Read the case and answer the questions given at the end. Each question has 5 marks. 5 The Coca-Cola Company An amazing 1.8 billion servings of Coca-Cola products are sold around the world every day, according to Steve Buffington, vice president of supply chain development and director of supply chain, Bottling Investments Group for The Coca-Cola Company. Making sure that every one of its thirsty clients gets the right product, at the right time and in the right price range is Coca-Cola's supply chain priority. Buffington, a 34-year veteran with The Coca-Cola Company, has been involved in a variety of strategies for growth and operations excellence. He has led new developments in the Coca-Cola supply chain around the globe. Buffington has been responsible for development and implementation of strategies to support and enhance the Coca-Cola supply chain system. CAPABILITY EXCELLENCE One of the main goals of the supply chain arm of Coca-Cola is to have every customer receive tailored services from the system, whether that customer is in New York City, Tokyo or a rural area in an isolated part of the world. Coca Cola has 16 million retail outlets around the world that sell Coca-Cola, and it has to have common practices, processes and capabilities no matter where it operates in the world. Coca-Cola makes direct store delivery to more than 10 million of those retail outlets. Although Coca-Cola is a global company, its products never travel far to reach the final consumer, making it a local company in each market where it operates. "Our business is a local business," Buffington relates. "We typically don't ship Coca-Cola more than a few hundred miles; it's all about being responsive to the customer's needs and the local tastes of the consumers in every market. This approach is what Buffington calls a customer-driven supply chain. The logistics flow of the supply chain enables the company to tailor its services to its clients' needs. It's all in our demand and supply planning and in our sales operations planning, Buffington explains. Planning supply is driven by forecasted customer demand input, seasonality and also by promotions or changes in merchandising in the store." MORE THAN ONE SUPPLY CHAIN The level of customer care Coca-Cola offers requires a specific model of supply chain structure, what Buffington calls "segmentation. Segmentation is the type of supply chain that you have based on your customers' needs or your product attributes," he explains. More and more, we are understanding that we have to have different types of supply chains within our local operations. Segmentation allows Coca-Cola to understand and implement best practices and meet its customers' requirements in relation to their individual portfolios. There is efficient supply chain, there is responsive supply chain and there is agile supply chain," Buffington says. Depending on the customers' needs and their portfolio, the supply chain can be efficient-dominant, agile or responsive-dominant. It depends on the attributes of the portfolio and the requirements of the client." LOCAL SERVICE To be able to offer that localized customer service worldwide, Coca-Cola six years ago established the world's largest lean Six Sigma supply chain operation to leverage best practices, processes and operational excellence programs. It's all about being local, being responsive, being market-driven and also being able to leverage the brand, the innovation, the technology and what we've learned of best practices in our global system, Buffington explains. Working collaboratively with suppliers ensures that the best practices established by Coca-Cola are applied across the board. Coca-Cola's supply chain is focused on delivering on its brands' promises for great products. "We sell refreshments and a few moments of joy to people all over the world, so we want to keep it as affordable as we can," he notes. "Productivity and eliminating waste and inefficiencies is very important from the supply chain standpoint to maintain that availability." 1. 2. Questions: How Coca-Cola supply chain provide competitive advantage to company? What are the key customer needs that Coca Cola aims to fulfill? 3. Give arguments to support the statement of Coca-Cola that our business is a local business