Operational Management Challenges and Solutions at Jumeirah Hotels

This report provides an in-depth analysis of operations management within Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts. It begins with an introduction to operations management, emphasizing its role in designing and controlling production processes, with a focus on quality management and the hotel's service quality. The report selects the process of producing and serving food and beverages as the operational activity to be examined, detailing the challenges faced, such as ensuring food safety and hygiene, addressing issues related to material and service quality, and managing amenity challenges and staff well-being. The report then proposes solutions using theories, concepts, tools, and techniques like HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) to mitigate food safety risks, along with precautions for food storage, preparation, and contamination prevention. It also discusses the importance of hygiene, cooking temperatures, and other measures to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The report concludes by offering an overview of how these strategies can be applied to improve operations and achieve better outcomes for Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts.

Operations Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
A. Select a process, operation or activity....................................................................................1
B. Mention problems or challenges to be addressed in selected operation.................................3
C. What theory, concepts, tools and techniques could be used to address these challenges and
problems, and how might you apply them. ................................................................................4
Fermentation and pickling.................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is an activity of management, mainly concerned with designing
and controlling procedure of production. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure that
all the business operations are working effectively and efficiently. Operation management is
concerned with the working of a whole production system i.e. the process of converting inputs
into outputs. Quality management is critical to effective management operations. Recent
progress in quality, such as; benchmarking and total quality management, have also resulted in
more improvement to operation management(Mohammadi, Soleymani and Mozafari, 2014).
Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts, was founded in Dubai, UAE in 1997. Today, Jumeirah runs two
extraordinary hotels brands offering guests experiences across the world. Jumeirah Hotels and
Resorts are among the most luxurious hotels in the world and have also won many international
travel and tourism awards. In 2018, it introduced a 2nd brand “Zabeel House by Jumeirah”.
The following report will present operational management process, challenges it faces
and theories or techniques required to address these challenges. Apart from this, it will cover
evaluation and recommendations about how to improve operation and tool or concepts.
A. Select a process, operation or activity
Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts is a Dubai-based international luxury hotel chain and part of Dubai
Holding. Further, the hotel lead to provide luxury facilities to their customers at reasonable price.
Housekeeping is an operational activity in hotels, which includes responsibilities such as
cleaning, maintaining, beautifully keeping the surroundings. Housekeeping management are
always confident of their ability to continuously oversee all rooms in hotels and keep them clean.
Housekeeping plays a very important role in the maintenance of the hotel's standards. The hotel
department and also the supervisors in housekeeping are responsible for planning, scheduling
and keeping an eye on inventory. Housekeeping is essential for the growth of Jumeirah Hotels
and Resorts. Service quality leads to better sales and customer satisfaction. One of the operations
which need to be focused in Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts is providing quality services to its
guests. Service quality in the hotel industries has now become one of the most crucial factors for
achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and confidence of customers in the marketplace.
Therefore, it is considered as the critical success factor and critical core factor in the industry.
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Quality control management, refers to a system which is used to maintain the level of quality in a
product or services. The role of quality services in the success of hotel industry cannot be denied.
It is important for the hotel managers to deeply understand the customer’s wants. Identifying the
expectations, the service quality concept, and the importance of customers for each segment of
the hotel industry, this would help managers to improve the service quality. When operations in
the hotel are compared on the basis of variety and bulk, low variety enables the high bulk
production of standardised end product. Following are the comparative analysis of hospitality
operations in Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts:-
 Provide both lodging and food services(Parisio, Rikos and Glielmo, 2016).
 Hospitality materials process operations can be job shop (la carte), batch
production (cook chill) or can be mass production (banqueting).
 It follows hybrid operations which are batch production MPOs; typically
associated with service shop CPOs.
Four key operational processes in hotels are;
 The process of housekeeping in Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts: It is important and basic
part of guest’s satisfaction. The quality of working staff basically includes cleanliness,
technical maintenance, and hygiene as these activities are important for guest's health and
safety.
 The process of supplying needful inputs: It involves providing different types of products
and services for the hotel business. The operation activities in this process is based on
type, kind, category and size of hotel(Deihimi, Zahed and Iravani, 2016).
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 The process of guest arrivals and departure: it is divided into five main activities i.e. pre-
arrival, arrival, occupancy and departure.
 And the process of producing and serving food and beverages: its primary function is of
providing food and drinks. This process contains producing, serving, and selling food and
drinks in hotels.
The selected operation is producing and serving food and beverages to guests in hotels. This
process of operation management consists of number of activities which can be performed in
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more than one type of kitchen. Most vital activities within this process includes; food
preparation, finishing food stuffs, preparing of cold starters, cold dishes and salads, sweet dishes
planning, and finally serving them(Nielsen, Chambers and et.al 2014).
3. Mention problems or challenges to be addressed in selected operation
Food businesses in the hospitality sector includes cafes, restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. that
make food prepare for customers. A very important requirement for these is to make sure that the
food preparation and handling procedures are safe and healthy for customers. Good hygiene
ensures that the food is safe to eat. It prevents noxious micro-organism that causes illness from
impureness in food, prevents cross contamination, enables businesses to abide by the law and
also protects the reputation. The five major factors of risk which occur repeatedly are:
 Improper food keeping temperatures
 Inadequate cooking
 Contaminated equipment’s
 Food from insecure sources
 Poor personal hygiene
Quality determines the goodness of services to the customers(Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
There are two necessary elements required to do hotel service; material base and services.
Because of these two elements, hotel owners face problem of quality management. Material
base, also known as technical quality, refers to issue which customer receives during their stay.
Today's customer demand good quality food products. Pricing on food can change daily but
never use cheap products for preparing food items. Consumers are always affected by the way
food material services is provided to them. Another element is service quality also known as
functional quality, which is more difficult to control, since high quality divergence is possible.
Functional quality includes interest, attention, politeness, confidence etc.
According to the research, it has been proved that, higher the hotel category, the higher the
service quality provided by them. Customers who pay higher price usually expect better service.
The quality of material and services must be focused by the Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts in order
to gain customer satisfaction. The betterment of hotel service quality must carry out at 3 levels,
taking into consideration the process quality improvement, result quality and structural quality.
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Apart from this, it is also appropriate to use some measures such as some rules, quality check
lists, mystery guests, personal review, expert consultation, meetings, methodology etc. It is also
essential to pay attention to the betterment of hotel management.
Other challenges faced by housekeeping department in hotels are explained below:
 Amenity challenges:- Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts provides amenities like TV, coffee
maker, radio, etc. which are essential for guests rooms. A management faces increasing
cost due to the high usage of electricity in the rooms.
 Sexual harassment:- it is a major problem for maximum hotels, specifically for those who
are in housekeeping.
 Health and safety:- many housekeepers in hotel which are assigned with physical
challenging tasks, sometimes get injured. Activities such pushing heavy loaded trolleys,
awkward positioning while cleaning etc, which can result in serious injuries.
4. What theory, concepts, tools and techniques could be used to address these challenges and
problems, and how might you apply them.
The most essential requirement for preparation and storage of food is to have process
based on the principles of HACCP – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is also a
legal requirement in some countries. HACCP is a systematized approach for identifying,
evaluating and controlling food safety hazards. The 7 basic principles of HACCP that the
Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts can apply to their food producing and serving process are:-
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1. Conduct a hazard analysis:- This analysis recognises and identify where the risks are
involved.
1. The critical control points i.e. CCPs can be determined at each level where a hazard could
occur.
2. Determine the limits that should be met to make sure the food safety, like cooking
temperature, cooking and cooling time, storing temperature and time.
3. Deciding actions that may be required to take when something goes wrong.
4. Introduce verification procedure to ensure correct actions are working. This may include
checking of the records, equipments used etc.
5. Create a record keeping documents to have proof for inspectors for hygienic food.
Food protection, storage and preparation
Anyone handles food must avoid bad habits like scratching, hair touching, touching nose
or mouth, unclean hair, unclean nails, smoking and exhalation in preparation areas. They must
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always use washed hands before preparing for food. Apart from this there are more principles
which can prevent food contamination:-
 wholesome water should be used in food preparation
 all plates, glasses and other cooking utensils should be kept clean regularly and must be
kept covered
 surface areas where food is kept should be clean
 food storage and preparation places must be free from insects, mice or rats
 clothes which are used for cleaning dishes and utensils, need to be changed daily and
boiled before next use
Precautions for food storage
One essential aspect of food protection is proper food storage. Storage areas should be
ventilated and well-lighted, and must be protected from overhead drips. Floors, walls and tables
must be easy to clean and must be free from insects, vermin. Good should be acquired from
approved sources and must be in its original packaging(Cetin and Dincer, 2014). Once, it has
been received it should be kept away from contamination. Perishable goods such as milk, raw
meat that can be contaminated easily, must be stored at low temperature, such as in refrigerator
at below 10' C. cooked food must be consumed immediately because if they cool to room
temperature it allows micro organisms to grow and multiply.
Precautions for food preparation
Food is vulnerable in nature that contaminate while being prepared for eating. Food
which intended to be eaten raw, like fruits must be washed properly. Cooked food should be
cooked thoroughly to kill germs and micro-organism. Cooking is the very crucial part of food
preparation. All food ingredients must be kept at the temperature of 70'C.
Prevention of contamination
This technique basically means to protect food contamination. Prevention of food
contamination by spoilage or by contact with them. The meaning of word 'aspects' is free from
dangerous bacteria and viruses. There is one requirement of this technique is that either it needs
artificial covering for the food or using its natural protective covering. Natural covering
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examples are egg shells, skins of animals, peel of fruits. Applying artificial cover or leaving the
food with natural covering protects it from micro-organism.
Removal of micro-organism
Micro-organism can be reduce or removed from food physically, or their numbers can be
reduces by techniques like trimming, washing, sieving and filtration. Such as fruits and
vegetables must be washed in clean or hot water, if there (Van der Wagen and Goonetilleke,
2015) is any derelict or dirty part of vegetables should be cut or trimmed off using clean knife,
flour can be strained to remove unwanted material.
The use of high temperature
One of the oldest method of destroying bacteria's in food preservations is heat. The
greatest advancement in food hygiene was unknowingly made when humans revealed the
benefits of boiling, baking, roasting and other treatments of heat. Most infective micro-organism
are heat sensitive, hence, food is also rendered safe by the usage of heat. Some of the heating
methods used for food preserving are explained below:-
 Boiling :- is the process of heating water till the temperature reaches 100'C. Food
bacteria devastation by heat is impacted by time and temperature variant. The
higher the temperature, the more fast destruction. Whereas, as the temperature
reduces, the time of disclosure needs to be longer.
 Pasteurisation :- it's a heating process for milk, beer and other beverages. It needs
adequate holding time to make sure the thermic destruction of microorganism
which spoil nutritional value.
 Blanching :- to reduce bacteria on vegetables this activity of mild pre cooking is
used. It weakens some large vegetables and protect discolouring of others. It
cleans peas of the wet and sticky material around them(Kessman and McCauley,
AMERANTH Inc, 2015).
 Clanning ;- it is one of the most broadly used modern technique of preventing
food. It consists of careful food packed preparation into a sealed container or tin.
The calnning process includes the following steps; sterilization of the food,
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packing it in air tight unstained metal and then tight sealing the containers to
prevent it from micro-organism.
Chemical preservation
It is important to classify chemicals which are incorporated into food items for the
purpose of preservation. Addable used at food industry level involves fungus inhibitors,
vitamins, bacteria, minerals, food colouring, synthetic flavours, etc. Salting is the addition of salt
in food for preservation purpose. The growth of micro-organism is reduced by salt, which has an
effect of taking water out of the bacterial cells so they become unhealthy and die. Sugaring
means adding sugar in food for preservation. Another type of food preservation is smoking, used
to improve the quality of food and is mainly used to preserve meat and fish. Smoking removes
moisture from the food surface but it is not a tested method unless combined with other methods
such as salt and drying.
Total quality management
Total quality management is a set of practices throughout the company, engaged to make
sure that the company meet customer requirements. It is an approach which is used by hotel
industries to improve their internal operations and helps in increasing customer satisfaction.
There are 7 importance principles of total quality management; quality must be managed, focus
on processes, quality must be measurable, quality is a long term investment, improvements in
quality must be continuous, focus on the cure and lastly every employee is responsible for
quality.
Six sigma
Six Sigma is a set of tools and techniques used for process improvements. Six sigma
improves the quality of the end product of a process by identifying and removing the causes of
imperfection. The six sigma technique reduces costs, increases satisfaction of customers and also
increases profits. It includes five phases i.e. define, measuring, analysing, improving and
controlling.
4Vs of operational management are as follows
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Volume: this refers to the how much of a specific product is required to satisfy its demand. Low
volume operations tend to be less repetitive with staff performing more than one function
(multitasking) whereas high volume translates into repeatable processes, which in turn can be
standardized or automated. It can help Jumeriah hotel in in carry out their operational work in an
effective manner.
Variety: relates to the variety of goods/service to be produced and sold to customer. Variety and
volume correlates, the higher the variety the lower the volume of the products or services.
Variation: this refers to the how much the level of demand changes over a time period due to
external factors. There is increase in demand due to improvement in its operational functions of
Jumeriah hotel
Visibility: Refers to how much of the company’s process does the customer actually experience.
The firm is operating its business in hospitality industry where it is highly visible
Conclusion
The operational management report concluded that Operation management is an action of
management mainly concern with designing and controlling procedure of production. It is the
duty of the management to check that all the business operations are working effectively and
efficiently. Apart from this quality control management, refers to a method which is used to
maintain the level of quality in a product or services. The role of quality service in the success of
hospitality industry cannot be neglected. Identifying the expectations, the service quality
concept, and the importance of customers for each segment of the hotel industry, this would help
managers to improve the service quality. Further it states that, the aim of food prevention is to
prevent food items from all possible sources of contamination. As an operational activity of
producing and serving food in hotels faces many challenges such as improper food keeping
temperatures, inadequate cooking, contaminated equipments, food from insecure sources, poor
personal hygiene. Apart from this it covered all measures, techniques and tools to preserve food
from micro-organism. The betterment of hotel service quality must carry out at 3 levels, taking
into consideration the process quality improvement, result quality and structural quality. And
lastly it concluded that anyone handles food must avoid certain bad habits like scratching, hair
touching, impinging nose or mouth, unclean hair, unclean nails, smoking and exhalation in
preparation areas. They must always use washed hands before preparing for food.
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Ross, J.E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge.
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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/240764/files/3.pdf
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