Page 80 - English for Executive Administrative Assistant

Operational issue

Arnott’s introduces the newly designed Shapes which failed to meet the customer’s expectations.

The customers had grown accustomed to high-quality biscuits that are full of flavor. The old flavors,

including the Pizza, Cheddar, Barbeque and savoury are legendary and are liked just the way they are.

Consumers liked how the Shapes flavors are coated onto the biscuits in the form of large seasoning

sprinkles. The ‘new and improved’ brands introduced changed not only the tastes but also texture.
The new Shapes flavors are now baked into the biscuits as opposed to onto them. The reasoning by

the quality management unit is that baking the flavors into the biscuits will get the flavors to stick
onto the biscuits. The management states that it had recieved numerous complaints from the
customers that they would have liked more flavors on their biscuits. Innovating a methodology and

technology to bake the flavors into the biscuits, thus, seemed a plausible move. Arnott’s also made
the seasoning sprinkles smaller so that they can stick on the biscuits better.

Operational planning and control

The key finding is that Arnott’s decision to introduce a new product line was clearly influenced by the
cost-saving opportunity the new flavor would have provided. It is evident that the decision was not
informed by the changes in customer tastes and preferences. The new assembly line, however, would

have saved the company up to 20% of the manufacturing costs. Baking the flavors into the biscuits as
opposed to onto the biscuits its cheaper. To optimize its profitability. Arnott’s had to adopt a cost-
cutting manufacturing exercise. It, therefore, decided to introduce a new assembly line, as opposed
to doing a brand extension with the new flavors which made more sense since the customers were

already in love with the existent brands.

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English for Executive Administrative Assistant