Business Operations Analysis and Evaluation: Saffron Kitchen Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Saffron Kitchen's operations management. It begins with an introduction to operations management and its importance within the organization, followed by an overview of Saffron Kitchen, a small restaurant in London. The report then delves into the operations process, including concepts, challenges, and issues related to customer service. A process map is presented to visually represent the workflow, and the Four V's profile (Volume, Variety, Variation, and Visibility) is discussed. The report also includes a performance map and an operational analysis, evaluating customer service using the Customer Satisfaction Theory (CSAT). The report concludes with recommendations for improvement, including changes to recruitment, training, and service delivery to enhance customer satisfaction and overall operational efficiency. The analysis is based on the application of theory and practice within the context of the restaurant business.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND SERVICE

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW.............................................................................................1
2. THE OPERATIONS PROCESS.................................................................................................2
3. OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................6
4. EVALUATION OF OPERATIONS...........................................................................................9
5. RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................................................10
6. CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

1. INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW
Operations management is very important part of the organisation. Operations
management is the administration of the business practices to create the highest level of
efficiency possible within an organisation. It is concern with converting materials and labour into
goods and services as efficiently as possible in order to maximise the profitability of the
company. It pertained to the process in which planning, organising and supervising are involved.
It is based on the principles of of reality, organisation, humility, success, accountability,
causality, change and quality control.
In this project, Saffron Kitchen is being chosen for assessment. It is small restaurant that
is providing delicious food to the people living in London. It is located in 300 Lea Bridge Rd,
Leyton, London E10 7LD UK. This restaurant provides so many types of dishes to people.
Restaurant offer creative fusion dishes and Mumbai-style street food in a sleek Indian restaurant
with private rooms (Costa and et.al., 2018). The layout of the restaurant is very attractive as it
attracts customers. The sitting area is comfortable with round and rectangular tables that allows
better customer satisfaction. The walls are also very attractive with attractive painting, in-built
fish aquariums. Saffron kitchen is facing competition with many other restaurants in London
such as The Barbary, Casmania, Kitchen Table etc. These are also emerging restaurants in UK
that provides intense competition to Saffron Kitchen. Although, the taste and variety of food,
layouts and furniture, wall painting etc. makes Saffron Kitchen distinguish from its competitors.
This project will discuss the critical analysis and evaluation of key operation process
based on the application of theory and practices. Further, it also covers the operational process
that focus on the challenges and problems an organisation faced in managing operational
process.
Management and operations are very essential elements in the business as it aids in
managing the bulk of operation of the organisation effectively to generate higher revenue and
profitability. The management of the company used to formulate strategies and plans for
achieving highest level of profitability. It also includes controlling of all the activities and tasks
in order to achieve the objectives of the company. It includes managing daily activities with
effective utilisation of resources such as money, labour and resources. In a business, it is the
operations by which the goods are delivered and manufactured. The success of any firm is
completely depends on how well the products and services are delivered to the customers.
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Further, the principle of change in very important for organisation to achieve as the changes are
essentially required in today's business era to gain better customer satisfaction. It is fact that if
changes are not implemented or adopted, it might lead to closure of the business. So, in order to
gain better customer satisfaction, it is quite important for Saffron Kitchen to change the process
used in the business. A process is that demonstrate the way of delivering the products and
services to the customers. Process in operations management includes the types and size of
resources and human resources involved in the operations of the task.
2. THE OPERATIONS PROCESS
Concept of Operation Process
Operations management includes the operation processes which organisations used for
gaining highest revenue and better productivity. However, processes vary in different ways, they
share some common features which apply across a wide spectrum of operations. Usually, Good
operations management starts with understanding as well as preparing the procedures in order to
run as smoothly as possible (Bustinza and et.al., 2019). In operation management, all processes
have mainly three majors’ elements which are inventory, resources and materials. It is very
important to analyse as well as measure the operational processes so that the efficiency and
loopholes can be determined and improved. Furthermore, the process of analysation includes the
discovering the changes which can be implemented for better efficiency in saffron kitchen. In
addition to this, there are several services that are carried out in Saffron Kitchen for instance,
preparation of food, acquiring raw materials or ingredients, customer service, cleaning or
housekeeping and many such other services. In restaurants, the core subject of operations
management is to archive better customer satisfaction level as it is said to be key to achieve the
highest of success in the business. Better customer level satisfaction allows loyal customers
which is a valuable assert of the company. The operation process of the restaurant is very long as
it included the so many activities from the entry of customers to delivering food to them.
There are various issues and challenges which are involved in customer services
operation process such as:
Challenges:
There are various challenges which are involves in operational process but fewer
customer satisfaction level because of lack of training and skilled employees that leads to affect
the customer satisfaction level. These are the challenges which Saffron Kitchen faced in process
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of operations. Thus, in order to overcome the challenge, Saffron Kitchen used to change the
process of recruitment and selection within restaurant like they should conduct 2 tier interviews
to the candidate so that candidate can be analysed as a whole. It will allows to select the
employees with high skills and competencies. On the other hand, training must be the key part of
the operations as it is very essential to keep the employees upgraded and competitive in the
business world. Saffron should have to call best training experts to provide better knowledge and
understanding.
Issues:
There are some of issues arises within organisation that affect the customer satisfaction as
it is fact that first impression of customer is last impression. It is very essentially required for
restaurants to serve their customers with excellent services. There should be proper availability
of staff members to attain the guest, ask the order and serving food to customers. Further, it is
also crucial to have cleanliness in the surroundings so that they can attract better customer
impression and experience (Oláh and et.al., 2018). So for better services, Saffron Kitchen could
provide better atmosphere to customers so that they get better experience.
Process Map
Process Map is planning and management tool that visually describes the flow of work. It
is mainly used to visually demonstrate all the steps and decisions in a specific process. This
process map shows a series of events that make an end results. It is also called a functional
process chart, process model and workflow diagram because this process helps the company by
showing all elements which are involved in a process (Kanters and Wall, 2016).
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Illustration 1: Process map
Caption: (Process map)
The main aim of Saffron Kitchen restaurant of using this map is to increase efficiency of
services. An effective process map helps all team members to define process boundaries and
increase communication by increasing process efficiency. It can also Saffron Kitchen restaurant
in analysing the way of improving the process by providing the better understanding of a
process.
Four V's profile
Operational management is the way of businesses of producing goods and services. It is
called the central function because production of goods and services is the main reason for
Saffron Kitchen restaurant of its business existing.
Volume: Volume defines the quantity of a specific products which are being required for
Saffron Kitchen restaurant to provide satisfactory services to its potential customers'. For better
management operation there is a requirement for manager to control the volume of products and
services on the basis of demand, if they are not able then it leads to over/under produce.
Ineffective measurements and control of volume can also lead wastage of resources.
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Variety: Variety is other main important element that refers the range of products made
by a business. Saffron kitchen restaurant wants to provide the best and effective services to its
customers, so it is important for the manager of this restaurant to focus on this element. It is
called that larger variety of products requires less HR specialization (Isler and et.al., 2017). Less
variety of goods and services means simpler operation process because standardize products are
mass produced. It is all about diversity of services which are being given by this restaurant. By
having high variety of goods and services, Saffron Kitchen restaurant can match its customers'
requirements which is the main purpose of this restaurant.
Variation: Variation refers the quantity of changes in the demand over a specific time. It
is stated that most of the companies and restaurants prefer low variation whether some
businesses have high variations that are predictable and seasonable such as ice cream parlour etc.
In the context of restaurant, it is difficult to predict variation in demand because there are several
factors that can affect prediction power. For instance, a natural disaster like hurricane which is
not a predictable and it can lead an increase in food stuff (WuOlson and Wang, 2019).
Visibility: Visibility refers an extent to which operation management is seen. It is also
depend on type of business. Different types of businesses, for example, service businesses have
high degree of visibility of their operation management. On the other hand, manufacturing
businesses rarely show this element to their customers. There are some companies that have
mixture of both.
So, it can be said that Saffron Kitchen restaurant can expand its business and take growth
if it focuses special attention on each element of this model (Collineau and et.al., 2017).
Performance map
It is an effective tool that helps the company in analysing performance and outputs of all
processes. It shows effectiveness of all processes and strategies which are being used by saffron
Kitchen restaurant (Anghel, Paleologu and Stanciu, 2015).
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Illustration 2: Polar diagram
Sources: (Polar diagram, 2018)
Polar diagram is being used to measure and analyse performance by 360 degree analysis. It
is the best model that can be used by Saffron kitchen restaurant in order to oversee the
effectiveness of its performance and processes
3. OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS
It has been evaluating the business operation process of customer services in Saffron kitchen
so that it will use some concepts and theories which help for identifying the challenges that
occurs during execution. Customer satisfaction theory (CSAT) is the most common approach
that applicable in small business. it can be determined the performance that will track how client
satisfied with the product and services of Saffron kitchen. It is based on the overall psychological
state that reflects evaluation of relationship between organization and consumers (Gibson and
Parkman, 2018). In this way, it will require to involve satisfaction in terms of affective, cognitive
and behavioural. As above discussion, it can be determined that customer service is the common
operation process which provides the different type of services, product information etc. it will
happen direct communication between consumers and management. According to theory of
CSAT, there are some common measurement discuss as follows:
 Importance: It provide the values of product and services so that it can easily fulfilling
the expectation and requirement of consumers.
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 Overall affecting consumer satisfaction: sometimes, many people are changing the
mood when they are liking or disliking the product or services of Saffron kitchen. It
become tough for employee to maintain their services according to demand of client.
 Fulfilment of Expectation: The performance level of Saffron kitchen must be achieved
the desirable expectation of client. It possible when staff may predict the requirement of
people and respondent in the specific manner to satisfy consumers (Zou and et.al., 2019).
 Expected value from uses: Customer satisfaction is mainly determined by use of
services or products. In case if product is not used as per expectation. In this way, it can
be determined that customers are not showing their interest towards Saffron kitchen.
These are different ways to measure the requirement of customers in the operational process of
customer services. The actual activities of customer services performed to fulfil the customer
satisfaction but it can be determined the specific challenges and issues in the process due to lack
of training and skilled employees that leads to affect the customer satisfaction level (Aloysius
and et.al., 2018). In this way, Saffron Kitchen will face many challenges during the enterprise
executions. For addressing the challenges or problems by using interviews for identifying their
own view point on customer services.
Interviews
Q1. What are reasons of consumer dissatisfaction?
M 1: He was said that consumer dissatisfaction causes due to lack of service quality, lack of
skilled staff members etc. these are considered the major issues of customer dissatisfaction. he
was provided their own experience when many clients never come back to the same product if
they are fully satisfied. In this way. It will chance for minimizing the profitability and also
reduce revenue.
M 2: He was said that customer dissatisfaction occurs due to minimum availability of products
or services. It is major problem faced by customer because the product available in limited stocks
and rapidly outdated.
Q2. How Satisfied the customer with services?
M 1: he was said that keep measuring the customer demand according to the requirement and
treat every client as if they were very important for organization. In this way, many peoples are
attracted towards the services.
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M 2: He was said that it is very tough for small enterprise to build loyalty or trust because many
consumers are attracted towards brand image. In this way, for building the customer satisfaction
to always assists them towards product and services. It also fulfilled their requirement on time.
Q3. What are different types of marketing communication attracting new consumers?
M 1: he was said that the best communication of marketing in social media platform because
many people can use this network in their daily life. In this way, it useful for increasing the
demand of business in global marketplace.
M 2: He was said that many clients want to interact with directly for management so that it
provides the facility of mobile application and website where they will check the details of
products and services.
Q4. What are improvement concepts do the client expectation?
M 1: He was said that customer demand has been changed according to the market trends so that
it requires for communicating with the people to determine their needs. Afterwards, it will take
some important decisions.
M 2: He was said that supports the consumer expectation which include budget exceed and
enable the resources that will take action.
Analysis
It is main analysis of customer service operation process in Saffron kitchen where take concept,
theory applicable to the operations and also understand challenges or problems. In above
discussion, it is considered the problem of lack of satisfaction due to unskilled staff member etc.
in this way, it has reduced the trust or loyalty between customer and management in the
organization (Seddon, 2019). It will require for overcome the challenges by using different
concepts which influence the customer satisfaction depends on the various parameters such as
loyalty, trust and empathy etc.
Trust
It is important concept that can build the confidence in the brand and also defined the
purchase completion. It may include the past experience, brand value, advertising details and so
on. For building trust to Saffron kitchen needed for measuring position of organization in market.
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It directly impacts on the customer satisfaction where it has increased the ration of expectations
and consumption of results.
Loyalty
It is considered the preferences of consumer for certain products and services, which
formed as outcome of feelings generalization (Dufour and Rancourt, 2018). The loyalty will be
described as the probability with which clients willingly accept the services of Saffron kitchen. It
mainly possible where staff members have an ability to satisfy customer expectation.
The positive attitude will help for building a good relationship with consumer and also
create loyalty between them. It possible when the Saffron kitchen recruit the efficient candidate
that help for improving the services and products in global marketplace. Apart from that it also
interacts to solve their queries regarding enterprises.
There are some other methods for analysing the customer services and overcome challenges
of customer dissatisfaction.
Cycle time analysis- It is another method for collecting and gathering the essential information of
customers and improve the overall system of Saffron kitchen. It is basically used for
improvement team seeks to handle the waiting time for customers in Saffron kitchen services
(Slack and BrandonJones, 2018). It must start with the scope of customer service operation
process and measure the benefits of enterprise through process map.
4. EVALUATION OF OPERATIONS
From the above study it can be evaluated that customer service plays a vital role in
hospitality sector businesses and specially in restaurants. Saffron Kitchen restaurant wants to
increase its customers experience and for that it uses several strategies and plan. There are
several factors that affect customers services to restaurants and these type of businesses like the
way of offering services, cleanliness of surroundings, ambiance, interior of restaurant and many
more things which customers consider. It can also be evaluated from above study that, Saffron
Kitchen restaurant face several issues that become barriers in the path of their success such as
lack of experienced employees who can provide attractive services to customers, lack of post
services etc. By using an effective use of process map this restaurant can increase efficiency of
customers services process. It can also see the reasons of ineffectiveness of its operations
management process and make appropriate strategies (Frost, 2016). All challenges and issues can
be solved out by using and implementing various models and investing in training and
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development programmes for employees. Training is also other main problem by which Saffron
Kitchen restaurant is facing and due to this problem it is lacking in effective customer services.
In addition, it can also be evaluated that four v's profile also help this restaurant in
expanding its business by overseeing all main 4 elements which satisfy customers like volume of
goods and services, varieties of services, variation in the quantity of services demands and
visibility of process to customers. Total quality management also is called an effective technique
that is being used in operational analysis as it eliminates errors in supply chain management and
increase customers' satisfaction. It can also be evaluated that by total quality management
Saffron Kitchen restaurant can solve all their problems related to customers services by making
sure that their employees are up to speed with training.
5. RECOMMENDATION
It has been recommended to improve the customer dissatisfaction challenges or problem in the
Saffron kitchen. It will improve the customer services operation by using modern technology
which help for building a strong relationship between company and customers. It provides the
facilities where client must interact with digital technology such as email, online website and so
on. It will consider an appropriate technique that help for satisfied the customer expectation (Yu
and Sangiorgi, 2018).
In Previous discussion, it can be determined the issues and challenges of customer
satisfaction so that it will essential for identifying the improvement in order to overcome the
challenge, Saffron Kitchen used to change the process of recruitment and selection within
restaurant like they should conduct 2 tier interviews for changing the style of customer service
process.
The issues arise within organization that affect the customer satisfaction as it is fact that first
impression of customer is last impression. In this way, it has been recommended to server the
excellent quality of product and services so that they can improve the impression of consumers.
On the other hand, it has recommended that Saffron kitchen restaurant to respond quickly
towards customer where people believe that valuing their time and also resolving their queries as
quickly as possible by using online platform.
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