Starbucks Operation Management

Operation Management:

Introduction:

  The purpose of this report is to investigate the competition between two famous coffee companies, Starbucks and McDonald in aspect of corporate social responsibility, growth strategy and operation management. The report will also recommend on those aspects and compare two companies.

Background:

  Starbucks is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. Today it operates over 20,000 locations worldwide. It is a well-known coffee chain shop in Hong Kong and popular among teenagers.

  Mc Café is a coffee-house-style food and drink chain, owned by McDonald’s. It is one of the most famous coffee shop over the world and its major competitor is Starbucks.

Mc Café:

1.Improving responsiveness to customers:

   Mc Café has found a way to be responsive to customers by offering them low-priced, reliable, and convenient services. With large consumption on raw materials, it enjoys economies of scale and its prices are much lower than its major competitor. Providing comparable quality coffee with lower price is the way Mc Café to be responsive to their customers. 

Mc Café’s convenience comes from its popular location. Its stores are located everywhere, therefore customers can easily access it and enjoy the coffee there. For example, there is 97 Mc Café store in Hong Kong. Therefore, the people in Hong Kong can easily access its stores, that make customers feel convenience.

   Mc Café’s reliability derives from their commitment to quality of coffee. Mc Café baristas always check the quality of coffee before Mc Café opens in the morning. There is a test to spray white sugar on the crema on an Espresso coffee to see whether there is enough crema. Also, all Mc Café cups are kept at between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit to make sure it does not affect the taste and temperature of the coffee. Also, every one of its baristas has undergone at least 400 hours of professional training. Therefore, the customers can enjoy stable and reliable quality of coffee.

   Mc Café also trying out new approaches to customizable coffee drinks as customers prefer products that are customized to their specific needs. For example, in late 2015, Mc Café have adopted a self-serve coffee kiosk in a downtown Chicago McDonald’s. It aims to provide customers ways to create their own style coffee. As the device might appeal to those customers who want a cup of coffee but not want to wait in line, it provides a quick service to customers.

2.Improving quality:

   For the total quality management, Mc Café improve their coffee quality and taste by adopting new technology. In 2013, Mc Café planned to replace the existing two-step automatic machines with the traditional Group Handle machines and the employees are trained in new skills to keep pace with the changes. In this case, we found that Mc Café have continuous improvement on their using machine. Also, the total quality management involves that the employees are neatly dressed and clean. The employees must ensure that they are providing safety food and drinks to customers, which implies that the baristas often wash their hands to remain clean.