Josh Martin is writing a business plan for starting a new restaurant. His concept is to create a restaurant that will serve Spanish cuisine such as paella, steak, and other traditional dishes in a family atmosphere in a resort community along the North Carolina coast. His vision is stated as “We will be a profitable, responsible, and customer-driven team that supplies high-quality food and service while maintaining sensitivity to our employees and the community. We are committed to hiring, developing, and rewarding people who are enthusiastic, intelligent, and hard-working team players dedicated to the company’s success.” He realizes that the industry is highly competitive, with many national chains as well as other local restaurants. Staffing will be a challenge, as the turnover in this industry is traditionally quite high, particularly among high school and college students who will comprise a large proportion of the employee base. Josh has come across the Baldrige criteria and attended a brief presentation by the local Chamber of Commerce. He is wondering how it might help him to design a management infrastructure to build a successful business.
Some of his initial and somewhat random thoughts are outlined below.
• Design the menu and food presentation to clearly differentiate from competitors.
• Have weekly shift meetings to relay information about current issues and generate ideas for process improvements. Review this information at monthly management meetings and quarterly planning sessions.
• Make teams the central focus of all jobs and allow all staff to process customer requests; for example, a busser can order an additional beverage without first getting a server to process the transaction.
• Compensate performance based on teamwork.
• Give employees who leave for school and find a replacement a bonus.
• Develop efficient methods for disposal of grease and recyclable goods, and participate in programs such as Junior Achievement.
• Use an Enterprise Resource Planning system to manage information, along with a Customer Relationship Management module to process customer intelligence. This system will help to generate accurate forecasts of demand and manage the supply chain.
• Learn about industry best practices for supply chain management and work with suppliers to reduce inventory requirements and costs.
• Train and empower the staff.
• Give a small discount for customers who complete a comment card on selected days.
• Customize service a much as possible to develop customer loyalty.
• Train hostesses, servers, bussers, and managers on customer relationship building. Empower them to address problems such as wrong orders or late deliveries to the table.
• Incorporate all stakeholders into planning activities, including employees, customers, investors, and suppliers.
• Post performance measures in the lobby where all employees and customers can see them.
• Use wireless handheld computers to capture orders and send them to the kitchen.
• Use marketing research to understand age, ethnicity, income, and marital factors of customers. Hand out coupons at Junior Achievement functions.
• Rotate duties for cleaning and sterilizing areas at the end of each shift, including managers.
• Outsource accounting and legal processes
How do these practices fit into the Baldrige criteria? In what categories and items?
2. What aspects of the Baldrige criteria are lacking? What other things should he consider doing?
3. Do you believe the Baldrige criteria is appropriate for Josh to use at the Catalan Bar and Grill or do you instead recommend that he use another approach (such as Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, ISO, etc.)? Perhaps you believe he should use some combination of approaches? Explain your recommendation and your rationale for it.