Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel - the Wastages in Food and Beverage Section - Case Study Example

Industry Placement 2 Prepared For: Prepared By: Executive Summary Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is a magnificently grand 5 star hotel. It is situated in an excellent location with high class rooms. This hotel has bee determined for both leisure and conference accommodations. The House Keeping Department is one of the most efficient and busiest of all in the hotel. Apart from being one of the world’s finest spots the Hyatt Hotel Adelaide, is facing serious problems with the issue of wastage. This came into notice during the placement procedure where under apparent research and investigation it has shown that these wastages are all related to food, beverage and labour. As for food wastage the reason is the over-size food service that leads to waste food. The related shortcoming is about the storage system that to leads to wastages. The demand is to solve this wastage process as it is affecting the profit margin of the hotel. The wastages related to beverage are also of high concern as it contributes a lot to the hotel profit. These wastages come from the inappropriate sale pack of alcohols; with the ignorance of expiry date that remains unchecked. Australia has got a high labour cost and thus it as turned up to be a serious matter of consideration. The wastages as found in Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel are all due to over-loaded work force and improper shift arrangements. This paper is dealing with the factors related to all these wastages and at the same time looking at the solutions in order to give the hotel the absolute profit margin that it really deserves. Table of Contents Industry Placement 2 1 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Aim 1 1.2 Authorisation 1 1.3 Sources of information 1 1.4 Background 1 2.0 Finding 3 2.1 Food wastage 3 2.1.1 Portion size 3 2.1.2 Forecast of population 3 2.2 Beverage wastage 4 2.2.1 Alcohol beverage 4 2.2.2 Non-alcohol beverage 4 2.3 Labour cost control 5 3.1 Forecasting 6 3.2 Inventory control 6 3.3 Re-using food and beverage products 7 4.0 Recommendations 8 5.0 Conclusion 9 6.0References 10 1.0 Introduction While working in Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel some huge amounts of wastages are found in the processing of the hotel this paper is all about analyzing those problems that are leading to this wastages and to find some solutions for them. There are recommendations made in order to prevent these wastages and to give the hotel the proper profit margin. 1.1 Aim The aim of this report is to find out all those factors that are leading to the wastages in Food and Beverage section. This report also makes keen analysis over the cost of wasting and the over budget assessments. 1.2 Authorisation This report is authorised by Brian Rungie. 1.3 Sources of information Internet, as reference Text, as reference 1.4 Background Property Description The Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is situated in one of the city’s finest locations, on the picturesque River Torrens. It gives Adelaide’s spectacular new Riverbank promenade. The Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is adjacent to the Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide casino and the Festival Centre, making it the most happening place. Adelaide Airport is just a 15-minute drive from our hotel in Adelaide, Australia. This hotel offers world class 24 hours services to its visitors. Entertainment floors like Restaurant and Park Lounge are kept open till late in weekends. Customers The main sources of customers of Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel are from worldwide places. There are also frequent visits made by the corporate world for exclusive meetings and conferences, increasing the hotel occupancy rate. 2.0 Finding As being a part of the hospitality industry the realisation related to the wastage problem comes up very clear. As it is the vital cause of affecting the profit of the Hotel it needs to be handled very efficiently. These wastages as has been discovered are in sections of food, beverage and labour. 2.1 Food wastage Food wastage is the most common problem of food and beverage operation. In Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel the inappropriate portion size and the inaccurate population forecast contribute a negative effect to cost control. 2.1.1 Portion size The food and beverage outlet of Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is handled and the portion size and the amount of ingredients are all decided by the chef. The difficulty in keeping the track of daily consumption leads to the oversize food service, and as such there remains no scope for proper calculation. Raw ingredients too are the factors for food wastage. This happens as the chef trims the low quality ingredients while serving the food to the customer. 2.1.2 Forecast of population The forecast as when made regarding the numbers of guest that arrives in the hotel is not always accurate. This forecasting often fails, especially during the 50/50 service in catering department. Added to this there are special cases and special dietary requirements from the particular guest. These special orders make the forecast irrelevant. In order to maintain hygiene and good quality, it is not possible to reserve all the surplus food. This too is a cause that leads to serious wastages of food. 2.2 Beverage wastage Alcohol and non-alcohol drinks comprise to be the beverage section. As beverages are usually higher in price than the food items a check in its wastage can give the hotel a considerable cost control. This is something that needs to be paid attention to in the matter related to the food and beverage outlet. 2.2.1 Alcohol beverage In Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel alcohol drinks are in general sold by package. As a result there remains a very less option for beer and wine for the guests. As such they need to pay extra if they want to have anything of their choice that is not in the selection list. This undoubtedly leads to the situation where the consumers are offered free wines and beers instead of payable drinks; resulting to the cost of alcohol drinks and the possibilities of misspending. Making the drinks available for free leads to lots of wastage. However the remaining drinks can be re-served in terms of law, solving huge burden on the beverage cost. The next hurdle is to keep a watch on the amount of beverage consumed by the customers. This is very common in the cases of cocktail parties and of pre-dinner drink service. In such situations the bar attendant needs to prepare a large amount of glasses wine and opens lots of beer bottles. This is done to meet the demand of the unpredictable number of guests. As this leads to wastages, and needs to be checked if the opened wine and beer could not be re-served after party whatever it is consumed or not. 2.2.2 Non-alcohol beverage Hotel catering operation expends non-alcohol beverage every day, although the purchasing cost is not as high as alcohol beverage. These non alcoholic drinks too have got wastages that get counted in the long term and as such contribute to the curtailing effects of the profit. According to a calculation made over the large amount of orange juice and mineral water that are consumed in every conference, it has been found that more the 10 litres of orange juice has been wasted as average, and in 15 conferences in a month, it is upto 150 litres wasted orange juice. Though this is an assumption but is a fact that exemplifies many such instances. In such conferences almost 60 jugs of water are needed, making it 240 jugs of water that needs to be kept fresh all the time for the whole function carries on. Though Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel doesn’t change the bottle of water if not finished during the break time, even then there is still chances that leads to much wastage. Other beverages like milk, coffee and tea are equally wasted and needs serious concern. 2.3 Labour cost control The general fact is that the labour cost is the biggest expense in the hospitality industry. This is more than 40 percent of the total expense in Australia, leading to the wastage in the cost. These wastages are due to the over-distribution of staff. Hyatt Hotel, Adelaide, one attendant is responsible for catering for 20 guests and also meets the need as when arises for the requirement extra staff. The forecast related to the participation of guests is always unpredictable and as such the whole confusion and wastage comes in. most often the number of attendant are less than what has been forecasted. This creates mismanagement in the course of the hospitality staff. This differentiation in the forecast happens as when some organizers come in with more guests without notice. The idea is to save the money but the expense then gets beared by the hotel. On the other hand sometimes the numbers of guests are below the forecast as many people do not turn up. In order to meet all these unpredictable situations; there is an over-distribution of labour that comes in. as a result it turns up to be another cost waste problem in Hyatt Hotel, Adelaide. 3.0 Analysis 3.1 Forecasting The problem of wastage is basically due to the inaccuracy in the forecasting. There are two major issues that make forecasting unpredictable. This unpredictability is directly associated with ingredients’ purchasing and staff arrangement in hospitality industry. For any hospitality industry, the act of purchasing of food is the fist step towards the functionality of operation. It must well equip with all sorts of foodservice facilities (P Dittmer, J Keefe 2006, p107). This must be done with the listing of proper ingredients that re needed to make the items listed in the menu. In case Hyatt Hotel, Adelaide, it has been found that there is a surplus wastage of food due to the maintenance of certain dietary. This of course could be taken care of is the management of the hotel have a transparency regarding these special dietary with the organizer. Slight differences also needs equal preparations and thus sudden declaration leads to absolute wastage. Australia being the highest labour cost country pays lots of wastages due to the issues related to it. As per the findings, the popularity of Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is such that it deliberately needs more staff to support a satisfactory service. In Hyatt Hotel, Adelaide, the manager is very much particular about the quality service and thus needs more staff to meet the ends. This problem can be solved if the arrangements are changed. There has to be a separate one shift into two to minimise the shift length. The next solution could be related to the capacity of the hotel to finish the morning shift earlier to balance the work hours for each labour. 3.2 Inventory control The control over the storage system is also very important. By maintaining a proper balance between the storage section and the catering department much wastage could be sorted out. All the ingredient that are needed should have on hand at one time. This can only be done with a good quality and standardized recipes as are in places. This will help in keeping in mind all the necessary ingredient (Miller, Hayes 1994). It is all in hands of the chef, whose controlled recipes can have correct amount of ingredients. As such it will help the storage to avoid wastage. Added to these contributions there has to be proper vendor delivery schedule. This needs to be well maintained. The investigation has showed that in Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel a substantial savings of ingredients by stocking a large quantity of food in order to receive a lower price from the vendor leads to the maximum wastage. This results in the ignorance of the shelf life and as such many food and beverages gets spoilt. In Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel, there is the storage temperature system which is not sufficient and is nor adequate as per the need of the hotel. This could be solved if the bar attendant restock the opened alcoholic beverage. It must be noted that the shelf life of most beverage products is relatively long, but alcoholic beverages, especially wine, must be treated in a very careful manner (Miller, Hayes 1994). The wastage thus can be handled well if there is an effective purchase method and storage system. 3.3 Re-using food and beverage products The best way to meet the wastage criteria is to adopt more carefulness while handling the waste food and beverages. Re-using surplus food and beverage products can very easily result in achieving cost and give a better cost control. The surplus food and beverage are needs to be kept intact and in accordance to their possibility of getting re-used. Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel is a place where there are large amount of conferences get organised every month. The food that gets served in these conferences is basically the import pastries. A large amount of these muffins, bread rolls and Danishes remains untouched throughout the meeting and are very proper to get re-used. Ninemeier says (J D Ninemeier 2004), “Excessive holding times can result in reduced product quality to the point where the food item becomes unservable.” Thus there should be enough space and awareness regarding these products as can be re-used as long as they are still in the expiry date; leading to lower the food purchase costs. Same can be adopted for beverages. With a well maintained refrigerating storing system these can be re-used, saving lots of wastages and adding them to profit margins. 4.0 Recommendations There should be a well trained communication skill in the team leader in order to build transparency with organisers in order to get the details. All the preparations are to be made to meet the efficient forecast A well organised staff roster and working timetable is very essentially be maintained There has to be proper arrangements made to check and re-serve food and beverage as the conference or party goes on A proper storage system and a well trained store keeper are very mandatory In order to save wastages there should be enough cooperation with other departments of food and beverage for relevant transfer 5.0 Conclusion Eventually it is all about having a well organised and very conscious staff for limiting the wastage factors. The wastage problems of food, beverage and labour are needs to be handled more seriously by the authority of Hyatt Regency Adelaide Hotel. This will surprisingly raise the profit margin and will curtail in the expenditures that the hotel maintains. The forecast had to be very accurate and thus needs experts to give the declaration. It will not only minimise the wastage but also will add more efficiency in the hospitality sector. 6.0 References Dittmer, P & Keefe, J.D 2006, Principles of Food, Beverage, and Labor Cost Controls, Eighth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Ninemeier, J D 2004, Planning and Control for Food and Beverage Operations, Sixth Edition, Educational Institute Read More