Managing Operations and Quality - Jurys Inn Waterfront Hotel - Case Study Example

MANAGING OPERATIONS AND QUALITY-JURYS INN WATERFRONT HOTEL Contents INTRODUCTION 2 STATEMENT AND ANALYSIS 4 Performance objectives 4 Four V’S 5 Four services concept Matrix 6 Management processes 7 Core processes 7 Support processes 7 Process Map 12 KEY OBSERVATIONS 13 Housekeeping 13 Emergency and fire operations 14 Interior and exterior facilities 14 RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 16 CONCLUSION 17 REFERENCES 18 INTRODUCTION Operations management is the systematic direction and control of processes that transform resources into output. The hotel industry, unlike the manufacturing industry is a collection of complex processes; customer processing, information processing and material processing where manufacturing and service provision occurs simultaneously. The intangible nature of hotel operations poses many challenges for hotel service providers. (Johnstone: Clark) this paper analyzes the transformational processes in the hospitality context, the relationship between the processes and their effect on variation, variety volume and visibility. Further, this paper seeks to expose operations that expose the organization to reduced customer loyalty and efficiency in service provision. The Jurys inn waterfront hotel offers 3-star accommodation facilities and is situated 15 minutes from the Brightons pier offering all its guests the convenience of scenic views of the each and beyond. There hotel was recently re-branded to enhance its provisions and to ensure on delivery of exceptional everyday experience for guests. (Jurys inn waterfront hotel website) The Jurys inn hotel has been used as a case study in this report to evaluate a report on housekeeping operations, interior design and facilities, emergency handling operations among other. The transformation process of a service operation is distinct in that different raw materials are transformed to produce an intangible output say emotions. Unlike in a manufacturing set up where, similar goods can be produced using the same process; emotions have to be tailored to the guest receiving it. The figure below shows the transformation process in the Jurys inn waterfront hotel. The transformed resources; materials, customers and information undergoes processes to illicit positive judgment, value of service and happy emotions to the customer. Jurys hotel facilitates for this by ensuring ease of booking rooms, luxury facilities and excellent customer service. These processes are coordinated in such a way that effective monitoring is done. The hotel has incorporated a reward system four direct booking to discourage brokerage and control the price of the hotel. Operations management in the hospitality industry can be analyzed in three levels; supply network, the operations and the individual network. The respective levels explore the role of unit processes, operations and resources in the transformation process. As earlier stated, the hospitality context is very distinct, therefore processes must be named, described, structurized, controlled and management to ensure consistent value production. Business processes are categorized into; management processes, core processes and support processes. STATEMENT AND ANALYSIS Performance objectives The analysis of The Jurys Inn Waterfront Hotel is based on five main components. Firstly, cost is one of the most imperative costs that need to be considered. The hotel offers various products and services ranging from food stuffs to accommodation. It serves the majority of customers within Brighton and probably customers visiting the town. The second issue to consider is the speed of operation. Some of the operations of the hotel are automated to ensure that clients are served in a faster manner. Speed plays a vital role in some of the hotels activities such as serving food, making orders, and making payments. The third component of performance that is vital is flexibility of the hotel. This is one of the issues that substantially affect the operations of the hotel. Most of the main operations such as making payments, placing order and so on are routine oriented thus offering a stronger sense of inflexibility. The fourth component is dependability which describes the hotels ability to satisfy the customer’s needs. This is one of the strengths of the hotel since customers are in a position to find the meals and services required consistently. The final consideration is the quality of the service delivery. The products and services of the hotel meet the required standard of a good hotel. This is the main reason the organization has several customers and employees. Customers have continued commenting that the quality of food offered in the hotel are suitable based on the hotel’s level in Brighton. Four V’S The four V’s refers to Volume, Variety, and Variation in demand, and Visibility. Volume is concerned with the work done by the employees. During my assessment and study of the hotel, I realized that most of the employees multitask. For instance, I could spot an employee serving food as well as taking orders of other clients. This has an implication since the volume will be low but the whole hotel business is capital intensive due to the high number of customers. The second is the variety whereby I realized that the hotel process and services are substantially subsidized and most of the costs are low. However, since the hotel is locally based, the variety of food and services offered is localized. I can conclude that variation in demand through the research I conducted as low. The management of the hotel could easily forecast the demand fluxes in the demand of the hotel. For instance, the number of customers in the weekends was higher as compared to weekdays. As a result, this called upon the management to add more employees to increase the service delivery. Another comment noted is that the demand for the hotel services is high during vacation or holidays. This is mainly because most people do go out during such period and in response to that the management needs to have additional stuff. The final aspect considered during the visit to the hotel is the visibility. I can affirm that the visibility of the hotel is high since all the operations of the hotel are highly visible. Some of the key processes that can be seen include cooking of food, making orders, and making payment. The management also had a customer care desk where by all issues affecting the customers or employees is addressed. The main objective of this was to ensure that service delivery is enhanced. Four services concept Matrix The Jurys inn waterfront hotel is categorized under the service focused sector since it is open to any client. As such, no limitation based on age, education, gender, or any aspect can be used to limit the hotel customers. As a result of this, the markets for the business are considered as many. These services include cooking of food and provision of other related services. Consequently, moving the hotel to the unfocussed based on everything for everyone will substantially influence the hotels operations. For instance, it may require that more employees be employed in the organization. This will have negative impacts on the operations and as well will increase the costs of operation. Management processes This category includes the processes of business development, planning, quality management and management of hotel organization. Management processes ensure the progress of corer processes as well as support processes. Core processes This is processes that enable direct value addition to the end product. They ensure the achievement of satisfaction of customers and directly ass value to the quality of service. The creation of new and modified services to ensure future fulfillment of guests’ requests and the production and delivery of services are core processes. Support processes This processes contribute indirectly to the action of a core processes. They are the resourceful and logistical business processes that ensure that internal users are satisfied within the organizational structure. Support processes range from accounting and finance functions and human resource functions. The operations a hotel may engage in to ensure economic and financial planning as well as obtaining and retaining talent are vital in supporting the core and management processes. The major role of operations management means something beyond its obvious responsibilities. The most important functions are; implementer of business strategy, supporter of business strategy and driver of business strategy. (Slack, chambers and Johnston, 2010).The three mentioned processes are linked and in a large way influence the design of the products and processes. A change in this would affect in a large way the transformation processes. Jury’s inns core business is to offer luxury and business services to its guests; the service design of jury’s inn is tailored against the company objective of providing an exceptional experience to all guests. The human resource function and sales and marketing function offer the ability for the hotel to deliver this by training employees, offering rewards and punishment and product promotions through advertisement. Jury’s inn makes the most effective use of its operations by ensuring that their customers are satisfied with the quality of service, the quantity of service and the availability of service. This in particular is the most common goals of operations management. To deliver on this, the four V’s of operations management come into play. The hotel size is considerably small which enables the hotel the ability to provide a personal touch to all its guests, the volume of guests received in this case is considerably small hence expert customer service. According to the travel advisor, the hotel staff is very keen to ensure prompt refills of hotel essential, prompt and daily room cleaning and arrangement and a keen eye to detail all in an effort to ensure quality is achieved. The hotel offers 24-hour room service to ensure that early risers or those staying up late are accorded the same quality of service. They provide options for business breakfast arrangement at the convenience of their guests. The hotel’s flexibility to provide a little extra to their guests makes their operations stagey a superior strategy. In service operations, permanent business process improvement is essential based on impartial improvement. In a hotel context, this can be achieved through renovations of rooms, installations of advanced technology, use of current menus and general standard improvement. Jurys inn hotel has invested in enhanced facilities and advanced technology. The hotel is currently undergoing a facelift to ensure high standards of the hotel rooms. The rooms have installations of premium wifi, flat screen TVs with free views and fully equipped gym facilities. These improvements are keen to ensure that the hotel operations continue without any disruptions to the comfort of the guests. The location of the hotel, near the beach, gives Jurys inn a competitive advantage as guests are able to access major city attractions with ease. Jurys inn has capitalized in this by having online city to ensure the guests are able to plan their trips with ease. The guides provide access to malls, parks and nearby restraints. The Jurys inn hotel serves breakfast in buffet style with a variety of choices but suffers from the usual challenge of keeping it hot. The menu also does not cater for guests with gluten allergies which makes it unsatisfactory. The hygiene standards of the spa facilities are not up to standard. A review of guests stay from the trip advisor shows that, 5% of guests did not receive value for the £240 per night spent in the hotel, 80% of guests think the hotel facilities are out-dated and require a facelift while 75% are concerned with the noisy neighborhoods. This issues should be looked into to ensure the hotel derives full benefits from their invest me Process Map N KEY OBSERVATIONS Housekeeping Hospitality surveys have in the past revealed that the housekeeping function is the backdrop of the hotel. This function include: cleaning rooms, laundry services, and laundry inventory. Jury inns operations do not accommodate a housekeeping department. Laundry functions are outsourced to a service provider who is tasked with the responsibility to collect dirty linen and deliver clean linen. This operational strategy is a win for the hotel as its convenient and cost effective, however gaps in timings and quality is likely to affect customer emotions. Staff members are unable to do timely inspections to the laundry delivered to check for holes and are likely to realize the defects much later. This in a huge way affects the quality of output. The hotel has maintained the standards of cleanliness in the rooms by ensuring on time supervision of dust prone areas and on time bed spreading. Reviews for the travel advisory reveal that the 24-hour room service is very convenient. (Travel advisory). Emergency and fire operations The law requires that all necessary procedures are implemented to prevent disasters of fire. Emergency lighting systems, automatic sprinkler systems, fire alarms, electric fire pumps, central control systems and smoke proof enclosures should be provided. Jury’s inn has installed adequate fire prevention systems and is well equipped with fire prevention equipment according to legislative requirements. The members of staff of jury’s inn has been effectively trained on disaster handing and measures to prevent extensive damage. The hotel assures its guests “make every guests experience exceptional”, this creates an assurance of safety to the customers which in turn helps in achieving customer satisfaction. Interior and exterior facilities Jury’s inn offers a 210 roomed facility with rooms that fully equipped with luxury beds and furniture. The rooms boast provisions such as free wifi, ensuite bathrooms, and flat screen televisions with free views, hair drier installations, wheel chair accommodative facilities, fully equipped gym, Jacuzzi and sauna. This provisions enable the hotel for cater for guests business needs as well as luxury needs. The top notch conference and wedding facilities set the hotel apart. Jury inn’s location gives the hotel a competitive nook as well as guests are assured of accessibility to tourist attractions and scenic views form their hotel rooms. Furniture care and maintenance is also of utmost importance to the hotel. Staff has received training on how to handle and clean furniture to ensure the creation of a lavish first impression to the guests. The delivery of value to the customers is of no doubt very important to the management of jury’s inn. Process redesign and business transformation is to rethink, to restructure and to streamline internal business structures, management systems and external relationships that enable delivery of value to customers, (Talwar, 1993). Redesigning a process brings about benefits of accelerating innovation and change and creates a competitive advantage. The process of re-designing a process follows a series of research and analysis of feedback from customers. A hotel would be keen on ensuring that their customers give the necessary feedback in regards to their products. Jurys inn issues questionnaire to their guests where issues of customer service, restraint services, room service and amenities are addressed. The feedback from guests enables the hotel to get ideas on how to improve in order to consistently deliver quality. An agency involves its employees as individuals and members of a group. This is to enable continuity of information flow and feedback loop. When effective communication is attained, specialization in the human resource function enhances service delivery. Jurys inn hotel reward their employee’s dedication and hard work through internal promotions, in fact 90% of general managers are sourced from within. This is an expert strategy as less training on company policies is done and talent is retained. The continuity of the organizational culture is maintained therefore the hotel is able to achieve consistency. RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN As one would expect, newer hotels tend to bring in more returns as compared to older hotels, this is due to the common notion that older hotels suffer from functional obsolesce making them loose their competitive edge. The Jurys inn hotel has in recent times invested £25 million in two years to enhance facilities and products. As earlier mentioned, the hotel seeks to provide up to date posh facilities with technologically advanced utilities. The management should be able to best assess how best to deploy capital to grow financial returns to the owner. The investment should be utilized is such a way that improves under-performing operations. market analysis suggest that product shuffling among brands as well as changes in market demand patterns provides an opportunity for businesses to rebrand at low cost. This will aid in increasing the returns on investment. The reviews from travel advisor should be used as a stepping stone to enable the hotel management to access the effectiveness of operations within the hotel. The issue of bad restraint food for example can be handled through outsourcing the restraunt to a well branded restraunt chain is likely to improve the quality of services. Ultimately, the main purpose and goals of any improvements should be to increase market share and profits. Research shows that fully engaged employees show higher levels of commitment by 20% and are less likely to leave the organization. The connection between organizational strategy and employee satisfaction and profitability is obvious. (Nerver J.C: Slater S.F:, 1990). Jurys team of employees are hospitality geniuses with years of hands on experience in the hotel industry. The hotels management has invested in staff training and development where current trends and hospitality skills are taught. According to research studies, self actualized and motivated clients deliver positive results as they are able to provide executive service in a pleasant manner. The BELONG induction, Job Role Development and Personal Development programs implemented by Jurys inn ensures that know their roles in the delivery of quality services and helps in the assumption of responsibility among the members. Through these programs, employees are able to communicate with their managers in regards to job description and chain of command. CONCLUSION A proper communication model is also a vital market research tool; the qualitative data derived from this research will enable the formulation of a winning market plan (Mullin, Hardy &Sutton, 1993: Pitts & Statler, 1996: Shilbury, Quick & Westerbeek, 1998). Jurys in marketing team can capitalize on the extensive use of social media to create brand awareness, to resolve customer complaints and to communicate offers and deals. The power of branding in influencing a hotels market position and providing a competitive edge should not be downplayed. A solid marketing plan coupled with a well formulated brand for the hotel delivers results on targeted strategy envisioned by brand changes and repositioning. (Rao, Agarwal and Dahlhoff, 2004) REFERENCES Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront (England) - Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186273-d192531-Reviews Slack, S. Chambers, C. Harland, A. Harrison, R. Johnston.1998. Operations Management, 2nd edition 992N. Operations Management, Pitman Publishing. Rao, V., Agarwal, M. and Dahlhoff, D. 2004. How Is Manifest Branding Strategy Related to the Intangible Value of a Corporation?. Journal of Marketing, 68(4), pp.126-141. Nerver, J. and Slater, S. 1990. The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability. Journal of Marketing, 54(4), p.20. Ehrhardt, K. 2010. Reconsidering The Slack-Performance Relationship: A Top Manager Characteristics Contingency Approach. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2010(1), pp.1-5. Careers at Jurys Inn | Hospitality & Hotel Jobs. 2016. Careers at Jurys Inn | Hospitality & Hotel Jobs. [Online]https://www.jurysinns.com/careers/workforjurysinn. Jurys Inn Special Offers and Packages. 2016. Jurys Inn Special Offers and Packages. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.jurysinns.com/deals. [Accessed 26 April 2016]. Read More