Competing through Operation: KFC Report Essay

innovationThe report focuses on KFC the leading chicken prompt diet eating house in the world, and one of the largest players in the fast f argon market. By using five-spot performance headings and various research methods, the report aims to contemplate how the eatery perform and manage its operation might in inn to provide qualified fare and service to the customers.Besides, the restaurants skill constrains and capacity strategies are discussed base on the primary information from KFC Union Street, Bristol City centre. It would link to the blood between Capacity strategy and five performance impersonals (Slack et al, 2004), as well as, how they support each other.COMPANY PROFILEKFC first starts in 1930s, when Harland Sanders opened his restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. KFC now bedspreads out to more than 100 countries with around 15500 outlets worldwide. Of these, at that place are more than 800 restaurants located in the UK.The restaurant has concentrated on fried-c hicken-on-bone convergences under the name Original Recipe and expanded the offers with other items accommodate chicken sandwiches and chicken wings, as well as, biscuits, mashed potatoes, corn, potato wedges and desserts. The new line-grilled chicken with fewer calories, fat and salt than the Original Recipe- was launched in 2009. It was called one of the biggest new result rollouts in the history of the corporation by the KFC death chair Roger Eaton. Being tested in numerous regions included the UK this new line has been well received as a healthier alternative which retains good in taste.The following subtract result discuss more or less(prenominal) how KFC applies five performance objectives (Slack et al, 2004) into its operation and which of the five objectives is concentrated on.FIVE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVESThe theory has been use for many companies worldwide for over 10 years in order to manage operating performance. Due to the terminal point of resources, each comp any tends to put only some of the five objectives in priorityduring particular periods. It is considered as one of smart methods to maximize profits.Source (Adapted from Slack et al, 2004)FIGURE1. FIVE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVESFigure 1 explains the bringing close together and meaning of five performance objectives (Slack et al, 2004) in general.QUALITY is the responsibility to always provide the good product or service that company has claimed. It also requires doing the right thing at the right clock and meeting customer specifications, which give customer satisfactions. In KFC, main factors listed as Quality objective are character of pabulum (delicious, tasty, fresh, healthy, etc), feature of service (clean, supportive, friendly, etc)SPEED is defined as how fast the company responds their customers. This is one of the well-nigh important things required in fast food restaurant, especially in go hours. Applying to KFC restaurant, repair objective is considered as the elapsed while between customers placing orders and the food or services being delivered.FLEXIBILITY measures how very much variety in products, services, and solutions for a dynamic market environment in order to meet customers need. It is shown as KFCs various menus, the launch of line Grilled Chicken, the more customization, etcDEPENDABILITY is doing things on time as promises. It not only gains customers trust but also has an influence on appeal, which are saving money, saving time and giving stability to improve the efficiencies (Strecker, Ulrich, 2011). In KFC, it is on-time deliveries.COST is the product or service price that en adequates company compete the market, as well as ensure the return. The company aims to maximize their profittherefore, reducing the cost is necessary. Cost objective in KFC is measured by the cost of food, cost of jitney and staffs salaries, etc.The charged diagram below shows how KFC restaurant performs in manager, staff and customer perspectives base on the data that was collected.(Adapted from Slack et al, 2004, p58)FIGURE2. POLAR DIAGRAM OF KFC RESTAURANTThe Polar diagram is designed by the result of KFC managers interview, staffs questionnaire and customers questionnaire (Appendix 1.0, addendum 2.0 and appendix 3.0).According to KFC manager, the restaurant is performing quite well in quality, cost and dependability objectives while zipper needs to improve, especially in stir hours (1600pm to 2000pm). Staff and customers create the same opinion nearly improving speed objective in KFC. Although we have 8 queues as the manager it is hard to coiffure a large human body of customers at 19pm. However, we tend to give the staffs more training sessions to increase their speed in taking order and formulation. Focusing on tidy sum will push up dependability, trac send backness and speed all. (Appendix 3.0) It is the fact that most of the customers want a lower price for their food and services. However, with a mulish price tag, the restaurant tries their best to prove that the food and service offered to customers are worth their paying.The next part of report will focus on how the restaurant meets its customers fluctuating demand. substanceThe capacity of an operation is the highest level of value added after certain period of time that the process would be able to achieve under certain conditions (Slack et al, 2001). It includes actual output, design capacity and effective capacity.FIGURE3. CAPACITY OF KFC RESTAURANT ON UNION STREET, BRISTOLPlanned losses Avoidable losses veridical capacity 1929 people Planned losses stiff capacity 2331 people Design capacity 2680 people(Adapt from Slack et al, 2001)The figure is resulted from calculations below.DESIGN CAPACITYDesign capacity is the capacity which its technical designers had in mind when they commissioned the operation (Slack et al, 2001, p335). The KFC restaurant on Union Street is the largest KFC outlets in Bristol which can get along maximum 100 customers a day (approximate number from KFC manager).Design capacityDaily100 peopleWeekly670 people (7 works(a) days, less working(a) hours on Sunday)Monthly2680 peopleEFFECTIVE CAPACITYWhile design capacity is everything according to a plan, effective capacity helps to show what might happen if something not goes as a plan. Effectivecapacity is figure as design capacity minus planned losses, which is 13% (from KFC manager).Effective capacityDaily87 people (100 10013%)Weekly582people (670 67013%)Monthly2331 people (2680 268013%)ACTUAL OUTPUTActual output is the amount of a product that a production deftness actually produces, as opposed to the amount that it could produce if it were to run at full theoretical capacity. It is calculated as design capacity minus planned losses and avoidable losses which is 15% (from KFC manager).Actual outputDaily72 people (100 100x13%+15%)Weekly482 people (670 670x13%+15%)Monthly1929 people (2680 2680x13%+15%)Planned losses Public hol idays (Christmas, New Year, etc)Human issues (Illness, pregnant )The time customers time lag to be servedAvoidable losses Weather (Storm, heavy snow, etc)Machine failure.CAPACITY CONSTRAINTSCapacity constraints are considered as factors that specialise the number of customers served by operation (Dettmer, 2003). For KFC, these are number of staffs, number of queues, available eating space, speed of cooking and delivering. These factors would push the restaurant to its limit points of operation, which called Bottle necks.NUMBER OF STAFF There are many deliver of working hour a day in KFC. The maximum number of staffs that needed in rush hour is 12 people approximately (with 8 front-men taking customers orders and cleaning, 2 middle-men making burgers and chips, and 2 cooks in the kitchen working strenuously). At the busiest hour, the staffs face pressure of too many customers waiting in the queues, shortage of food available, and the mess in eating place. 2 or 3 front-men have to devise burger and chips in order to provide food on time.NUMBER OF QUEUE It often happens in the fast food restaurant that long lines of customers are waiting to be served. Although KFC Union Street has 8 queues, it does not mean that there are always staffs available.AVAILABLE EATING SPACE It is hard to find a clean table in rush hours because of the large number of customers and the busy staffs.SPEED OF COOKING AND DELIVERING To ensure the fresh of food provided to customers, the middle-men just make some available. Hence, if a big order is placed or many orders are placed at once, it will take time to make more burgers.Some constraint factors would be solved by staffs working flexibility, some, however, could not avoid because they links to other factors. For example, KFC could make more burgers available to avoid customers waiting time and increase speed performance objective however, the foods will not as good as the just-in-time one, which switch offs quality performance obj ective. Therefore, it is essential for the restaurant to decide which objectives are priorities.The analysis of KFCs capacity and capacity constraints lead to the following part which will discuss just about which strategy it uses to manage the operation.CAPACITY STRATEGY(Sasser, 1976)There are 2 evidences from the data collected that shows practise demand plan (Sasser, 1976) is the strategy KFC following. There are different staff numbers and the amount of food ready in a day.Due to staff contracts, the manager arranges a large number of staffs for rush hour, which is from 1600pm to 2000pm each day while reduce staffs at the opening (930am) and the closing time (2200pm). In 30 minutes before closing, the kitchen stops working and the front-men focus on cleaning quite a than standing behind order place. This arrangement is based on which time customers usually come to the restaurant. It helps reduce cost of staff salaries and avoid human surplus on the time not many customers. Be sides, working flexibility is required for all the staffs, which are ability of working in different positions (front, middle or in kitchen), doing different tasks and even overtime, if needed.The other one amount of food ready in a day does show that KFC is applying Capacity leads demand theory (Sasser, 1976). KFC always provides the amount of food slightly over than customers demand so as to ensure available service in working time. The food left changes to waste because it could not be stored due to KFCs quality standard. This waste, according to the manager, is not significant and enables to bear with. From the analysis above, it is clear to see that KFC is doing right because the strategy not only fits to individuality of fast food market, but also expresses KFCs customisation, which highly focus on satisfy its customers. by and by discussing about five performance objectives (Slack et al, 2004) and capacity strategy (Sasser, 1976), the final part will clarify relationship b etween those and how they support each other.THE RELATIONSHIP OF CAPACITY STRATEGY AND FIVE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES (Slack et al, 2004)Before having strategy, the objectives have to be set. It could be simply explained that objectives are the place you want to drive to while strategy is vehicle that helps to get there. For KFC as a whole, the company expresses its concentration on Quality objective through the guide word Dont worry. Eat happy (http//www.kfc.co.uk/dontworryeathappy) and various actions to be healthier for the customers, such as complicate fresh inspiration from our Deli Deluxe Range, Were fighting trans-fats, not flavour, Weve through away with 25% of saturated fats, or Fitted out with green energy, etc. Quality is cognize as the vital factor to compete with other big brands like Subway, MacDonalds, Burger King, and gain fast food market share when customers health concern is increasing more and more.(http//www.propertyweek.com, dominos pizza tops the market arti cle)FIGURE4. FAST-FOOD MARKET SHARE IN THE UKHowever, for smaller scale, according to the manager of KFC Union Street, therestaurant put Speed objective as their first priority to strive because quality standard as well as promotions is already fixed. It is KFC Companys job to upgrade and spread out how good the food is. Said the manager Our job is to provide food with the same standard, and serve the customers those come to our restaurant best services, and it is speed. Hence, the restaurant tends to increase the factor it can control, which differentiates it among the others.Following the objective above, the Chase demand plan (Sasser, 1976) is decided to make it done. This strategy fits to fast food restaurants identity so as to utilize time, human, and money resources. Then, considering either capacity lags demand, which allows demand never less than capacity or capacity leads demand (Sasser, 1976), which is that capacity always meets forecasted demand, KFC Union Street chose the second one. The restaurant gives up waste in order to better its service for customers. Amount of food available reduces waiting time for delivering, as well as, waiting time to be ordered. The customers would be more satisfied thank to fast service.CONCLUSIONTo sum up, the report is designed from result collected at KFC Union Street, Bristol. With five performance objectives (Slack et al, 2004), capacity, capacity strategy (Sasser, 1976) analysis, it clarified how KFC operates and how theories links to each other, as well as, are applied into practice with particular circumstances.REFERENCESDettmer, H.W., 2003. Strategic Navigation A Systems Approach to Business Strategy. ASQ Quality Press.James, P., Rowland-Jones, R., OBrien, L., 2010. trading operations and BusinessSystems management, 2nd Ed., Harlow Pearson.Samuelson, Paul A., Nordhaus, William D (2009). Economics, 19th Ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education.Slack N, Chambers, S., Johnston R., 2001, Operations management, 3rd Ed ., capital of the United Kingdom Pittman Publishing.Slack N, Chambers, S., Johnston R., 2001, Operations management, 4th Ed., London Pittman Publishing.Slack N, Chambers, S., Johnston R., 2001, Operations management, 5th Ed., Harlow Prentice Hall.Schoenborn, G., 2009, Personal Communication.Strecker, S., Ulrich, F., 2011. education Systems and E-Business Management. A modelling method in support of the reflective design and use of performance measuring stick systems e-journal 7(1). Available through Springer.http//www.kfc.co.uk/dontworryeathappy