KFC's Supply Chain Management: Challenges, Solutions, and Analysis

This report provides an analysis of KFC's supply chain management, focusing on the company's operations and challenges. KFC, a globally recognized fast-food chain, has faced issues in its supply chain, particularly in the UK, which led to disruptions and customer dissatisfaction. The report highlights the importance of efficient supply chain management in reducing operational costs and improving customer satisfaction. It examines the role of logistics, demand management, and the impact of e-commerce on KFC's operations. The analysis emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to supply chain management, incorporating factors such as cost reduction, communication, and the integration of digital technologies. The report also explores the consequences of poor decisions, such as the choice of suppliers and the failure to fully integrate e-commerce practices. Ultimately, the report concludes that KFC needs to improve its supply chain management by focusing on communication, treating the supply chain as a whole, and integrating digital tools to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Running head: Management of Resources 1
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Kentucky fried chicken is a fast food restaurant located in Louisville, Kentucky. The
company has specialized in selling fried chicken all over America and has also outsourced its
activities in many different countries like Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica. It offers specialized
services to its customers distributed all over the country, thus second after Mc Donald's fast
food restaurant. Since 1990 KFC has expanded its offer from Fried chicken to salads, pizza,
French fries, desserts, and soft drinks. For efficient supply chain management at KFC, the
company should focus on reducing operational costs and focus on customer satisfaction.
The control of the supply string is one of the critical facets of making sure that the
corporate works properly. Without a reliable and efficient operation of every part of the
supply chain, the manufacturing business cannot work to its full potential (Odokorac, 2019).
Efficient supply chain management extends from increasing customer satisfaction to reducing
operating costs, increasing both the fund and the customer base. But, as with the UK KFC,
focusing on the cost reduction has interrupted the on-time distribution of chicken to forced
channels to stop for some time and led to loss of revenue and customer discernment of the
brand, and it is also essential to keep a right balance between all the elements.
As with other foreign franchise firms, KFC has also had a fair share of disagreements
and output problems over the years, most famously in February 2018 the collapse of a stable
chicken supply in several stores in the UK (Rahman, 2019). Although projects as large and
varied as KFC are often unpredictable, the real strength resides in the intelligence with which
such challenges are handled. Zhu, Sarkis & Lai, (2019), stated that management of logistics is
a crucial part of the source chain cycle, and is accountable for the preparation, execution,
forward as well as reverse flow control and for the reliable and cost-effective handling of raw
materials and finished goods. An important logistics parameter ensures a seamless demand
management and also the efficient and timely communication between the supply and

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destination of stored products. For KFC, chicken is the main raw material to be transported
while preserving temperature control and freshness.
All these logistic factors had to be addressed and the reliability of the supply chain
system had to be tested separately to ensure the seamless delivery of the components for the
company's product. In the future, each stage in the supply chain has to be evaluated for
productivity rather than viewing the entire process of the supply chain as a single entity.
According to Marshall, McCarthy McGrath & Harrigan (2016), the maximum optimization is
needed every time the raw materials are collected, the product is stored and redistributed,
while all key supply chain performers are communicated effectively. The next important step
in revolutionizing the activities of KFC in the UK and reducing operating costs would be to
accept Dalsey Hillblom Lynn as the supplier The willingness to follow a budget-saving
strategy turned out to be a wrong decision, since it disregards the practicalities of the
agreement; the loss of profits from KFC and the lack of proper research into how this move
would merge with the operation caused unsatisfied consumers to suffer (Zhu, Anagondahalli
& Zhang, 2017).
KFC's ecommerce program is advanced. From online orders to online payment to
reviews and authentication shows that KFC has an effective e-commerce network.
Nevertheless, KFC has not incorporated these components completely in its operations in
other e-business practices, such as online stock transfers, management of goods and
production. In order to predict demand and be prepared to meet customer demands, KFC will
give instructions on demand in real time and avoid any lags typical of the non-digital mode of
transfer requests and are easy to maintain the online inventory. KFC is able to perform well
and surpass its similar rivals through the delivery of warnings to its supply chain partners
(Bentham, 2018).

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From the above discussion, it's factual that the KFC company had failed in its supply
chain management by not satisfying its customers and not reducing operational costs. These
were caused by lack of communication during the distribution of commodities to the final
consumers and also treating the whole supply chain industry as a single entity.
References
Bentham, J. (2018). The Great KFC Chicken Shortage 2018. Teaching Business &
Economics, 22(2), 6-7.
Marshall, D., McCarthy, L., McGrath, P., & Harrigan, F. (2016). What's your strategy for
supply chain disclosure?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(2), 37-45.
Odokorac, O. (2019). The impact E-commerce on logistics performance. a case study; KFC
(u) ltd.
Rahman, M. M. (2019). Cultural Differences, Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges of
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)–A Comparison between and United Kingdom (UK)
Malaysia. Global Journal of Management And Business Research.
Zhu, L., Anagondahalli, D., & Zhang, A. (2017). Social media and culture in crisis
communication: McDonald's and KFC crisis management in China. Public Relations
Review, 43(3), 487-492.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J., & Lai, K. H. (2019). Choosing the right approach to green your supply
chains. Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications.