Blue bell ice cream case study

Th case analysis file is the reading that you must read, the second file is the questions you must answer from reading the first file. After you finish, reply to the two peers work in the second file, your replies shouldn't be good job only you should have more details, and you may RESPECTFULLY disagree or agree with their points. you shouldn't use any-outside resource to answer the questions, your answers should be based on the reading only.Blue Bell Is Accused of "Recall Creep" in Its Handling of Ice Cream Contamination Apply the knowledge of management presented in this chapter to the following case. The goal of this case analysis is to enable you to understand what happened at Blue Bell by applying theory. Read the case below and answer the questions that follow. Blue Bell is the nation’s third largest ice cream maker, behind Nestlé, which produces Edy’s, and Unilever PLC, which makes Ben & Jerry’s. Blue Bell started its business in Brenhaman, Texas, in 1911. It grew to having manufacturing operations in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, employing around 3,900 employees. The company’s products have been sold in up to 23 states in the past. Blue Bell faced a major listeria contamination problem across all of its three major plants in 2015. The problem gained attention in 2015 when inspectors from South Carolina found Listeria monocytogenes in two products that were made in Blue Bell’s Brenham plant. The situation got worse once the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) “matched the Blue Bell bug to listeria strains blamed for an unsolved 2014 outbreak at a Wichita hospital: Five patients, already hospitalized with serious illnesses, had been infected; three died. Investigators later confirmed that four drank milkshakes with Blue Bell ice cream. Further testing would link the company to 10 listeriosis cases dating back to 2010.”190 Blue Bell learned about the South Carolina findings in February 2015. The company responded by retrieving 10 different products produced on the factory line in question. It made no statement to consumers. About one month later the company learned about the Wichita deaths. This led to a decision of stopping production on the tainted production line. Ultimately, the line was shut down permanently. In March, the listeria problem grew. Listeria was linked to a chocolate ice cream cup made in Oklahoma. The company recalled the ice cream cups. In April, Blue Bell then suspended all operations in Oklahoma after the CDC linked the bacteria in the chocolate cup with five more listeria cases as far back as 2010. The company vowed to find the source of the contamination, and it announced a recall of seven more flavors. In April, another link was found between listeria in containers of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream that were produced in Brenham. This led CEO Paul Kruse to publicly apologize and recall all of its products—eight million gallons of ice cream. The company ended up laying off 37% of its 3,900 employees while also furloughing 1,400 more. Employees interviewed by CBS contend that poor manufacturing practices were potential causes of the problem. Two employees “described antiquated machinery run amuck, oil dripping into the food mix, and melted ice cream left pooling on the factory floor because supervisors didn’t want to slow production.” Terry Schultz, an employee who worked on the contaminated line in Brenhan, told CBS “A lot of time, I walked in there, and there was just ice cream all over the floor. Sometimes these machines, they would just go haywire, and it would just, the product would just continually run through the conveyor belt, and it would just drop right onto the floor.” This was bad because moisture provides a good environment for bacteria to grow. Schultz said that he complained to a supervisor and was told “Is that all you’re going to do is come in here and bitch every afternoon?” He concluded that “Production was probably more important than cleanliness.” The second employee interviewed, Gerald Bland, told CBS that “he was instructed to pour ice cream and fruit juice dripping off the machine throughout the day into barrels of ice cream mix.” He also noted that “You’d see oil on top from the fruit feeder leaking that would still go right into the barrel.”