Kudler Fine Foods Problem Statement

Kudler Fine Foods Problem Statement

"Remember that time is money" (Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790). Kathy Kudler doesn't seem to have enough time. If Kathy were able to create her own clone, surely she could make more money.

Kathy Kudler established Kudler Fine foods in 1998 with a vision of operating a gourmet food shop. Despite a lack of appropriate experience, she believed that a one-stop shopping experience at a store with a variety of quality products and reasonable prices attract shoppers. Her success with one store led to a growing business concern, and she recently opened a third store. Her vision continues, and she is considering opening another outlet in San Francisco.

Kathy. Kudler has remained an essential ingredient to the success of all of her stores; she currently works seven days a week, takes care of most operational decisions herself, and sometimes has to work at all three stores on the same day. As a result, despite an aggressive hiring program, she is no longer able to spend as much time with her customers. Kathy Kudler herself is responsible for pulling perishable products from the shelves and ensuring the timely procurement of replacements if the turnover rate is less than expected. Kathy. Kudler handles all of the purchasing for her three stores to reduce costs, and because this does save money, it also requires an increasing proportion of her time.

Financially, the organization seems successful enough to consider continued expansion; in practice, however, it would require additional work hours from Kathy Kudler to maintain her current standards. The processes presently in place for purchasing/buying, pulling products from the shelves and replacing them, and spending one-on-one time with customers have placed to many time-critical demands on Kathy, and could cause cascading problems should she not be able to meet one or more of them for any reason. On a related note because she has only so many hours in a day, the current system severely limits the potential growth of her stores.

To sustain her stores during the summer months, which tend to be somewhat more slowly for business, Ms. Kudler has been using her personal credit, which could be an indication of cash flow problems. On the other hand, the bank is willing to loan capital to open a new store, and during the winter season when the holidays tend to require larger orders than usual.

Another point of concern is Ms. Kudler's health. If, for any reason, circumstances required Ms. Kudler to take an extended leave of absence from the organization, it could hinder the organization's ability to continue; the current management team is not prepared to assume Mrs. Kudler's enormous share of responsibilities.

End Vision for Kudler Fine Foods

Mrs. Kudler's ultimate vision is to expand her business nationally and possibly internationally, if she can resolve her process problems. Several possibilities could help resolve several of the issues.

Inventory and ordering at this point performed manually, this process is streamlined by implementing "new" technology. Using bar codes, or universal product codes (UPCs), on items could help automatically deduct purchases from the inventory and create lists for purchasing. Such a system could also track trends of sales and indicate which stores tend to sell specific items, helping determine when and where products are profitable, where to increase or decrease the number of specific specialty items in each individual store, and where the inventory