Case Report

On
A day in the life of Frederic God, Operations Manager,
BonPain

By:
ANKIT MALHOTRA
SMBA 11005
Sec - A

Introduction
The case talks about daily activities followed by Mr Frederic Gode, the operations
manager of a France based bakers, BonPain, Orleans which supplies frozen par baked items to supermarkets in the Europe.
Further the case describes about the high volume products manufactured by the
company, variety & wide range of packing required by every product. Moreover it
discusses about the experiments done in the kitchen to develop & introduce new
products in the market as per the requirement of their customers.

Q1.Analyze the many things that Frederic does during his typical day. You should group
these in terms of the five categories below, and provide a full list of subcategories for each:
Strategic
-

Productivity & Quality Control

Business enhancement plans
Expansion in capacity and process automation
Demand forecasting
Developing new products for competitive market
Dealing with suppliers issues that are upsetting companys performance

Design
-

Expansion of business to meet increasing demands

Automation & robotization of packing
Design new equipments for new type of products to be launched
Increase in storage capacity to ensure timely deliveries
Design new process & quality controls for customer satisfaction
Maintenance & repairs for existing equipment

Planning & Control

-

Check on productivity and quality control

Planning for production controls of new projects
Regular meeting with concerned personnel to view the progress, resolve issues
and planning required for future ventures
Equipment failure and to prevent such occurrences in future
Planning for routine and new delivery orders
Increase cost efficiency by reducing wastage of raw materials
Implementation of new planning tools like Material Requirement Planning
Preparation and review of production statistics to be presented in Boards
meeting and highlight any issues

Improvement
-

Quality reports to highlight improvements needed

Incorporation of new equipment & enhanced capacity for better performance with improved deliveries.

Visit with technical teams to ensure smooth process and ways to improve

Others (Staff Problems)

-

Need for training and future roles of employees to avoid any human resource issues.
Association with staff & supervisors to improve production to meet the rising demands.
Satisfy the anxiety in staffs mind regarding their role in the company due to changing
environment.

Q2.Assess the approximate proportions of Frederics time that is spent on long-term and on
short-term issues. Do you think this is typical of Operations Managers in other industries (for
example, banking, leisure, automotive component manufacture) as well?
The day for Frederic Gode starts like every operations managers day. Godes day activities
majorly focuses on short term issues like:
-

Production & Quality Statistics

Touring & supervising the factory to ensure smooth operations.
Designing improved products to meet the market demand.
Improving delivery issues
Resolving daily issues
Listening & resolving clients grievances.
Designing short term plans.

Over & above the short term issues, he also pays attention to long term goals of the
organization, which include:
-

Long term planning for new projects

Needs for expansion in the production line to meet rising demand
Preparing & analysing production statistics to forecast future demands.
Bring in advanced technology in the company to reduce wastage.

In my opinion, being an operation manager of an industry related to daily consuming

products this situation is common & very well recognized. As an operation manager of
such industries you have less time to meet the requirements of your clients & are pretty
competitive in nature in order to grasp the market share.
Q3. What is Frederics involvement in the technology acquisition decisions? What are his
main concerns when evaluating the capability of new equipment?
Frederic played a very affluent role in technology acquisitions as Frederic identified that the
staff was working over time since a long time and this will not work for long henceforth he
recognised the need of new machines which would simplify down the work.
To make automation really happen he met with the reps of F-robot who gave him an option
to choose from high speed and low speed machines. He also knew that if he doesnt find a

way to ease the work for workforce who has been working overtime it would create
dissatisfaction & inefficiency and increase in the amount of wastage as well
Key Concerns when evaluating the capability of new equipments are:
-

Buying equipments are expensive & an irreversible decision

Equipment need to be customised as per particular types of products
Customised machines would bind the future flexibility of the proposed robot packers.
Operational issues like capacity, flexibility, reliability, maintenance, spare parts inventory
and quality were major concerns.
Another concern was regarding training the operators and maintenance staff

Q4. What main human resources issues are an important part of Frederics
activities?
Today Human Resource plays a vital role in every organization. Similarly in this
case human resource vibrant role is important. But during the case I have
visualized a few issues in HR, they are as follows:
-

Excessive wastage of raw material due to lack of supervision.

Need for training the existing employees forecasting the future roles to avoid
conflicts.
Changing the mind perspective of employees to motivate them work in align
with the organisational goals.
Lack of communication between employees of various departments, Ex: The
production manager was not keeping a check on the requirements from time to time as
they used to often run out of apricots
Inability to resolve issues quickly
Workers working excessive overtime
Inability to meet customer deadlines
Organization Hierarchical structure

Q5. In what ways Frederics operations contribute to the competitive advantage of the
company?
Fredrics operation are vital for the organization & contribute to a great advantage
to the company, some of the major contributions include;
-

Reviewing daily operations

Resolving daily issues
Automation for enhanced production
Implementation of new Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) system within the ERP
project which would help in inventory control and placing of call-off orders.
Review of new market trends, introduction of new products & attracting new clients
Developing cost effective ways of production
Utilization of staff to increase performance
Planning for expansion projects to meet the rising demands
Quality improvements
Feedback and resolution of clients complaints