Improving Accuracy and Increasing Productivity in the Food Preparation Area At Chick-fil-a

Nick James

Managerial Applications of Information Technology – IS535
Devry University, Keller Graduate School of Management

November 10, 2013

Why This Course Project was chosen: It consists of a complete solution for products and the procedures that can be used with some technology.

Table of Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….2
Brief Company Background…………………………………………………………..2
Discussion of business problem…………………………………………………….4
High level solution…………………………………………………………………………5
Benefits of solving the problem………………………………………………………5
Business/technical approach…………………………………………………………6
Business process changes………………………………………………………………7
Technology or business practices used to augment the solution………..7
Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………….8
High level implementation plan……………………………………………………….9
Specific bulleted list of recommendation………………………………………….9
References……………………………………………………………………………………..10

Abstract With technology becoming a priority for running a successful business today there are ways that technology can be a solution to a company or organizations problem. Technology can provide a great way to stop unnecessary losses for a company. Continuous waste can be pin pointed and rectified with the right technology. For instance America wasted 33.79 million tons of food in 2010. Which was enough to fill the Empire state Building 91 times. Ten years ago that waste number was 16 percent lower (Thomas, 2013) Restaurants can contribute to a majority of the waste due to misinformation or training errors.

Brief Company background
Chick-fil-a is an American fast food restaurant chain that was founded in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946. The food chain has become a cultural icon in the southern United States. Chick-fil-a is strongly based on the beliefs of the founder which is a Southern Baptist. Chick-fil-a’s are closed for business on Sundays, unlike most retail stores and fast food chains. The business model for Chick-fil-a is a lot different from other restaurant chains. Chick-fill-a remains the owners of all of their restaurants.

Discussion of business problem
Food is an essential part of life. Everybody needs food to survive. Many people rely on restaurants or fast food places to eat. Quality food and service are sometimes rare with eating out. Many restaurants that have great service and food are very expensive. The cost of providing customers with real ingredients and nothing processed is very high. So any waste of the food can cost the company a lost. One common barrier to better loyalty and higher productivity is the fact that a lot of business executives, and virtually all accounting departments, treat income and outlays as if they occurred in separate worlds. The truth is, revenues and costs are inextricably linked, and decisions that focus on one or the other as opposed to both often misfire(Reicheld, 1996) The company Chick fil a is well known for great customer service and great food. Chick- fil- a as of November 11, 2013 will be raising their prices for their food. Which may come into question with their faithful customers? Many believe the food can remain the same price maybe even lowered with my solution. Studies have shown that a lot of food is wasted in the kitchens of America every night.

High level solution
When dealing with budgeting ones money every penny goes into account. If a small amount is lost every day it will begin to add up. So when dealing with food that was not able to reach the customer will cost the company to replace the food. I propose the company Chick fil a began to use a new system for how much chicken to cook. The system will be able to account for how much food is available to sell to the customers. This in turn will let the cooks know when to start making some more food. The software is called the Henny Perfect Drop it was designed specifically for Chick Fil A so assist with the food being cooked in the henny. The software will give an accurate count of how much food should be cooked and was cooked in the duration of the day.

Benefits of solving the problem
The benefit for an accuracy of food production within Chick fil a will allow the company to maintain their prices. Allowing them to continue to make great food with great customer service. The customers may be willing to pay the higher price just because Chick fil a treats everyone like they are family. But if their prices maintain the same price people will not feel like they are simply paying for great service with expensive food. I believe the higher prices will take away from the experience.

Business/technical approach The beginning steps for initiating the new system will be contacting the information technology department and figuring out how long it will take for this system to be set up an active. The next step will include getting together all of the top level employees to set up a time so they can be trained in the system. And also the information technology department will work on a module for training so the employees on the front line who will use it every day will be experts in the new software. The new software will be tested for two months by three different groups of employees. The first group will be the supervisors of the Chick fil a company, and the last two groups will be regular team members. Out of the last two groups half will be employees with less than five years tenure and the other half will be employees with more than five year tenure. This will give the software many different personalities and skill level to work with and also all of the errors and bugs will give the Information technology a great look on what needs to be adjusted.

Business process changes The effect of the software Henny Perfect Drop will have a big impact on the business within the company. The orders for the delivery trucks will lower due the lack of wasted product. The Henny Perfect Drop will focus on specific areas in the business and help increase the efficiency in the food production area. Constant customer contact will be updated in real time to ensure that all of the information is up to date. The information for a customer will be attached to a customer file. Only information that is relevant for serving the customer if they are regulars to the restaurant. In which this can also an incentive for customers to come frequently. And the upper management will have their own level of access to the various features of this application. With the access setting handled this way only people of relevance can have access to this sensitive information.

Technology or Business Practices used to augment the solution Technology that will be used to augment the software Henny Perfect Drop will be tablets and a projector screen. The training for the Henny Perfect Drop software will be very effective if the trainer can discussion and show how it is used. Everyone in the training will need a tablet so they will be able to use the touch screen similar to the cash register in the restaurant. The tablet will have a top of the line operating system so that the tutorials will seem life like. This will provide a more efficient way to learn the system and also quicker way to learn.

Conclusion This paper provides a look into Chick Fil A’s food productivity and waste problem. The restaurant has a continuous problem with food being thrown away. Orders are made daily for receiving shipments for more food. Which can be minimized if closer numbers of food are made for certain orders. The amount of money put into the replacing food and essentials will cause the prices for the food to rise in the company. Team leaders are given the task for monitoring certain items but are not given the proper tools to do it with. After research was done for several years on food preparation waste a new soft ware was developed. The software is called Henny Perfect drop, and this program allows an accurate account of food to be cooked from the orders that are made by the customer. The original way of cooking a certain amount every couple of minutes was causing the company to lose almost three hundred dollars in every shift. So the Henny Perfect Drop will be much more accurate and faster for the employees to use. Making the workplace environment less stressful and allowing the employees to serve the customers better and prices will remain the same.

High-Level implementation plan The plan for setting up the Henny Perfect Drop for Chick fil a is to set up a meeting to show the proposal. The proposal will be show to the senior levels of management along with the information technology manager. The software should only be implemented if it is approved by all of the managers. The employees of Henny Perfect Drop will then be required to teach training of the new application so they can be efficient in the software. The training for the software will be for the upper level employees along with the regular employees. The training will be broken up in three different training classes. The training classes in all will last for a month. Once the results have been acquired then they will be studied and compared. Then the Henny Perfect Drop will tested again to make sure all of the errors have been removed before implementing into the restaurant.
Specific bulleted list of recommendations * Create a proposal for the new software * Inform every employee that will using and supervising over the software’s use * Make sure that all of your thoughts and concerns are expressed to the developers of Henny Perfect Drop. * Have the employee training mandatory for the software * The progress of the Henny Perfect drop should be recorded and reviewed.

Reference

Reicheld, Fredrick (1996) The Loyalty Effect: Bain & Company, Inc.
Ross, David F. (2011) Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies, Second Edition. Boca Raton, FL : Taylor & Francis Group

Reicheld, Fred., Markey, Rob (2011) The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer- Driven World, Revised and Expanded Edition: Harvard Business Press

Sherman, Scott., Reschke, Wayne., Krouse, Lisa(2012) Addressing New Business Needs with Innovative Talent Development Programs: Citation
Thomas, A (2013) Using web sources in writing. Retrieved from www.facethefactsusa.org