Operations Management Report: Belgian Cafe Production System Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Belgian Cafe's operations management, focusing on its inventory system, key operational processes, and potential areas for improvement. The report begins by examining the cafe's inventory management practices, highlighting the importance of controlling food costs and reducing waste. It then details the key operations involved in the cafe's production system, presenting a logical operational flow from guest arrival to table service and payment. The report identifies two critical points where the cafe's delivery system may fail to align with its operational performance measures, specifically poor worker service and sanitation issues. Furthermore, the report explores the application of a lean approach to improve the cafe's operations, emphasizing the identification of problems, planning solutions, implementation of changes, and continuous improvement. The report concludes by presenting key findings to which lean approach may assist the production system.

OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Presenting inventories of Belgian Cafe..............................................................................1
2. Describing key operations that are involved in production system presenting a logical
operational flow......................................................................................................................2
3. Presenting two points where organization's delivery system may get failed to align its
operational performance measures.........................................................................................4
4. Presenting lean approach for Belgian Cafe........................................................................6
5. Presenting three key findings to which lean approach may assist the production system. 7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Operations management plays an important role in every business. Management system
is a model of all policies and procedures that are used by an organization in order to achieve all
defined objectives in a company. On the other side, production system involves all raw material
and machines that are used to convert inputs into outputs. The chosen restaurant for this report is
Belgian Cafe which is a small cafe in Qatar who offers a variety of products and services such as
famous crispy Belgian Waffles and popular crepes with a breakfast menu that includes French
toast, eggs and variety of omelettes.
The report will critically present inventory system of Belgian Cafe and provide a detailed
illustration of all key operations that are involved in a quoted company's production system.
Further, report will assess the way in which lean production is utilised to potentially reduce
failing and then provide recommendations to improve the same.
1. Presenting inventories of Belgian Cafe
It has been determined that taking and maintaining inventory stock in restaurant is quite
difficult and least favourite task. But, it is necessary to control entire restaurant's food cost and
also, help in reducing waste. Further, it increases profit up to 20 percent each year (Kotas, 2014).
In Belgian Cafe, inventory management system is connected to everything from planning a menu
to determining, that how many guest are feed which is an essential daily operation of any food
service business. Following is the inventory management system for Belgian Cafe:
Prepare staff for inventory routine: In this, every staff should at least be aware of the
procedure of inventory system as it helps to ensure accurate account (Inventory management
system, 2018). There is a need of consistency so that it extends to personnel, so that the task will
go quicker and smoother. As the Belgian Cafe provides training to a person who is operating
inventory such that, they set a system in such an order of daily, weekly or monthly increments
and for calculation, they uses the sales data from Point of Sales (POS) system.
Keep monitoring the entire stock: When everything is set to be count at Point of Sale, a
person who looks entire inventory in Belgian Cafe should keep monitoring the stock in order to
find any shortage of a product. It is a duty of a person who maintaining stock, they should keep
update all quantities and also save changes in order to seems products new and fresh.
Scheduling for Manual Stock: Belgian cafe is taking regular stock which seems that it
is a wastage of time. But using POS in a company automatically updates inventory with each
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sale. So, it is quite necessary to check all ingredients and verify whether the reality confirms to
expectations and keep scheduling entire stock. It must be followed within a week or a month
(Garcia, 2015). As Belgian Cafe is taking manual stock and checking their items daily, such that
to determine the products which are served to their customers have good in quality or not. Data
must be keep monitoring and regularly updated then with the help of Point of Sale, a better
understanding will be developed in purchase as well as in usage.
Record Waste: Whenever any food is deducted from an inventory, it is necessary to
know a reason behind this because most of the time, reason is sales. In Belgian Cafe, the
inventory management system is actually made to identify the best and worse product in a
restaurant. Similarly, 100 percent food economy is quite difficult but some food in a kitchen will
also get spoiled before it goes out and there is a small variation in the inventory management
system. At that time, principle such as FIFO and consistent inventory helps to eliminate losses or
record waste which come from the carelessness or overspending.
Inventory must be up to date: Belgian Cafe also provides home delivery services for
their customer convenience. So, at that time also, those deliveries must be verified in the
inventory system so that exact output can be determined. Therefore, this prevents from the
possibility of confusion while adding new stock (Gay and Chioiu 2018).
As Belgian cafe follows all steps, so, this is the reason that it handles all its business
operations in a proper way. Moreover, it also assist in forecasting and make any adjustment
while purchasing. Even a company must have a best software which will helps to maximizes its
profit.
2. Describing key operations that are involved in production system presenting a logical
operational flow
Key operations are the basic key aspects that are involved in a production system. Even
operations mistakes are severe and costly too while running a restaurant and flowchart is the best
way to avoid such situations. It is a plan that leads entire operations process in the best way.
Following is the key operation process that is followed by every restaurant and it is mentioned as
below:
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Preparation Operational Department
 Guest Arrival: It is the first key operation where a guest arrives in a restaurant or there
are chances that may be they reserve a table or not. Here, a person who stands at a door
greets them and asks them about any reservation if they have (Sagnak and Kazancoglu,
2016).
 Table reservation: Under this, waiter can take care whether the table is properly clean or
not and when the guest arrives. Waiter serves wine in order to make them feel good in
that particular area.
 Take Guest to table: Next is, a person takes guest, to a table where menu is introduce in
order to take an order.
 Service operational departmentWaiter: After introducing menu, waiter comes to take
an order and also prepares table clothes and glasses for them with removing plates and
cutlery which are empty as they were served before. In this way, waiter should have
proper communication skills and also dressed up properly as per prescribed by a
restaurant (Caniani and et.al., 2015).
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Illustration 1: Operation System of a hotel
Source: (O.S. Of Hotel, 2018)

 Serve main Course: After having wines and starters, waiter presents main course which
customers ordered and keep asking if they need other things. It is the duty of a waiter to
ensure that whether the guest is enjoying a meal or not. After having the main course, if
guests order for deserts then waiter has to serve it.
Financial operational department
Cashier prepare bill: After having the entire meal, cashier prepares a bill. Cashier must
have to check the entire bill twice in order to find if any mistakes are there and it must be
computerised so that calculation will be fast and accurate.
Sanitation and cleanliness operational department
Check a table: When guest is paying a bill, at that time, waiter must check a table and
remove all plates and cutlery (Nohara, Hori and Sato, 2018). Bring them to a kitchen in order to
to be cleaned and towards the end of a meal. They ask guest wants a to-go box if there is any
leftover food.
At last thanks them for coming and greet them to come again in order to create positive
impression. After the guest leaves, the table and other things are cleaned properly because of the
next booking process.
3. Presenting two points where organization's delivery system may get failed to align its
operational performance measures
It has been determined that there are various points in which many restaurants are not
able to meet all objectives. Similarly, in case of Belgian Cafe, it is analysed that cleaning or
sanitation and waiter service is quite poor which directly affect its overall performance and also
affects its brand image in market (Gordon and Brezinski, 2016). These are the important key
factors that must be proper because it is a common aspect which every customer wants.
Therefore, it is quite necessary for Belgian Cafe to keep monitoring this in order to sustain its
image in the market.
Poor service of worker: The waiter of a restaurant are not proper trained and have no
communication skill. Therefore, they even did not treat properly with guest when they arrives.
So, it is quite necessary for them to provide training session under which they come to know how
to even present and communicate with their customers.
When food is served to guests, the plates used go through many hands which spread
many germs and while running a restaurant, it is quite necessary to look after some hygienic
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issues and proper cleanliness must be maintained. But in case of Belgian Cafe, careful attention
should be provided in order to avoid majority of troubles in a working area (Abapour and et.al.,
2015). Proper ventilation system should be provided in order to pass out the air. So, kitchen staff
should properly take care of their health issues.
There is a need to educate employees about food safety and also sanitize hands during
service with providing touch- free soap dispensers and hand dryers because it will help to
establish quality cleanliness practices. However, kitchen sanitation also requires a formalized
process that physically removes stuff from hands so that food will not get contaminated from
staff to the customers.
Cleanliness and Sanitation: Many commercial restaurants tend to generate a large
amount of soil that also contains some organic matter and grease. If these are not cleaned
properly, then it creates unhealthy situation which causes accidents in kitchen too such as
employee may get slip or fall (Caniani and et.al., 2015). Sanitation equipment are also not
cleaned and changed at regular intervals which cause some problems related to spreading
infectious disease. Unfortunately, traditional cleaning system such as uses of mops should be
cleaned because they also transfer material from rest room to kitchen and may fall ill to many
customers and employees too.
It has been analysed that during off seasons, most of the restaurants put their food in a
fridge for some times and when the guest arrives they even serves those products which cause
food poisoning. So, it is quite necessary to keep monitoring the quality of offered products to
their customers so that it will not cause any problem. The restroom for customers should also be
properly cleaned and whenever any guest leaves a table, waiter must clean entire place properly.
But in case of Belgian Cafe, waiters are not properly skilled and trained and therefore, they did
not perform work as per the needs and created unhygienic issues (Baboli and et.al., 2014).
In order to sustain its image in market, Belgian cafe must have to improve its hygienic
issues and train their staff members so that they will perform well while attending guests. It will
help restaurant more to be align its operational performance measures too.
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4. Presenting lean approach for Belgian Cafe
Lean approach is the best method that is used by Belgian Cafe in order to improve its
quality of products that are offered to their customers. It basically refers to identify the
opportunities for its product improvements and then implement some changes that help a
business to maximize their profit (Lean production, 2018). Furthermore, continuous
improvement is a lean process improvement methodology where a team needs to keep
improvement as it has become a top priority for them. It helps to maximize the value and deliver
fast services to their customers and it can be achieved by four basic key concepts such as:
Identify: For Belgian Cafe, the problem is identified such as cleanliness and poor
services from waiter as they are unskilled and untrained.
Plan: To improve this, lean approach will help to improve the product’s quality and
make changes accordingly.
Execute: Under this concept, implement the entire plan and maximizes the efficiencies of
workers who work in a restaurant (Tavares and et.al., 2018).
Review: After implementing, proper review should be taken in order to identify whether
the plan is successful or not.
There are lots of benefits in Belgian cafe. if company use lean approach in their working
environment. Some of them are as follows:
Service operations:
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Illustration 2: Lean Production

 Moreover, using lean approach Belgian Cafe reduce its lead time for delivery of a
products and services. It is also helps to increases its productivity level that further leads
to maximizes profit.
 Even using lean approach will also help to improve quality of products that are offered to
the customers. Reduction in inventory level and work in process will also help to sustain
its brand image in the market (Nohara, Hori and Sato, 2018). Main aim of using lean
approach into a working area is to establish and improve team management and as the
worker of Belgian faces problem to communicate with the guests, there is need to provide
training related to topics. On the other side, goal of using lean process is to improve
working efficiency and to find out ways to deliver faster results.
Sanitation and cleanliness:
 Moreover, it is one of the most effective practices across organization where every
product needs to be changed in order to achieve goals as well as objectives. Therefore, it
enhances efficiencies of all workers so that the performance of all employees will get
raised and it will help to maximize profit.
Lean process is the mind-set improvement activity and a practice not an event. Many restaurants
also used this approach in order to solve giant systematic gaps and if Belgian Cafe also
follows this approach in order to view the continuous improvement which shows that they
will deliver all best services to their customers (Grote, 2018). Continuous improvement in
the present working process will further help to maximize profit as well as productivity. As
the restaurant faces problem related to cleanliness, then using lean approach will help them
to improve the quality of products that are offered to their customers. 5. Presenting three
key findings to which lean approach may assist the production system
In order to improve two basic key operations which are mentioned above for Belgian
Cafe, there are three key findings which help to remove or to overcome from this. These three
findings are mentioned as below:
For Service operations:
Kanban: This is a basic key finding which can be used by Belgium in order to improve
the entire process (Manzini and et.al., 2018). Though it is quite difficult to understand the
process but as a cafe is having some issues related to its poor service of worker which can be
improved by using Kanban. It is a visual process tool that helps individuals, teams as well as
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many companies to manage their entire work by sharing understanding of process. As this model
basically helps to work as a team and by providing training to their workers will helps them learn
how to communicate well with customers. Moreover, it also assists team to identify various
opportunities for process improvement. If Belgian Cafe uses this technique or tool in order to
manage the entire work then it will automatically generate data which causes positive impact
upon working performance of a restaurant.
Total Productive Maintenance: It is another technique that helps to improve the
working performance of waiter who works in a restaurant. This model mainly focuses on
proactive and preventive maintenance in order to maximize the operational time. It also reduces
differences between maintenance and production by providing a strong intensity to maintain their
equipment that are used to clean (Lean production Approaches, 2018). It also assists all staff
members to share their responsibility to keep involving and then providing the best services to
their customers at a fast pace. Moreover, it also improves the production system by increasing
time, reducing cycle time and eliminating waste.
For Cleanliness and Sanitation Operation:
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5S lean sanitation strategy: As the Belgian Cafe faces problems related to cleanliness
and sanitation, so it can be improved by using 5S approach. This model of lean sanitizing helps
restaurant quickly to meet their basic goals. It is an ultimate process that is used to eliminate
waste and contour the entire process. There are 5 stages in this model which are described as
below:
 Sort: Under this, all the useful items must be determine and removed. So that those item
can be used for further process.
 Set in Order: In the second stage, all remaining items are organized into a process and
set them in an order such that, it close to a point that may be used as much possible
(Jamous and et.al., 2018).
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Illustration 3: 5S of lean Production

 Sanitize: Through proper monitoring at every interval, can identify any errors and this
can be correct by taking proper actions whenever needed.
 Standardize: Create some common methods for improvement that are set by a
restaurant.
 Sustain: It is the final step under which improvements can be judged and if needed,
proper actions can be taken to make changes sustainable over time.
It is also necessary for Belgian Cafe to keep monitoring the entire work process and also
used hygienic products so that it will enhances its brand image in market. Moreover, using lean
approach, the company can evaluate tools to eliminate waste from the working areas. So that it
will helps a restaurant to clean, that further gives positive impression to their customers.
CONCLUSION
By summing up the above report, it has been concluded that production and operations
play an important role in Belgian cafe. Report presents inventory management system of a listed
restaurant which must be properly managed in order to determine the net flow of products.
Further, it presents various key operations of a restaurant such as production, service, cleanliness
operations, etc. From the report, poor service and cleanliness dealing which are two main trading
operations are identified which needs to be improved for Belgian Cafe and it can be improved by
using Kanban, total productive maintenance and 5S lean approaches. Report further described
the importance of lean approach which helps to provide opportunities in order to remove waste
and provide the best results to their customers.
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REFERENCES
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microgrid. IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution. 8(10). pp.1700-1711.
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and operation of wastewater treatment plants for the reduction of greenhouse gases
emission. Water. 7(10). pp.5599-5616.
Garcia, R. J. B., 2015. HOTEL AND RESTAURANT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT (Doctoral
dissertation, De La Salle University).
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operation thereof. U.S. Patent 9,871,769.
Gordon, R. T. and Brezinski, M. H., 2016. The complete restaurant management guide.
Routledge.
Grote, G., 2018. On the Importance of Culture for Safety: Bridging Modes of Operation in
Adaptive Safety Management. In Safety Cultures, Safety Models (pp. 93-103). Springer,
Cham.
Jamous, N. and et.al., 2018. IT Operation Management-A possibility in the flux of digitization.
Kotas, R., 2014. Management accounting for hotels and restaurants. Routledge.
Lindström, J. and et.al., 2015. Sustainable management of operation for Functional Products:
Which customer values are of interest for marketing and sales?. Procedia CIRP. 30.
pp.299-304.
Manzini, M. and et.al., 2018. An integrated framework for design, management and operation of
reconfigurable assembly systems. Omega.78. pp.69-84.
Nohara, D., Hori, T. and Sato, Y., 2018. Real-time reservoir operation for drought management
considering operational ensemble predictions of precipitation in Japan. In Advances in
Hydroinformatics (pp. 331-345). Springer, Singapore.
Sagnak, M. and Kazancoglu, Y., 2016. Integration of green lean approach with six sigma: an
application for flue gas emissions. Journal of Cleaner Production. 127. pp.112-118.
Tavares, T. D. O. and et.al., 2018. Effect of Soil Management Practices on the Sweeping
Operation during Coffee Harvest. Agronomy Journal.
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Online
Inventory management system. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.qsrautomations.com/blog/restaurant-management/restaurant-inventory-
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Lean production Approaches. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.leanproduction.com/top-25-lean-tools.html>.
Lean production. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.manavue.ca/si_mve_a/Lean_Approach.html>.
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