Fast Food Restaurant - Project Management - Essay Example

number Publish Fast Food Restaurant: Project Management Plan Project This project is intended to create a fast food restaurant and this report will discuss the major factors concerning this project. The demand for fast food has only risen in recent decades given the restraints on time in the modern economy (Lusk, Roosen and Shogren 659). The average consumer in the modern economy does not have the time required to procure raw food items and to process them into cooked, edible food. Restaurants solve this problem and provide consumers with cooked food items. The time required to obtain cooked food does decrease but the decrease depends on the type of restaurant. Fast food restaurants have cooked food that is ready to serve with minimal need for service making them the fastest food providers. In essence, fast food restaurants have greater chances of being a business success than other larger and more exquisite restaurants for two reasons. The first advantage is that the consumer base for fast food restaurants is large and the second advantage is that the initial investment is small. In addition, fast food restaurants are more environmentally friendly since the processed food requires far less raw materials than exquisite dining options. On another note, the waste produced from fast food joints is also lower since lower amounts of food items are processed and so lower amounts of waste is produced. The other major benefactors from a fast food restaurant would be the consumers being served and the investors backing the project. The consumers would be provided with fresh varieties of fast food in order to provide a diverse eating experience. Alternatively, the appeal of new varieties of fast food are expected to bring in attractive returns for the people investing in the proposed project. Project Risks The proposed project stands to get affected from a number of internal and external risks. For one thing, a fast food restaurant is a business that faces stiff competition at start since there are a lot of different fast food restaurants already present in the market. The presence of well established competitors means that the new business will have to create a loyal customer base and then expand it while old and new competitors exist in the market. Moreover, customers in the fast food category have already developed tastes for fast foods being offered at various kinds of fast food restaurants. This is comparable to the beverage industry, where for example, a Pepsi customer will not ask for Coca Cola and vice versa. There is a risk that when the new fast food restaurant opens, it may take a lot of time to develop consumer’s taste in new varieties of fast food. In the short run, this could mean a prolonged principal amount recovery period but in the long run this strategy would result in a loyal customer base. Another thing that must be kept in mind is the fragile state of the overall economy. When the economy is performing well, it could be expected that new business survival would be easy since people would be spending with an open hand. In more restrictive fiscal situations, such as the current state of the economy, consumers have smaller disposable incomes and they are less willing to take risks with their money. A consumer would prefer to take fast food from a restaurant whose taste they are already familiar with rather than trying out a new fast food restaurant. The opening up of a new business also poses some more familiar risks such as finding the right kind of labor and ensuring retention of good workers. For a fast food restaurant, highly capable chefs would be required to churn out recipes that can be produced in no time and that would cater to the tastes of the target market. In addition, fast food requires that the business have a committed supplier base who can deliver products at the most optimal prices. Larger fast food chains such as McDonalds and KFC have the distinct advantage of ordering in bulk and having many suppliers on their procurement list. This ensures optimal costs of inputs to such fast food chains which cannot be matched by smaller fast food restaurants. Project Plan The project plan for opening a fast food restaurant is presented in the table provided below followed by the corresponding Gantt chart. It has been supposed that the activities commence from the 1st of November, 2013. Activity Duration Start Date End Date Predecessor(s) Renting the site 21 days 11/1/2013 11/29/2013 Choosing rental premises 10 days 11/1/2013 11/14/2013 Negotiating terms 5 days 11/15/2013 11/21/2013 2 Finalizing legal documents 5 days 11/22/2013 11/28/2013 3 Advance payments 1 day 11/29/2013 11/29/2013 4 Furnishing the rental site 50 days 12/2/2013 2/7/2014 1 Contract for refurbishment of premises 45 days 12/2/2013 1/31/2014 Procuring furniture 5 days 12/2/2013 12/6/2013 Procuring electrical appliances 2 days 12/2/2013 12/3/2013 Procuring gas appliances 2 days 12/2/2013 12/3/2013 Procuring kitchen items 2 days 12/2/2013 12/3/2013 Refurbishing the restrooms 5 days 2/3/2014 2/7/2014 7 Site furnished for business 0 days 2/7/2014 2/7/2014 12 Hiring workers 5 days 11/29/2013 12/5/2013 Hiring cashier 5 days 11/29/2013 12/5/2013 4 Hiring helpers 5 days 11/29/2013 12/5/2013 4 Hiring cleaning staff 5 days 11/29/2013 12/5/2013 4 Staff hired 0 days 12/5/2013 12/5/2013 15,16,17 Establishing suppliers 45 days 11/29/2013 1/30/2014 4 Bread suppliers 30 days 11/29/2013 1/9/2014 4 Meat suppliers 15 days 11/29/2013 12/19/2013 4 Vegetable suppliers 15 days 11/29/2013 12/19/2013 4 Miscellaneous suppliers 15 days 1/10/2014 1/30/2014 20,21,22 Suppliers established 0 days 1/30/2014 1/30/2014 20,21,22,23 Testing of equipment and personnel 5 days 1/31/2014 2/6/2014 14,19 Opening 0 days 2/7/2014 2/7/2014 6,25 Financial Plan The various costs associated with opening up a fast food restaurant are presented in the table below. It must be noted that certain costs are tentative and would require changes as things progress. Activity Cost (USD) Rental costs Monthly rent 2500 Advance payments 15000 Furnishing costs Contract for refurbishment of premises 10000 Procuring furniture 5000 Procuring electrical appliances 2000 Procuring gas appliances 1500 Procuring kitchen items 7000 Refurbishing the restrooms 1200 Staffing costs Cashier pay 1500 Helpers pay 3000 Cleaning staff pay 1000 Suppliers advance Bread suppliers advance 500 Meat suppliers advance 500 Vegetable suppliers advance 500 Miscellaneous suppliers advance 500 Miscellaneous costs Running cash 3000 Utility bills 2000 Works Cited Lusk, Jayson L., Juttta Roosen and Jason Shogren. The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Food Consumption and Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print. Read More