Managing Service Operations at KFC - Report Example

Managing Service Operations - Researching KFC Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion and Analysis 4 A.Service packages 4 Service strategy 5 Location issues and decisions 5 Managing capacity and demand 6 Quality Management 6 B.Quality Management 6 Conclusion 10 Reference 12 Introduction Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a part of PepsiCo family of USA. It is among the leaders in the quick-service restaurants in the global world market. The company was established in 1952 and has around 3000 franchise stores across the world. KFC has well designed stores most of which are mainly dine-in-restaurants with seating facility for the customers, condiment bar and also a drive way for the movement of the customers. The quick service restaurants market is growing at a huge rate in the global market and also has a lot of competitors in the market especially in UK. Thus the growth in market share for one company comes only after the market share of another company goes down by a lot extent. The market share depends highly on the way the customer satisfaction is been achieved and people look to avail those service more which has high quality and also stands on the expectations of the customers meeting their needs and demands. In this particular study the overall service package, the strategy been used to provide the service its location and the other issues are been studied. The way KFC manages the capacity and meets the demand of the customers in the best possible way and how does this helps the company to increase its market share is been seen. This report also includes the quality management technique of the company which will give a clear understanding of the overall quality management and the importance of it in a business especially in the food service company as the quality of food items is the major factor that affects the company’s brand image in the mind of the customers. Discussion and Analysis The service been provided by KFC is been studied based on various factors, which gives a clear understanding of the overall operations of the company and the ways it creates a better customer satisfaction and also helps the company to gain a better market share in the competitive global; market. The strategies that are been studied for this project are service packages, service strategies, the issues and decision related to the location, the strategy needed to fulfil the demand and to manage the capacity and also process of managing the quality one after the other. A. Service packages KFC offers lots of variety of products to its customers in the best quality. KFC looks to give its customers combo offers by combining two or three products together and selling them at a lesser price which gives the customers better opportunity to avail better more products at cheaper rates. It also has the happy hours period everyday when the prices of the products are very low and thus customers get the same quality product of their liking at a lower price when they visit the stores in that time (KFC,2014). KFC looks to provide the products in a fresh way at the best quality so that the customers can get the food items in the best possible taste and also in the best quality. The packaging of the overall product, the ambience and the environment in the store is being maintained for giving the best service to the customers (Ahmed, 2010, Pp. 98-102). KFC looks to have huge stores with seating facilities and also better movement place for the customers through the drive way which enables the customers to move easily in the store and carry the products easily with no hassles (Alpas and Çırakoğlu, 2010, Pp. 123-126). This type of overall package of the service been provided helps the company to provide better facility to the customers and also help them in achieving the best customer satisfaction fulfilling the customer needs and desires. KFC looks to provide the customers the products by packing them very well so that the quality of the food is not lost and for hot items it is been served in a way that the food item remains hot when been supplied to the customers and in case of cold items like cold-drinks, shakers and ice creams special care is taken to maintain the temperature cool for the items (Silverstein, Silverstein, and Nunn, 2007, Pp. 98-103). Service strategy KFC has a good strategy for its service operations. It focuses a lot on the quality of the food item been served to the customers. KFC takes very much care with regards to the nutritious value of the food item and also looks to provide best quality nutritious, fresh food products and also at a quick time (Mahadevan, 2009, Pp. 123-126). The company’s strategy to provide such food product helps the company to create a good brand image in the mind of the customers and also good brand value which helps them to have a good hold over the market share of the global market in the quick-service providing industry of food items. KFC provides the food products to the customers a quick rate and by reducing the waiting time of the customers (Stephens, 2005, Pp. 67-73). Location issues and decisions KFC is the third largest food chain in the world having its outlets in 99 countries with over 12,000 outlets spread across different countries. The company’s strategy to select their location is based on the factor of proximity to their target customer and they tend to set up there outlets in locations where customers can easily approach and visit, the other two issues kept in mind are the business environment in the location and also the cost that the company will incur in the form of land cost and taxes while setting up the store in a particular location (Greco, 2006, Pp. 56-64). The location is chosen based on these factors and also the cultural difference among different countries is taken into consideration based on which the food items are been made and the locations is also been chosen (Morfaw, 2009, Pp. 112-113). Managing capacity and demand KFC manages the demand with its capacity and also manages the huge queue line by having a lot of counters in every store and also by providing fast service to the customers (Johnston and Clark, 2008, Pp. 110-113). It looks to have stock of materials based on the demand of a particular product. It takes vegetables and meat from the local suppliers to reduce the lead time and also maintains a stock for three days so that it can face the high rise in demand on a particular day in a particular counter (Crosby, 2004, Pp. 87-94). Quality Management In companies like KFC where they provide food items to the company and also service to the customers, quality has to be given lots of importance and the quality management programme of such company is very important (Johnston, Clark and Shulver, 2011, Pp. 111-114). They need to provide good quality and fresh food items to the customers so that the customers get the best facility, products and also the overall service in the best quality way. In this competitive environment quality product do plays a lot of importance, any defect in the quality can lead to change of preference for the customers. In food retail; chains the quality is the most important factor (Bagad, 2008, Pp. 90-94). B. Quality Management Quality management in manufacturing companies is mostly the understanding of the customers’ expectations, defining the product specifications and thus showing that the product specification meets the standards been set. But in case of service sector like KFC the quality management is basically the controlling of the taste, temperature and appearance of the food items along with the courtesy and the speed at which the service3 is been given to the customers (Tennant, 200, Pp. 45-56). The quality management programme in KFC covers mainly two factors which are been listed below. The quality, service and cleanliness for judging the service quality from the view of the customers. The operational review process to check the running operational process with the specific set standards. KFC understands the customer’s satisfaction and expectations from the feedback they receive from the customers. They maintain separate cards called the complaints card for the customers to write their views and complaints so that they can work upon them to improve their service quality (Smith, 2007, Pp.89-94). It also tracks and monitors the different types of complaints different stores get. It analyses the various attributes related to the customers such as the speed of delivering, courtesy, product quality, wrong packet delivery and the value for money for the customers (Schlosser, 2012, Pp. 120-123). The quarterly report presented to the management includes the data based on the customer’s expectations and the performance of the particular store based on which management takes decisions about the various changes to be implemented in a particular store for its improvement. KFC conducts mystery shopping to understand the quality, service and cleanliness factors been maintained in the other competitors stores based on which they make the required improvement to provide better quality service than its competitors (Brotherton, 2012, Pp. 10-14). Customers across the overall world look to get the best service and best quality food from every KFC store. Thus the operational excellence of each and every store of KFC is very important. The operational facility review helps the company to have a check over the performance of its stores in every country and to have a consistent review of every store to maintain the high quality throughout the entire world in its every store (Schröder, 2003, Pp. 117-123). This quality facility review helps the management to have a good review over all its employees and to help them get trained to enhance their efficiency and working ability. The manager of the particular store must review the performance of every employee every week and look to improve their performance by providing training to them, on regular basis (Jones, 2002, Pp. 87-97). It is the duty of the manager to see that facilities been provided in every store with regards to the equipments and materials are available in the stores. As a major task of the senior manager, they need to evaluate the divisional finance and operational performance and compare them with other divisions. The divisions whose performance is the best among all is kept as the bench mark and the other divisional stores are trained and motivated toward moving towards the objective of becoming the best among others (Birchfield and Birchfield, 2008, Pp. 87-96). Company tends to implement Deming’s Plan-do-check act methodology for data collection techniques and problem solving tools and techniques like Pareto chart, cause and effect diagram, statistical process control and also flow charts to analyse the entire process and come out with solutions for solving the problems to improve the service quality and also quality of food products (Jakle and Sculle, 2002, Pp. 123-126). The company looks to have strong policies for its quality maintenance and also the management follows many processes for the quality management. The restaurant has looked to implement many small improvement processes which have a tiny impact on the service time but all those small improvements add up to become a huge improvement in the overall process, for example the company removed the reluctant packaging boxes to provide only one or two standard packets to the packers to pack the food items in them (Lovelock, 2004, Pp. 35-43). The company reduced the time by providing head sets to all its employees which enabled them to listen to the customer order and also continue their work like the packers could hear the4 order and start packing instantly without waiting for the payment and the order been put in the MIS (Management information System) so that they can pack the product at a quick rate and provide the product to the customer’s at a fast pace. KFC has looked to use visual symbols for clear indication and communication to the customers which will enable the customers to know exactly what to do and where to do for example they have boards with order here as written which helps the customers to know the exact place where they need to approach and put their orders (Reid and Sanders, 2012, Pp. 23-34). The company has also got the facility where in the employees can come up with ideas required for the improvement process and help the company to provide better service quality (Zeithaml, 1996, Pp. 76-83). Rigours training and motivation is been provided to the employees to enhance their skills and also improve their efficiency and work hard towards the betterment and also for providing the best facility to the customers which will help the customers to come and take the service form their stores (Jackson, 2004, Pp. 96-102). This training program also helps the company to improve the productivity of the employees as a result of which they are able to provide the service at a quick time reducing the waiting time of the customers. The company also come up with latest websites to provide the customers better facility of online service and also give the customers to avail the products in their door step by quick supply of food items to the customers place at a fast rate (Stewart, 1996, Pp. 87-95). The quality management of the company plays a vital role in the maintenance of the company’s quality in all aspects like service, food, quick supply and also with the improvement in the productivity of the employees by motivating and training them. Conclusion The service operations of KFC helps to understand the various aspects needed for the better service providing and helping the company to improve in the competitive world and have a good hold over the market share. The service package of the company related to the service they provide to the customers in form of various package in the way of combo food items and also at a lesser price t attract more customers across the global market. The strategy that the company uses for the service been provided to the customers is very good and it helps the company to have a competitive advantage over its competitors in the global market and provide the best quality service to the customers thus having lots of customer liking for its brand. The company looks to choose the locations based on the various factors mainly looking at the factor that the stores are easily approachable for the customers at every location and has got the best visibility among the customers which helps to increase the foot falls in their stores. The company’s policy to manage the capacity of the store based on the demand of particular location helps it to have a good inventory management and also helps the company to provide the customers with all kinds of food items at every moment. The quality management program of the company is very extensive as they look to provide the best quality products to the customers and also looks to better the quality of work by increasing the productivity of the employees by enhancing the skills of the employees. Reference Ahmed, A. 2010. Software testing as a service. New York: CRC Press. Alpas, H. and Çırakoğlu, B. 2010. Food Chain Security. New York: Springer. 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