General Mills: Sustaining The Future
By: Jake Baldwin & Nikita Patel
General Mills was a milling company based in Minneapolis that was created in 1856 by Cadwallader C. Washburn. When the company was formed, it’s original purpose was to lease power rights to mill operators in Minnesota. However in 1866, Washburn built General Mills’ first flour mill, and no later than 1874, he built another. Fast forward more than a century later, and General Mills is now one of the largest food companies in the world, operating in more than 100 countries. This company is divided into three market segments; U.S. Retail, International, and Convenience Store & Foodservice. The majority of the revenue generated by General Mills is ready-to-eat cereal (21% of 2013 revenue), but they sell products ranging from cookies, to convenient meals, to yogurt, as well as other assorted snacks. General Mills owns the rights to many very popular products such as Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Yoplait. Their diverse production line and global impact makes General Mills one of the most prominent companies in the world.
In regards to General Mills’ supply chain, they have a heavy emphasis on sustainability and environmental impact, which sets it apart from a lot of their competitors. It is unique in a sense that every little piece of their supply chain is meant to be sustained, and to improve environmental, social, and economic footprints around the globe. Everything from their raw materials to their upstream suppliers are monitored and constantly reviewed for sustainability. General Mills supply chain is broken up into four segments; 1.) Assessment, 2.) Strategy Formation, 3.) Transformation, and 4.) Monitoring and Evaluation. The assessment part of the chain is dedicated to an in-depth and extensive analysis of all of the raw materials General Mills purchases across the globe. The raw materials are measured against an abundance of metrics including deforestation, child labor, animal welfare, soil loss, and water quality. This step of the chain ensures that before consumption of the raw materials begins, General Mills can find the suppliers that provide the most sustainable resources that will impact the environment as little as possible. The strategy and formation segment involves selecting ten essential raw materials, and shifting the focus to sustaining these resources and making the consumption of them more environmentally friendly. The transformation segment is where the true improvement occurs. Conjoined with nongovernmental agencies and industry partners, General Mills attempts to identify sustainable solutions and continually refine their supply chain in this stage. Finally, the monitoring and evaluation portion involves auditing to really see the impact the solutions that General Mills implemented into its supply chain. This comprehensive supply chain strategy allows them to “win” because it gives them an edge over their competitors. By continuing to review and improve their supply chain, and their emphasis on sustainability, General Mills is not only a giant in the industry, but is becoming an innovator. They are making their raw materials last longer than their competitors, and they leave less of an environmental footprint doing so.
In order to maintain and operate their supply chain, General Mills needs people with ambition, creativity, and people that can see the big picture in order for their supply chain to run smoothly. Due to the fact that General Mills seeks continuous improvement to their supply chain, they need managers that have the constant urge to seek improvement and excellence. A lot of companies look to General Mills and try to mimic their approach to sustainability, therefore it is imperative to continue to find new ways to stay more efficient and more effective. General Mills also needs people that can think outside of the box and find new ways to make their supply chain more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Also, one of the most important aspects to the makeup of their company is diversity. General Mills strives to create a diverse workforce that mirrors the diversity of the suppliers that they work with.
Although General Mills’ supply chain runs smoothly, there are some risks that are involved with it. With such an emphasis on sustainability, the costs for this supply chain are naturally higher than normal. Continuously searching for better ways to run their supply chain costs time and money. Another risk for General Mills is maintaining healthy relationships with suppliers. Because this company constantly searches for new and more environmentally friendly raw materials, it is a little harder to find suppliers that they can form long term business relationships with. One of the biggest threats to General Mills supply chain is unexpected climate that could damage their raw material crops. This would cause their supply chain system to go into panic because they would need to find another way to get their raw materials. Another threat to General Mills supply chain system is their new environmentally conscious system, which was created due to the massive emissions of greenhouse gasses (older bottleneck). This is a potential threat because it could cause bottlenecks in different areas within the system when trying to be earth friendly (fixing their older bottleneck).
More of a visual learner check out:
Considering working for General Mills? check out their values and their mission at:
What General Mills Supply Chain positions fit you?
Want to learn more about their supply chain program:
Check out what others think about General Mills supply chain and its policies:
Resources:
No comments:
Post a Comment