Copper Kettle Catering. – Case Study
Abstract
This case study will answer specific questions surrounding founders Wayne and Janet Williams’s full-service catering company, Copper Kettle Catering. Copper Kettle Catering is known as one of the largest catering business in Raleigh. The company’s competitive priorities are high-quality food, delivery reliability, flexibility and cost. Operations include two distinct processes; deliver only and deliver and serve. This case study will also discuss Copper Kettle Catering’s competitive priorities, the changing nature of the customer and the lean concepts and practices the company can implement to increase flexibility, reduce lead times and lower costs in order to stay competitive with small specialty caterers targeting specific well-defined market segments. The Millers must also consider any barriers to implementing a lean system to meet the demands of menu flexibility and faster response times.
Keywords: lean systems
Copper Kettle Catering. – Case Study
Synopsis
Copper Kettle Catering is known for their catering services that provides box luncheons and deliver and serve services for large parties, dinners and weddings. Demand for deliver only services are constant with a changing product mix. The planning horizon is short. In contrast, the deliver and serve side process has a more seasonal demand with a longer planning horizon with customers booking dates weeks or months in advance.
Both processes are supported by food preparation facilities with five major work areas that can be seen in Chart 1. There are challenges due to space limitations and risk of spoilage and limited inventory space. Order scheduling is a two stage process. This process can be seen in Chart 2 of the appendix. The deliver and serve orders are efficient due to the level of demand with short lead-times. The deliver only menu item tend to run out because of the limitations in inventory space, there are only three walk in coolers and a large pantry to support this company that is one of the largest catering businesses in the area.
The Williams primary focus is on the competitive priorities of high quality food and delivery reliability. However, customers are demanding more flexibility and faster response times and there is competition in the market to support the changing customer demands. A smaller caterer is serving the lunch trade and competes with Copper Kettle Catering on cost. Because of this, the owners are interested in introducing lean systems concepts to increase flexibility, reduce lead-times and lower costs.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine if the operations of Copper Kettle Catering are conducive to the application of lean concepts and practices. Any major barriers to implementing a lean system at Copper Kettle Catering must be overcome. Recommendations to the owners of Copper Kettle Catering, Wayne and Janet Williams, must be made to take advantage of lean concepts in their operations.
Analysis
The Williams should use a SWOT to determine the threats or major barriers to implementing a lean system. A SWOT analysis strengthens the entity’s business proposition and enhance its value chain system, increase sustainable competitive advantage, increase customer value and decrease its vulnerability to threats (Thompson, et. al, 2012). A SWOT analysis was performed and can be seen in Table 1 in the Appendix.
The collective strength of the chosen competitive priorities are not in line with the changing environment. The SWOT showed the weaknesses and threats due to the competition. Catering customers require more menu flexibility and faster response times. Chart 1 in the appendix shows the five major work areas and Chart 2 shows the two stage order scheduling process (Krajewski, et al, 2013, p. 304). Recommendations based on the SWOT analysis were determined and provide intelligence on the business environment and Copper Kettle Catering does not have major barriers to implementing a lean system to their service business.
Recommendations
The operations of Copper Kettle Catering are conducive to the application of lean concepts and practices. Lean is transferable to a service business. The physical facilities layout resembles that of a job process. Even though inventory is little due to space limitations, there is inventory. Since this is a food service company, unbeknownst to the Williams’ they are already using JIT principles using a pull method for delivery service only processes and a push method for delivery service and serve processes. There should be no huge barriers to using lean systems. Small barriers may be employee buy-in. There are two skilled cooks and eight other personnel that can be used in any given area. These employees will need to be flexible. They are already performing more than one job function and as lean is implemented they will need to help relieve bottlenecks that result from running out of ingredients for the deliver only process. Copper Kettle Catering should value stream map every process involved in their two processes. This will help the owners identify the source of any muda or waste in the activities. There are five main process steps. The Williams can design a layout for the line flow to eliminate setups in the five different area to reduce labor costs. The layouts could reduce the space needed for meal prep and actually create more room for inventory needed in the delivery only process. Copper Kettle Catering can also think about standardizing some of the food required for the delivery only process. The employees will be able to complete their work for efficiently due to repetition and be able to achieve higher productivity. This standardization in line with automation can help reduce costs. Copper Kettle Catering can also determine the takt time and total capacity of both processes after completing the value stream map. They will need to look at the timing of the same day delivery and see how that process can be more efficient where employees do not have to create a bottleneck due to not enough ingredients. If the bottleneck is identified and since the demand for deliver only service is constant, the takt time should match the demand and the production lead time perhaps calculated in minutes or hours can be used to compute total process time. This could be very useful to the Williams. Waste can be identified and opportunities then exist to reconfigure the process. A future state map can be created and then an implementation plan prepared to achieve the future state. The deliver and serve functions can also be determined to further streamline the processes. All of this will work toward the goal to bring flexibility and faster response time competitive priorities in line with the customer’s desires.
Conclusion
Copper Kettle Catering operations are conducive to the application of lean concepts and practices. Based on analysis of the number of the two specific processes, the Williams adjust the competitive priorities and focus more on customers’ demand of more menu flexibility and faster response times. Through value stream mapping and workforce flexibility, the existing state can be evaluated and a future state created to deal with the waste in the two processes. If Copper Kettle Catering management follow the recommendations, they will then be able to take advantage of lean concepts and see that there are no major barriers to implementing a lean system. They can then reap the results of increased flexibility, reduced lead-times and lowered costs.

References Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L.P, Malhotra, M. K. (2013) Operations Management Processes and Supply Chains (10th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., Strickland, A.J. (2012). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. NY, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Appendix A
Table 1 – SWOT Analysis

Strengths Founders have one of the largest catering businesses in the areaAware of importance of high quality foodExperience in the industryShort order lead-timesSpecialized cooksFood prep facilities resemble job process | WeaknessesLimited inventory spaceRisk of spoilageRuns out of ingredients quicklyFlexibility and cost are low on priority list | OpportunitiesReorder competitive priorities to include flexibility and faster response timesValue stream map the deliver only and deliver and serve processesCalculate production lead-times, total processing time and capacity by locating the bottleneck (waiting on ingredients) | Threats Small specialty caterers targeting their market segment of boxed lunches for businessesCustomers demand more menu flexibility and faster response not in line with their order of competitive priorities |

Chart 1 – Five Major Work Areas Overall Process Attributes | Overall Demand: Fairly ConstantBatch Size: VariesNumber of Shifts: Day to DayAvailability: Full-time | | Process Step 1 | Stove-Oven Area | Determine cycle timeDetermine setup timeDetermine Up timeDetermine # operatorsDetermine WIP on each area | Process Step 2 | Cold Area | SAA | Process Step 3 | Hors D’oeuvre prep area | SAA | Process Step 4 | Sandwich prep area | SAA | Process Step 5 | Assembly area | SAA | Customer Deliveries | Constant, call-in by 10 a.m. for same day delivery | | Customer Deliver and Serve | Seasonal with longer planning horizon weeks or months ahead of time | | | Based on the above a value stream map could be created for customer deliveries and customer deliver and serve | |

Chart 2 – Order Scheduling Deliver and Serve Orders | Deliver-Only Orders | Each Monday schedule developed for each day | Day to day scheduling | | |