Herbies Pizza: Operational Management Analysis

1. Introduction

Operational management is a business process for creating high level of efficiency within the organisation where it is important to convert the raw materials and labour into goods and services proficiently as possible to maximise the profitability of the organisation (Mohammadi, Soleymani, and Mozafari, 2014). The operational management process is effective to develop successful strategic planning through which it is easy to fulfil the strategic goal and objectives of the business as well as satisfy the customers by delivering quality products and proficient services to the customers according to their needs and personal preferences. The aim of the study is to analyse the operational management process of a small business considering the organisation Herbies Pizza, doing their operation through a shop, through which it is easy to acknowledge the strategic planning of the organisation to convert the raw materials and the labour into quality products and services that would match the market demand and meet the expectations the customers. Through this study, it is also able to analyse the performnace objectives of the firm Herbies Pizza so that proper mission of the company can be fulfilled through developing effective strategic management. In addition to these, evolution of supply chain management in the company Herbies Pizza is also effective for understanding the strategic planning to manage the supply chain of the company through which thy can deliver efficacity services to the customers.

2. Overview of the organisation

Herbies Pizza Limited is a famous company delivering quality Pizza as per the market demand and the preferences of the customers, situated at Berkshire, which is the main location of the company for expanding their operational activities and additionally the company expands their supply chain of pizza across the UK for establishing the business successfully. The company is running their operational process efficiently over 15 years and serving the quality products such as coffee, pizza and other snacks items to the customers according to the needs and preferences of the customers in the market.

The organisation focuses on creating values for the customers through delivering quality pizza to the customers in the market which is effective to meet the expectations of the customers. Through operational management including development of the strategic planning, product design, maintaining the system, managing online services and process innovation, the company is successful in converting the raw material, labour and technology into the quality and finished goods and services that is beneficial to serve the customers in a better and unique way. Through store expansion and online delivery service, the company Herbies Pizza is efficient to serve the customers across the UK market and this further helps the company to improve their brand loyalty and reputation in the market, where the stores are opened at 10 a.m. at the morning for serving breakfast as well as lunch, evening snacks and dinner to the customers across the UK.

The quality of the products and efficiencies of their services to serve the customers innovatively are also advantageous for the organisation Herbies Pizza to improve brand image and increase brand visibility in the market through which the leaders and the managers of Herbies Pizza can strengthen their customer’s by retaining more loyal and long-term customers at the market (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). The major competitors of Herbies pizza are Dominos, Pizza hut and McDonald’s which have high market share as compared to the company Herbies pizza.

The company Herbies Pizza aims at creating values through treating the people transparently and give them proper return on investment, managing the people well and delivering high quality products such as pizza, coffee and other snacks and services to all the people at effective price that will be helpful for the organisation Herbies Pizza to sustain in the business and expand their operational activities across the country successfully. The strategic objective of the company is to grow faster by gaining highly competitive advantage in the market over the above mentioned competitors, improving service delivery model, enhancing innovation and creativity, offering diversified products to the customers by delivering snacks items, coffee and pizza as per the market trend and demand of the consumers and focusing on knowledge management and penetrate the local market to increase their market share (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018).

3. Key operational processes in the organisation

In order to analyse the operational process of the company, it is necessary to understand the order qualifiers and order winners and in this regard the order qualifiers of the company refer the criteria for which the products are qualified in serving the customers, where the order winners are the products which won the customer’s expectations (Parisio, Rikos and Glielmo, 2016). In this regard, the order winners and order qualifiers for the shop of Herbies Pizza are explained further,

The shop of Herbies Pizza becomes order qualifiers due to its flexibility and durability where the service representatives of the company are proficient in delivering the products at right place within right time (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). The service delivery is consistent, and the company tries to become order winners by maintaining consistent quality of the organisational products and services through which it is easy to meet the expectations of the customers at the market (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). In addition to these, variety of tasty menu and creating values for the customers at the local market by delivering high quality products and services at competitive price as compared to its competitors like Domino’s are effective to become order winners and run their operational activities efficiently (Parisio, Rikos and Glielmo, 2016). In order to manage the operational activities of the shop of Herbies Pizza, it is necessary to acknowledge the core competencies of the company through which it is possible to acknowledge the critical success factors of the shop in meeting the organisational objective and gain high market share in such an era of highly competitive global food industry. The core competencies of the shop of Herbies Pizza are evaluated further,

The above-mentioned core competencies are helpful for the shop of Herbies Pizza to enhance their performnace and develop proper value chain for creating values for the customers and other stakeholders also including the managers of the shop Herbies Pizza, employees, front line managers, customer relationship managers, staff members, service delivery boys, suppliers and distributors as well as shareholders and government. For enhancing the operational planning in the company, the organisation focuses on values chain process for customer relationship management and developing effective process for converting the raw materials, technology and labour into the high-quality output of the company. In this regard, the customer’s values chain can be explained below,

Value chain is one of the important factors in the operational management of the shop of Herbies Pizza, through which it is possible for the brand to gain competitive advantage and expand the business sustainably (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). In this regard, the shop Herbies Pizza aims at high investment on the staff members and developing physical store of the company so that it is possible to improve brand visibility and serve the customers well at the market (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). Providing high returns to the staff members, creating values for them, encouraging their creativity and arranging training program for improving their skills and abilities are helpful to improve customer service (Bahmani-Firouzi, and Azizipanah-Abarghooee, 2014). On the other hand, the store invests more in developing attractive store with efficient service and delivering high quality products and in this context, sitting arrangement, restaurant atmosphere and communication process with the representative of the organisation are beneficial to serve the customers in a better way (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018).

Moreover, central location of the store at the market as well as attractive menu of the company are helpful to attract more audiences at the market and it in turn helps to strengthen their customers base. The front-line managers of the shop of Herbies Pizza are able to communicate with the customers for acknowledging their needs and preferences and help the customers to choose the best products as per their requirements. Arrangement of the store as per the figure above, is also effective where the customers can understand the posters and choose the products among the food menu. Operational process depends on managing the product value chain through which can be analysed through Porter’s value chain model and it provides a scope to the conglomerates to develop effective strategic planning for managing the operations of the firm (Christopher, 2016).

Through the value chain process, the store Herbies Pizza is able to transfer the raw materials and labour into final outcome where the company focuses on ordering and delivering the raw material to the store, managing the production through latest technology, delivery of product to the customers and marketing and advertising through which the company is successful in retaining the clients in the market. On the other hand, the support activities such as human resource management at the store, developing the in-store environment, using technology for customer orders and delivery and product development are helpful for the organisation Herbies Pizza to manage their operations successfully. For designing the product successfully, the company needs to focus on the product-based service range and service-based product range through which it is possible to deliver high quality products and services to the customers. In this regard, the store focuses on acknowledging the market trend and understanding the customer’s preferences at the local market for developing wide variety of tasty menu for the customers. On the other hand, the shop of Herbies Pizza also focuses on developing their service through improving online service, maintaining flexibility and durability and managing customer’s relationship.

Product diversification in this regard is one of the best techniques to operate in the market and retain more customers with huge variety of tasty foods menu. In this regard, as per the figure below, the store Herbies Pizza use different ingredients and herbs to make the pizza delicious and tasty as well as different from each other. In this regard, different ingredients such as chicken, mutton, lamb, paneer, cheese, corn, mushroom are beneficial for the company to increase the product line and serve the customers different types of pizza according to the needs and preferences of the consumers.

In this regard, the 4V strategy are useful to be analysed for evaluating the effectiveness of the operational process of the organisation Herbies Pizza.

As per the 4V model, the components are volume, variety, variation and visibility through which it is possible to analyse the effectiveness of the operational process in the market.

4. Performnace objectives of the organisation

Performnace objectives of the company are important to set the goals for achieving success in near future where all the employees and staff members focus on objective and improve their skill and abilities and enhance their performnace to meet the organisational performance objective (Swink et al., 2017). In this regard, the five objectives of the company Herbies Pizza are,

Maintaining quality of the products

Maintaining speed

Increasing dependability

Managing flexibility

Cost minimisation

The store of Herbies Pizza focuses on the maintaining quality of the product Pizza to satisfy the customers successfully. being right is effective to maintain quality and in this context, the company Herbies Pizza also focuses ion storage of the raw materials and using different herbs and ingredients safely as shown in the figure below are effective to maintain the quality of the product (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018).

On the other hand, the store of Herbies Pizza aims at the second performnace objective which is maintaining speed by being fast where it is posisbel to deliver the product safely within effective time which in turn meet the customer’s expectation and retain more long-term customers for the quality products and efficient service of the organisation Herbies Pizza (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). Moreover, third objective of the shop is to increase dependability through being on time by using the mobile application, managing supply chain and building strong relationship with the suppliers and service boys of the organisation (Swink et al., 2017). The fourth performnace objective is to increase flexibility by managing the market demand and being able to change where customer centric business model is helpful for the company to analyse the customer’s demand and prefer their orders as well as give them a chance to alter their orders as per their preferences (Swink et al., 2017). The fifth objective is to minimise the cost of the production and distribution of the shop so that it is easy for them to deliver quality products at completive price and this in turn helps the organisation to retain more customers and create values for them successfully (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018). The above mentioned performnace objectives are helpful for the store of Herbies Pizza to follow the objective and improve the operational planning for serving the customers in a better and unique way which in turn provides an opportunity to the firm to satisfy the customers by delivering quality products and efficient service according to their taste and preferences (Herbies Pizza Limited, 2018).

5. Supply chain management of the organisation

In order to manage the supply chain of the store, it is necessary to manage the logistic, suppliers, procurement, maintaining integrated partnership, demand management, inventory control and product life cycle management through which the firm can develop effective supply chain (Hugos, 2018). In this regard, the store of the Herbies Pizza focuses on maintaining the proper relationship with the suppliers and the distributors of raw materials so that it is possible to make availability of the raw materials at the store so that the producers can manufacture the final product efficiently by maintaining hygienic factors.

In this regard, the production process needs to be developed properly where the manufacture can forecast the demand and deliver the final product successfully within effective time. The figure below refers the production process of the store of the Herbies Pizza which includes order placement, assembly line, cooking, packing and delivery which is a smooth process that provides a scope to the company Herbies Pizza to utilise the organisational resources, raw materials, infrastructure, technology and skill for the staff members to transform these into the final output, quality and delicious pizza. Inventory management and Just -In-Time processed followed by the store Herbies Pizza which provides a scope to track the market orders and deliver the products on time. The management of the delivery boys and the suppliers are effective where the company Herbies Pizza tries to build strong relationship with all the suppliers and service delivery boys so that it is possible to retain them and improve their skills and abilities to track the market demand and deliver the product Pizza at right place within appropriate time.

The food making technology in this regard is useful for the store of Herbies Pizza to maintain the quality and safety of the products where proper packaging of the products and using quality raw materials are effective for the company Herbies Pizza to meet the customer’s expectations. In this regard, for managing the supply chain, the company also focuses on maintaining the quality and inventory control to deliver quality products safely by maintaining hygienic factors. The shop Herbies Pizza focuses on manufacturing process such as conversion process, fabrication, assembly process and tasting process through which, the organisation maintains their quality of pizzas. Make to stock approach for supply chain management of the Herbies Pizza shop is also effective for delivering fresh and quality products to the customers. Here, the indirect suppliers of raw materials in the Herbies Pizza shop are such as vegetable markets, meat market, sauces companies and the direct supplier are engaged with the company where the service delivery boy manage the distribution of the products through tracking the market demand. Warehouse of the company Herbies Pizza is clean, and the leaders maintain hygienic factors to store the raw materials by maintaining safety and security. The Herbies Pizza shop delivers the products through managing delivery boys by tracking market demand and also the employees play crucial role in serving the customers at the store. Quality assurance in this regard is necessary for the shop Herbies pizza and in this context, the company focuses on maintaining cleanliness, improving accuracy, hospitality management, proper maintenance of the store, speed of delivery and enhancing product quality through which the organisation ensures that they deliver quality products to the customers according to their taste and preferences.

6. Recommendations for improving operational process to justify the rationale

In order to improve the operational activities and improving green supply chain of the organisation, it is necessary to recommend some suitable suggestions so that the brand reputation of Herbies Pizza can be improved, and the customers can make purchase decision for the quality products of the shop of Herbies Pizza. The recommendations are such as,

The store of Herbies Pizza needs to follow GPRS system to track the market demand so that it is possible for the company to maintain the order placement of the customers with effective information about the customer so that the service delivery boys can deliver the quality products at right time safely and this could mitigate the issue of delay in delivery, misunderstanding about the preferences of the customers and inefficiency of the staff.

The shop of Herbies Pizza needs to develop the mobile application efficiently where the customers can choose the right product as per their taste and preferences with one click option and also make the service flexible so that the customers can alter their orders properly as per their changing demand and this is helpful to resolve the issue of inefficiency in customer management.

The mobile application needs to be developed where on time delivery option can be included, so that the customers can peak hours or right time to expect delivery which in turn helps the service delivery boys to understand the customer’s preferences, mitigate the customer’s complaints for long hour delivery and manage the customer service successfully.

The store also needs to implement Information and Telecommunication Technology (ICT) at the workplace for enhancing internal and external communication among the staff members as well as manage the customer’s records successfully which in turn reduces the problem of non-communication and lack of interaction between the customers and the representative pf the Herbies Pizza shop.

The shop of Herbies Pizza also needs to maintain sustainability of the operational process and should avoid the use of plastic for increasing positive environmental footprint and in this regard, it would be beneficial for the company to use paper packaging for safe and secured packaging of the products that in turn helps in reducing the problem of negative environmental footprint.

The shop also focuses on green supply chain management and utilise battery cars for delivery of the pizza safely where the emission of greenhouse gases can be mitigated, and it further helps the firm to secure future sustainable development through managing their green supply chain and to reduce negative impacts of the company’s business operation son the environment and the society as a whole.

The mobile application needs to be developed where the sales representative seek feedback from the customers, and this is effective to build two-way communication ensure building strong relationship and improving trust and loyalty which in turn resolve the problem of mismanagement of the customers.

Marketing needs to be improved for enhancing operational efficiency, where the store needs to promote the product line at the market to retain the customers at local market and in this regard, the company needs to promote the business through social media, mobile application and developing effective content and attractive posters on the company’s website which attracts the customers successfully which enhances the marketing strategy of Herbies Pizza and resolve the problem of small customer base s this would be beneficial for retaining long term customers for the quality products of Herbies Pizza.

As per the discussion, the shop of Herbies Pizza is successful to create values for the customers by delivering quality products and efficient services to the customers as per the market trend and customer’s taste and preferences. In this regard, the store needs to improve their operational efficiency to meet the performnace objectives of quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost through implementing latest technology such as ICT, JIT management, GPRS system for tracking the market orders and on the other hand, the store also needs to develop mobile application and develop the website with effective content and attractive posters about the offers and product variety so that it is possible for the customers to identify the right product according to their taste and preferences. Moreover, marketing through posters at website of the shop of Herbies Pizza, developing mobile application for identifying the right products among a huge variety of product line and placing the order with one click and give peak up time which ensures high quality of products and services delivered to the customers.

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