Question

Mini-Case Study:

Coca-Cola Enterprises provides us with a good example of a company that has several types of plants. Coca-

Cola operates factories that produce both raw materials and finished goods. Some factories produce the syrup that forms the basis of the Coca-Cola products you are familiar with. Other factories combine the syrup with carbonated water during the bottling process to make the finished Coca-Cola products. The finished goods, which consist of cases of bottles and cans of Coca-Cola products, are then shipped to regional distribution centers for storage until they are transported to end customers, such as retailers. The syrup factory, the bottling factory, and the distribution center are all considered plants in Coca-Cola’s SAP ERP system.

Q1. Briefly describe the key business processes and the related materials and plants to deliver the finish good to the end customers in Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Q2. Explain the benefits of the enterprise systems in supporting end-to-end processes and in avoiding the silo effect within Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Answer 1

Q1. Briefly describe the key business processes and the related materials and plants to deliver the finish good to the end customers in Coca-Cola Enterprises.

The production cycle starts with sugar, fruit juices, flavours and concentrate or beverage base. The finished products will be packaged in PET or glass bottles, metal cans, bag in box or kegs.

The process starts with refining sugar, fruit juices, flavours and the concentrate, which are then packaged and shipped. The water used for the production process is the treated to ensure safety. Then a correct concentration of salts and other specifics are treated with the right sensory and compositional characteristics.

The syrup is then prepared in special tanks using the treated water, sugar and by filtering impurities, which is then mixed with the concentrate. A process called as flash pasteurization then follows, which ensures that there is no reaction among the products as to not cause any alterations during the course of the shelf life. This concentrate is mixed with the treated water and carbon dioxide is then infused. The drink is then packaged, labelled and sealed to be transported.

Q2. Explain the benefits of the enterprise systems in supporting end-to-end processes and in avoiding the silo effect within Coca-Cola Enterprises.

In order to adapt to a more technologically diverging world, Coca Cola set out to deploy a new supply chain management solution to replace and automate many of the key processes. The partnered with SAP for their ERP needs for the purpose of business transformation. This was followed by training its staff on the new processes to ensure all the benefits can be obtained. The areas where the changes would mainly be applicable are order processing, manufacturing, financial transactions, human resources, procurement and other related processes.

The processes were accelerated mainly by using IT as a tool for business transformation by easing Coke's day to day operations in a harmonised way. The system called as the Genesys program is an integrated SAP ERP which replaced legacy systems like order to cash, requisition to payment and record to report. This shortened the cycle time of the processes, which allowed better productivity, transparency and improve decision making. The idea was to integrate the supply side and the demand side by linking the manufacturing and the shelf-replenishment aspects respectively.