Heineken HOPS (Operational Planning System)
Case Analysis
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This case describes how Heineken USA's in order to gain market share, it needed to achieve a better responsive to the market demand utilizing an internet-based system called HOPS (Heineken Operational Planning System) to allow the parent company to produce the beer closer to the time when they need to deliver it, so the customer receives a fresher product. The implantation of this new system enables Heineken USA to achieve 50% reduction in the lead-time from order to delivery and 10% increase in sales, part of the major success was the good use of IS, which can dramatically improve customer relationships and cut costs.
2. CASE BACKGROUND
Heineken N. V. was founded in 1592 in Amsterdam. The Netherlands Nowadays Heineken N. V. is currently the world's second largest brewer, trailing only U.S. based Anheuser-Busch. It leads the European market with a 60% market share and it is the second imported beer in the United States, following Grupo Modelo's Corona beer, since 1998. Fierce competition from the imported segment contributed to the decline in Heineken sales and as a result of it, Heineken N. V. bought back the distribution rights and established a wholly owned subsidiary in White Plains, N.Y.; in order to achieve a new market push in the United States (Roberts, 1999).
Heineken operations are run from the New York headquarters, where data center plays an important role because it is responsible for running the day to-day operations of the U.S. business. The supply chain from Heineken starts with the brewed and bottled in The Netherlands and later on is shipped via sea to various demand points in the U.S., after distributors place orders and the shipment leaves the closest demand point and is quickly trucked to the distributor. Finally, distributors then deliver the beer to its final destination at restaurants, bars and stores. (see Exhibit 1 for Beer Supply Chain).
In this case, Heineken long lead-time from order to delivery prohibits the company from being flexible and adapting quickly to market demand fluctuation. Therefore the implementation of an innovative Internet system called HOPS, would improve its supply chain performance by reducing the lead-time from order to delivery. In 1996, distributors and sales representatives had to plan out orders three months ahead of delivery, it was daunting task for them to predict the factors that would affect the product sales such as weather, special promotions, and local demand fluctuations in advance.
The Dutch ale company, Heineken, and the popular video game company, Nintendo, collaborated to publish a magazine
Belgium is known for a culture of high-quality beer and this concept was formulated by an electrical engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado. The electrical engineer, Jeff Lebesch, was traveling through Belgium on his fat-tired mountain bike when he envisioned the same high-quality beer in Colorado. Lebesch acquired the special strain of yeast used in Belgium and took it back to his basement in Colorado and the experimentation process was initiated. His friends were the samplers and when they approved the beer it was marketed. In 1991, Lebesch opened the New Belgium Brewing Company (NBB) with his wife, Kim Jordan, as the marketing director. The first beer and continued bestseller, Fat Tire Amber Ale, was named after the bike ride in Belgium. The operation went from a basement to an old railroad depot and then expanded into a custom-built facility in 1995. The custom-built facility included an automatic brew house, quality-assurance labs and technological innovations. NBB offers permanent, seasonal and one-time only beers with a mission to be a lucrative brewery while making their love and talent visible. In the cases presented by the noted authors (Ferrell & Simpson, 2008), discusses the inception, marketing strategy, brand personality, ethics and social responsibility that New Belgium Brewing Company has demonstrated. The key facts with New Belgium Brewing Company are the marketing strategy, promotion, internal environment and social responsibility with the critical issues of the public, brand slogan, growth and competition.
This report addresses the issue of whether Amsterdam Brewery should invest and promote new products or continue to focus on current products. And, whether Jeff Carefoote should pay attention to whole brands or spent expense to increase brewing capacity. The report describes a strategic plan to ensure Amsterdam Brewery’s competitiveness in the market.
From our research, Anheuser-Busch is content with being the number one beer company in the world, increasing sales each year in operation. We found that Anheuser-Busch met many views associated with the world, business, and behavioral dimensions. The company also displayed its stability as we reviewed one of its most successful products Budweiser, owned by Anheuser-Busch, under the marketing view and the financial view. Not only do they hold almost half of the market share in the industry but their stock prices, sales volume, and net sales have all increased from 2002 to 2003. We also looked at Budweiser in terms of geography and culture. We found due to the fact that the "western" countries consume the majority of beer, it only makes sense that Anheuser-Busch concentrates on that market. Along these lines, another key goal that is also important to Anheuser-Busch is to boost other beer markets that are located in other cultures, where at the time beer is not a major consumption.
The purpose of this case study is to explore the implications for expanding the products offered by Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) from one product, Mountain Man Lager, to adding a Light version of the beer. This paper will evaluate the following:
Heineken’s number one position depends on the number of markets they are present with their products. Local markets are important but the international markets will provide more opportunities to grow.
... them. The expansion into other areas in the world is something that the company is constantly considering. Expanding their advertising and marketing to reach those individuals in the United States that have not “experienced” the craft beer industry is a constant tactic the company considers. There are also potential environmental threats that the company realizes and considers while making their business decisions.
Understanding the changes in the market and the growth of e-commerce prompted the organization to invest heavily in its supply chain management forecasting and management system. The development of a network of distribution centers and Direct Fulfillment Centers to position the company to capitalize on the growing e-commerce market indicate a strong understanding of the need to adapt to changing market forces. The company spent over $300 million on new distribution center facilities in 2014 alone, and continues to expand to maintain efficiency in product movement (Cassidy,
Red Bull is a relatively new company yet it is known virtually throughout the world. Red Bull was founded in 1984 by Mr. Dietrich Mateshitz when he came across an “energiser” whilst on business trips to Austria. He decided to bring this “energiser” back to Europe and adapted it to European taste – this would be the beginning of what is today the Red Bull empire.
Target Corporation needs to increase product availability based on the customer needs using a forecasting and supply chain
Deutsche Brauerei has been a family owned and operated corporation for 12 generations, which has created a high level of focus and control. Each generation has kept the management and operations processes relatively simple, centered on brewing practices and quality. Deutsche Brauerei’s rapid growth in recent years can be attributed to several factors. First and foremost, the company’s success is centered on the product itself, which has won numerous quality awards and is quite popular in Germany. Another contributing factor to the recent growth may have been a bit inadvertent. The purchase of new equipment in 1994, which was necessary as a result of a fire that destroyed the old equipment, allowed the company to increase brewing capacity and efficiency. Finally, Deutsche Brauerei’s decision to enter the Ukranian market in 1998 contributed significantly to the rapid growth. The collapse of the U.S.S.R. brought market reforms, and Deutsche Brauerei jumped on the opportunity to enter the fragmented beer industry, capture the large population and capitalize on the prime location in Europe. Lukas Schweitzer was savvy enough to hire local expert Oleg Pinchuk away from a competitor as the marketing manager, and Oleg was instrumental in building the business in Ukraine by securing accounts and implementing the field warehousing to support distributors. Deutsche’s beer was hugely popular in the Ukraine almost immediately, and volume sales more than offset the depreciation of the Ukrainian currency. Sales in Ukraine accounted for 28% of Deutsche’s total sales, and skyrocketed from 4,262 euros in 1998 to 25,847 euros in 2001.
The beverage industry is highly competitive and presents many alternative products to satisfy a need from within. The principal areas of competition are in pricing, packaging, product innovation, the development of new products and flavours as well as promotional and marketing strategies. Companies can be grouped into two categories: global operations such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola Company, Monster Beverage Corp. and Red Bull and regional operations such as Ro...
The importance of planning and designing procedures for a food and beverage establishment is essential for a successful establishment. Procedures are the cautions taken to ensure that the operation is running effectively and efficiently to meet demands of the customer, with an effective and efficient operation it may reduce the complication of keeping customer relationships intact with the business. Making good decisions about operational procedures is an important characteristics to ensure that all processes and steps are taken to a degree of high quality standards and are delivered so it meets the requirements of a customer or goals set by the organization. Business that have effective practices can produce products and services that meets a high quality standards that can be delivered as the establishment inputs an effective effort into procedures such as supplies, customer orders, and payment that enable the organization to grow. Doyle, Bell and Smith (2010) examine that procedures was needed for an effective operation, for example procedures can resolve problems like poor customer servicing can be resolved by putting 100% effort of service to all customer no matter if it large or small, so that all customer are treated equally also on other hands like issues such as inventory efficiency, can be arranged so that the establishment is aware of stock control procedures and structures so that there is enough stock for sales. An establishment with a solid control on procedures allows effective and efficient operations bu...
With most aspects of life it is frequently the failures, as opposed to successes, from which we learn the most indelible lessons. With this approach in mind, The Beer Game to a large extent serves as the very antithesis of a properly functioning supply chain. In other words, the exercise demonstrates how NOT to manage a logistic operation. Hopefully, an examination of the pitfalls and shortcomings of a worst case scenario and avoiding the same types of mistakes will lend insight how to correctly manage a supply chain. What otherwise appears as a simple classroom exercise actually represents a powerful training tool with enduring lessons directly transferable to real world application.
All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs. For example, its area-dominance strategy of opening at least 50 to 60 stores in an area helps with marketing but also lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to the distribution center (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products are sorted by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveries across multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost. The information infrastructure is set up to allow store managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure also facilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point to emphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation and receiving to make both cheaper.