Horizon Foods Corporation

1) Case Summary (Whats the step to the fore? ) sight Foods Corporation (hereafter Horizon) is a still-growing, nationwide foods governing body that is widely kn possess for its high quality products. With $300 million gross gross sales severally year, the unanimous has been relatively successful so far, increaseing good personality and arousing much interest of the public through its brokers and local retailers. However, as the union prospers and customers demand more, Horizon foresees a coming crisis. The distribution issue, which the companion has face up for a while, is now causing stock-outs, and increase competition in the mart is threatening the companys market sh be.Authorities involved fail to scrutinise the issue and its cause, and they are eager to blame each other for the tasks. The category of labor between two major departments Marketing and gross sales, and Production seems to collect a do rearrangement for a more efficient sue. Horizon should excessively analyze its current brand positioning in the market and refashion its strategies if needed. 2) Q1. What are the characteristics of the market served by the Horizon Foods Corporation? Horizon is a specialty foods processor.It has served a national market composed of food brokers who correct retail store chains. The food brokers make orders to Horizon. Generally, the orders are small. The issue is through with(p) in two different plants thanks to the ingredients from some food suppliers. The plants are located in agricultural areas to reduce the damage of transportation. Moreover, Horizon produces in large quantities, and the food produced is very good in quality. The production is dispatched to some(prenominal) public warehouses. Then, these warehouses use contract toters to deliver the products to the customers.Because of the small orders, the transportation speak to to retail stores can be high. The market is very competitive since legion(predicate) of Horizon s food competitors also offer a complete production line (See Appendix for diagram A The Schema of the Market). 2) Q2. What problems outlive at the Horizon Foods Corporation? Two issues exist at Horizon namely, inefficient office of labor and change magnitude market competition. Firstly, inefficient division of labor is simply the inappropriate split between delivery from production and service from the warehouse.The problem might also be termed the want of effective talk between the two major departments Marketing and Sales (hereafter Marketing), and Production. Marketing is mainly responsible for promotion, merchandise, and delivery to customers whereas Production focuses on manufacture and transportation to public warehouses. The customers demand for the firms products, which are continuously measured and evaluated by the Marketing, is rather unknown to the Production, and a miss of such inter-communication is the cause of the look of stock-outs that retailers of the Hor izon Foods Corporation have been recently experiencing.Secondly, increasing market competition poses a challenge to the firm. Competition is inevitable in a market, but it has now become a serious issue for Horizon as its competitors have begun to offer complete product lines that argue directly with Horizons. The firm should begin to analyze how nearly its brand is positioned among its competitors and figure out its new competitive priorities if need. 2) Q3. Why do you think the problems exist? There are two inborn problems.First problem is that the way of life in which Horizon holds a meeting is inefficient as different staffs join the hold forthion at different periods of time communication across various departments is not effective. Second problem is that Horizons corporate manner does not allow every entity to openly debate with proper manner for example, when Roger commented about Production department supplying the market, sally found the comment as almost an insult. It is important that the corporate air is set right for discussions to take place openly and wholeheartedly.In addition to intrinsic problems, there are practical causes for the problems. Firstly, Horizon failed in managing its inventory. There are simply too many warehouses. The existence of many warehouses is the cause of the firms high inventory cost. Production that takes place in each and every single warehouse is rather small in quantity, and consequently, the cost to transport the products from many different warehouses is very high. It is to be noted that primitive materials and ingredients are also transported over long distances.Delivery schedules vary for every warehouse, and so there are uncertainties that put Horizon at the risk of stock-outs. Secondly, the way in which Horizon has divided its circumspection is very inefficient. As of now, marketing managers are in charge of product inventory whereas national sales manager is responsible for coordination of warehous es and arrangement of delivery. It is rather strange that inventory management is separated from coordination of warehouses and arrangement of delivery in fact, all three aspects are so intimately inter-related that they should be managed by one entity deep down an organization.Moreover, increasing market competition, which is something that is inevitable, must be dealt with by constantly re-analyzing Horizons positioning and its competitive priorities in the industry. 2) Q4. What would you suggest the task force commend in order to gain control over this product causa process? Before recommendations regarding control over product movement process can be made, one must notice that it has been quite a while since Horizon has been having this problem.The quote Are we in conclusion beginning to get laid that we have a distribution problem shows how long it took for Horizon to finally realize, acknowledge, and gather together all the relevant authorities to discuss the issue. inco rporated culture at Horizon must change in a way that would enable all entities within the organization to openly discuss any issues. Now, there are ways in which Horizon could gain more control over this product movement process. Firstly, Horizon could plant a new department namely, Communications Management that specifically takes dread of interactions between Marketing and Production.The Communications Management would act as a bridge, allowing a free flow of information, people, and other entities (See Appendix for Diagram B Horizon Foods Corporations Future State Map). The staffs in the department would develop a virtual contact system with each and every single authority relevant to personnel, purchasing, finance, marketing product line, and national sales manager the staffs would just concentrate on effective communication within the firm.Furthermore, the new department could specialize in Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) to formulate particular schedules for obtai ning raw materials and manufacturing products. Secondly, Horizon could sign a contract with a logistics company that will exclusively work with Horizon. Currently, delivery schedules vary by carrier and are sometimes erratic because each public warehouse chooses its own distinct logistic company for delivery. Forming a contract to have a specific company to arrange all the necessary deliveries would reduce the number of stock-outs.