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Total acceptable execution time 90 seconds business essay

A look inside the operations and service ofFast-food restaurant Chick-Fil-AHillary KingJose OlivaresHuong TranMelanie ValleThe University of Houston-DowntownChick-Fil-A’s Service OperationChick-fil-A is a very popular fast food restaurant in the Houston area. Have you ever been tired of eating the same old fast food beef hamburger? Well Chick-fil-A is a great alternative with a wide variety of chicken options to change things up a bit, and also has an awesome customer service reputation. To future demonstrate this, a group of students at the University Of Houston Downtown met to collect data and observe the service at the Sawyer Heights Chick-fil-A located at 2222 Shearn St. Houston, TX 77007, on March 14th between the hours of 3: 15 p. m. and 5: 30 p. m. Upon arriving at Chick-fil-A the group began collaborating and observing different aspects of the fast food chain. Also, to get the full on effect of an ordinary customer, they went through the normal routine of any customer, dine-in and drive-thru. Two members placed an order while one team member timed the process to get valid data of the processing time. After learning that the franchise owner Drew Ellis, was on site, one of the group members interviewed Ellis and received a full tour of the restaurant including the kitchen. During this interview and tour, the group was able to collect important data on how the food is made and prepared every day. Every detail was very important to achieve a well-prepared operational analysis and blueprint. The layout of the kitchen does not have very many differences from many other fast food restaurants. It has the basic process layout that require some adjustments at points. It has the components of a batch process to offer prompt service. The kitchen area is arranged to follow a fast timed and accurate procedure, which can deliver a product. Imagine a tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel you can find the walk-in cooler that holds raw chicken, chicken strips and chicken nuggets. The walk-in cooler is sufficiently large to hold numerous boxes of raw material. In front of the walk-in cooler, to the right stands a smaller cooler, like the size of a noncommercial fridge. This holding cooler as it is called, is designed to keep the raw material in the reach of employees for faster and convenient access. As we worked our way up, to the right of the layout, the hand breading takes place in a rectangular shaped stainless steel table. The procedure than takes us to the fry station. The fry station is located in front of the preparation table. The fry stations are divided into four large frying ” compartments” to be used for certain items. For example, one set of fryers is used only for chicken breast, the other two can be used for chicken nuggets, and chicken strips. Diagonally from the fry station, the preparation board can be found. The preparation board is the destination of the cooked items. The preparation board can be considered a small layout inside a large layout. To the right of the table, a bun toaster can be found, followed by a holding station with a holding oven. The holding oven can hold the cooked chicken for up to 20 minutes. (?? Holding what?). Next to the holding oven, a condiment areas can be found. The condiment area provides lettuce, tomatoes, and all the ingredients that would complete the order. The condiment section is equipped with a cooling system that keeps the vegetables fresh. In front of the preparation board, a second set of fryers is located. This are the fryers where the famous waffle fries are cooked. These fryers can be found with a separate compartment underneath, which contains the uncooked fries and is convenient for faster access. Before it reaches the final destination, which is the customer, it reaches a holding area that then connects in the middle by both the preparation board and the fry station. Precooked items such as sandwiches can only stay there for a matter of minutes. It is a holding station that keeps the orders hot and fresh. Then leaving the kitchen, we could see the customer service area right in front of the kitchen. Upon entering Chick-Fil-A to dine in, a customer is first greeted by an employee at the front counter. Chick fil A has made it one of its missions to serve a customer in 90 seconds or less from the moment they are greeted either though dine in or drive though service. The time can vary depending on the order size and the time of day in which the order was taken. For the blueprint we had a standard execution time of 60 seconds from the time we were greeted till the time we received our food. The objective of a service blueprint is to outline the service in a step-by-step outline. The blueprint gives a visual look of a service in a step-by-step process and provides estimates of times of the service. As one can see from the blue print a customer is first greeted, which in our case took 5 seconds, followed with taking our order then giving and receiving payment (20 seconds), getting food that is already premade (15 seconds), and fixing the drink/s (15 seconds), then handing it to the customer over the counter or walking it to the table (5 seconds.) In total there was a standard execution time of 60 seconds. The fact that the acceptable execution time was 90 seconds and service was about 60 seconds really does show that Chick-fil-A is committed to executing their service in a timely manner. The line of visibility is the area the customer cannot see. For the dine-in service blueprint this line of visibility includes preparing and cooking the chicken, frying the fries, and making sure supplies and food are readily available. The line of visibility differs in the drive-thru blueprint since a customer cannot see past the drive-thru window so the line of visibility would include everything minus the ordering, giving the payment and receiving the food. Included in the service blueprint are failing points which are denoted in red circles/ ovals. The failing points for the service blue print include getting the wrong order, not having pre-made food available; not having any drinks available, the list can go on and on. There really are several failing points that could be displayed on a service blueprint however our trip to chick- fil-a did not present us with any. This probably occurred since the time we visited was not during a rush hour and the location was not busy on the day we visited. The dine-in blue print begins when a customer walks in and is greeted by a front counter employee. We are assuming that a customer knows what they want and then orders it within 20 seconds. Once the order is taken, payment is taken and we can assume that a standard execution time would be 20 seconds as long as no failing points are present. An employee grabs the order, which is premade and gets the food items and drinks and places it on a tray, which is then handed over to the customer over the counter. We can assume that if there are no failing points then the service will have an acceptable execution time of less than 90 seconds. In the case that no premade food is available it would then present us with a longer than usual service. This takes us to our second portion of a service blueprint, which is the same in both the drive-thru and dine-in service blueprints. If no premade food is present then it would create a failing point for the service. As shown in the bottom part of the blueprints the first step would be to prepare and batter the chicken. The chicken would be taken to a frying station and then dropped to fry in peanut oil and the fries would also be dropped in oil to fry. The next part of the blueprint displays putting the chicken sandwiches together and placing both fries and chicken in warming stations. Once this is complete then the service can continue on throughout the rest of the blueprint. The drive-thru and dine-in are similar in regards to the line of visibility so the acceptable execution time should be effective for both blueprints. Apparently, Chick-fil-A is a very famous chain restaurant for fast food. They commit to serve each customer less than 90 seconds, from making an order to receiving food. Besides the quality of fast food, Chick-fil-A also has very good customer services. For example, when we arrived and stayed at the patio outside the restaurant, there was a waitress that came and asked to assist us with her face wreathed in smiles. We also recognized that there are free Wi-Fi service and children playing area inside the restaurant. Furthermore, employees always are happy to fulfill their duty inside the restaurant as well. Once customers get into the dine-in area, they can quickly choose suitable seats and then come to the cashier counter to make an order. According to system design as the drawing below, we acknowledged that Chick-fil-A has a very efficiency service blue print even for drive-thru or dine-in area. Actually, even customers can make an order while driving through the restaurant, or sitting in dine-in area, Chick-fil-A always tries to minimize the total time per each service. Each customer takes only less than a minute to make an order and receive the food. Inside the kitchen, cooked foods always are ready to serve and are kept in a warming area for less than thirty minutes. It seems no worries about lack of ready foods to serve since each batch of French fries, or chicken are made from three to five minutes. Also, the chef carefully watches the warming stations to make sure foods are fulfilled right after reaching the minimum level of reservation. At the regular time, Chick-fil-A design system works very proficiently and they don’t have any problems to accomplish the target design efficiency. However, there might be some fail points during the rush hours and we are afraid that Chick-fil-A cannot achieve the commitment to serve each customer less than a minute as in regular time. There are many possible failures that occur during the rush time, for example: cashier may charge wrong amount per order, employee may give customer wrong foods or drink, no more condiment in the kitchen, do not have enough prepared raw food, chickens are burned accidently, and so on. In the above awful situations, the restaurant may make its customers wait longer and longer. We recommend that Chick-fil-A should have better sale estimations each week so that they can make enough ready-to-serve foods in rush hours. Furthermore, carrying enough raw food, vegetables, spices, and drinks to sell at every open-time to avoid running out of stock and the risk of loosing customers. Besides that, each location should have enough employees to assist customers during busy times. For example: they can have more employees at lunch or dinner to make sure each customer receives good customer service. Apparently, customer never wants to wait in the long line and receive the wrong order etc. when there are other alternatives in the different fast-food restaurants. Thus, it is very important to maintain the number of existing customers and to attract more potential customers in the future with improving customer services. Avoiding possible mistakes can help in growth customer service levels as well as the chance to expand their business. In general, Chick-fil-A obviously uses job-batch to prepare fast-food inside the kitchen, so food and drink always are well prepared and ready to serve customers. Besides, Chick-fil-A’s process layout is combination among many different processing works to make fast-food. 60 to 90 second fast-food model is very good outstanding for both dine-in and drive-thru service in regular time, but it should be also improved to achieve proficiency in the rush time as above endorsement. After completing this operational analysis and blueprint service for Chick-fil-A, the group of students at the University Of Houston Downtown would highly recommend Chick-fil-A to all chicken lovers, and rate it as one of the best fast food restaurants out there. Work CitedEllis, Drew. (2013, March 14). Store Manager. Chick-Fil-A locates at 2222 Shearn St. Houston, TX 77007. Personal interview. Stevenson J., William. (2012). Operation Management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Make Order & give payment

Customer Arrives

&is greeted

Receive Drink and Food

And condiments

Service Blueprint for ChickfilA

Dine-In

Total Acceptable Execution time 90 seconds

Standard execution time 60 seconds

5s

20s

5s

Wrong OrderNo condimentsNo Drinks

5s

15s

15s

Drink is placed in cup with lidEmployee at front counter receives food and gives to customerEmployee gets ” prepared food” and places on trayFood isn’t preparedLine of visibilityNot seen by customerRun out of chickenChicken burns-Chicken is dropped in fryer with peanut oil-Fries are dropped in peanut oil. Chicken is prepped and battered-Chicken is moved to prepping station.- Fries are removed from oil & placed in warmerFood is prepared prior to order and kept in warming stations. Prepared food is kept on warming stations no longer than 30 mins until customer orders. Bread is buttered and toastedChicken sandwich is made/ bread, chicken and pickles. Fries are places in various size bags

Service Blueprint for ChickfilA

Drive-Thru

Standard execution time 60 seconds

Prepared food is kept on warming stations no longer than 30 mins until customer orders. Chicken sandwich is made/ bread, chicken and pickles. Fries are places in various size bagsBread is buttered and toasted-Chicken is dropped in fryer with peanut oil-Fries are dropped in peanut oil.-Chicken is moved to prepping station.- Fries are removed from oil & placed in warmerChicken is prepped and batteredCustomer Drives up and is greeted though speakerCustomer Drives offOnce payment is complete customer receives meal and drink. Drives up to first window gives paymentMakes order and is given total amount of order for payment

Total Acceptable Execution time 90 seconds

10s

5s

Drive thru speaker is broken

20s

10s

Wrong OrderLine of visibilityNo condiments

5s

15s

15s

Employee gets prepared food and places in bagChicken burnsNo DrinksRun out of chickenFood isn’t preparedDrink is placed in cup with lidEmployee at window counter gets food and drink gives to customer thru window. Not seen by customer

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