Operations Management and Productivity, Research Paper Example

In its 30 years of existence, Hard Rock has grown from a modest London pub to a global power managing 110 cafes, 3 hotels, casinos, live music venues, a rock museum, and a huge annual Rockfest concert. Hard Rock has achieved this through taking on a number of operational decisions that have made its business grow. These include the act of expanding its market presence to more than 40 locations in the US; and providing quality hotel service with over 100,000 meals being served each day. The company’s chefs have also adjusted menus from the classic American burgers and chicken wings to higher-end food items including; stuffed veal chops and lobster tails. The company has also sustained its efforts in improving its tastes, introducing new menus, changing the hotel layouts, and boosting quality of customer service.

Hard Rock Restaurants have also grown to become major tourist attraction. The company also added to its restaurant model, a retail shop model, where the retail business has become a prominent aspect of its business accounting for 48% of its total revenue. The success of the company has also been because of its employees (kitchen and wait staff, hosts, and bartenders) who are not only committed to their work, but have great passion for music and have warm personalities. The company has also invested on live music, and redesign of its restaurant layout to satisfy the changing needs in the market. All these operational management changes and policies have made the company to become more popular and make good business (Lewis, 2003).

The 10 decisions of operations management (from PowerPoint 1) are applied at Hard Rock Café in a number of ways. First, quality management decisions were applied at Rock café, through improved investment in boosting the quality of customer care, and food products. Hard rock café consistently invested on boosting the quality of managing operations by ensuring that quality food were served, food service was on time, and employees served people in the right way. Secondly, service and product design decisions were also undertaken through the introduction of new menus, as well as, the heightened focus on improving customer service.

The other OM decision that was undertaken relates to the process and capacity design decision. These decisions are evidenced by the company’s move to redesign the restaurant layout, and recruit staff that have outspoken personalities. Redesigning the layout of the restaurant played a key role in adding to the capacity of the guests the restaurant and retail shop serves. Having motivated and passionate staff helped the company to improve on the quality off work processes, with most guests finding the restaurant a good place to visit. The company also employed location decisions, by taking key policies in expanding its market presence throughout the United States.

In addition, the company also involved itself in supply chain management decisions through changing the way it offers its service. The company improved its supply chain management by introducing the retail shop approach in delivery of its services. This allowed the company to boost its sales revenues significantly, and to experience growth in market presence and influence. Hard Rock was also involved in layout design decision by redesigning the outlook of its restaurants, and retail shops with changing tastes. It has also been involved in job design decisions, by providing the flexibility of its staff to serve and satisfy the needs of its clients. Scheduling decisions, as well as, inventory management decisions have also been undertaken to allow the company serve the increased customer base. Finally, Hard Rock has also engaged in maintenance decisions, through taking on sustainability measures on quality and customer service across its business segments (Lewis, 2003).

I determine the productivity of the kitchen staff and wait staff at Hard Rock by assessing the labor productivity measure. In this context, I will measure the output of each kitchen and wait staff against an established standard of output. For instance, a given kitchen employee who prepares food for 100 guests a day, against a standard of 80 guests a day, in my view would be very productive. In other words, the effort and output of each worker will be measured against a standard output level (Mahadevan, 2010).

References

Lewis, M. (2003). Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management. NewYork: Taylor & Francis.

Mahadevan, B. (2010). Operations Management: Theory and Practice. NewYork: Pearson Education India.