Management of Operations paper (Company: GFC)

History and background

Golden Fried Chicken (GFC) was established in 2002 by Muharrem Kartel in Brighton, England. As of now, it operates as a single branch and is manned by 9 staff. The restaurant is situated at 22 Church Road Hove. The restaurant occupies the ground and underground floor of the building, with the underground space being the kitchen, store and toilet.

The manager of the restaurant is responsible for preparing the scheduling of staff, and is different from the owner. The manager will assign six people to work on weekdays and sometimes 7 on the weekends and each person will get some days off. During the weekdays, there will be three persons working at the kitchen, two upstairs, while another one downstairs. The person downstairs will have to prepare the kebabs, cut the salads and other task related to storage of foods. He is also responsible for cleaning the restaurant.

GFC is opened from 12pm until 3 am on the weekdays, while it is opened until 4 am on the weekends.

Suppliers

GFC has around seven suppliers altogether, the following list the suppliers and the products they deliver:

1) Banitas: Fresh chicken fillet

2) Dibs Distribution: Fresh cut chicken

3) Canim Fruits and Vegetables Ltd: Vegetables, salads, pita bread, chili and pepper.

4) MT Paramount Ltd.: Burger buns, sauces and cheese.

5) Sparks: Patties, soft drinks and mayonnaise.

6) Star Catering: Pizza Toppings.

7) JJ Food Services Ltd: Pizza toppings.

Each day, there will be a delivery of different items to the store and they come at various times all usually from 10am to 5pm. In order to keep the vegetables fresh, vegetable supplies will arrive twice every week on Tuesdays and Fridays, so they will have to be ordered in lesser quantities twice. The quantities will be determined by the manager depending on his estimation of the needed supplies.

The suppliers will deliver the products whether or not the manager calls, by sending them a set of basic items every week. The manager however, would have to call them to inform them of specific items they require more or less, for the week, or any additional or non-required items.

GFC has 7 side orders, 11 flavours of pizza, 8 types of kebabs, 8 types of burgers and 10 meal sets to choose from.

Transformation process

4Vs

Volume High

GFC is a fast food restaurant and it produces a high quantity of food with high repeatability. There is a systemization in how people do their work which follows a standard procedure, outlining how things are to be done. There is also a specialization in their operations, where they have invested in specialized fryers and ovens. This also shows that they are capital intensive. The amount of foods they produce is on a high basis, every day staff would have to fold meal boxes for fried chickens to be stored and this task takes time and is designated to the people who deliver products while there are no orders to meet.

Variety

GFC has low to medium variety of products. Their choice of foods itself are quite a lot, but they are well defined and standardized, and they do not cater to customized orders from the customers, in other words, customer cannot put a special request of food apart from what is already offered on the menu. The types of foods available are also typical of many other fast-food restaurants, with the addition of kebabs.

Variation

The variation in demand for GFC is quite low. The management could predict the demand pattern throughout the year and has used past years as references. There is usually a higher number of customers coming to the restaurant and placing orders during the holiday seasons, especially Christmas, where friends and families would gather and eat together. Other times, it is relatively stable and predictable.

Visibility

GFC has a high visibility dimension since its operations to meet the customers orders are done in front of them and they can choose which sauce and vegetables they would prefer. There are also some operations done with low visibility like preparing the meat and cutting the salads, where this would be done at the second kitchen underground. However, it is still considered high, many of the preparations needed to make a meal would be done in front of the customers. In this case, customers’ perceptions are very important and it could determine whether they would want to return or not. For instance, if they feel that the staff is being discourteous to them they would probably not come again. In GFC, it is observed that the staff is sometimes friendly but at other times, not very warm.

Performance Objectives

Cost- 7

The price of the foods for the customers is not considered to be too expensive and is relatively what one would expect from a fast-food restaurant. Customers would also expect that the price range offered would be cheap so that they could always drop by to enjoy their favorite meal there. The price of food is also worth the meal portion received.

Quality- 8

GFC is observed to produce quality products in terms of their taste, portion and looks. Quality can reduce cost, for instance, reducing mistakes, which in turns increases quality, will mean that there will be less time spent in correcting the mistakes. A mistake in delivering order would result in customer dissatisfaction, and it is observed that GFC is able to reduce their mistakes in this regard by paying attention to customers’ orders.

Speed- 8

The time of waiting for a customer to receive their order is considered quite fast. However, since they do not receive customers in high numbers throughout the day, the staff at GFC would need to cook their foods, after receiving orders, in order to ensure their freshness. An example would be French fries. Although GFChas a fresh fries storage bin to ensure that they remain fresh, they would still be less satisfying if left there for too long until the next customer comes. This means the staff would have to cook when a customer orders, and this takes time.

Dependability- 7

The operations of GFC have a high dependability. For instance, they promise to deliver their items within their delivery time of around 35-45 minutes, and it is observed through actual ordering that they do meet this standard. However, several reviews from other customers posted on the internet shows that there were instances where orders arrived later than the promised time. GFC needs to be consistent if they are to gain customer trust.

In terms of stock availability, GFC also ensures that they are available, and if in the event some of the stocks finish earlier than the one week of expected time, the owner would instruct a staff to purchase them down at the grocery store as quickly as possible. This is to ensure that the customer would always get what they wanted.

Flexibility- 8

As with many other fast food restaurants, there is a limited amount of flexibility involved. GFC has a set menu and customers may not be able to ask for different types of breads or different types of cheese other than the one already on the table. However, there is a small degree of flexibility in that they can choose to add additional toppings for their pizza, choose a number of side orders and 7 variety of sauces.

There are four types of flexibility:

Product flexibility- Very low, the menu is more or less the same when they first opened in 2002.

Mix flexibility- This part of the flexibility objective is around medium to slightly high. There are quite 7 side orders to choose from to add to the mix, but nothing more than this.

Volume flexibility- Quite low, since the number of tables and chairs could only fit one level of the three storey building, and it is not possible to put tables and chairs outside since it would block passers-by.

Delivery flexibility- Quite high, they could easily replenish stock items from the grocery nearby at the event of any stock outs. They could also deliever late until the 3am in the night.

Service Concepts

Below is the service concept of GFC outlining their operations.

Organization: : GFC

Organizing idea: A great dining experience

Service concept: A fast-food restaurant that provides great food at reasonable prices that will keep people coming back for more.

Service experience: Quick and easy to purchase food, range of items, short queue, spacious restaurant.

Service outcome: Great day out, filled stomachs.

Service operation: Good signage, good advertisement, many tables and chairs,  

Service value: Reasonable price for a great order, waiting time for delivery not too long.

Capacity Management

To run a proper and growing business, managers will have to consider managing their capacity so that it could always meet customer demands. There are five issues to consider under capacity management

•  UNCERTAINTY

-          There is a small amount of uncertainty in demands, but it is generally predictable.  The store is considered big compared to other kebab restaurants in the area with more tables and chairs.

•  ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE

The manager of GFC is able to use the company’s experience with customers to forecast orders and assign number of staff to work, especially on the weekends.

•  TIMESCALES

-          Day-to-day schedules would be prepared for the staff, while weekly supplies of stock would be continuously ordered based on the demands of customers.

•  ALTERNATIVES

-          Staff would be dispatched to the nearby grocery stores to stock up on finished items

•  EXECUTION

The owner and manager will have to ensure that operations are being run smoothly.

Lean Management

According to TIMWOODS, the following was observed, they do not keep too much inventory, except what is only needed for a week’s supply, and this is so that they do not have to have such a large capacity of space to store products. Moreover, this is important to keep certain items fresh, like the vegetables. Ordering too much would not just waste space but causes a drop in the freshness and also in customer satisfaction. There is also a lot waiting involved and that is waiting for customers. During this time, staff would just wait by standing around or chat among themselves. If there are other productive things to do, it would be better for the staff.

There is less overproduction, the number of kebabs displayed, apart from the Doner Kebab, is only to match the anticipated customer order for the day, and it is kept fresh under cool temperature. This also goes to other items that make up the kebab meal set.

Over processing is also kept to a minimum and GFC staff only do what is necessary to process their food. The process mapping shown later will testify to this fact.

Staff are properly trained and given the right amount of skills in order to carry out the work done. There are only 8 staff not including the owner of the restaurant, so recruiting and training is not a very difficult task to manage.

Five S in action

It is observed that 5S is in place in the operations of GFC, however, several aspects can be improved.

Sorting – The area of visibility at the restaurant looks clean and arranged. Foods, such as kebabs, cheese and salads are arranged neatly at the cooler.

Standardization- Documents such as receipts and agreements with suppliers are placed in files, labeled and put under the counter for easy access.

Simplifying- There are labels for safety and labels informing of areas only allowed for staff like the underground kitchen. A better practice to do is to label the sauce on the self-service counter which would eliminate customer confusion.

Systematic Cleaning- after a customer leaves the restaurant, they will immediately clean the table and remove the waste. While preparing food as well, they will constantly clean the frying grill of any excesses of oil and food residues. 

Sustaining- The owner will always be present at the restaurant, most of time to handle the restaurant, and to perform routine checks, such as if the staff are handling all the operations correctly.

Process Mapping

One of the most popular dishes of GFC is their Doner Kebabs. The process of preparing the kebabs does not take very long to do. They have two kitchens, one upstairs where the customers can see them prepare their orders, while the second one is underground, where they store all their stocks, tools and where they prepare the essentials for their food.

For the Donor Kebab, once they received their order of lamb, they will have to cut it to small pieces. One person will be responsible for this task. The meats will then be put through a mixer and minced into smaller pieces. The cook will then mix this with other breadcrumbs, salt, sumin and coriander, cloves of garlic and white onion. All these ingredients will be mixed using a spatula.

The meat will be put through the mixer again, making it into smaller fine pieces, before being placed in a large container that will eventually make it into the shape people usually are familiar with. The container will be placed in boiling water and cooked in an oven. After letting it cool down, the meat will be moved upstairs and transferred to the grill where it will be displayed for customers to see.

If an order is placed either by customers in the shop or people ordering from their homes, the staff handling will cut the meat into thin shreds. Before doing that, the staff will cook the fries first since the fries will be taking some time to prepare if there are no ready fries fried earlier on the heater. Finally the bread will also be placed on the burger grill before everything is served. Customers will be asked which type of salads and sauces they would choose from the variety that is available before them.

The practice of grilling the bread and fries varies, the process map above was created based on a twice visit to GFC . A member of staff informed that sometimes the bread will be placed on the grill first before the fries and sometimes during or even after, since this is at the end of the map and is generally not considered very important. However, a delay in this could cause customers to wait.

Market Postitioning

There are several other kebab restaurants along the road near their establishment, and many more fast food restaurants. GFC needed to compete with them in order to get a higher market share. One of the strategies is to offer discounted price for students who can produce their student cards upon ordering. Realizing that there are two main universities in Brighton city, this strategy has been very helpful to their business.

in front of their shop detailing about the range of menu students can choose from, from 12pm to 5pm. Students have eight sets to choose from. The peak time for the restaurant is from 12.30 until 2 pm where people would buy lunch, including many students. Throughout the day, it is observed that there are not that many customers. During the evening, there will be more customers dropping by and most orders from home will be placed between 5pm until 8pm, which is described as the peak hour.

GFC should strive more on promoting their restaurant by utilizing social media, for example by setting up a Facebook fan page, which they don’t currently have. 

Recommendations

GFC has established itself in Brighton city and has a potential to grow. Their services can be improved by improving their relationship with customers. Through the author’s experience in dealing with the management staff and reviews by customers on sites such as tripadvisor.com, it was observed that staff are generally not friendly and only prioritize on finishing their end product instead of following that up with ensuring customers are happy with the treatment given.

They could also make more rigorous their advertising campaign by tapping on social media. The author’s visit during their peak time of between 12.30 until 1pm on a Tuesday, shows that it is not every day that the restaurant would be filled with customers during this time of the day. Quite the opposite, after 1 o’clock, it was observed that the restaurant was empty and only occasionally received customers.

The process mapping is observed to be standard and quite common with other fast-food restaurants, especially those offering kebabs. It is decided that the process map is quite good, except for a minor change on the cooking of fries and bread that could be done simultaneously. Instead of placing the fries in the fryer after cutting the kebabs, they could do it before cutting the kebabs, since this would take longer. The bread could also be placed on the grill during that time. Doing it according to the process map above will unfortunately cause a slight delay in waiting.

Conclusions

GFC has a good future and has an opportunity to grow its business by setting up new branches. The operations of the company seems to be running smoothly and  the performance objectives have shown that they are an established company, and with some improvements they make their services better.