which can assist the food service system for the
refugees in the Cameroon which is involving the entire team in the service system. As
continuous improvement involves the whole team, it can create a better solution for the
service system (Gehring et al. 2013). Also, it helps every involved person to become more
efficient by sharing thoughts and ideas. Thus this process can improve the service line of the
food supply chain by eliminating the bottlenecks which are slowing down everyone within
the organization.
Evaluate:
In this context evaluation is the process of assessment of the improvement using some
specific type of measurements. By the continuous evaluation, one can easily improve the
ability to perform a specific type of task. By the continuous improvement, time is taken for
performing a specific task can be improved which will increase the efficiency of the whole
service system.
Implementing small changes:
The main idea of the continuous improvements is implementing small changes or
adjustments on a regular basis for getting a better result. Thus it is assessed that overhaul
everything tin one instance makes no sense. This small and easy changes must be applied in
the initial stage of the continuous improvement to achieve comparatively quick results, and
that will improve the service of the current food supply chain (Clark, Silvester and Knowles
2013) for the refugees in Cameroon.

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Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that operations management is one of
the most important business aspects of the business. The service organizations use the
operations management to ensure that they are competitive enough in the current market
conditions and it also ensures that the organization is able to maintain a good level of
customer service. Thus the implementation of a proper service system can be beneficial for
both the organization and the customers. In the current report, a service system of the food
assistance has been analysed properly which is efficiently supplying the foods to the refugee
population in Cameroon. To analyse the current service system, various types of evaluation
has been done in this context which includes inventory management system also. Thus in this
context, it is critically appraised how the inventories are managed efficiently within the food
assistance service system in Cameroon. Following that, a detail illustration has been shared of
the key operations involved with the food supply system. It has been assessed that the key
operations are the evaluation of the suppliers, auditing of the suppliers, contracting and
importing. Following that two cases of the key operations has been identified where the
service of the food to the refugee peoples can be failed where those two key operations were
contracting and the importing. Detail illustration has been given why on those two points the
service of the food supply can be failed. In the next discussion of this report how a lean
approach can be utilised in the current food service chain has been elaborated properly. It has
been assessed that there are total 7 steps by which the lean approach of the continuous
improvement can be implemented. Further, in the discussion of this report, three key finding
from the report has been discussed to which the chosen lean approach of continuous
improvement is able to assist the food service system with the operational performance
measures.

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