(TIỂU LUẬN) OPERATION MANAGEMENT MIDTERM REPORT introduction about yakult

Minoru Shirota - the founder of Yakult in Japan Source: https://www.yakult.co.in/yakult-LCS.php Up to now, Yakult fermented milk has officially been available in a total of 38 countries,

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

OPERATION MANAGEMENT

MIDTERM REPORT

Lecturer: Mr Do Sy Hoang

Course: MGT1127E

Tran Tam Nhu

Vo Nhu Quynh Nguyen Thao Phuong Nhi Hoang Thi Yen Nhi

Ho Chi Minh City, 2022

TABLE OF FIGURES

1 Introduction about Yakult 1.1 History

Yakult fermented milk first appeared on the market in 1935, as a result ofresearch by Professor Minoru Shirota and colleagues on the transfer of Lactobacilluscasei Shirota (L.Casei) strain into a drink direct Combined with micronutrientisoflavones in soy, this product brings many benefits to the human immune system,and digestive system, preventing breast cancer

Figure 1.1: Dr Minoru Shirota - the founder of Yakult in Japan

Source: https://www.yakult.co.in/yakult-LCS.php Up to now, Yakult fermented milk

has officially been available in a total of 38 countries, including Vietnam In 2007,Yakult Company started doing business in Vietnam and in 2008, the plant of Yakult

Group in Binh Duong has officially comeinto operation

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Figure 1.2: Yakult’s overseas network

Source: https://www.yakult.co.in/worldwide.php

1.2 Products

Yakult Yogurt is a fermented milk drink made from skimmed milk powder,sugar, water, and a strain of Lactobacillus casei Shirota Each bottle of Yakultcontains more than 6.5 billion L.casei Shirota bacteria Unlike other strains ofbacteria; L.casei Shirota bacteria are resistant to gastric juice and bile entering theintestine; supporting restoring the balance of intestinal microflora and increasingresistance

1.3 Business philosophy

According to the Shirota theory of Professor Minoru Shirota - the father ofYakult, he emphasized "prevention is better than cure" and "a healthy gut leads to along life" With those two guidelines, Yakult is manufactured containing billions ofL.casei Shirota bacteria - becoming a product beneficial to everyone's health at areasonable price This is also the business philosophy and this still continues withthe aim of the Yakult Group to this day (Yakult Cooperate, 2020)

1.4 Distribution system

Currently, the company is distributing products through two main channels.The first channel is through supermarkets and retail stores The second one isthrough the Yakult Lady system - a home delivery system that is currently available

in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Bien Hoa, Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Da Nang

2 Departments in Yakult’s factory and functions of those departments

Yakult’s factory has 6 departments which are the seed room, culture mixingroom, quality control room, bottle-making room, filling room, and packing room

to the seed room This step helps to increase the number of bacteria many times,helping to serve the production process within 1 to 2 years

The ingredients used in the process of breeding are skimmed milk powderand Glucose First, milk and sugar will be dissolved and pasteurized at atemperature of 120 degrees Celsius After being pasteurized, they will be put into atank to ferment at 37 degrees Celsius - equal to the temperature in the human body.The engineer then inoculates the bacteria from the outside into the fermentationzones However, before transplanting, engineers will light an alcohol lamp flame onthe mouth of the tank to prevent other bacteria Bacterial fermentation will take placewithin 24 hours, if the bacteria are in sufficient quantity as desired, the engineers willlower the temperature (about 5 degrees Celsius)in the set to inhibit these bacteriafrom fermenting

2.2 Culture mixing room

This department has an important role in the production of Yakult milk Theingredients used in this room are also skimmed milk powder and glucose Milk andsugar first will be dissolved with water, then this mixture will be transferred to a UHTsterilizer for high-temperature sterilization and then transferred into milk-fermentationtanks After the milk is transferred, the temperature in these tanks is lowered toabout 37 degrees Celsius, the Lactobacillus casei Shirota bacteria from the firstroom will be led into these tanks through a pipeline system In this stage, thefermentation takes place Milk fermentation lasts for several days; and after fullyfermenting, the milky liquid will have a layering phenomenon, which is lumpy andvery sour to drink To overcome this issue, engineers will lead the liquid through ahomogenizer to finely grind the milk, then it is transferred to a tank containing white

sugar to create a natural sweetness for the fermented milk Finally, the milk will bepassed through the filling area.

At the end of this stage, the engineers will conduct tests to check whether thenumber of microorganisms, acidity, sweetness, and solubility of the milk have metthe standards If the milk has met the standards, it will then be cooled in the coolingsystem to be ready for the next step

2.3 Quality control room

The Yakult factory in Vietnam always maintains production with the highestquality standards, applying strict standards, ensuring to bring the best qualityproducts to consumers The quality control department is the place to check thequality of Yakult milk from the input of raw materials to the finished milk in the moststrict manner, applying the HACCP quality management system standard, ISO

22000 A large number of tests will be conducted in this room to check theLactobacillus numbers, acidity, potential contaminants, and taste to make sure theproducts have met the standards

In some cases of force majeure, if there is a problem with the production lineand it is forced to stop halfway, the last bottles and the first bottles that are beingproduced will all be sampled by the quality control department to see if there are anyproblems If the criteria are met, the engineers then proceed to pour it into the bottle

In this stage, each ingredient is weighed and measured in a certain ratio, ensuringthe similarity in taste between the products

2.4 Bottle-making room

The main material of Yakult milk bottles is polystyrene plastic imported fromJapan Each bottle-making machine will suck polystyrene plastic beads from storageinto the machine and melt at high temperature and form into squares and clamp intoYakult bottle molds After that, it will automatically be transferred by conveyor beltthrough a large sterile tank and then continue to move directly to the filling area

2.5 Filling room

The filling room has two operating lines with a guaranteed temperature from 20

to 25 degrees Celsius, after the bottle is transferred to this room, it will be printed onthe expiry date, the production date as well as the information of the product and

then filled with milk Normally, in one hour, about 45000 bottles of milk are filled, andeach bottle contains 65ml of milk These milk bottles are then capped and thenmoved to the packing room In the filling system, there is a sensor to check if the lidsare carefully closed or not If an error happens, it will be pushed out of the productionline There will always be engineers in this room to check whether Yakult bottles areprinted and capped properly; the products that are not qualified will be removed fromthe line.

2.6 Packing room

In the packaging area, the products will be packed twice The first time themachine will pack 5 bottles in a batch, covered with a plastic film imported directlyfrom the Japanese company The batch is then moved through a dryer with atemperature of 160 degrees For the second time, it will be transferred through ascraper of 10 batches into a PE plastic carton of milk, then moved to cold storagefrom 5 to 10 degrees Celsius Finally, the products will be kept for about a day or two

to check their quality before being distributed to consumers

Overall, we have the Yakult production process as below:

Figure 2.1: Yakult production process

Step 3: Use a high-temperature sterilizer to get pasteurized milk or pasteurized

sugar water

Step 4: Inoculate Yakult yeast into a pasteurized milk bath and ferment it for a few

days After the fermentation time, the fermentation tank contains billions of livebacteria and at this time, the milk in the tank is thick This milk mixture is thenhomogenized

Step 5: Yakult yeast culture tank: L.casei Shirota bacteria that were activated and

cultured in the experiment were inoculated into the tank and then incubated to formYakult yeast Next, Yakult yeast is used to inoculate the fermentation tank

Step 6: Homogenizer: The milk after being raised is passed through the

homogenizer to become homogenized fermented milk and then transferred to alarge tank containing sterilized sugar solution

Step 7: The storage tank contains the pasteurized sugar solution: Next, the

homogenized fermented milk is transferred to the storage tank and stirred with sugarwater to form semi-dairy products

Step 8: Water treatment system.

Step 9: Sterilized water tank.

Step 10: Mixing device: The task of this device is to neutralize the sour taste of the

product when fermenting, besides, sugar will be a source of nutrients to provideL.cases Shirota bacteria and this bacteria will live for a long time use

Step 11: Polystyrene plastic bottles are produced at the factory by a bottle-making

machine, then the polystyrene resin particles imported directly from Nhat Ban areheated and molded into Yakult bottles And then transferred to the bottle storagetank to prepare for the next process

Step 12: Bottle making.

Step 13: Bottle storage.

Step 14: Bottle stacking.

Step 15: Expiry date and product information printing.

Step 16: Milk filling machine, aluminum capping.

Step 17: 5-bottle packing machine: The product is packed 5 bottles into 1 block of

polypropylene

Step 18: Complete packing machine: Pack 10 packs into 1 carton of polypropylene Step 19: Cold storage is the place to store the final product within 1 to 2 days with a

temperature below 10 degrees Celsius Before the product is distributed to

consumers, the product quality will be re-checked

Step 20: The refrigerated truck will deliver the products to the distribution units.

3 Quality standards that Yakult aims to achieve

Quality standards are agreements that include requirements, characteristics,

or other specific criteria that can be applied consistently to ensure that materials,products, and processes are fit for their intended purpose In general, they improvethe reliability and effectiveness of goods and services used around the world

Figure 1.1: Principle of Quality Standards

Source:

Safetyculture.com

For a company competing in the food and beverage industry, the standardsand quality of a product are important factors as any defective product can severelydamage the reputation of the company Certification is effective to provide aguideline for a manufacturing firm to build their standards Not only are they widelyproven, but it also helps create trust with customers

Yakult Vietnam manufactures its products under the quality control standardswhich are a harmonized integration of both BSI HACCP & GMP certification and aset of the ISO quality management systems, including ISO 14001:2015, ISO22000:2018, ISO 45001: 2018 Those certificates are reported to be re-evaluatedand updated periodically by a third-party organization.

3.1 ISO 45001:2018

ISO 45001 is an international standard for workplace health and safety thatwas developed to protect employees from diseases and workplace accidents Thiscertification was created to reduce any factors that could cause irreparable harm toemployees and organizations Its standards are the result of a significant amount ofwork by a technical committee of health and safety management experts whocarefully considered a variety of other approaches to system management, includingISO 9001, ISO 22000, and ISO 14001 Furthermore, ISO 45001 was designed totake into account other existing occupational health and safety standards, such asOHSAS 18001, as well as the International Labor Organization's labor standards,conventions, and safety guidelines (NQA, 2022) These are some criteria that ISO

- Improve Employee Health and Safety: ISO 45001 enables businesses andexecutives to improve their OH&S management system in order to provide a safeand dependable environment for their employees and contractors Meeting therequirements ensures that businesses will monitor trends and assess potential risks

As an ISO 45001 certified organization, they will become proactive in order to reducethe possibility of serious risks

- Reduce Insurance Premiums: If the organization is ISO 45001 certified,insurance premiums can be reduced Insurance costs will be reduced if a proactivesystem for reducing hazardous environments in the workplace is maintained

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- Employee Satisfaction: ISO 45001 improves the workplace, which increasesemployee satisfaction When companies prioritize employee health and safety, itdemonstrates that the organization cares about their employees, which leads to acultural shift and increased employee job satisfaction, knowledge, and participation.

Figure 1.2: The ISO 45001:2018 Certification of Yakult Vietnam

ISO 45001 has seen a 97.3 percent increase in worldwide certificates in 2020,demonstrating the recent growth and importance of UKAS accredited certification(Statistics taken directly from the most recent ISO Survey) If a company has alreadyimplemented a quality or environmental management system that adheres to theAnnex SL structure, ISO 45001 can be easily integrated

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ISO 45001, which is aimed primarily at senior management, has the ultimategoal of assisting businesses in providing a healthy and safe working environment fortheir employees and anyone else who visits the workplace This goal can be attained

by limiting factors that could result in injury, illness, or, in extreme cases, death As aresult, ISO 45001 is concerned with mitigating any factors that are harmful or pose arisk to the physical and/or mental well-being of employees

3.2 ISO 14001:2015

The Yakult Vietnam factory has been ISO 14001:2015 certified, which is aninternational standard for environmental management systems (EMS) By utilizinghigh-quality materials and advanced Japanese technology, the final product is nearly

99 percent similar to the original raw materials, resulting in less waste for theenvironment (Yakult, 2011) The core value of ISO 14001 is that organizations mustdevelop a detailed and clear set of environmental policies, use a set of best practices

to proactively observe whether those policies are being adhered to, and continuouslyimprove the system based on ongoing feedback and results