Kudler Fine Foods is a small to medium-sized company in La Jolla, California. The La Jolla store functions as the headquarters for the company, with another two stores in Del Mar and Encinitas. Kudler Fine Foods has a unique way of doing business. The company makes effective use of outsourcing the shipping and inventory resources and combines four different business information systems to achieve a common business goal. An information system that is critical to the business processes of Kudler Fine Foods is an information system that tailors to operations within the company and combine existing information systems into one system that a manager uses to collect and organize the data into useful reports. By combining the efforts of the existing information systems, efficiency and productivity levels operate on the same level as larger corporations. The critical business information system that makes the company perform as a large corporation is the operations management information system.
The operations management information system collects, collaborates, and organizes information among the various information sub-systems: the Transaction Processing System (TPS), Just-In-Time (JIT) shipping information system, and the Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS), and processes this data into useful information. The operations manager has functional oversight and is responsible for operating and maintaining of the operations management information system. The sales, shipping & inventory, and human resources managers support the operations manager through the respective sub-systems (the TPS, JIT, and HRMIS systems), and through various reports, verbal, and written communication. The operations manager oversees operations and has operational responsibility of making all tactical and operational decisions for Kudler Fine Foods, and uses the operation management information system to make informed decisions on inventory requirements, sales, and product choices. The operation management information system’s infrastructure is set up in much the same way as the structure of the organization: The human resources manager, the sales manager, and the shipping & inventory manager report to the operations manager, and their corresponding information systems send and receive data through the operation management information system. The operations manager reports to the Chief Executive Officer, and the operation management information system sends information and reports to the Executive Information System (EIS). The operation management information system and the supporting sub-systems closely resemble Kudler Fine Foods organizational hierarchy, and as a result, the operations manager can quickly and accurately generate reports, sales trends, and track inventory.
Within minutes, the operations manager can view all aspects of company operations, from sales performance to delivery times, inventory, sales, local vendors that provide supplies and services, and importers that ship products to the company. The operations manager can quickly translate this data through the operation management information system into useful reports, and send reports and corresponding data to the chief executive officer by way of e-mail through the private corporate intranet. The operations manager can also send the same report simultaneously to the executive information system for processing and viewing by the chief executive officer, effectively reducing time spent on generating and submitting reports. The time spent on collecting data from the various sub-systems is time consuming, so the operation management information system retrieves only the necessary data at regular intervals to produce reports and provide input to the executive information system, track sales trends, monitor sales activity on a minute-by-minute basis, record losses, track and manage inventory requirements, and manage vendor accounts. The activities mentioned above are necessary for normal business functions within the company. Kudler Fine Foods relies on the functions and features of the operation management information system to thrive in their respective market.
In short, to survive in the modern market today, a management information system that assists the operations manager with effectively collecting, collaborating, and organizing information is crucial to the success of Kudler Fine Foods. The features and functions that tailor to the needs of the operations manager is what make the operation management information system a critical business tool for Kudler Fine Foods. The operation management information system provides the necessary features that collect data from the TPS, JIT, and HRMIS systems, and organizes this data into useful information in the form of reports, trends, and tracking information. The capabilities of the operation management information system allow Kudler Fine Foods to perform at peak efficiency, which allows the company to perform on the same level as a large corporation. The result is an information system that drastically reduces time, increases productivity, and reduces expenses, which increases Kudler Fine Foods bottom line.