Outsourcing structure.

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Factors to consider before choosing a supplier.

It is the desire of every business or company to have a good supplier that you can rely on in case

supply shock occurs. To choose a supplier that will meet the requirement of your organization

and customer's demand, the following questions should be reinforced:

Cost efficiency.

As the coffee products tend to fluctuate in that the in-house production cannot meet the market

demand, a company would desire to outsource production to help maintain the supply (Alikhani

et al.,2019). One has to compare the costs that will be incurred in the outsourcing plus its

benefits at large. The coffee products company will see increased efficiency if they hire another

supplier as opposed to in-house production. With this question in mind, the coffee product

company will audit the services they are required to provide, and the supplier will compare the

rates as they promise to do more or less.

Expertise and quality assurance.

When the available workforce increases, it helps the supplier find a reliable outsourcing

company that will help the coffee product company eliminate the problem of not meeting the

market demand. The questions flowing in mind should be the workforce can be trained to

collaborate with the outsource team helping the suppliers team to have peace of mind as they

represent their brands.

Culture and communication.

One has to ask him or herself the kind of atmosphere in the supplier’s company. One should

know whether the employees of the suppliers you want to choose are happy and enjoying a well-
balanced career (Alikhani et al., 2019). Also, whether the supplier can respond to you

effectively, 24/7 is very important when you choose the kind of supplier you want to outsource.

Other questions include the scope of projects and infrastructure, among other questions.

Supply chain management.

This is a single activity among many other activities that need to be considered when choosing

an outsource supplier who will meet the demand fluctuations of the coffee products (Frazzon et

al., 2019). These activities involve aggregating the capacity, warehouse, procurement, inventory,

information and inbound and outbound transportation, among many other activities. A proper

outsource supply chain management will provide you with a sustainable growth of surplus in the

firm, thereby dealing with the problem of a bottleneck. Depending or leaning on the outsourcing

supplier requires that the chosen supplier should have few clients to avoid uncertainties in the

future Hofmann et al., 2019).

Outsourcing calendar management.

Each activity in the outsourcing of the supplier is very important and requires maximum

attention and brings the need to manage and arrange the activities as per their schedule.

Therefore, outsourcing calendar management is important as it saves time and brings extra value

to the company. Outsourcing calendar management can help you stay focused on activities that

will improve your delivery time, thus meeting your organization's requirements and customers'

needs.

Outsourcing challenges.

Language and communications challenges have been experienced in the process of outsourcing

because of supplier dialects that are not easy to understand. When suppliers are within, it is easy
for information, but when they are afar, it becomes a challenge (Choi et al., 2016). The culture

barrier has become an imminent challenge in outsourcing and organizational differences. In

trying to deal with bottlenecks, the coffee products company is facing the challenge of project

control and decision making. Here, employees may not support the outsourcing hindering the

benefits of outsourcing. Other challenges include costs, not knowing the supplier and the risk of

data leaks, among other challenges.

Order management.

This occurs from when a customer places an order to keep track until the time the order is

fulfilled. It also involves purchase history, payment methods, the volume of orders where the

warehouse team s get the notification of the order and ship it to the customer (Xu et al., 2020). It

involves different departments, and customers get a purchase order moved into sales then

delivered. Placing an order where you can either order online, via phone or in person. Customers

experience where the record of each customer is stored, including volume and payment scheme

—order fulfillment, where the filled-out form is taken to the warehouse responsible for the order.

The inventory is monitored, and continuous supply is recorded. In case the inventory runs out of

stock, the concerned stakeholders place an order to the suppliers. Order entry where an

accounting department is given the order slip and then records sales and account receivables

through accounting software. The shipping team then delivers the goods to the customers (Xu et

al., 2020).

References.
Alikhani, R., Torabi, S. A., & Altay, N. (2019). Strategic supplier selection under sustainability

and risk criteria. International Journal of Production Economics, 208, 69-82.

Choi, T. M., Wallace, S. W., & Wang, Y. (2016). Risk management and coordination in service

supply chains: information, logistics and outsourcing. Journal of the Operational

Research Society, 67(2), 159-164.

Frazzon, E. M., Rodriguez, C. M. T., Pereira, M. M., Pires, M. C., & Uhlmann, I. (2019).

Towards supply chain management 4.0. Brazilian Journal of Operations & Production

Management, 16(2), 180-191.

Hofmann, E., Sternberg, H., Chen, H., Pflaum, A., & Prockl, G. (2019). Supply chain

management and Industry 4.0: conducting research in the digital age. International

Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.

Xu, Zhen, Hailun Zhang, Jiheng Zhang, and Rachel Q. Zhang. "Online demand fulfillment under

limited flexibility." Management Science 66, no. 10 (2020): 4667-4685.