Coca-Cola Case Study

Coca-Cola Case Study

Under Project Scale and in order to improve the value chain, Coke developed a new software model based on SAP 6.0 ERP Platform called Coke One. It supports hundreds of business processes that are common and utilized by all bottler. Its main purpose is to improve communication and relations with all facets of the supply chain. Even though the bigger bottlers opted out of implementing the new software, it enabled smaller bottlers to get better deals, faster implementation of processes and higher capacity through the intellectual property provided to them. Coke is also working to improve innovation with social media networking in order to improve their marketing efforts. For the competitive forces, Coke focused on the product development and its distribution to its bottlers. This presented a collaboration issue between them and the bottlers which is improved with the Coke One software. There is a significant rivalry with Pepsi Cola which affects the profitability of the two companies. The existence of substitutes caused Coke to diversify into other products such as energy drinks, water, and sport drinks. Coke, with its vast resources and powerful branding keeps most new entrants to the industry at bay. With regard to suppliers, there is little to no bargaining power since the ingredients are available on the open market and there are plenty of packaging suppliers.

Coke excels it knowledge management through the use of Miicrosoftt collaborative tools such as Sharepoint, Live Meeting, and Office communication products. These tools enable the executives to conduct live sessions with all the employees and supply chain in real time. They could share files on the sharepoint or have a live chat between one or more users. This enabled the whole supply chain to improve its collaboraion immensley. The company could also conduct polls, share news, video and audio. These tools culmanated into their Common Innovation Framework.

It is extremely important for Coke to have seamless communication and collaboration with its bottler since they are the ones who bottle and distribute the Coca-Cola products. They are the middle link to the supply chaing between Coke and the retailers. It allows these smaller bottlers to obtain better pricing which allows better profitability. Also it allows them to understand and implement in an expedient manner new and existing processes, even if there are changes. Lastly, it allows them to have a higher capability compared to other competitors. This is all made possible with the updates from Project Scale, which allowed the release of the Coke One Bottler model.

Because the last few years, Pepsico has gained some marketshare while Coca-Cola was losing ground. All the initiatives that Coca-Cola has implemented has improved innovation and improved collaboration throughout the supply chain. In addition, they diversified in to