Starbucks' four manufacturing process types and strategies

Starbucks and the Four Primary Types of Manufacturing Process

Job shop

With jobs that don't fit within the scheme of continuous production the drive Starbucks, there is a need to address projects on an individiual basis. However, at this stage in its corporate life, Starbucks approaches projects quite differently than it may have a decade ago. Indeed, on the matter of its food offerings, an article by Kummer (2013) points out that the company has struggled to produce a quality product internally. As to the project of improving these offerings therefore, the resource wealthy company purchased a purveyor with a strong reputation for high quality cafe style food. According to Kummer, "last June, Starbucks paid $100 million for La Boulange, a San Francisco bakery with pastries and food that people definitely find respectable. The goal was nothing less than serving La Boulange-quality croissants and other pastries to Starbucks' 40 million customers in its 8,000 company-operated stores in the United States. " (p. 1)

This partnership of brands is a clear demonstration of how Starbucks approaches certain manufacturing challenges on a job or project basis.

Batch shop

With respect to batch production, Starbuck will on occasion release specialty bean types, seasonal products or other short-term offerings that don't fit within the scheme of its continuous and mass production strategies. In such cases, the company will deploy internal labor and facilities to produce limited quantities on a batch-per-batch basis. This flexibility, as the next section will show, is enabled by its increased autonomy in manufacturing.

Continuous flow

This orientation allows the company to achieve an even greater efficiency with its strategy of continuous flow. As a brand that moves a high volume of product every single day, its inventory and ordering system must be automated to prevent any stopgap in supplies. As Rebman (2009) explains, "Starbucks is successfully integrating all sources of demand and matching it with the supply by using Oracle's automated information system for manufacturing (called GEMMS). The system does distribution planning, manufacturing scheduling, and inventory control (using MRP). The coordination of supply with multiple distribution channels requires timely and accurate information flow about demand, inventories, storage capacity, transportation scheduling, and more." (p. 1)

• Analyze the relationships of equipment availability, personnel, and bottlenecks, and how these factors apply to your product.

Especially because Starbucks has begun to shift its manufacturing base internally and domestically, its contention with the issues of personnel and equipment availability will be coming increasingly pressing to address. It will be incumbent upon Starbucks to integrate these factors into its continuous flow of product from factory to floor. A failure to project shortfalls in personnel performance or in equipment reliability, to name a few possible uncertainties, can cause bottlenecks in the supply chain.

Works Cited:

Hutson, Z. (2012). Starbucks to Create More than 140 U.S. Manufacturing Jobs at State-of-the-Art Plant in Georgia. Starbucks.com.

Kummer, C. (2013). Can Starbucks Do for the Croissant What it Did For Coffee. Smithsonian.com.

Rebman, C.M. (2009). Types of Supply Chains. University of San Diego.