Happyland Case Study

Functional Areas

Issues

Happy Day Restaurant

• [Customers enter, pick up a tray, help themselves to cakes and pastries] There is no portion control. [and order meals from the counter staff. They then pass down the line and are served drinks]. Poor planning whereby customers should be placing their orders of food and drink at the beginning of the line instead.

• [A metal rail separates the queue from the seating areas] No privacy for seated customers from customers that are in the queue.

• [At lunchtimes queues can reach 10 people during the week and sometimes in excess of 20 people at the weekend. At peak times it can take up to 15 minutes to move from the back of the queue to complete the purchase.] No coordination and time management of customers

• [Regulars often ‘save’ tables by putting their coats and bags on them whilst they wait in the queue.] Intimidation and discomfort to first time customers as they observe this allowance and perceive it to be preferential treatment of certain customers.

• [Christine Wilson feels that HappyDay has almost become a victim of its own success.] Resistance to change by leader, this may lead to conflict between management and workers or alienation of restaurant staff from rest of Happylands staff.

• [We also recognised that children can be a bit fussy so they can ask for a children’s lunch box which we make up for them according to their preference. The children’s lunch boxes are very popular but they are time-consuming for the staff to make up and queues do tend to form.] Too many variables in food preparation, make each meal too time consuming in both choosing and preparing, resulting in longer queues

• [One step we have taken to reduce the queue is to advise customers that at weekend lunchtimes they cannot just have a drink.] Loss of potential revenue, due to poor planning and staffing

• [Once seated, customers tend to spend around 20 minutes over morning coffee or afternoon tea and take around 30 minutes for lunch. Older couples and those with small children usually take longer.] There is insufficient seating, as well as without an usher families and choose to seat wherever they like, whereas with an usher, certain groups can enjoy outdoor seating which will cater for longer dining time.

Inventory Control

• [It has always been difficult for the centre to decide how much of each product to order at the beginning of the season]. Not correctly using history of purchase orders to forecast stock.

• [Some non-perishable products, such as barbecues, sold in quantity at the beginning of the spring season, often have to be discounted very heavily, sometimes at a loss, during the winter.] Loss of potential revenue by selling non-perishable products at a discounted price.

• [Every year we agonise over how much to buy – either we run out or we have stock left over…… the money we lose by having to discount stock, or throw away in the case of some plants, can be as high as 20 per cent of our total revenue] Loss of revenue due to poor inventory control of perishable products and purchasing excessively.