What are the advantages and disadvantages of Pret A Manger organizing itself so that the individual shops make the sandwiches that they sell? -Advantage: a. Since it is the same employee who serves your lunch that made the sandwich, he will be responsible for his job, I. e. ingredients selection, freshness, and packaging. b. To keep items fresh and no overnight food is allowed, the volume of food prepared is relatively low, thus making staff do less repeating work. c.
Being a fast food store, the variety of its products is low, thus making the food preparation process standardized and routine, as well as saving unit cost. d. The variation in demand is low, in other words, predictable, demand goes up at lunch time on weekdays and the preparation is carried out a few hours before. Based on this point, the forecast provided to supplier is accurate and wasted raw material is recued. e. Targeted at white collars, its visibility is quite high. Once the customer is served satisfactorily, its concept will be broadcasted through word-of-mouth and its reputation will be improved. Disadvantage: a. Since each employee has to be taught how to prepare sandwich as well as serve customers, the training process is more time consuming and costly. b. Owing to the low volume of food, the unit cost is raised inevitably. c. The low variety of food leads to customer disappointment when they want to customize their own sandwich with their preferred ingredients inside. d. Due to the low variation in demand, a sudden increase or decrease in consumption will disturb its routine order quantity and staff arrangement, a disaster to the store’s operation. e.
Because of high visibility, employees need to be strictly trained to serve customer well and avoid long waiting time. Q2. How can effective operations management at Pret A Manger contribute significantly to its success? a. The concept of “We make food, we sell them! ” makes it distinguished from other fast food stores, which is the key of its success. b. With market segment targeted at white collar groups, its revenue is guaranteed as long as the store meets its customers’ requirement. c. Wholesome ingredients indicate a store image of being healthy, fresh, and elicious, thus making itself a preferred one compared with other fast food restaurant. d. Each store has its own kitchen to prepare food, except those tiny ones, thus making its products better than anyone else. e. No overnight food rule guarantees its freshness which is highly pursued nowadays, especially those office workers. f. The discussion of food, recipes, and customer feedbacks carried out by its food team every week becomes a virtuous cycle for its operations. In this way, customers will know they are highly valued and respected, thus consolidating customer loyalty. . Being kept away from chemical contamination, additives, and preservatives, the store builds up customer trust and enjoys its success. h. Sandwiches packaged in paperboard rather than plastics bag indicates its freshness and healthy. i. Holding the idea of “Starting from tiny things, correct once wrong”, the store pays more attention to the details. With company phone number printed on package, once customer complaints are received, it will amend immediately, which is the main factor of its success. j.
Making its food in its own kitchen instead of buying them from factory, the store earns customers’ trust and respect, and becomes a successful retailer in the fast food industry. Q3. What would the consequences of poor operations management be in this kind of organization? a. With the aim of serving white collars, more efforts are emphasized on fresh and safe ingredient selection, delicate food package, and comfortable lunch environment. If the performance is below standard, customers will be disappointed dramatically. b.
The carefully selected ingredients require a reliable and long-term relationship supplier to deliver, as well as resources examination occasionally. Once some healthy problems are reported, its store image will be ruined. c. The sanitation in its kitchen is also a crucial factor that will affect the quality of food, as well as its success, and poor sanitation level is contradicted to its freshness concept obviously. d. Since all sandwiches left after shop hours will be dropped, a false forecast of demand will lead to a huge waste in ingredients and affect its revenue. . Poor vendor selection or their delivered ingredients examination will result in poor food quality undoubtedly. f. Since the store sells food made by itself rather than buy food from specialty factory, it need spend more effort in its flavor improvement according to customer feedback. If the sandwiches are not delicious, few customers will visit the store regardless of its freshness. g. The store should be aware of false reports related to food safety brought out by its rivals, which will result in customer dissatisfaction. . All employees should be skillful ranging from food preparation to customer service. Poor employees training will lead to poor performance. i. The ability of suppliers to deliver sufficient ingredients on time each day is also a critical point. Poor performance will influence the food preparation process directly. j. Consolidating customers’ trust and respect continuously should also be taken into consideration. Otherwise, its reputation will fade and its customer group will lose.
