Value chain management involves managing all functional areas in such a way as to improve quality, efficiency, responsiveness to customers, and innovation. Attention to quality and efficiency in all functions of the value chain enable organizations to build competitive advantage in order to achieve their business-level strategic goals. Marketing, customer service, and product development are intimately concerned with being responsive to customer needs. Effective materials management and production are strongly linked to quality improvement in the process of transforming raw materials into finished products. Effective managers have in-depth understanding of their company’s value chain and work hard to continually improve it. Doing so decreases costs, improves efficiency, increases quality, and improves productivity and profits. The video you are about to watch describes many aspects of value chain management at the New Belgium Brewery. This Fort Collins, Colorado brewery began in 1991 and, by 2009, employed 348 workers and distributed its beer in 26 states.
1. What was the initial strategy for the New Belgium Brewery?
A. Brew for a wide market.
B. Find partners immediately.
C. low debt and high quality
D. large size
E. Concentrate on one basic beer.
2. New Belgium Brewery’s goals include
A. use of existing technology.
B. top-down command structure.
C. high levels of behavioral controls.
D. environmental consciousness.
E. high profits.
3. What are the main aims of operations management at the New Belgium Brewery?
A. quality and productivity
B. quality and profitability
C. labor intensity and productivity
D. stability and growth
E. listen to customers and quantity
4. Transforming yeast and hops and water and spices into high-quality beer is a part of the ________ function.
A. strategic planning
B. sales
C. production
D. empowerment
E. marketing
5. Which of the following is not one of the basic differences between manufacturers and service providers in how their value chains function?
A. the uniformity of the outputs
B. the nature of the output
C. the uniformity of the inputs
D. the level of technology used
E. the amount of labor required
6. New Belgium Brewery built an anaerobic wastewater reclamation plant as part of which element in the value chain?
A. customer service
B. product development
C. sales
D. production
E. marketing
7. New Belgium Brewery plans its purchasing and details the necessary quality of inputs to its suppliers in order to maintain uniform quality. This task is part of the ________ function in the value chain.
A. product development
B. materials management
C. operations
D. customer service
E. marketing
8. Throughout the video, you have seen the layout and operation of this business. What type of facilities layout does New Belgium Brewery use?
A. product
B. control
C. process
D. technological
E. fixed position
9. When New Belgium Brewery empowers its employees to constantly pursue high levels of quality within their groups, it is practicing
A. Six Sigma.
B. value chain management.
C. total quality management
D. flexible manufacturing
E. process reengineering