Operations Management: Hard Rock Cafe

This report focuses on the operations management processes and strategies of Hard Rock Cafe in the United Kingdom. It includes the order qualifier and order winners of the organization which customers expect from it and what it wants to attain under its operations objectives. At the end, the report includes all the principle process and operation strategies which Hard Rock Cafe uses to satisfy the needs and expected criteria of its potential customers.

Running Head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 1
Operations Management: Hard Rock Cafe

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Company Description (Hard Rock Café).......................................................................................................4
Mission Statement...............................................................................................................................5
Core Value of Hard Rock Café..............................................................................................................5
Operations Management of Hard Rock Café...............................................................................................5
Customers and their Satisfaction Criteria................................................................................................6
Order Qualifiers and Order Winners of Hard Rock Café..........................................................................7
Operations Objectives.............................................................................................................................8
Principle Operational Tasks used to satisfy these criteria...........................................................................9
Vertical Integration..................................................................................................................................9
Quality Management.............................................................................................................................10
Operations Strategies and Processes.........................................................................................................11
Layout Strategy......................................................................................................................................11
Supply Chain Management....................................................................................................................11
Inventory Management.........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Operations Management is the process that consists of different activities and processes which
are associated with the development of products and services through transformation of inputs
into outputs. Operation management is an essential process of each and every company whether
it is operating its business in manufacturing industry or service industry. The process of
operation management plays an important role in providing needed products and services in a
manner which satisfies the criteria imposed by the market and customers (Slack, Brandon-Jones,
& Johnston, 2013). Effective operations are important of the company wants to become
successful. In the beginning of operation management process, it is very important to understand
the major operational tasks and processes. Considering the importance of operation management
to business, this report is focused on the operation management processes and strategies of
chosen organization i.e. Hard Rock Café in United Kingdom. It includes the order qualifier and
order winners of the organization which customers expect from it and what it wants to attain
under its operations objectives. At the end, the report includes all the principle process and
operation strategies which Hard Rock Café uses to satisfy the needs and expected criteria of its
potential customers.
The position which I hold at Hard Rock Café is assistant manager in Food and Beverage
department. In the organization, my role and responsibility is to manage the finances related to
the process of buying food and drinks for restaurants and hotel premises. This department
contributes the organization to manage its operations like ordering, sourcing and transporting of
food and beverages and storage of raw materials.
Company Description (Hard Rock Café)
Hard Rock Café is a food organization which is primarily focused on operating the casual dining
outlets. The organization was founded in 1971 and its head office is situated in Orlando, Florida
(Hard Rock Café, 2017). In the beginning, Hard Rock Café has started the business operations
via a themed resultant concept. The restaurant welcomes its customers and guests with a great
ambience. As off 2016, it has expanded its business in more than 60 countries which include 168
cafes, 23 hotels and 11 casinos. It is one of the biggest restaurants all over the world and best
example of efficient operations management procedure. The success and growth of company is

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directly connected with its efficiency in adopting different processes and strategies of operations
management (Geraghty, 2013). In addition to this, the organization is focused on implementing
various techniques for effective management of personnel like kitchen staff, waiters, reception
staff etc. Additionally, Hard Rock Café has adopted different operation strategies which assist it
to transform its performance objectives into tangible outcomes and processes (Martin, 2008).
Mission Statement
The mission statement of Hard Rock Café is “to provide the realistic experiences to its guests
that rock.” Apart from this, the major objectives and goals of this café are to serve the customers
with the quality and healthy food services so that it can fulfill the demands and needs of targeted
customers. It assists the organization to increase its customer base across the world. This fir
considers its guests as key force. At Hard Rock Café, the operations and processes are efficient,
effective and organized effectively (Hard Rock Café, 2015). It emphasizes on offering the food
products by maintaining best and highest quality standards.
Core Value of Hard Rock Café
 Professionalism
 Integrity
 Honesty
 Respect for each and every individual
 Great service delivery to the guests
Operations Management of Hard Rock Café
For each and every organization, it is very important to manage all the operations and activities
significantly so that it can offer its products and services to final consumers. Hard Rock Café is
one of them that had gained effective competitive advantage through its operation management
process and creation of exclusive advantage against its competing brands. Primarily, this
restaurant is focused on differentiation. It indicates that they offer different products and services
than other cafes in the country which people perceive as additional value. It includes the product
and service features which are very difficult to imitate. Hard Rock Café is the organization that
develops and manages its operations and strategies identifying its customers and their
satisfactions criteria (Hard Rock Café, 2015). It assists the organization to meet the criteria and

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operation objectives of the company. Different aspects of operations management at Hard Rock
Café are stated below:
Customers and their Satisfaction Criteria
Customers play an important role in the process of effective management of operations and other
business processes. Before offering its products and services, Hard Rock Café has determined its
external and internal customers and then restaurant has developed its strategies and operations.
The organization has targeted its potential customers by looking at their different behavior and
characteristics. The primary customers of Hard Rock Café are the people from upper and
medium classes who have identical preferences and tastes of food (Buttle, 2012). Additionally,
Hard Rock Café is increasing the generation of rock and roll fans and ultimately a fashion
culture, music and fad lovers. The major customers of this café are the people who love to go
there to hang out with their friends and family and to relax in the ambience of soft music. The
restaurant has a wide customer base and it includes the people from different income levels and
social classes (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2009).
Under its operations, Hard Rock café offers its products and services considering the needs and
demands of above mentioned customers. In addition to this, organization develops its food
products looking at the satisfaction criteria of above customers (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017). The
satisfaction criteria of this restaurant’s customers can be categorized under two terms order
qualifiers and order winners. These are the criteria which need to be considered by Hard Rock
Café in the marketplace. The order qualifiers and orders winners for Hard Rock Café are given
below:

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Order Qualifiers and Order Winners of Hard Rock Café
An order qualifier is a feature of the product or service which is needed in order for the product
to even be looked by the customers. These are the satisfaction criterions which a company should
meet for its customers by considering itself as possible supplier. The company ensures that their
order qualifiers are as good as their competing brands. Moreover, order winner is the
characteristic which will win the bid of purchase of customers (Chaudhuri and Boer, 2016).
These are the customer satisfaction criterions which win the orders. In this, a company needs to
become better than competing brands. For Hard Rock Café, order winners and order qualifiers
are given below:
Order Qualifying criteria at Hard Rock Café:
 Fast service
 Affordable prices
 Hygiene
 Convenience
Order Winning criteria at Hard Rock Café:
 Highest quality food
 Unique menu and taste of food
 Layout and ambience
Order-Qualifiers for Hard
Rock Cafe
Convinience
Taste
Fast service
Hygiene
Affordable prices
Potential Order-losers
Delay in order
Poor Food quality
Premium prices of food
Order Winners
Highest quality food
Quick food service
Wide range of menu
Layout and ambience
Opening hours

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 Opening time of restaurant
 Wide range of food products in the menu
Hard Rock Café can become the order qualifier to its customers due to convenience that is
flexibility and durability in its business operations. Its taste that means the variety and quality it
provides to its targeted population. At Hard Rock Café, the food service is faster and prompt that
show that the restaurant operations are very speedy. Furthermore in comparison to its competing
brands, it is more affordable so the cost is a performance indicator which Hard Rock Café uses in
its operational strategies to make it order qualifier (Geraghty, 2013). Looking at the order
winning standards of Hard Rock Café, it is identified that quality is consistent its product
offerings that shows that there is no compromise on quality standards. Furthermore, food is
served on time to the guests coming to dine in the restaurant. Thus, speed is a consistent factor
that has assisted the organization in getting more orders. The customers of the company rely on
Hard Rock Café that it will provide highly standardized services. There is a wide range of food
products that shows flexibility in its operations. On the basis of demands of different customers
like different taste so restaurants keep high variety that assist them to win orders in the
marketplace (Rashid, et al, 2015).
Operations Objectives
Considering the above criterions of customer satisfaction, Hard Rock Café has established its
operational objectives. The restaurant is implementing effective and attractive strategies to attain
these performance objectives. The operation objectives of Hard Rock Café are stated below:
Quality
From the analysis of customer satisfaction criterions, Hard Rock Café found that most of the
guests are looking for the higher quality of food products, so this restaurant plans to provide
quality and highly standardized products to its targeted customers. This café offers a wide range
of food products under its menu and products are prepared by using fresh vegetables and fruits.
To analyze the quality of its food products, Hard Rock Café takes the feedback of its customers.
It is evaluated by surveying the customers regularly on their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 7. The
employees are properly trained to make the food products by using quality ingredients and
specific processes (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2017). Under this objective, this café aims to
meet all the standards and makes sure that it provides excellent quality and freshness to every

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guest. This objective will enable the organization to attract more customers towards its food and
dining services.
Cost
The second and very important performance objective at Hard Rock Café is cost. Under this
objective, the company aims to minimize the cost of production so that it can provide the
products on affordable prices. Hard Rock Café considers that the best way to reduce the cost is to
focus on the demands of customers. This restaurant has adopted Just-in-Time technique that
reduces the wastage and storage cost (Schrempf, 2014).
Speed
For an organization, it is very important to manage the speed of its processes and operations so
that it can complete its procedures on predetermined time. At Hard Rock Café, this performance
objective aims to reduce the waiting time for customers’ orders. The café has developed its
operations and activities effectively so it can serve food to guests rapidly.
Dependence
This is one of the most important operation objectives at Hard Rock Café. The café has a specific
process for its guests by providing food products in timely manner. The employees at Hard Rock
Café are well-qualified and highly skilled so that they can serve food on time. The restaurant is
open on weekends and weekdays as well (Singhal and Singhal, 2012).
Flexibility
The final operation objective of Hard Rock Café is flexibility which refers to the elasticity of
processes and change in its services which are making its business operations more flexible as
per the needs and preferences of customers. At Hard Rock Café, flexibility can be seen from its
food menu because it provides the food of different cultures and regions. It makes changes in its
food menu by analyzing the changing demands and tastes of its targeted customers.

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Principle Operational Tasks used to satisfy these criteria
There are some principle operation tasks which can be used by Hard Rock Café to satisfy the
above criterions of customers and to meet the operational objectives. Principle operational tasks
of Hard Rock Café are given below:
Vertical Integration
Vertical Integration is one of the most significant principle operational tasks that are undertaken
by Hard Rock café. Vertical Integration is a model of management and macro-economic that can
be adopted by any organization. This approach is used where the different companies in supply
chain are unified through a single owner too offer the specific service. Through this, the
companies ensure the customers that their demands and needs will be fulfilled. At Hard Rock
Café, there are several types of customers such as tourists who arrive from foreign countries. As
per the statistics, 70% of Hard Rock’s guests are from diverse countries (Heizer & Render,
2014). Looking at this figure and trend, this restaurant has adopted the vertical integration model
under its operations which make sure that they have started to offer the traditional food of
different countries so that they can satisfy the needs and tastes of visitors from other countries.
The current figure indicates that Hard Rock Café has carried out its operations in more than 40
countries globally so it is very important to adopt vertical integration model. All the important
decisions and sales of restaurant are managed from its headquarter Orlando, Florida. Top
management ensures that their café offers varied dishes under its menu. By the use of this
principle operation task, this firm is able to satisfy the customers’ criterions and attract more
customers (Swink, et al, 2014). In the future, it will be able to experience intensive growth and
make the position in list of leading restaurants in the world.

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Quality Management
In addition to above principle task operation, Hard Rock Café uses the different approaches of
quality management in its operations, By using these processes and techniques, Hard Rock Café
is making efforts to provide food products with effective service and quality (Silva, 2005). This
organization reviews that quality of food menu on the continuous basis. The operations
management of the company is responsible for this task. Under the process of operation
management, establishing highest quality standards and monitor to meet those standardized
requirements is a key to growth and success of Hard Rock Café. Under the quality management
principle, the organization uses different techniques like Just-in-time and Six Sigma techniques
(Kafetzopoulos and Gotzamani, 2014). Hard Rock Café is successful when this restaurant
utilizes its intangible product i.e. food products as a medium to offer entertainment experience
and excellent dining service. From the analysis of company and its customers, it can be stated
that guests of hard Rock Café are satisfied with different and attractive visual and sound
experience which cannot be found in any other food outlet. Thus, this café adopts quality
management principle by maintaining a quality analysis role for its operation personnel. These
staff members of organization use quality standards and measures to identify different issues and
weaknesses. After this analysis, the organization implements needed changes so that it can
safeguard the compliance (Lelieveld, Holah and Napper, 2014).
Thus, vertical integration and quality management are two most important principle operation
tasks in which Hard Rock Café is engaged. It enables the organization to make other strategies
and processes which are given below:

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Operations Strategies and Processes
In addition to above principle tasks and operation models, Hard Rock Café is using different
processes and strategies which assist the organization to attain the above customer satisfaction
criterions and operation objectives. Some of the major operation strategies and processes of Hard
Rock Café are given below:
Layout Strategy
To gain an enhanced brand presence, Hard Rock Café has implemented an effective layout
strategy so that it can attain its objective. The cafes, restaurants and casinos of Hard Rock Café
have different needs for layout. At Hard Rock Café, the operation managers adopt impactful
layout design for effective work-flow in the limited space which is available to the firm in the
premises. Layout strategy plays an important role at Hard Rock Café as it is able to generate long
term competencies via ideal layout (Bowie, et al, 2016). The main purpose of layout strategy is
to promote an efficient and profitable layout that can assist the organization to attain its
competitive requirements. At this restaurant, layout strategy can provide a better flow among
different areas like dining areas, bar and kitchen that can decrease the waiting time. In this way,
the layout strategy of Hard Rock Café assists it in creating its operations smoother.
Supply Chain Management
When it comes to discuss about the operation management strategies, it is very important to
consider the supply chain management and logistics processes of a company. Supply chain
management process of Hard Rock Café can also assist the organization to satisfy its customers’
expectations and criterions. At Hard Rock, the supply chain decisions are taken based on
different suppliers, market demands and inventory management costs. It is adopted by the
operations manager of restaurant. Under this strategy, Hard Rock has found the global resources
to achieve maximum advantages via effective supply chain (De Haan and Sacristán-Díaz, 2016).
For a big scale organization like Hard Rock Café, outsourcing is one of the most popular
techniques. The organization has various benefits use to effective implementation of supply
chain strategies and processes such as enhancing the service level to its guests and decreasing the
operational costs. To attain its operation objective related to quality and cost, Hard Rock Café
has connected with the qualified suppliers and vendors. It assists the organization to provide
highest quality of meals to its customers (Stadtler, 2015). In 2003, the restaurant had declared the
involvement of Avicon i.e. an architect firm of new supply chain and it has provided supply

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chain and logistics experts to Hard Rock Café. It pushed the organization to get realistic results
like warehouse space in North America was reduced by 44% and operational costs by more than
20%. Moreover, the choice of food products is also dependent on the timely supply of suitable
quantity of raw materials and ingredients by qualified suppliers (Jacobs and Chase, 2013).
Inventory Management
Nowadays, there are various companies which implement their inventory management decisions
by using different technologies and software of inventory management. At Hard Rock Café,
operation management uses the variations in demands and previous records to forecast the future
changes that are needed in the inventory (Wild, 2017). So that firm can manage its stock and
inventory accordingly. Inventory is an important and expensive asset for each and every
organization. Hard Rock has also made a huge investment in inventory purchasing. Its major
purpose is to develop a balance between inventory investment and customer services and y using
effective techniques and software such as OM, POM, POS etc. This process helps this restaurant
to manage its raw material and other stock that is required in food preparation at Hard Rock
Café. The organization can convert above objectives into tangible results by adopting these
processes and strategies. This decision making assists the restaurant in managing its processes
and operations successfully (Buckley, Burton and Mirza, 2016).
Thus, there are various principle tasks and strategies at Hard Rock Café, where the organization
is different from its competing brands in restaurant industry. These practices will lead the
organization to meet the above customer satisfaction criteria and operational objectives. The
organization will be able to get positive results by effective implementation of processes and
strategies.
Conclusion
From the above operation management report on Hard Rock Café, it can be concluded that Hard
Rock Café is one of the largest food chain all over the world. In order to manage its operations
and processes, the organization has made various efforts and implemented different strategies. It
is able to manage its service operations effectively. The above analysis includes different aspects
of operations management in context of Hard Rock Café in United Kingdom. About this
organization, it can be stated that it is using more effective operation management than its

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competitors. Thus, the introduction of updated technologies and internet sources has assisted to
fulfill the gaps which were existed in the restaurant supply chain process.
From this analysis, it is very clear that Hard Rock Café has aligned its supply chain, logistics,
inventory management to provide an excellent experience to its customers and guests at its cafes
and restaurants. To meet the operational objectives and customer satisfaction criteria, it is very
important to analyze the changing needs and preferences of customers and then work
accordingly. The organization needs to analyze the issues which can affect its operations so that
it can move forward to attain a significant profits and market share. It will enable the
organization to achieve its operation performance objectives i.e. quality, cost, speed,
dependability and flexibility. These objectives are linked with one another and they can enhance
the operations of Hard Rock Café. Thus, it can be concluded that each and every organization
needs to focus on its operations and activities to generate revenues and profits in today’s
competitive business environment.
Recommendations
After conducting the above analysis, it is hereby recommended that Hard Rock should adopt
some more effective strategies and processes. In the future, this café can make its operations
smoother by using both qualitative and quantitative productivity criteria to evaluate the
performance aspects of wait staff and kitchen operations. These criteria can guide the
organization to make the productivity decisions. To know about the effectiveness of its processes
and operations at restaurants, Hard Rock Café should use the comments and complaints of
customers. It will help the firm to monitor the productivity of staff and its processes. On the basis
of this feedback, it can improve its processes and operations. It will enhance the ability of
organization to meet the operations objectives. In addition to customer orientation, the
organization should make efforts to become employee centered as well (Martin, 2008). There
should be empowerment program for the employees and staff at restaurant. It will make them
feel more motivated and engaged in their work activities. It will be beneficial for the
organization to go ahead with these recommendations. These recommendations can be
implemented by the organization by developing a systematic plan. The above recommendations
will assist the organization to meet the objectives and handle the supply chain issues. Moreover,
the organization will be able to make the staff more responsive towards operations and reduce

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the food serving time at restaurants. Thus, it will enable the Hard Rock Café to provide
exceptional and excellent dining experience to its guests and customers.

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