Kentucky fried chicken

The business that I have chosen to evaluate is KFC; I have chosen this business as it is extremely well recognised company. One of the main reasons for choosing KFC is that I believe it has instant recognisability to people and its processes are easy to see. The industry in which KFC operate is very efficient and has constant changes to it. I do believe that there can be changes in KFC operations and processes do hopefully benefit the customer further. The main area which I am going to look at is the ordering/ receiving methods of food.

I feel that KFC are competitively weak in this area and hopefully my solution will give them a competitive advantage. The value chain is important when considering changing the operations and processes of KFC. The value chain can be defined as ‘interrelated series of processes that produces a service or product’ . With my suggestions the value chain at KFC will change the way in which the product is served to the customer and not to change the actual product.

The part of the value chain that id like to change is what the customer does whilst waiting for their food and the way they order the food. The new system would mean that I remove the human element of face to face service for some customers so that they can just go about ordering there food on a computerised till then go to a collection point to pick up their food. I plan to change the value chain as I believe there is a weak link in the system currently. The weakness is when the customer orders but has to wait for their food whilst holding up the rest of the queue.

I believe that the key process in the value chain regarding KFC is the waiting time as this process doesn’t add value to the chain, of course the food that customers order cannot be expected to reach them instantly so customer will have to wait to it is the way they do that I think could be altered in order to provide more efficient to the process. There aren’t many problems with KFC current value chain but this shouldn’t be much of a surprise as it’s a global company that serves more than 12million customers daily in 109 countries .

The value chain works well in KFC as each process from the customer entering the store to food preparations add value to the experience apart from the long waiting times. The current structure of a KFC outlet is very basic, although KFC have lots of different premises which have differing sizes, the layout is pretty much the same for every outlet partly because they are a franchise. I believe that this layout isn’t as efficient as it could be therefore I would like to implement some changes. I feel that the queuing process at KFC is longer than other competitors however the food is cooked in a similar time frame.

This means that customers are waiting longer for their food when they shouldn’t have to. My amendments to the service process within KFC is that the layout of the store be changed, the way in which the customer can order and receive food will also be changed. I will change the layout as follows; I want to have a system in place that is similar to Argos in process. This is where the customer orders and pays for the food then goes to a separate part of the store to pick up the goods that they have purchased.

This is very similar to the system already in place at KFC already the only difference is that in the KFC outlets you don’t go to another till to pick up goods. I want to implement the change as I believe it will benefit the customer . I feel that customers want more choice available to them with speedy delivery of food. I would keep the system that is already in place. Next I will look at process flow and its complexity currently I feel that KFC offer a line flow approach. This means that customers and materials move linearly from one operation to the next, in a fixed a motion.

I think this is the best option for the service that KFC want to offer as with line flows the work goes through the same sequence for every customer. This is the best option as the process becomes easy to understand for the customer and the employees. I feel that KFC do need to change their service process structure. According to Krajewski ‘the manager has three process structures; front office, hybrid office and back office’. Currently I feel that KFC use a hybrid office approach which is a process that involves moderate levels of customer contact and standard services.

I feel that a back office approach would be more suited to KFC operations as a low customer contact would mean that employees of KFC can become more focused on preparation of food, customers could then use the service available to order there food without human interaction with employees at KFC. This is perhaps the new way of business as people are becoming more comfortable ordering online and there is less face to face interaction in today’s society. Old Process flow diagram The problem that I have indentified is the waiting line in that there is more than one customer waiting for service.

Currently KFC employ a multiple- channel, single phase arrangement which means that they use lots of lines which customers queue at then get served at different service points. I feel that this needs to change and KFC need to use a multiple-channel, multi-phase arrangement this would mean that customers who don’t want to use the new recommended process can use the old system, other customers who want to use the new system can hopefully this should result in a decrease in waiting time.

The benefits of the recommendations I have made are as follows: I believe that their will be less service time to the customer this is an improvement on the original system as staff can now focus on delivering the food to customers without having the feeling of being motionless whilst a big queue appears in front of them. My recommendations will hopefully shorten queue times as once people have used the new ordering system then they can go to a separate part of the building to wait for the food optimistically speaking the waiting time would be minimal so that people can get there food quickly.

KFC is a fast food outlet therefore I want customers to experience fast food I believe my implementations will do this. With the new system staff should be freed up to concentrate on supplying the food to the customer this will hopefully reduce the amount of errors made with customers not being given what they have ordered. One benefit of the change of processes and operations is that it could prove more efficient in the long term thus saving on materials, wages and other costs. The negatives of my recommendations are that customer service by KFC may be neglected.

This is because with my suggestions the processes the customer uses in KFC won’t involve the staff as much, there will be more interaction with machines rather than people. This could have a detrimental effect on the customer’s experience of KFC. One way in which it could do this is if customers have a complaint to make about the process the may not know the correct procedure in exercising their complaints. Even with the suggestions that I have made the food still has to be cooked for the customer so their will still be an inevitable waiting time for the food.

A change in layout will also happen this may impact negatively has there are likely to be periods of adjustments for both staff and customers as it will not be the traditional KFC layout. This may present teething problems as well as the cost that such layout changes will incur. With any change of processes within an organisation staff would be expected to be re-trained. This re-training cannot be obtained for free so the business will have to pay for the re-training and the new system this could mean that although the change could be better for the company the cost of implementing it means that it could be too expensive.

ICT should be used to improve the processes in KFC restaurants. There are a variety of ways in which ICT could be used, I feel that a computerised system should be implemented alongside the new order points so that the preparation team can automatically look at screens placed in the prep area so that they can have the customers order ready in good speed. This kind of system is already in place at most fast food restaurants but I’m suggesting a little change in the procedure.

Also another new ICT implementation would be to introduce order points for customers who want to select their own food, hence to create their own order without going to a service counter. This new service is in place at businesses like Argos as previously mentioned but I think the system would need to be simplified so that customers can easily select the food that they want. It would also have to be simplified in order to take into account meal deals and perhaps even coupons or vouchers.

ICT can also be used when cooking the food, during times where there isn’t a lot of custom in stores certain meals can take time to cook as KFC will just have the basic minimum available because of the off-peak hours. Perhaps their should be a system in place where statistics are gathered so that the business knows when certain items are ordered of the menu and at what time of day, the system would be automated to tell the employees to cook certain items at set times. Naturally the results should produce a scatter and will not be totally accurate as people don’t order and eat at the same time and meal.

The system could however certain correlations upon which the KFC could analyse and use to be more efficient and offer quicker service to its customers. According to Davis in the typical fast food operation there are too opportunities for the customer to wait during their interaction with the service process. The first queue is waiting to get served the second is the wait at the cashier for the food. This poses a problem as customer don’t like to wait. My recommendation means that the selection process would take place immediately upon the customer entering the store.

This would mean that the service time is incorporated into one queue, and then the time in which customers get their food could possibly be considered instantaneous. I feel this backs up positively with my changes to the process at KFC. Also my method could mean less angry customers as people don’t like waiting for food, with less waiting times customers would be more inclined to have return visits to the business. In conclusion I believe that my recommendations for KFC should be undertaken as I feel the benefits of my suggestions outweigh the negative implications.

With my suggestions KFC speed of delivery should be quicker therefore increasing its sales and hopefully profit. There are negative implications but it could be argued that these will appear in any situation of change. The main problem with the changes suggested is that the point may have already been reached at which the cost of improving response time is greater than the value added by doing so . My changes will hopefully decrease the levels of waiting times and make KFC more efficient thus increasing customer service.