Allen Flavors,Inc

exercise 8

Although Allen Flavors does not typically have large projects in regard to the daily function of the company, you can consider the development to manufacturing process a project. A number of steps are taken to go from initial idea to final product. The process begins with the customer’s ideas and meeting with the sales team and developers. It then continues from there into ‘sample projects’. At this time a retainer fee is given to Allen Flavors for the lab work done to develop the final product. This is when the lab gets to work and sends samples to the customer. The customer then approves the sample and gets a purchase order in to the sales department and production. Batches are pulled from the system and the items are set into the production schedule. If ingredients are missing, the purchasing agent will source the material. When the items are complete, the product is paid for and then shipped to the customer’s bottler. In the mean time, they coordinate bottles, labels, FDA approval, production at the bottlers, etc. The initial order is a long process and there are a number of tasks that take place to achieve it. Allen Flavors does not use Gantt charts. Because the main part of the business is produced in batches, which is one process, it is not necessary. I actually would not recommend an adjustment to the process. The customers seem to be happy with the way the initial orders are handled and I am not sure changing the process would be helpful.