Supply chain management of dunkin donuts (academic journal sources Essay - 1

Supply chain management of dunkin donuts (academic journal sources must be used) - Essay Example By 1960, Rosenberg founded The International Franchise Association, which today has more than 800 fanchisors and over 30,000 franchisee members, accounting for almost 50% of retail business in the United States (DD-Our Founder, 2008). Today, Dunkin Donuts claims to be the largest coffee and baked goods chain in the world, selling 1.5 billion cups of coffee per year, with many varieties of donuts and a wide range of baked products such as muffins, bagels, croissants, pizza, flat bread sandwiches, cookies, apple pie and donut-hole treats called Munchkins, as well as hash browns, salads and soups. Aside from freshly brewed coffee, which today, Dunkin Donuts serves in nine flavors, shops also offer iced coffee, coffee lattes in various flavors, iced tea, ice blend fruit juices called Coolatta, hot chocolate and packaged coffee. Today there are close to 8,000 Dunkin’ Donuts distribution points in 30 countries, with 5,800 in North America. The rest are in key international markets including Asia-Pacific and Latin America (DB-Featured Products, 2008; DB-Dunkin’ Donuts, 2007). This study presents the working structure of the supply chain management system that has made Dunkin’ Donuts one of the most successful brands in the world. The scope of the study is limited to the product supply chain of Dunkin’ Donuts food and beverage items. It does not include other products used for promotional purposes but are also sold to customers, which are mainly non-food items. A supply chain is an interrelated collection of processes and associated resources that starts with the acquisition of raw materials that will be used to manufacture a product, and ends with the acquisition, purchase or delivery to an end-customer of that product. The chain typically includes suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, warehouses, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and all other entities that lead up to delivery