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Everyone is familiar with the iconic bottle of Tabasco. The sauce was first developed in 1868 by Edmund McIlhenny and while there are currently hundreds of hot sauces available Tabasco was the first. Production of Tabasco exhibits several of the aspects of operations management that are in your Heizer/Render/Munson textbook.
Raw Materials (in Ch. 1): Tabasco sauce is made from only three raw materials – tabasco peppers, salt and vinegar. The peppers
were originally from …
Location (in Ch. 8): … Avery Island, a small area surrounded by bayous in Louisiana, which has the perfect climate and soil, for growing the peppers. Now the peppers also come from other places in Louisiana, Mexico, South America and Africa.
Process (in Ch. 7): It takes five years to go from peppers to Tabasco sauce. The peppers are picked by hand, are mashed and mixed with salt, also from Avery Island, and then aged for over 3 years in …
Supply Chain for Equipment (in Ch. 11): … decommissioned white oak bourbon barrels sourced from different distilleries around the country with all traces of alcohol removed.
Quality Control (in Ch. 6): Each batch of tabasco goes to a lab and also is inspected by a McIlhenny family member before being mixed with vinegar for 28 days to become Tabasco Sauce. In addition, the barrels undergo a quality control inspection before being reused.
Byproduct (in Supp. 5): When a barrel can’t be reused, the wood is broken down into wood chips and the barrel’s stainless-steel hoops are reused.
Capacity (in Supp. 7): Approximately 20,000 to 22,000 barrels are put into production each year. Each barrel contains enough sauce for 10,000 of the 2 ounce bottles shown above.
Distribution (in Ch. 11): It is then bottled and labelled in multiple different languages and shipped to nearly 200 countries around the world. It was the favorite hot sauce of the late Queen Elizabeth.
Reliability (in Ch. 17): After Hurricane Rita, the family constructed a 17-foot high levee around the low side of the factory and also invested in back-up generators.
Classroom discussion questions:
1. What other products have climate as a main factor in facility location?
2. What other products get reused in way different from their original use?