Guan Hin Coffee Factory – The Day-to-Day Coffee Process And Supply Chain Management

The Day-to-Day Coffee Process at Guan Hin Coffee Factory

Discuss about the Guan Hin Coffee Factory.

Guan Hin Coffee Factory was established in 1980 as a small processing point in Singapore. The location of the first generation factory was once a space that was hired for SGD600 per month with the major objectives of sustaining coffee business in Singapore, expand the business to the Asian countries, and to promote the coffee drinking culture. It was also to promote the customers’ appreciation to the coffee product within the communities. However, what started in a small space has turned to be one of the one of the best among the 20 coffee factories in Singapore.

Coffee is normally the “go to” beverage used in the daily caffeine fix. There are many coffee shops openings that as well help in raising the coffee culture. As a result, it has gained a robust popularity and is even considered a staple in other areas. To accommodate the growing coffee trend and effectively service the customers, Guan Hin Coffee Factory ensures it carries out a routine program of the manufacturing process of the coffee product. It manufactures different products such as coffee powders using different ingredients under different grinding processes used for both the traditional coffee and the Starbucks. 

Guan Hin Coffee Factory deals with a different coffee from different sources in the international market which are kept in the store once they are received. For instance, it processes different grades of Robusta coffee beans, Indonesian coffee beans, and ground coffee among others. However, the factory majorly processes grades 1 and 2. For the ground coffee, the factory can grind 2000 to 3000 kgs per day depending on the orders received from the customers. The quantity processed per day depends on the demand of the market or the daily orders made by the consumers.

After the beans have been imported or bought from the local suppliers, for processing, it is cleaned and then taken through a testing process to check for the quality and taste of the cupping process. The beans are first evaluated for their overall visual quality then slightly roasted then grounded and infused in boiling water under controlled temperature. The quality of the aroma produced will tell the quality of the coffee. After a few minutes rest, the cupper machine breaks the crust at the top of the cup and the coffee is nosed to begin the testing process. Different samples of various beans are daily tested to determine their flaws and characteristics as well as blending different beans or creating proper roast. However, it is important to note that the testing process heavily relies on personal experience. For instance, an expert cupper is believed to have the ability to taste over hundreds or coffee samples every day and still notes the subtle differences between each of them.

The Supply Chain Management of Guan Hin Coffee Factory

A proper roasting process then follows to help in transforming the green coffee into the aromatic brown beans at different temperatures. However, most of the roasting machines are maintained at a temperature of 550 degrees Fahrenheit. The beans are as well kept moving throughout the roasting process so as to prevent them from burning as the beans turn brown at a temperature of around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point, fragrant oil called caffeol begins to emerge producing a flavor and aroma of coffee. The roasting time takes averagely 60 minutes for most of the beans, but it varies depending on the variety.

A cooling process then follows for about 10 to 15 minutes where the beans lose about 20% of the original weight before roasting. After cooling, it is stored awaiting the grinding process to follow. The stored coffee is then ground at different time frames to determine between the grades produced depending on the machine used for grinding. To make the black coffee, 18kg of sugar together with butter and salt is added to 60kg of the roasting coffee. The waste products are then carefully disposed of depending on the nature of the waste. The finished product is packed using different containers available in 1/2kg, 1kg, 9kg tin, and 20kg carton box for transportation and local use within Singapore or exportation to other countries. The selling price also varies depending on the grade where the pure coffee powder is sold at SGD 16 per kilogram while the local black coffee is sold at a range of SGD 5 to 10 per kilogram depending on the quality. This is a daily procedure that takes place at the Guan Hin Coffee Factory so as to keep up with the local and international customer demands.

Guan Hin Coffee Factory is the main coffee powder maker in Singapore that mainly uses Robusta coffee beans and Indonesia coffee beans. Depending on the orders of the day, the company can granulate different amount of coffee up to 3000kg per day which can translate to 20 tons a month. The supply chain is understood to be the process and sequence of processes and activities required to see products through from the raw state to the finished goods according to Park (2016). The coffee product involves a complex process that varies from one factory to another but involves the suppliers, the processing firm, distributors, retailers, and the end product that reaches the customers. From the suppliers, the inputs include materials such as the green coffee seeds, packaging materials, and the main ingredients such as sugar, butter, and salt. The suppliers, also called the growers tend to work on small pieces of land to grow and harvest coffee which is then transported to the processing firms such as Guan Hin Coffee Factory. Other farmers also do the drying and hulling by themselves before the coffee is transported or exported to the processing firms depending on the location of the farm.

References

From the farmers, the coffee can pass through the hands of different people, also called the intermediaries who tend to be involved in different aspects of supply chain. In many cases, the intermediaries buy the harvested coffee at different stages between the cherries and the green beans or carry out the preliminary primary processing functions such as sorting. They can also collect together sufficient coffee quantities from different farmers or producers and sell or transport the collection to another intermediary, to a dealer, or sell directly to Guan Hin Coffee Factory. According to Hamdouche et al. (2016), the process can involve as many as five or more intermediaries depending on the size of production of the coffee from the farmers among other logistics.

Before the coffee reaches the factory, there can also be other processors who receive the materials from the growers or the intermediaries. They can be individual farmers possessing the coffee processing equipment, a co-operative pooling resource with the aim of buying equipment for converting cherries to green coffee beans according to Diaz (2016). In some countries where it is the responsibility of the government to control the coffee trade, they buy the coffee from the processors at a fixed price and later sell it to Guan Hin Coffee Factory for the final processing and distribution to customers. Also involved are the brokers or dealers that supply the coffee beans to Guan Hin Coffee Factory in the right quantity and time at prices acceptable to the factory.

At Guan Hin Coffee Factory, the green coffee beans received from the growers, brokers/dealers, government agencies, or an intermediary is taken through different processing stages so as to have the product we drink. As an output, the factory produces pure coffee powder, roasted coffee beans, or the coffee powder that is produced and packed in containers of different quantities to be sold locally or be exported. However, the selling of the coffee products both locally within Singapore and to the international markets is a responsibility of the distributors. The distributors can sell directly to the customers are also sell to the retailers who then sell the products to customers in different quantities.

With the mission of setting and maintaining the highest quality standard coffee for the consumers, it is also necessary to consider the sustainability of the processing system as well as the environment. The sustainability procedures should promote less use of water, re-use, and recycling of materials, greenwashing, as well as the elimination of the use of preservatives, artificial flavors, or colors. It is also recommended that the firm reduces the use of plastic for packaging of the finished products.

References

Diaz, F. O. (2016). Administrative and operational strategies of the coffee processing industry department of Caldas (Colombia). Revista Facultad Nacional De Agronomía Medellin, 69(2), 7893-7902. doi:10.15446/rfna.v69n2.59134

Hamdouche, Y., Meile, J. C., Nganou, D. N., Durand, N., Teyssier, C., & Montet, D. (2016).

Discrimination of post-harvest coffee processing methods by microbial ecology analyses. Food Control, 65112-120. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2016.01.022

Park, J. B. (2016). Finding Potent Sirt Inhibitor in Coffee: Isolation, Confirmation and Synthesis of Javamide-II (N-Caffeoyltryptophan) as Sirt1/2 Inhibitor. Plos ONE, 11(3), 1-19. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150392