Bistro Cafe - Case Study
SYNOPSIS
1. ANALYSIS
Avalon is a café bistro, which is in the business and cultural center of Sheffield. ´Bistro` means a place where people can get together and have either a cup of coffee or soft drinks or fruit juices along with hot and cold food. The operation of the bistro is limited to lunch and dinner and it also offers a take-away service. It is important to analyze the Stakeholders of the café.
Owners. Avalon is a private limited organization. It consists of three equal partners, who form the Board of Directors and all of them have control of the company.
Staff. It consists of a Chef who is the Manager, two Assistant Managers, and Kitchen and Floor Staff who are both working on a part time basis.
Composition of Customers. There is a diversion in its customers. They are mainly young (25 to 40) from middle to upper class that is aware of fashion and trends. These customers are knowledgeable of how to distinguish good food and wine.
Competition. The main competitors in this area are: Two traditional pubs that offer limited lunch menu mainly snacks, two cafes that offer coffee and light snacks, the cinema has a café bar, and finally, a theater café that has a fully licensed bar and serves coffees, drinks and a pre-theater menu.
Suppliers. The food products and services are supplied from local sources and often from organic suppliers.
License Authority. It has license from the local Hygiene Department. All the workers hold a Basic food Hygiene Certification. It has no fully licensed bar.
Local Community. The café is part of the city wide Healthy Eating Campaign. A campaign aims at promoting fresh and quality food and keeps customers away from the use of artificial substances or precooked meals.
Quality is a crucial element in the food service field. It is defined as setting the appropriate performance standards for all of the activities offered by the property to meet the needs of its guests. In order to satisfy the needs and wants of the guests, the establishment must consider the following types of attribute:
Food and Beverage. It involves originality of menu, style of service, wine list and price.
Service attributes of staff. The staff must be smart, friendly, courteous, helpful, efficient and attentive to details.
Physical attributes of restaurant. It should offer space, comfort, noise, lighting, temperature, glassware, menu cards, furnishings, and color.
The ultimate success of an operation depends upon the efforts made by all employees to attain quality goals. Therefore, the most important key in a restaurant business is being the employee. There are issues relating to service quality management.
Food quality. It buys the best quality of ingredients.
Food preparing. In this section is part-time staff is mostly used.
Food service. It can be considered friendly, but the staffs are inexperienced part-time students.
Quality Management. There is a lack of communication and operation between the management and the Board of Directors. The manager’s hands are tight when it comes to decision-making.
The Boards of Directors must give more authority and freedom to the managers and the rest of the staff in order to perform their task in a more efficient and effective way.
3. SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
Service Quality Management means the integrated approach from all the key areas of an organization. The management to accomplish the quality service must prepare a program of education and training, with emphasis on delivery systems, technology and personnel. The first step is to do the planning of service quality management, which consists of the following four stages:
Stage I: Inspection. The restaurant manager must examine the characteristics of its product and service in order to achieve the objectives of the company.
Stage II: Quality Control. The management must control the menu items which are not selling and the areas of the restaurant that are not operating efficiently and effectively.
Stage III: Quality Assurance. Employees are the key for the ultimate success of the operation. At this stage, the management should adapt a quality assurance program. Additionally, the management must concentrate on preventing any problems raised in order to improve product and quality service.
Stage IV: Total Quality Management. To improve the total quality management is needed a continuous commitment for every worker.
From the top-management to line staff there must be for concern quality products and services and every effort must be undertaken to satisfy the personal preferences of customers with any sophisticated tastes.
Bistro Café is a small business so there is a need of a short-term planning. The manager must rely on inputs from all levels of the organization in order to accomplish an effective and efficient planning. The planning process must be concentrated on the following issues:
Define the needs and wants of the customers. There is a diversion in its customers. Therefore, the menu must offer varieties of food and beverage items based on good quality. Healthy food items must be a “must” in the menu list. The menu must be planned to be a powerful marketing tool to communicate with the expected customers.
Food Quality. All products must to be fresh with and good quality of ingredients.
Food Production. The manager needs to hire experienced cooks to meet the new menu dimensions. Also, the new cooks must be innovative and motivated towards the goals of the company.
Food Service. The manager must plan to reorganize the food service area to offer a more pleasant atmosphere in the dining area.
Beverage Service. It must obtain a license for selling alcoholic beverages in order to satisfy the guest’s needs and increase beverage sales. The management must acquire a professional bartender.
Food and Beverage Area. The management has to rearrange the food and beverage area so that the flow of people, products and equipment can be done efficiently and effectively. The facility must provide safe place in both the employees and guests.
Quality management. In food service operation the planning must start at the top of the organization. The manager must obtain more responsibilities concerning decision-making, and concerning more on her management duties.
Financial aspects. Finally, the management has to develop an effective operating system that consistently accounts for all revenues and expenses.
The management must establish a continuous process to control the quality service. The control must be both an open and a closed system. As to the open system, the management is concerned with the performance within the company. As to the closed system, external factors that influence the operation, for example, customers, suppliers, must be considered. The manager of the Avalon café must examine the flow of information and make the necessary decisions and in turn report to the Board of directors. This control process must be continuous on every basis for each department.
2. SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
Service Quality Management means the integrated approach from all the key areas of an organization. The management to accomplish the quality service must prepare a program of education and training, with emphasis on delivery systems, technology and personnel. The first step is to do the planning of service quality management, which consists of the following four stages:
Stage I: Inspection. The restaurant manager must examine the characteristics of its product and service in order to achieve the objectives of the company.
Stage II: Quality Control. The management must control the menu items which are not selling and the areas of the restaurant that are not operating efficiently and effectively.
Stage III: Quality Assurance. Employees are the key for the ultimate success of the operation. At this stage, the management should adapt a quality assurance program. Additionally, the management must concentrate on preventing any problems raised in order to improve product and quality service.
Stage IV: Total Quality Management. To improve the total quality management is needed a continuous commitment for every worker.
From the top-management to line staff there must be for concern quality products and services and every effort must be undertaken to satisfy the personal preferences of customers with any sophisticated tastes.
Bistro Café is a small business so there is a need of a short-term planning. The manager must rely on inputs from all levels of the organization in order to accomplish an effective and efficient planning. The planning process must be concentrated on the following issues:
Define the needs and wants of the customers. There is a diversion in its customers. Therefore, the menu must offer varieties of food and beverage items based on good quality. Healthy food items must be a “must” in the menu list. The menu must be planned to be a powerful marketing tool to communicate with the expected customers.
Food Quality. All products must to be fresh with and good quality of ingredients.
Food Production. The manager needs to hire experienced cooks to meet the new menu dimensions. Also, the new cooks must be innovative and motivated towards the goals of the company.
Food Service. The manager must plan to reorganize the food service area to offer a more pleasant atmosphere in the dining area.
Beverage Service. It must obtain a license for selling alcoholic beverages in order to satisfy the guest’s needs and increase beverage sales. The management must acquire a professional bartender.
Food and Beverage Area. The management has to rearrange the food and beverage area so that the flow of people, products and equipment can be done efficiently and effectively. The facility must provide safe place in both the employees and guests.
Quality management. In food service operation the planning must start at the top of the organization. The manager must obtain more responsibilities concerning decision-making, and concerning more on her management duties.
Financial aspects. Finally, the management has to develop an effective operating system that consistently accounts for all revenues and expenses.
The management must establish a continuous process to control the quality service. The control must be both an open and a closed system. As to the open system, the management is concerned with the performance within the company. As to the closed system, external factors that influence the operation, for example, customers, suppliers, must be considered. The manager of the Avalon café must examine the flow of information and make the necessary decisions and in turn report to the Board of directors. This control process must be continuous on every basis for each department.
3. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
The aim of this assignment is to analyze the business environment. The people, who perform the various parts of service in the Café, are divided in two categories: the service leaders and the service providers. The Restaurant Manager, Kitchen Chef and Head Waiter are the service leaders. Vision, dedication to high standards, leading by example, and integrity are some of the characteristics of the service leaders. On the other hand, Kitchen Cooks, Food Servers, Bartenders and Kitchen Cleaners are the service providers and should be aware of the following characteristics: motivation, appearance, and commitment.
The organization must provide the service leaders constantly motivation, training and rewarding to enable them to reach the highest potential performance. Then, the service leaders will pass their motivation to the service providers. All workers must always feel and act as a part of a management team.
The Café must meet all the rules and regulations of Hygiene and safety Government Regulations established for the Food Service Industry. A combination of personal health and technology must be focused on enhancing a quality service and meet the customer’s expectations. All equipment must be designed so that to provide systematically assurance on the quality of products or services. Furthermore, the management must offer training throughout its organization to ensure that staff understands the importance of service or product quality, and the quality system.
Finally, the physical environment, in which the service takes place, is very important because it is the first thing that customers notice. Therefore, all the workers need to perform in environment that provides enjoyment in their work in order to meet the goals and objectives of the company.
The next step will be to analyze the implications of the organization in terms of its structure and culture. The structure of an organization cannot be considered separately from its functions, but in the Bistro Café there is a distance among owners, managers and workers. In addition, the authority is delegated only to the top management levels. This is not very efficient for the Café, so the management structure must turn into decentralized structure where authority is delegated to lower management levels. The managers must delegate responsibility and authority to other workers so that in order to have more time to make decisions and implement other plans within the organization. In addition, the management must establish a strong cultural identity so that to enable them to recruit, motivate and retain their staff with result to create a sense of identity to its staff.
Management is a key subsystem within an organization. Managers have many responsibilities in a food service industry, but the most critical are the following: Keep consumers from harm, protect the environment or future generations, ensure the health and safety of their employees, and safeguard investor’s money. In addition, managers must offer an environment that employees can fulfill their own goals and needs while serving the organization’s best interest. Employees are one of the company’s most important assets. Finally, the management must take into consideration that all employees have equal opportunities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gail Stephens, "Module 3: Introduction to Quality Management", Management Information, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1996.
Gail Stephens, "Module 5: Theory into Practice: Planning, Implementation and Control", Management Information, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1996.
Gail Stephens, "Module 6: Working Towards Total Quality Management", Management Information, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1996.
Gail Stephens, Module 7: "Environments, Contingency Theory and Organizations", Management Information, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1996.
Gail Stephens, Module 8: "Business Ethics", Management Information, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1996.
Johns, N., "Quality Management in the Hospitality Management", International of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4, Nov.3, 1992, pp. 14-20.
Ninemeier, Jack D. Principles of Food and Beverage Operations. Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association, Michigan, 1984.
Schmidgal, Raymond, S., Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting. Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association, Michigan, 1984.
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