Best Sample of Operation Management Assignment: Outline And Evaluation Of The Operation Management Activities Of KFC
Here’s the best Sample of operation management assignment on operation management activities of KFC written by experts.
Executive Summary
The brief history and background of the leading quick-serve company Kentucky’s Fried Chicken is given in this assignment. Operation management of KFC and the issues arising in it are discussed elaborately. Under this topic, the techniques and their applications regarding operation management are stated along with the structure of KFC’s operation management. The contents of the company under this section are talked about in this assignment by providing the necessary arguments. Key issues of operation management of Kentucky’s Fried Chicken are discussed elaborately providing the possible solutions along with them. Recommendations are made to further improve the company’s products and services. Necessary solutions to eliminate the arising threats within the company are reflected in this study as well.
1. Introduction
Operational accuracy is the ability that makes an organization profitable and sustainable. It is a management process to maximize profit that converts labor and material into goods and services.
1.1. About KFC
The United Kingdom is a place where 37% or approximately 2.47 cores people consume fast food every day. Fast food is popular among the age group of 20-39. Spicy and fried foods are mainly popular among adults and kids, and KFC is the first name that appears in terms of consuming that category foods. KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken is an American fast food chain which currently available in every corner of the world. It is the second largest fast food chain followed by McDonald’s. The company is one of the top earning revenue brands. The company offers various kinds of delicious foods with efficient management. The company earning strategy is minimizing cost and serves quality food at the cheapest price. The employees of this company are also efficient from making, serving of food to customer handling. However, every popular company faces problem one in a while and KFC no exception. Recent years the company has been accused by several operational management issues and several times the company fined by different countries. The management system has various faults that need to be concerned by the directors of the company either way rival companies will dominate KFC in near future.
1.2. Operation Management of KFC
KFC is considered about customer’s satisfaction in terms of satisfaction the company tries to provide excellent quality food and best service at the lowest cost. The mission of KFC is not only to satisfy customer, the company is also concern to establish in society and continuous improvement. Environment friendly, pollution free production or cooking food is a priority to the company. Profit is also necessary to expand their business and provide better service that is why company applies various strategies in the management. Marketing strategies is one of the key weapons to increase sales of the company. KFC is not only selling from thousands of branches available in all corners of the world but also selling through online market. Apart from that strong accountability and communication skills makes products of KFC reachable to all kinds of customers. The company also provides a wide range of products that are affordable for all kinds of customers. The company is concerned about hidden costs of the firm, by observing the flow of cash, KFC always tries to reduce production cost. KFC is not only a steady selling company but also focuses on the environment that is the company concerned to utilize resources completely. Resource utilization means limiting wastage and providing fresh food to customers.
2. Issues of Operation Management
KFC is one of top steady selling companies because of its good operational management. However, it has several issues that need to be concerned by management.
2.1. Techniques and application
KFC concerns about price and trying to reduce the cost of food in every possible way. Various techniques the company has applied to reduce cost but not all techniques accepted by society. Selling food at a lowest price if become a challenge for the company then it may cause out of focus on other vital factors like hygiene (Achola, 2016, p.32). Unhygienic food effects on people’s health, this is why it should not be denied by any company. Meat is the main ingredient for the company as most of the food of this company is based on meat. Preservation of meat plays the critical part for the company like KFC. KFC use very low temperature and use medicine on raw meats to preserve for a longer period. However preservation process has a time limit, after that period material of preparing food can affect on consumers health (Ahmad, Azmi, and Razak, 2018, p.50). The company uses oil to prepare food and healthy oil is used by KFC in terms of preparing good quality food. However, cost cutting process of the company impacts on the quality of oil. Hygienic food and shop is appreciated by consumers and KFC use it as a technique to attract customers. However, several time issues in hygienic system are found in this company.
2.2. Structure of Operation Management of KFC
KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken is fast food chain that present in all over the world. The company has a strong operational management structure in terms of reducing production cost. However, there are various issues that are impacting on the goodwill of the company (Anand, and Yeung, 2018, p.36). The company is based on chicken and maximum product of this company is based on meat. However, recently the company has faced problems related to storing of raw meats. It is a big issue for the company because the company has over 900 shops only in the United Kingdom. It was a big issue to supply sufficient meat to production house to produce food and insufficient food lead the company to shut their hub. Apart from that KFC franchisor are all around the world and the number of franchisors is too high to observe their every action (Fattah, and Twigg, 2017, p.7). It is an issue in the structure of the company because if franchisor tries to earn in wrong way it hard to spot them. The action of franchisor only effects on the goodwill of the company. Hygiene maintain is also comes along with the issue of management franchisor. The companies do not able to know about the hygienic condition of the shop as the shops are far away from headquarters. Several times non hygienic food causes health problems for the customers.
2.3. Content of Operation Management of KFC
Content is the fuel in operation management as it drives sales and marketing of the company. High Performing content of operating management of KFC are Audience role, Specific needs and issues, Stages of processing and selling food, Competitive options and other goals of the company (Rahman, 2019, p.36). However, various times KFC fails to attempt success in the content of operation management. Lack of management causes the company to manage the content of operation of KFC.
2.4. Key Issues of Operation Management
A company should be able to utilize the opportunities and resources in developing its operation management. In spite of the modifications and changes, the company may be vulnerable to certain threats. This can occur due to the presence of faulty layers in its management of operations and processes. Identifying and analyzing the threats may help to reinforce the operation management process. Setting an optimum parameter might also help the organization to achieve its objectives. The cost of an increase in the market share of an organization comes with a decrease in the market share of other companies.
The quick-serve restaurant industry is one of the densely populated and highly mature industries. In order to survive and thrive in this industry, it is necessary for KFC to maintain consistent and high product quality products and services (WANG and LUO, 2016, p.102). The affordability by the customers should also be while maintaining quality. The company must be able to focus on the continuous development process of its operations in order to come up with satisfactory results. Kentucky Fried Chicken needs to make some specific changes in its system to promote lean business growth.
KFC uses the concept and understanding of customer expectations to achieve its goals. According to researches, the KFC units from all over the world have various complaints and issues regarding customer service. Some of the complaints against KFC are that the employees are rude, lazy, and neglect basic customer services. There are also faults in the processes of food ordering and issuing them, which causes a delay in services (Waweru, 2016, p.239). Customer satisfaction gradually diminishes due to the delays and interruptions in the ordering and serving processes. The company should take steps to minimize and avoid these occurrences in the future so that customer satisfaction can be attained. Giving importance to ethical values and practicing them within the organization will ensure customer loyalty.
The second issue of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s operation management is its food quality. It is often heard from the customers that the outlets provide cold and stale food, which can cause customer dissatisfaction. This can hinder the processes and affect the company’s reputation in the industry. This cause might also be responsible for its loss of revenue and customer loyalty. KFC can fail to meet customer expectations when providing dissatisfactory products and delays in its services (Wu and Cheng, 2018, p.153). Numerous challenges have been faced by KFC in the past like, improper frying chicken pieces, presence of excessive salt in the food products and serving cold and stale chicken pieces. Often, it is seen that the foods are simply not up to the mark unlike other major food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King. Multitasking and lack of proper time management often give rise to these issues in the outlets. The company should train its employees adequately to manage and execute the necessary tasks required to attain customer satisfaction and propel the company’s growth.
The third issue is related to the increasing trend in health-consciousness among customers. KFC focuses majorly on fried products, which can give rise to risks of obesity and weight gain among people. The high-calorie content in its products is the main reason the customers focusing on their health try to avoid. The company needs to change certain procedures to prepare food and introduce healthier menu options (Zhu et al. 2019, p.144). The chickens can be grilled instead of being fried. Reducing the salt and spice content might help to attract healthy customers. There is a lack of long term approach of Kentucky Fried Chicken in defining and setting the key strategy to appeal and satisfy its audience. Major food chains like McDonald’s identified and implemented this strategy a long time ago.
2.5. Argument about Operation Management of KFC
Kentucky’s Fried Chicken needs to modify and change its operation management in order to expand the scope and opportunities associated with business growth. The current operations management process of the organization lacks certain practices related to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Modifications are needed to be made in their processes and operations so that customer expectations can be met (Nunes, 2019, p.23). Changes like modification in the food menu and giving priority to customer services might help in accomplishing this goal. The storage time for the chicken is 15 days which is not in the warehouse itself but in the cold storage area. Proper storage environment is required to store these chickens. It may be beneficial to reduce the storage period in order to avoid staleness and serving fresh food to the customers. The presence of a simple supply chain in KFC due to relatively small scale operations can be a beneficial factor that can give the organization an upper edge in the market. Managing and maintaining this simple structure should be an easy task for KFC (Odokorac, 2019, p.6). In spite of these benefits, the company is constantly coming across issues regarding customer dissatisfaction. Identifying the potential threats and eliminating them from these processes will help to establish a secure future.
3. Recommendations
It is recommended that KFC should focus on promoting lean business growth and rectify previously stated issues regarding customer satisfaction.
Hiring more staff and assigning them to various jobs will help to maintain company reputation. Improving their ability and giving them proper training programs will help to eliminate customer dissatisfaction and promote business growth. The company can hire third-party groups specializing in time management and handling complex situations to train these employees. Promoting ethical values and practices is a good way to attract a wide variety of customers. Different nations have different religions, according to which, KFC must design their services and products to maintain global customer comfort and satisfaction. Recruiting local employees is a good way to make sure these practices are implemented in the outlets in that region. Efforts should be given on recruiting capable managers and educating them so that they can be utilized for guiding and assisting the employees under him.
It is good for the company to focus on implementing certain modifications and changes in its menu for the different types of customers. Food products suited for children can be implemented to give leverage to the kids. Introducing healthier foods might help in attracting customers who are health-conscious. Keeping tabs on the calorie count and displaying them on the counters and menus may help these customers decide what is appropriate for them. Kentucky Fried Chicken can give further thoughts on reducing the salt contents in its foods and implement proper frying and grilling procedures so that quality can be maintained. KFC must give thoughts on improving the order services in order to avoid complications and delays in the ordering and serving process. Applying creative and innovative ideas might help to cope with these situations and avoid them in the future.
Nowadays the trend to buy products online has increased to a significant degree. Therefore, providing online services and delivering them to the customers within a time period will be beneficial here for KFC. These online services are already being practiced by several international companies such as Dominos Pizza some third parties like Uber-eats. The company is recommended to practice as well as implement long-term approaches in order to define and set the key strategy to appeal and satisfy its audience. The company must study and analyze the current market to have a better understanding. The changes and modifications within the organization should be then carried out accordingly.
4. Conclusion
It can be concluded that Kentucky’s Fried Chicken is the second largest fast-food chain in the world followed by McDonald’s, which has its stores and outlets all over the world. The company focuses on providing various quality products and services at reasonable prices to its diverse customer base. In recent years, Kentucky’s Fried Chicken came across various complaints and issues regarding its products and service quality. The operations management team should focus on solving these issues to improve the already deteriorating reputation of the company. It can be said that
The quick-serve restaurant industry is one of the densely-populated and mature industries. In order to sustain long-term survival and improvement, it is necessary for KFC to focus on maintaining its high product and service quality. Improving certain processes and operations may help the company achieve its goals. Identifying and analyzing the rising treats might help the company to reinforce its operations management process. KFC can set up optimum parameters in order to tackle these complex situations and promote business growth. It uses the concept of understanding customer expectations to propel its growth and attain organizational objectives. Market study and their analysis are needed to evaluate the opportunities as well as the potential threats that the company might face while implementing certain changes. In order to satisfy its large customer base, it is recommended for KFC to implement long-term approaches towards the development of various management processes.
References
Achola, M.A., 2016. Franchising as a Market Entry Strategy by Kentucky Fried Chicken into Kenya. Unpublished MBA Thesis, University of Nairobi.
Ahmad, M.F., Azmi, A.F.M.N. and Razak, S.A., 2018. Branding Image of Zero Food Waste Management Actions for Corporate Reputation Development. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.34), pp.48-55.
Anand, D. and Yeung, D., 2018. Employee development and its effect on employee performance at KFC Restaurant Brands.
Fattah, S. and Twigg, D., 2017. The impact of internal marketing and organisational culture mediated by organisational commitment on operational performance.
Kanyan, A., Ngana, L. and Voon, B.H., 2016. Improving the Service Operations of Fast-food Restaurants. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 224, pp.190-198.
Nunes, M.F., 2019. The Impact of Negative Social/Environmental Events on the Market Value of Supply Chain Partners. In Operations Management and Sustainability (pp. 151-178). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Odokorac, O., 2019. The impact E-commerce on logistics performance. a case study; KFC (u) ltd.
Rahman, M.M., 2019. Cultural Differences, Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)–A Comparison between and United Kingdom (UK) Malaysia. Global Journal of Management And Business Research.
Ramakrishnan, T., Kathuria, A. and Khuntia, J., 2018. Business Analytics Capability and Supply Chain Management.
Singh, V.P., 2016. A Road Less Travelled: Special People in Costa & KFC. NHRD Network Journal, 9(2), pp.84-90.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
WANG, Q. and LUO, Q., 2016. Chain Operation Innovation of Sichuan Cuisine: the Perspective of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Innovation and Supply Chain Management, 10(3), pp.101-105.
Waweru, R.N., 2016. An Assessment of Customer Perspectives on Factors that have Influenced the Success of a MNC in the Kenyan Fast Food Industry: A case Study of KFC Vis-à-Vis Galito’s (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).
Wu, H.C. and Cheng, C.C., 2018. What drives experiential loyalty toward smart restaurants? The case study of KFC in Beijing. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 27(2), pp.151-177.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J. and Lai, K.H., 2019. Choosing the right approach to green your supply chains. Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications.
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