Hotel A is a restaurant in Bromsgrove, Birmingham. It is owned by a local businessman who also serves as its manager. He has hired ten employees to help with day-to-day operations in order to serve the nearby working-class regions. The cafeteria provides low-cost cuisine to the local community. Yet, the company has some unique hurdles in the hotel market. This report examines and evaluates several of the restaurant's operational management aspects. The challenges encountered, as well as the solutions, are discussed. Areas discussed are maintenance, interior furniture, procedures for handling a fire at the facility and hygiene practices.
Applicability of the transformation model in the operation
According to Slack et al., this model has three components which are inputs, transformation processes and outputs. Operations management comprises the direction and control of the methods that transform inputs into finished goods for clients or customers. The model applies equally to the operation of running a hotel.
Figure 1: The transformation model
The inputs include raw food supplies, utensils and the cleaning services, water and energy. Other aspects considered as input are staff, kitchen appliances and adverts. All these are necessary for the smooth running of the hotel. The other essential component of the inputs is the transforming resource, which includes the staff and facilities. The hotel business is mainly dependent on labour to transform its resources instead of facilities such as machines. Therefore, the activities are less automated. Operations are all the actions involved in the transformation of materials or information. The two types of transforming resource are staff and facilities. The staff represents the people or workers who are directly involved in the process of transformation or support it. Facilities include buildings, equipment, machine and land.
The transformation process results in some outputs such food and drink. On the other hand, undesirable output, e.g. waste is also a result of the transformation process. The hotel owner, who rounds up as the manager strives to minimise the environmental impact of the residue by recycling of material such as plastic containers, Protection of employees safety and health of the local community is one of the primary responsibilities of the hotel. Participation in CSR activities ensures that the establishment complies with expected ethical behaviour. The manager allows the employees to participate in street cleaning exercise regularly.
The transformation process in the firm includes the preparation of raw food materials to cooked food served to customers. The service provided by the hotel to the customers leads to satisfaction and loyalty. The other outcome is the benefit to the surrounding communities through the free environmental cleanup by the hotel staff.
In operations management, minimising the environmental impact of the hotel’s activities is an essential aspect for consideration by the administration. Therefore, protection of the safety and health wellbeing of the employees and the immediate community also another responsibility of operations management. Moreover, it may involve the responsibility for ethical behaviour as it relates to the social impact of the transformation process, at local and global level.
The Flowchart:
Local grocery store
Calls
Call feedback
Manager office
Inform them
Cashier
Chef
Confirm
Waiter takes Waiter takes Waiter gets the bill from
Food customer order customer and takes it to cashier
Customer
Figure 2: Flowchart
At the start of the day, the manager calls a local grocery store and orders food ingredients for the day. On arrival, the chef checks their quality and the other kitchen crew help him or her to store them. Meanwhile, the waiter and cashier prepare the customer area by engaging in activities such as arranging the furniture and cleaning them. The cashier stores the currencies inside the cash machine. The waiter is expected to note the furniture which needs repair or replacement and handle the customers who may potentially break them, such as the elderly or drunk people.
After the preparations are over, the hotel is opened, and the first customer arrives. The waiter sites the client and takes his or her order which is communicated to the chef who prepares the food for around 30 minutes. After it is ready, the chef calls the waiter who delivers the food to the customer. Later, the customer orders a bill which the waiter gets from the cashier. On payment, the money is taken to the cashier who issues a receipt and change from the transaction which are brought to the client by the waiter. The customer leaves the hotel. The hotel is open up to a designated time in the evening when it is closed.
The manager inspects the hotel for any mishaps in the hotel room and the kitchen. This includes firefighting equipment and the sewerage system. His employees assist in checking if all is well in the restaurant.
Furniture Care and Maintenance
Maintaining the exterior and interior facilities of a hotel is a vital activity in a hotel (Hayes and Nineimeir, 2007).The interior furniture of a hotel such as chairs and tables have a significant impact on customers’ perception and their enjoyment. Therefore, buying comfortable and beautiful furniture should be prioritised by hotel owners. Attractive furniture matching with a room’s decorations and design are costly to hotels (Jones, 2005) but they enhance a hotel’s elegance. The customers’ first impression when they enter a hotel room is used to make a judgment about it. The waiter is tasked with taking care of the furniture in a hotel and report any problems to the manager. He or she should arrange them in a way which helps to avoid spillage on tables and minimise breakage of glassware, wooden items and fabric and leather items. Beverage rings and spilt drinks leave stains and dampen the furniture’s finish (Jones, 2005, page 75).Keeping cleaning chemicals on top of furniture should be avoided while the correct type of material should be used in cleaning them. Clean, soft cloths should be used in furniture cleaning instead of cut materials from old clothes. In case the waiter notices damage or break, he or she should report to the manager immediately, who takes corrective action quickly.
Firefighting and the equipment
Evidence shows that human error causes fires in residential areas and lodgings. They cause considerable losses regarding human life and property in case of their occurrence. For instance, fire disasters have occurred in big hotels such as MGM Grand Hotel where 84 people died, Stouffer’s Inn which killed 26 and The Las Vegas Hilton which claimed eight lives (Jones, 2005, p.348). Hotel management should be vigilant in preventing fires and handling them in case of their occurrence. The law requires establishments implement fire procedures correctly to eliminate and control fire dangers for safety and security of staff and customers.
One specific fire peril at the hotel was the act of leaving many clothes and junk packs in the kitchen exit. These sacks hinder movement and frequently obstruct the way to the door which may limit evacuation. A less risky and efficient method for expelling the material and waste packs should be implemented. Upon the full installation of firefighting equipment, it must be a strict practice regularly inspect it to ensure that it is in good working condition. If it is discovered that something is not working appropriately or out of service, it should be fixed or supplanted quickly. The expiry dates of dry chemical fire extinguishers should be monitored well and reliability of the fire alarms guaranteed.
General hygiene
The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) refers to guidelines to food safety from chemical, physical and biological hazards in the preparation process and the measures to reduce the risks to a harmless level.The hotel fails in hygiene matters which risks its brand due to conflict with authorities and negative perception from customers. The cooked food is stored in the same cabinet with the raw food sourced from grocery stores. This practice exposes customers and the staff to bacteria and infections. Sometimes, the kitchen crew forget to seal the cleaning chemicals which lead to hazardous substances exposure.
Figure 3: HACCP guidelines
Recommendations
The study of Hotel A practices indicates two main problems which face the restaurant. These issues are furniture maintenance and failure of general hygiene practices. The hotel owner should invest more resources to correct these problems before they get out of hand.
He should invest in purchasing more durable furniture to avoid the hassles of frequent repair and replacements. More investments in decorations and elegance of the hotel room should be made to improve the brand. He should also hire an additional waiter to help the one working currently in serving customers especially during peak hours
The hotel management should follow the seven principles of HACCP to ensure food safety. They are;
Conduct hazard analysis-This involves the determination of food safety hazards and measures to prevent them.
Identification of critical control points, which refers to points or steps in the food preparation where applying control could prevent and eliminate risk.
Determination of critical limits for the control points. These are monitoring activities to ensure processes in the crucial points are under control
Establishment of corrective actions. They are actions to control deviations.
Creation of procedures for ensuring the systems works as intended.
Record keeping procedures. The HACCP systems require food production centres to maintain certain documents such as hazard analysis and verification activities (Mortimore and Wallace,2013)
Figure 4: Operations management
References
Hayes, D.; Ninemeier, J. 2007, Hotel Operations Management, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey 07458
Jones, T. 2005, Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations, 4th edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New Jersey
Mortimore, S and Wallace, C (2013) HACCP: A Practical Approach. Springer science and business media. 475 pages.
Slack, N, Brandon-Jones, A and Johnston, R (2016) Operations management.7th edition.Pearson Education Limited.
