Operations Management and Productivity Essay

Service and product design decision is one of the very important issues of operations management. Indeed this decision determines the health and fate of any organization (Krajewski & Ritzman, 1998). A company that designs products and services that are of superior quality and that click with the intended market, definately succeeds. lowering judder Cafes operations management has been successful in designing products and services in entertainment hospitality sector.This sector is one of the most(prenominal) competitive sectors, but they have been able to design and offer quality products and superior services in cafes, hotels, casinos and lately in music venues, Rock museum and Rock concerts (Evans, 1996). To react to changing customer needs and expectations, they have invariablely changed their menus and the services they offer. Hard Rocks success comes as a result of continuous monitoring of quality of their products and services (Saheli, 2007).Their Quality Management Departm ent has devised techniques to continuously monitor quality so as to improve quality of products and services and likewise make timely corrective measures and hence reduce quality costs. In the cafe, regular surveys are done to evaluate quality of food and services, where a master is devised to measure scores (Ibid, 2007). To ensure quality products and services, production processes and capacity have been enhanced by using state-of-the-art equipment in catering, entertainment services in casinos, hotels and music venues.Technology is also embraced to increase production capacity in cafes and hotels (Krajewski & Ritzman, 1998). Hard Rock started its operations in London. However, in 1988 it moved its headquarters to Orlando, Florida as it targeted the booming US market (Evans, 1996). It has later spread its cafes and hotels to more than 40 locations in US. The decision of spreading its wings to many states is to tap into unsaturated markets as well as diversify operation risks (Ibi d, 1996).Due to increasing customers and hence operations, Hard Rock has expanded their cafe facilities to handle their clients. For example at Orlando everyday Studios, their cafe serves over 3,000 meals a day with about 400 employees and the number is expected to grow especially during high tourist seasons (Saheli, 2007). To ensure high labor movement productivity, Hard Rock Cafe has provided their workers with excellent working conditions. This is achieved through good industrial relation management and employee-management relations.Human Resource Management has ensured that the company has the shell of employees who are competent, skilled and fit for their positions, hence Hard Rock expects the best out of their labor force (Krajewski & Ritzman, 1998). Productiveness is the main task of the supply strand management in Hard Rock. The discussion section has developed supply chain strategies aimed at reducing procurement costs and value adding the process. Hard Rock has entere d into strategic partnership with suppliers to improve efficiency and effectiveness of this activity (Evans, 1996).To effectively manage inventory, the company has inventory management system that guides the managers on when to order inventory and how more (Saheli, 2007). To increase efficiency and reduce costs, they have embraced Just-In-Time philosophy where the materials required are procured in time and used in time (Saheli, 2007). During low season, Orlando Cafe lag is scheduled down to 15-minutes intervals to meet seasonal and daily demand changes in tourist environment. Annual Routine maintenance is exercised in all their facilities.Maintenance department is charged with responsibilities of ensuring that Hard Rock Cafes, hotels, casinos, music venues and rock museum are renovated and machines maintained at good conditions (Krajewski & Ritzman, 1998). The productivity of the kitchen staff and wait staff can be measured by dividing the number of meals they prepare and serve b y the number of labor hours they input (Saheli, 2007). During low seasons wait staff may serve fewer meals as demand gets low and also kitchen staff prepares fewer meals. Nevertheless, they will also use less labour hours as they are scheduled and down-sized to respond to low operations (Evans, 1996).