This research investigated the development of a balanced scorecard for a frozen vegetable processing plant. The balanced scorecard can be utilised as a strategic management and performance measurement system. First, an overview of the balanced scorecard concept was presented. Its four perspectives, namely financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth were explained. Thereafter, the process of developing a balanced scorecard was outlined and the translation of a firm’s vision into measurable objectives and targets was discussed. Finally, the literature study evaluated the development of balanced scorecards by means of selected case studies. This included an analysis of the successes and failures of balanced scorecards in practice. The research methodology consisted of: (a) A literature study to determine a framework for developing a balanced scorecard. (b) Interviews and workshops to gather the primary data required to develop a balanced scorecard. The development of a balanced scorecard for a frozen vegetable processing plant using the findings from (a) and (b) above. The following recommendations were made: · Targets and action plans should be developed for the outstanding strategic objectives of the plant, and all key performance measurements should be formalised on key performance area documents. All role players should be involved in this process. · All employees must be exposed to, and understand the plant’s vision, mission statement and the purpose of the balanced scorecard. · All employees need to understand how their actions impact on other employees and the well-being of the plant. They must have set objectives and targets that can be measured. · To increase the chance of a successful scorecard implementation, regular feedback must be provided to all employees, and managers must hold people accountable for using the system.

The advent of globalisation and the re-admittance of South Africa into the international market place have presented both opportunities and threats to local fast food outlets and franchises. These food outlets are faced with foreign competition and the need to adapt their strategies in order to cope with the continued onslaught of these highly efficient, foreign, service orientated organisations if they intend to survive. This research explored the strategies these fast food outlets should utilise to deal with their competition and to facilitate their market growth and organisational development which could lead to them being successfully franchised at a later stage. The study revealed that if any significant growth and organisational development was to be expected, the fast food outlet had to concentrate on customer satisfaction and retention through the innovative use of the 7P’s of the marketing mix in its strategy formulation process. Attention also needed to be given to the competitive forces in the external environment so that competitive strategies were in line with market developments. The triangulation method was applied in this study. In terms of this method, qualitative and quantitative research techniques are combined in order to improve the reliability and validity of the research findings. This method proved to be an effective research tool as the findings in the quantitative research were verified by the findings in the qualitative research. Franchising in South Africa, especially the Eastern Cape, where unemployment is highest, is important as it has the potential for job creation and economic empowerment of the disadvantaged communities. It is therefore essential that every endeavour be made to ensure the success of the emerging entrepreneurs through assisting them to develop strategies that will ensure sustainable development and growth.

M.B.A. / Franchising systems in South Africa have experienced high and sustained growth over the last decade. The South African government has recognised and supports business format franchising as a low risk way of creating jobs, transferring skills and creating wealth. At the forefront of this growth, is the fast food franchising industry, which is made up of a mix of global brands and a significant few, highly successful, locally founded, franchised operations based on Portuguese or American cultures. The fast food industry in South Africa also consists of a number of successful "non franchised" Indian fast food operations, founded by South Africans of Indian descent. None of these entrepreneurs have taken the next logical step and developed their businesses into national franchises. This study sought to uncover the factors inhibiting the franchising of Indian fast food stores in South Africa and to determine whether there was a market for Indian fast foods amongst a sample of consumers. The findings were that the independent entrepreneurs lacked the skills and knowledge to enter franchising as the franchisor. In addition, there was a general mistrust of the franchising system and doubts as to whether there was sufficient broad appeal of Indian fast foods. The results of the consumer survey however suggested that Indian fast foods were popular across a cross section of the population. Consequently, the report recommended that existing Indian fast food entrepreneurs develop strategies to exploit the market opportunities presented and suggested that it is the entrepreneur who franchises first, that will gain first more advantage through pre-empting real estate and shaping customer preferences and tastes.

Sorghum bicolour (L.) Moench is an important staple cereal in Africa, where it ranks second after maize. Despite its importance, the sorghum food industry remains non vibrant, constrained in part by inadequate milling technology. Presently, Prairie Research Laboratory (PRL) type abrasive dehullers and hammer mills, which apparently produce meals of inconsistent quality and low output, are generally used for industrial milling of sorghum. Efforts to improve sorghum milling require an in-depth understanding of how milling process and grain type affect the sensory characteristics of the final food products. Such knowledge is currently lacking. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of milling process and sorghum type on the quality of sorghum meal and porridge. Twelve sorghum types with diverse physico-chemical properties were milled by roller milling (RM), abrasive decortication-hammer milling (ADHM) and hand pounding (HP), and the effects on meal extraction and meal quality were evaluated. Porridges were prepared using standardised Botswana recipe, and their sensory profiles were characterised using Descriptive Sensory Analysis. Additionally, factors that affect the texture of sorghum porridge were investigated, and suggestions for improving the sorghum milling process are given. Both the sorghum type and the milling process affected the quality of the meal and the sensory characteristics of the porridge, but the milling process was found to have more effects on these characteristics than the sorghum type, because of the diverse milling principles of the milling processes. RM gave far better extraction rate and had substantially higher throughput than HP and ADHM. However, meals obtained with RM had slightly more ash and were a little darker, and gave porridges which were correspondingly darker in colour, had slightly more branny aroma, more astringency and bitter taste, than meals obtained with the other two milling processes, indicating higher bran contamination of the meals, presumably caused by fragmentation of the pericarp. Clearly, even with tempering the pericarp was still friable, and hence, requires indepth sorghum tempering studies. Grain hardness proved to be important for milling, as it correlated positively with extraction rate with ADHM and HP, but not with RM. Hard grains generally gave coarser and better refined meals, and produced porridges that were firmer, compared to soft grains. Weathered and pigmented pericarp sorghums produced dark and specky meals, and gave porridges with apparently undesirable sensory qualities, because of staining caused by the pericarp pigments, showing that these characteristics affect the quality of sorghum foods negatively. When used with hard and light coloured sorghums, ADHM gave more appealing meal and porridge qualities (light coloured, firm texture and enhanced cereal aroma), indicating that dry abrasive decortication is advantageous for production of sorghum products with superior sensory qualities. Firmness varied considerably among the porridges, caused by differences in the meal particle sizes, which was predominantly a consequence of the milling process. An increased proportion of coarse endosperm particles, as was the case with HP meals, caused increased porridge firmness. The coarse particles absorbed water slowly, thus restricting swelling of the starch granules, such that a high proportion of non-ruptured gelatinised starch granules that reinforce the porridge matrix resulted. The sorghum type also influenced porridge firmness, whereby the corneous sorghum types with high protein content produced firmer porridges, owing to presence of the hard and less waterpermeable protein-starch matrix in the endosperm meal particles. Because abrasive decortication gave meals and porridges with superior sensory qualities, while roller milling prduced high throughputs, a roller milling system that is preceded by a dry abrasive decortication process is recommended as a versatile milling process for industrial processing of diverse sorghum products that have superior sensory qualities. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Food Science / unrestricted

This thesis aims to analyze the evolution of the investments of Mexico in foreign countries, its beginnings, the economic policy behind the boost on investments, the main Mexican industries evolution of investments in the globe and the specific food industry development through the years. To reach the final analysis of the specific opportunities of three of the biggest companies in the Mexican food sector, Grupo BIMBO, Grupo MASECA and Conservas La Costena, which will have conclusions on the Czech conditions for businesses, competition in the food industry by domestic companies and the description of the capacities of each Mexican enterprise that may or may not enable them to invest in the Czech Republic. The first chapter analyzes a theoretical approach to the global context dynamics and the theories that we believe are proper for the investment flows analysis along with the performance of Mexico in this dynamics. The second chapter covers the development of the outward Mexican FDI linked to some historical facts, policies and reaching an analysis on the evolution of Mexican FDI presence in Europe. The Chapter three deepens the study in the food sector, with a global contextualization of the dynamics in and out of Mexico, and then analyzes our three specific cases, BIMBO, GRUMA and LA COSTENA. Finally, the fourth chapter will end with the analysis of the Czech Republic as a potential investment receiver, barriers, legal framework, and competition in the food sector, to reach the final description and conclusions about the opportunities of Mexican investments in the food sector on the Czech Republic.

The diploma thesis deals with the impact of innovative assets on the foreign trade of a selected food business. On the basis of theoretical part, an analysis is made of the selected company, which consists of a financial analysis, PESTE analysis, Porter's analysis, competition analyses and analyses of specific innovations. At the end of a thesis, the results achieved are evaluated. At the same time, solutions are proposed to improve the current state of innovation in the company under observation.

This final project solves a proposal of mechanism for splitting of unfilled cans before a can filling process in the food industry. From all possible options such as the one with a simple conception, easy applicated in practice and at a low price, should be chosen. The selected option is constructed and drawn in a 3D programme called AUTODESK Inventor 10. Please, see the attached technical drawings for the chosen parts.

Background – inventory management theory has in the past been focused on traditional engineering industries. These theories are not completely applicable on industries such as FMCG where the main objective is to avoid obsolescence and not tied-up capital. A part of the FMCG industry that is especially pressured by short shelf lives is the food industry. The food industry has also the disadvantage that the customers demand instant deliveries, which makes production to order impossible. Arla Foods is a dairy company that is struggling with high and increasing wastage costs. The wastage cost is generated from products where last sales date is exceeded and Arla Foods CSE therefore has to trash the products even if the best-before date is still valid. These costs need to be reduced on both short and long term. Hence Arla Foods is perfect as a case company for this study. Purpose – the ulterior purpose of this study is to seek if the current theory is applicable on the food industry. This is investigated through a case study at Arla Foods with the following questions asked: Which factors drives wastage costs at a global dairy company such as Arla Foods? How do the factors relate to each other? Which actions could be taken to reduce the wastage costs at a global dairy company such as Arla Foods? To what extent could these findings be generalizable? Method – a thorough literature study is conducted to create an understanding of the existing theories. The case study is mainly based on interviews and observations with employees at Arla Foods. Data has been extracted from internal data bases and processed to complement the interviews and observations. Conclusion – the case company showed that the most significant wastage drivers on an article level were forecast deviations and batch size/delivery frequency. However, the main wastage drivers at Arla Foods were nothing that could be found in neither supply chain management nor inventory management theory – this was instead problems related to work process, organization, communication and strategy. Suggested solutions to these problems are among others: Going through the worst performing articles’ set-up in a structured way. Making sure that there exists a clear process and that all employees are educated in it. Having a back-up plan on what to do with excessive inventory. Using follow-up reports as tools to take action from. When these problems have been solved, Arla Foods can instead focus on planning principles such as taking steps towards a more integrated collaboration with their customers via Efficient Consumer Response. The findings are not proved to be general in any way, but the conclusion of the report still states that there is a high probability that these findings could be applied on other companies within the food industry in general and within the dairy industry in specific. If this is the case, then it is shown that the current theory lacks several aspects when it comes to food industry – aspects that maybe do not have the same importance within most of the traditional engineering industries. Originality – the literature review conducted before the case study did not show any other case study or research that has made an equally broad overview. Earlier studies have mainly been focused on that the food industry is in need of customized planning principles and systems. That research has in the end advocated implementation of Efficient Consumer Response or similar.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Peru’s pomegranate productivity is 10.3 tons, which is almost a third of that produced by Turkey (27.5 tons) and almost half of that produced by Spain (20 tons). In this sense, it is necessary that the organizations know the importance of quality management to monitor and maintain product quality. It is important to consider the appropriate methods to adopt and implement quality management so that MSEs may develop a better understanding of how quality management systems should be implemented and the significant, positive impact they generate. This document proposes a model based on quality management and good practices, which frames a series of activities and criteria to provide an objective diagnosis. This model was developed based on information gathered from SMEs in the district of Santiago de Ica.

To streamline and improce their service delivery systems, service organizations have much to learn from their manufacturing counterparts in the use of quality and process improvement tools. The purpose of this article is to present a practical framework which integrates these tools in order to enhance the efficiency and customer orientation of service delivery systems. Two examples are used to illustrate the application of the framework. Also practical guidelines to facilitate the implementation of the proposed framework are offered.