Case Study on Jose’s Mexican Restaurant

1. 1
We hope that when it is time
for you to leave, you walk away
with memories of a wonderful
meal, a smile on your face, and
a desire to come back again –
soon!

2. Jose’s Mexican Restaurant is a small 58-seat restaurant that offers a wide
range of authentic Mexican food.
The atmosphere, music and decor of the restaurant is based on traditional
Mexican style theme.
Tips have slowly been declining
Offers limited off street parking
Waiting time during weekend tends to be 45 minutes and meal preparation
stretches to 20 minutes from 12 minutes during normal days
No reservation policy
Recently Chef is irritated with low quality of food ingredient like raw chicken
and lettuce
2

3. 3
INPUT
1- FACILITIES
2- STAFF
INPUT
TRASNFORMING
RESOURCES
INPUT
TRANSFORMED
RESOURCES
1- MATERIALS
2- INFROMATION
3- CUSTOMERS
DESIGN
PLANNING AND
CONTROL
IMPROVEMENT
OPERATIONS
STRATEGY
OUTPUT-
Product &
services
CUSTOMER
• Process design
• Product & service design
• Supply network design
• Layout & flow
• Process technology
• Job design & work organization
• Operations improvement
• Failure prevention & recovery
• TQM approach
• The operation challenge
• Capacity planning & control
• Inventory planning & control
• Supply chain planning & control
• Enterprise resource planning
• Lean operation & JIT
• Project planning & control
• Quality planning & control

4.  Strategy in a business organization is essentially about how the organization seeks to survive and
prosper within its environment over the long-term.
 The way in which an organization secures, deploys and utilizes its resources will determine the extent
to which it can successfully pursue specific performance objectives.
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EXCELLENT OPERATIONS PERFORMANCE IN . . . GIVES THE ABILITY TO
COMPETE ON . . .
Cost - - The ability to produce at low cost. Low price
Quality - - - The ability to produce in accordance with specification and
without error
High quality
Speed --- The ability to do things quickly in response to customer
demands and thereby offer short lead times between when a customer
orders a product or service and when they receive it
Fast delivery
Dependability - - The ability to deliver products and services in accordance
with promises made to customers (e.g. in a quotation or other published
information).
Reliable delivery
Flexibility - - The ability to change operations. Flexibility can comprise up
to four aspects:
i. The ability to change the volume of production.
ii. The ability to change the time taken to produce.
iii. The ability to change the mix of different products or services produced.
iv. The ability to innovate and introduce new products and services.
• Frequent new
products/services
• Wide range of
products/services
• Changing the volume of
product/service deliveries
• Changing the timing of
product/service deliveries

5. 5
• check in
customers
• Order taking
• Meal preparation
• Serving meal
• Payment collection
• Raw food ingredients
• Kitchen equipemnts
• Staff
• Information system
• customers
• satisfied / dis-satisfied
customers
• Creation of brand image
input
Transformation Out put

6. 6
Customers enters
is
seat
avail
able
Seated
made to wait
outside
seat ready
Menu distributed/
water glass filled
Waiter apprises daily
specials/ take
beverage orders
Upon delivery of
beverages meal order
is taken
Meal order is
completed by chef
Waiter checks
everything is ok &
delivers it to the table
Waiter asks to clear the
table
Order is taken for
desert or coffee
Order is made and
served
Waiter presents the bill
Collects the payment
End
start
Yes
No

7. Results of Primary Data collected through questionnaire :
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PARAMETERS YES NO
Were you seated promptly? 70 13
Was your waiter satisfactory ? 73 10
Were you served in a reasonable time? 58 25
Was your food enjoyable? 72 11
Was your dining worth the cost? 67 16

8. Order Qualifier & Order winning attributes
 1. has visually attractive parking areas.
 2. has visually attractive building exteriors.
 3. has a visually attractive dining area.
 4. has staff members who are clean, neat and appropriately dressed.
 5. has a décor in keeping with its image and price range.
 6. has a menu that is easily readable.
 7. has a visually attractive menu that reflects the restaurant’s image.
 8. has a dining area that is comfortable and easy to move around in.
 9. has restrooms that are thoroughly clean.
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9.  10. has dining areas that are thoroughly clean.
 11. serves you in the time promised.
 12. quickly corrects anything that is wrong.
 13. is dependable and consistent.
 14. provides an accurate guest check.
 15. serves your food exactly as you ordered it.
 16. during busy times has employees helping each other to maintain speed and
quality of service.
 17. provides prompt and quick service.
 18. gives extra effort to handle your special requests.
 19. has employees who can answer your questions completely.
 20. makes you feel comfortable and confident in your dealings with them.
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10.  has personnel who seem well-trained, competent, and experienced.
 24. seems to give employees support so that they can do their job well.
 25. has employees who are sensitive to your individual needs and wants, rather
than always relying on policies and procedures.
 26. makes you feel special.
 27. anticipates your individual needs and wants.
 28. has employees who are sympathetic and reassuring if something is wrong.
 29. seems to have the customers’ best interests at heart.
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11. Reliability :
Involves consistency of performance and dependability . It also means that the firm honors its
promises. Specifically it involves ,
 Accuracy of billings
 Keeping records correctly
 Performing the service at the correct time
Responsiveness :
Deals with willingness or readiness of employees to provide services on a timely manner & involves in
 Calling the customer back quickly
 Giving prompt service
Competence :
Deals with possession of required skills & knowledge to perform the service,
 Knowledge & skill of the contact personal
 Research capability of the organization
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12. Access :
Involves approachability and ease of contact,
 convenient location of service facility
 waiting time to receive service not extensive
 convenient hours of operation
Courtsy :
Deals with politeness ,respect, consideration and friendliness of contact personal
Communication :
Means keeping customers informed in language they can understand & listening to them. It involves ,
 explaining the service itself
 Assuring the customers that a problem will be handled
 Explaining g how much will the service cost
Credibility:
Involves trustworthiness, believability , honesty. Contributing credibility involves,
 Organization name and reputation
 Personal characteristics of the contact personnel
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13. Security:
Is the freedom from danger, risk or doubt. It involves,
 Physical self safety
 Confidentiality
Understanding / knowing the customers:
Deals with making efforts to know & understand the customer’s needs. It involves,
 Learning the customers specific requirement
 Providing individual attention
 Recognize regular customers
Tangibles:
 Physical facilities,
 Tools and equipment used to deliver the service
 Other customers in the service facilities
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14. 14
Determinants of service
quality
1. Access
2. communications
3. competence
4. courtesy
5. credibility
6. reliability
7. responsiveness
8. security
9. tangibles
10.understanding /
knowing the customers
Word to mouth
Expected services
Perceived service
quality
Perceived services
Past experiencesPersonal needs

15.  It means meeting and exceeding customer expectations by involving everyonein the
organization through an integrated effort designed to improve quality at every level
 It helps in understanding of the high cost of poor quality
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TQM
Appraisal (decision-making )costs –
• the costs of the inspection,
testing to ensure the meal is
acceptable
• Prevention costs
cost to identify the cause of
the defect,
• corrective action to eliminate
the causes of failure,
• training,
• education, re-preparing the
meal, etc.
External costs –
defect is discovered by customer after
receiving their meal;
• loss of customer goodwill,
• handling complaints,
• a new plate of food
Internal failure-
• yield losses which includes:
scrap & bad meals that needed
to be prepared again
Quality control
cost
Quality failure cost

16. Restaurant sitting capacity:
Causing bottleneck during weekend as the customer has to wait outside the restaurant approximately for 45
minutes. One idea can be considered to increase its sitting capacity. In case inability to expand more adding a
outside relaxing waiting area can be considered.
Here based on low Interaction and customization service process concept the customers can be made warm
by providing some additional services such as free WIFI, providing Juice/soft drinks, providing token to each
customer informing of expected time for check in
Limited Menus During Weekend :
During weekend only standard popular menus can be served or a buffet service can be considered . The
demand for such menus should be accurately forecasted based on historical data , applying forecast
techniques and market research . This would help the restaurant to pre- cook the meals in advance (Made to
Stock) . This can help the restaurant in below mention ways,
 Reduce meal preparation time from 20 minutes to hit their designed service specification of 12 minutes
 Quality of food preparation can be controlled
 Will lead to better resource utilization and productivity
 Lead to better inventory management
 Waiting time of the customers would also decrease from 45 minutes , which would increase customers
satisfaction
 Will increase the internal stakeholder co-ordiantion process leading to TQM approach
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17. Cook & Chill Facilities:
Jose’s restaurant can consider to open new branches after careful market research. In such case to
meet with weekend demand they can consider Cook & chill facilities in a central location and deliver
them to the respective branches.
Quality and Supply Chain Management :
The case study reveals quality issues relating to raw food items like chicken and lettuce. The
procurement department must considered to improve upon their present Procurement strategies by
considering ,
 continuous Supply
 Inventory minimization
 Quality improvement
 New Supplier development
 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
 Supplier Operational Integration-
 Implementing adequate QA-QC process in place. Apply TQM technique like Cause & Effect diagram
to understand the gray areas and take appropriate actions
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18. Cause and Effect Diagram
Benchmarking:
Jose’s restaurant should consider benchmarking their operations in relation to other similar restaurants, which would
help them to design and follow the best practices
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19. Use of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing :
Principles
 Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing share a common goal of providing a customer the highest-quality product by utilizing the most
highly efficient methods that take every possible step to eliminate waste
 The concept states that every process can be continually improved and better utilization of raw materials will decrease possible
waste
Back of House
 In the food service industry, the back of the house refers to the kitchen and food preparation areas. This area is ripe for application
of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing techniques
 If standard menu recipes are analyzed each time the food is prepared, chefs can continually find ways to streamline the steps and
eliminate waste of ingredients
 Based on consumer demand, the ordering process can be adjusted so that perishable food is ordered in quantities that will allow
for orders to be filled, yet will decrease the amount of food that spoils before it can be used
 Work stations in the kitchen can be reorganized for maximum efficiency and stocked based on customer trends for ordering
certain items
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20. 20
Miscellaneous innovative ideas :
1. Introduction of Point of sales systems (POS) and reliable Information System
2. Free home delivery concept .
3. Advance reservation system
4. Digitalized menu systems ( through digital tablet kept in table)
5. Introduction of Buffet services during weekend
6. Introduction of Pick and drop facilities during weekdays to mitigate the constrain
of offsite parking facilities
7. Introduction of customer Loyalty programme / promotions
8. Continuous analysis of social media comments, customer feedback and market
research
9. Continuous Training & Development programme for employees , suppliers
10. Use of Customer relationship management software