Coffee Roasters Case

In Ohori Coffee, they would use intermittent processes in their production, like job shop and batch orders. In their manufacturing process, Ohori makes batches of 30 pounds or less of roasted coffee beans, which is a relatively small lot size and therefore fits this category. Along with this, they use a variety of coffee beans to make many different types of coffee, which displays their need for customization in their production process, done by actual humans. Folgers on the other hand would use more of a line-flow process, which uses assembly lines and a continuous production. This is because their products are produced at very high volumes, and are standardized. This would be done mostly by machines and computers.

Using intermittent processes would help Ohori in their competitive environment because it would allow them to capitalize on the uniqueness of their coffee beans, which is what they pride themselves on. Folgers leans more to efficiency, so in their competitive environment they benefit from continuous production.

Ohori Coffee Shop uses humans as opposed to machines and computers during the roasting process in order to maintain quality in their beans. This means that their operations layout would be completely different than that of Folgers, because if Folgers used “master roasters” during their process, it would become much slower and inefficient. These two different companies would have drastically different layouts, based on what they consider to be their specialty. Ohori’s layout would definitely be more employee-friendly and safe, and easier to navigate since they have more people in their daily operations. Folgers layout would be the opposite, and based around their machinery.

If Folgers wanted to compete directly with Ohori, they would have to change several things about their company. First of all, they would need to downsize their business to be more locally focused instead of nationally. This would allow them to slow down their...