Prufrock Coffee Supply Chain Analysis

This assignment delves into a detailed analysis of Prufrock Coffee's supply chain. It examines the various stages involved, from sourcing green coffee beans to delivering the final product to customers. The analysis includes a discussion of operational management practices, challenges faced by the company, and potential areas for improvement to enhance efficiency and sustainability within the supply chain.

OPERATIONAL
MANAGEMENT
AND
SERVICE EXCELLENCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................4
TASKS ............................................................................................................................................4
1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF FIRM.......................................................................4
2. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT PROCESSES SUPPORTING COFFEE SHOP...................6
Process and Layout ....................................................................................................................9
3. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES APPLIED ON PRUFROCK CAFE AND
IMPROVEMENTS WHICH CAN BE MADE.............................................................................10
4. SUPPLY CHAIN OF PRUFROCK COFFEE...........................................................................12
5. COMPARE AND CONTRAST QUALITY PROCESSES OF PRUFROCK COFFEE WITH
CURATORS COFFEE STUDIO ..................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................18

ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1: Prufrock Cafe in London...........................................................................................5
Illustration 2: Input- Output model..................................................................................................7
Illustration 3: Layout plan of Prufrock Cafe....................................................................................9
Illustration 4: Coffee Supply Chain Process..................................................................................13
Illustration 5: Supply chain process...............................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Operational management is one of the areas of management, which usually focuses on
designing and controlling the effective process of production within the enterprise. This process
also ensures the responsibilities on enterprise, as they have to carry their operations in effective
manner so that customer gets best of the experience (Hazletta, McAdamb and Walkerc, 2013).
Moreover, resources also need to be effectively manage so that they can contribute their best in
the growth and development.
Taking the above topic into consideration, Prufrock Coffee has been taken as an
organisation which is a special coffee house and different varieties of coffee is served to
customers so that they become loyal customers for the venture. Cited firm is situated at Leather
Ln, London. This present document will emphasise on operational management process, which is
used by cited coffee house. Document will also focus on different performance objectives which
venture can consider in augmenting their performance.
TASKS
1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF FIRM
Pufrock Coffee has been established in the year 2009 and since that time, venture has
become home for coffee lovers. Cited venture offers different varieties of coffee and also coffee
school in Cerkenwell. Pufrock Cafe has excellence in their work and has become a leading
resource in providing coffee education so that one can get best knowledge regarding the same.
The location of the cited firm is at Leather Lane in Clerkenwell. The place earlier was a
Victorian bookshop, which has been converted into coffee shop and the area of premises is
around 2000 sq.ft. The people who are working in the firm are skilled and multi-talented and
provide best coffee, home made food, etc (Massis, 2010). The timing of venture is 8-6 in
weekdays and from 10-5 in weekends. The director of venture is Jeremy Challender who usually
sees the global coffee trends and ensures to make constant changes from time to time. Innovative
technologies and coffee building equipment’s are used so that customers get best of the
experience.
Apart from it, guiding people and educating them regarding coffee, various essays, videos
and polemics are given to customers so that they can gain best of the knowledge regarding the
preparation of coffee. Cited firm usually serves speciality in coffees and fresh baked food from

the in-house kitchen. Prufrock also have effective suppliers who give them best of the material so
that customer gets best experience while sipping coffee. However, the issue which firm facing
relates to the space because not much can sit on one section and the above floor is used for
education purpose. Furthermore, they have the flagship with the London Barista Resource &
Training Centre (Smith, Bruyns and Evans, 2011). Collaboration has given firm a competitive
advantage over the rival competitors who are working in the same industry.
Prufrock cafe is open for both lunch and breakfast where a wide range in different
varieties of food is made available to customers. Some of the common dishes which are served in
breakfast are:
 Bircher Muesli with poached pears
 Home-made granola with apple compote and yoghurt
 Sourdough toast with English Preserves Jam, Marmalade or Marmite
 Avocado with chilli and olive oil on sourdough
The menu of Prufrock cafe used to change time to time which depends upon the
seasonality as well as on what is prevailing in the market (Zareei and et.al., 2011). Moreover,
Illustration 1: Prufrock Cafe in London
(Source: Prufrock Coffee. 2016)

organisation has also tie up with one of the best producers of same in London who are their core
suppliers for providing the best quality of food. Dairy products come from Neal's Yard Dairy,
vegetables from Sarah Green Organics, Ben's fish is the supplier for fishes and meat is brought
from the Downland farm. The timing of cafe differs from weekdays to weekends. On weekdays,
breakfast is served in between 8-11:30 am and lunch from 11:30 till 3:30 pm. On Saturday and
Sundays, all dishes which cafe serves are available anytime and it is open till 4 pm.
Further, cited firm is located in the heart of city which keeps venture engaged in work for
the whole day. Apart from the local people, tourists also visit the place because they offer best
quality products at an affordable price. With this, firm has also made a large base of loyal
customers which is eventually helping them in increasing their profits and revenue (Scheer,
2012). Moreover, when the segment of small coffee shops is considered then Prufrock is giving
tough competition to major competitors like BlackFriars, Curators coffee studio, Espresso Room,
etc. Moreover, research also states that venture provides quality of services to customers and the
staff is efficient enough in performing the tasks and duties. Cafe venture also gives free access of
WiFi to customers so that they can interact with their dear ones or can complete their corporate
work as well. Familiar and friendly staff gives the best experience to people and due to this,
venture is able to attract large customer base within short span of period. Further, cafe house is
having two floors where the first is used for consumers and the other for educating and training
individuals regarding preparation of different types of coffees.
2. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT PROCESSES SUPPORTING COFFEE
SHOP
Operational management process is important in order to make the venture successful.
The process focuses on transferring input into output with the use of effective measures and
approaches in the enterprise (Brown, Bessant and Lamming, 2013). Moreover, in order to have
successful operational management process, Prufrock emphasizes on taking various measures so
that they would achieve the best results for attaining their mission and vision. Different methods
which organisation can take into consideration are like Total Quality Management (TQM), Six
Sigma and different others. Process which so discussed will help the venture in organising their
operations in smooth manner and also, to reduce the cost for future growth and development.

Moreover, input-output model can also be considered as an important step in order to
have better functioning in the organisation. This model is also treated as one of the qualitative
economic techniques which state the interdependence of different types of elements. Using the
model in an effective manner will increase organisation’s growth and make extensive goodwill in
the eyes of customers. Input includes internal components which is required by enterprise and it
is in the form of capital, material, labour, suppliers, etc (Becker, Kugeler and Rosemann, 2013).
Capital is treated as an important source in order to expand the business operations as with this,
they will be able to enhance their customer’s base and number of outlets in London.
Illustration 2: Input- Output model
(Source: Operations management: The input/output transformation
model. 2016)
§
Next, there exist transformation system which is in the form of external environment
components which comprises of controlling and monitoring. In the external environment,
Prufrock Cafe is responsible to take care of their different parties and they are in the form of
customers, suppliers, competitors, government, etc. Customers are the base of their growth and if
they are not satisfied, then the cited coffee shop will face downturn and the result will surely
affect their performance (La Rosa and et.al., 2011). However, their suppliers play a crucial role
in providing high quality of raw materials. With that, firm makes the best coffee and in-house
products and satisfy the needs and demands of customers in a cost effective manner. However, it

has been found that government plays an important role and they influence the performance of
organisation up to some extent. Thus, it is recommended that manager of Prufrock Cafe
considers some major external forces. These can be in the form of government regulations, up
gradation in technology and economy of nation so that their functioning gets stabilised.
Government regulations are important as firm has to focus on the quality standards, environment
norms, employee’s policies and different others. Technology is also the major factor as new
innovation and equipment are coming in market on constant basis and thus, there is the need to
excel and alter the current technology with new ones (Ramezani, Bashiri and Tavakkoli-
Moghaddam, 2013). This will increase their coffee production and will foster their growth in
terms of revenue and productivity.
Moreover, monitoring and controlling is done by the owner and manager of Prufrock cafe
as they see and make certain changes when and so required. The most important things they have
to take into consideration is the efficiency and productivity which need to be maintained
specifically. Environment and monitoring usually makes transformation system much more
flexible because it includes components like storage, alteration, inspection and transportation.
These factors plays important role to make the business successful and earn high amount of
revenue and productivity. Prufrock coffee majorly focuses on satisfying the needs and demands
of the customers and prepares coffee products as per their requirements only. Working on a small
scale, they have a huge base of customers which significantly helping them in increasing revenue
and productivity.
Another model which cited coffee shop can use is the quality control and managing the
waste operational process. Taking both this into account will lead into improvement in efficiency
so that goals and objectives can be achieved. Moreover, quality control also plays an important
role in the success of business venture as it focuses on all the important factors which consist of
production of coffee (Chaabane, Ramudhin and Paquet, 2012). Manager is generally responsible
to meet the quality requirement process. Best of the products and machinery need to be used in
the preparation of coffee so that quality is maintained and customers gets the best taste all the
time when they reach to the outlet of cited business enterprise.
It is also necessary to consider waste management as a vital process because it is
continuously increasing and impacting both environment as well as society. Waste so generated
by the cited firm need to be extracted and collected at a particular process so that it does not

affect the society as well as the en route where the firm is located. Waste materials need to be
recycled and all the bio-degradable and disposable can be made re-use so that effective
participation can be made in the growth and development of society and nation (Kaplan and
Atkinson, 2015). Further, undertaking different social activities in form of planting trees and
taking other initiatives will make a positive image in the eyes of the customers and with that they
will be able to achieve their goals and objectives in clear and specific manner.
Process and Layout
The resources which has to be transferred are usually ordered and purchased in ‘batches’.
This maintains the uniformity in business operations so that organisation can meet their goals and
objectives on constant basis.
Illustration 3: Layout plan of Prufrock Cafe

Layout of the floor will be the functional layout where a counter will be located at the
centre of the cafe at the ground floor. This will be convenient for the customers as they will have
option that whether to stay within the cafe or outside. Those who prefer inside will have a
dominating side because they will be near to the kitchen side and get their order at less time
period.
3. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES APPLIED ON PRUFROCK CAFE AND
IMPROVEMENTS WHICH CAN BE MADE
From the view point of Söderlund (2012) performance objectives can be defined as a
specific end result which employee is usually expected to accomplish and produce within
specific time frame. Manager usually plays an important role because they are the one who
frames the plans and policies and on the basis of that performance of venture is judged as how
much targets they have achieved and what actual contribution they have given. These
performance objectives are based on five different elements so that Prufrock can meet their stated
aims and objectives. Owner also knows that there is intense competition and their exist various
other firms as well who is relatively of same size and capital. Thus, attracting the customers
towards different coffee and other products is the only source of increasing the income as well as
the clientele base.
McCrie (2011) stated that it is necessary for every enterprise to define a strategy and on
the basis of that, performance objectives need to be developed. If the objectives are not met
within the specific time frame, then manager has to take some specific measure so that
employees get motivated and they can achieve them in clear and specific manner. Further, the
performance objectives are based on 5 major components and these are cost, quality, speed,
flexibility and dependability. The brief description of all these points has been discussed below:
 Cost performance objectives:
According to Neave (2013) cost performance is taken into consideration when certain
changes in the cost unit alter the volume and the products which are so produced. This is also one
of the major operational objectives where firm competes with price as well. Manager is aware
that price is one of the important factor and they have to consider that specifically and should
always get upper edge over the rival competitors who are working within the same industry.
Thus, it is necessary to keep competitive pricing of all the coffee and other food products
because competition is much intense and one wrong step can influence their productivity and

also the market so build. Moreover, if customers loved the quality and price at which it is
rendered, then they will be loyal for the organisation forever.
 Quality performance objectives:
McCrie (2011) stated that quality is one of the degree of excellence which evaluate and
measures the organisation products with other ventures who are working in the same industry. If
quality is excellent and customers like the coffee so produced by the employees of Prufrock, then
they will become the loyal customer base for cited business firm. Moreover, the front look as
well as the internal appearance also plays an effective role because it states how organised and
managed firm is. Further, manager need to recruit best of the coffee makers so that customers get
best quality of taste whenever they reach to the cited venture outlet. Quality will certainly help
firm in gaining customers satisfaction. Main emphasis of Prufrock cafe is to provide ethically
sourced products, high quality service and comfortable business envelopment.
Speed Performance Objectives:
According to Kikwasi (2011) speed means doing things in fast and rapid manner.
Prufrock cafe focuses on minimising the time elapsed which is usually incurred at the time of
placing the order till the product is received by customers. Customers always wants that they get
products in quick time frame because everyone hates to wait. Thus, customers expectations
regarding this point will be fast service on goods and quickly responding to different queries or
order. It is found that when venture receives more order, their quality tends to fall down because
at that time they focuses on satisfying each and every order. It must not be practised because one
wrong step can hamper their productivity as well as brand image. Preparation of coffee like
Baristta takes more time and thus customers also need to be patient for their order in Prufrock
cafe.
Jones and Robinson (2012) also supported that by implementing new machines, improved
production process and quickness in delivery will help firm in making a loyal customer base
which will significantly increase their revenue and productivity.
Dependability Performance Objectives:
From the view point of Söderlund (2012) dependability is when customers receives the
products when they are mostly in need of. Prufrock cafe need to meet the customers expectations
by providing the products and services within the time-scale so framed, by keeping line upto
minimum, availability of stock at the time of orders, etc. This will genuinely develop a positive

image in the minds of customers and with it, cited coffee venture will able to increase their
revenue and turnover. Dependability can also be seen with the consistency of product. It also
saves time, money and give firm more flexibility. It is also necessary to make a good market and
develop high amount of market share so that their growth keeps on fulling their aims and
objectives.
Flexibility Performance Objectives:
According to Kikwasi (2011) flexibility plays a crucial role and it need to be maintained
effectively so that firm able to accept new changes in effective manner. From customer's
perspective, it is necessary to respond demand in capacity, quickly respond to queries and keep
the queries of customers at minimum level. Taking effective feedback from customers, firm will
be able to make a strong bond with the customers which will certainly help them in increasing
their productivity and efficiency. Cited firm is working in dynamic and competitive environment
and thus, it is essential for Prufrock cafe to adopt flexibility performance objectives for
improving their performance.
4. SUPPLY CHAIN OF PRUFROCK COFFEE
From the view point of Jones and Robinson (2012) supply chain can be defined as a
system which is used by cited coffee shop for measuring and managing the operations in
effective manner. The ultimate aim of the firm is to deliver the final products to the customers as
per their convenience, needs and demands. Supply chain is the sequence of activities which
include production as well distribution of different types of raw materials. Moreover, it is treated
as chain of activities as well where products are converted from the raw state into the final
finished goods. However, in the preparation of coffee, the chain is much more complex and it
includes different components at different levels (Hazletta, McAdamb and Walkerc, 2013).
Further, the coffee chain starts from the procurement of the product till the time it is
received by the customers. Some of the major coffee retailers in form of Starbucks, Cafe Coffee
Day, Costa Coffee, etc. has large supply chain because their operations is been expanded in
whole around the globe. The current firm which is been undertaken has its operation within
London only. Therefore, the operation is not that much complex. Suppliers plays a crucial role in
the supply chain process because they have the major responsibility of sending quality of
products to the customers at reasonable pricing.

There is different supply chain process for different business ventures. Being small in
size, cited firm do not have any complex cycle and with this they are able to maintain the stocks
of the material in adequate quality.
Illustration 5: Supply chain process
(Source: Disrupting the Coffee Supply Chain. 2014)
The above drawn supply chain helps the business venture for maintaining the stock of
coffee so that customer do not face any type of problem and they get their orders whenever they
place with the firm (Ramezani, Bashiri and Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, 2013). At first, there are
farmers who usually coffee in their field. After the certain time period, these coffee seeds are
cultivated and transported to various cooperatives and secondary level cooperatives. At the very
Illustration 4: Coffee Supply Chain Process
(Source: Hazletta, McAdamb and Walkerc, 2013)

next level, central exporting collector inspects the volume and checks the purity of coffee. After
approving the same, these products are delivered to different countries so that customers can
have best of the coffee experience. Further, the traders sends the beans to different industries and
then the major production of preparing the coffee takes place. By crushing the beans of the
coffee, different weighted pouches, bottles and jars are filled. Further then, they are labelled wit
the quality brand with price and different other details on it. Sealing also takes place and after
that these beans are transferred to various coffee shop owner (La Rosa and et.al., 2011).
Moreover, the major objective of supply chain management is to improve the trust and
collaboration with their different partners so that best product is given to firm. With this, the
Prufrock cafe will be able to modify their inventory as per the requirements and expectations
from the customers. Supply chain is further considered as successful when it contains more
amount of revenue and surplus. The cost of the coffee product vary by seeing the process as how
many suppliers are involved in it.
5. COMPARE AND CONTRAST QUALITY PROCESSES OF PRUFROCK
COFFEE WITH CURATORS COFFEE STUDIO
As the time passed by, food and beverages industries has seen constant growth and due to
this, cited coffee firm has been able to develop significant brand image in the eyes of customers.
Moreover, Prufrock cafe has understood the needs of the customers and they are producing best
of the products to resist in dynamic environment. On the other side, Curators coffee studio which
is dealing in the same transactions which existing firm was doing. With so much intense
competition, there is a competition within the firms who are working within same industry
(Kikwasi, 2011). Different business venture implement different measure for quality system in
order to meet the stated aims and objectives.
The purpose of comparing one venture to the another is essential because both of them
are working in the competitive environment and thus it is necessary to be one step ahead so that
firm gets an competitive advantage over the other (The importance of operations Management,
2010). Further, Prufrock coffee can consider Six sigma approach in order to minimize the errors
which comes into play at the time of operations. This approach was developed with an aim of
cost controlling and error minimization

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is found that operational management is crucial for running
business operations. This report also depicts the story of Prufrock Coffee who focuses on
delivering good quality of coffee for giving satisfaction to customers. This report also showcase
performance objectives on which venture has to focus so that their efficiency and brand image is
maintained in the marketplace.

REFERENCES
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Online
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APPENDIX
Food menu