NOTHING FANCY

MANAGING OPERATIONS
Name: Lily Della-Vedova
ABOUT Student ID: N9586601
Tutor: Jan Henrik Gruenhagen
Word Count: 2700

NOTHING FANCY
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction. ......................................................................................................... 3
2.0 Evaluation of managing operation issues. .............................................................. 3
Detecting Quality Problems (The Gap Model). .......................................................................... 3
Gap 1. ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Gap 2. ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Gap 3. ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Gap 4. ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Gap 5. ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Customer Benefit Package and Value Chain. ............................................................................. 6
3.0 Corporate Social Responsibility issues. .................................................................. 7
4.0 Issues and Recommendations................................................................................ 8
First Issue and Recommendation. ............................................................................................. 9
Second Issue and Recommendation. ........................................................................................ 9
The Deming Wheel: PDCA cycle. .................................................................................................. 10
Step 1. Plan. .................................................................................................................................. 11
Step 2. Do. .................................................................................................................................... 11
Step 3. Study and Check. .............................................................................................................. 11
Step 4. Act. ................................................................................................................................... 11
Third Issue and Recommendation........................................................................................... 11
5.0 Conclusion. ......................................................................................................... 12
6.0 References. ......................................................................................................... 13

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1.0 Introduction.
Nothing Fancy is a newly opened restaurant on 31 Hope Street which is situated on the edge
of an industrial area. The restaurant differentiates themselves by providing basic food in a
basic setting but of good quality. The owner of Nothing Fancy would like their restaurant
investigated to see what they could do to improve their customer experience, it is realised
that the issues the restaurant is facing is originating from poor and disorganised operations
management. There are three main critical points that all managers need to take into
consideration when running a business, these are, Productivity, Cost, and Quality, if these
three areas are not achieved at high levels, customers will not be satisfied and it will
decrease customer value. This report will investigate and analyse the customer experience
at Nothing Fancy Restaurant. Theory is used to investigate, understand, and forecast past,
current, and future activities. By applying Operations Management theory to identify and
evaluate the critical issues, recommendations will be suggested on how Nothing Fancy can
improve the restaurant for future guests.

2.0 Evaluation of managing operation issues.

Detecting Quality Problems (The Gap Model).
To ensure good quality is at all levels of the services and products that Nothing Fancy
Restaurant provides, a tool to recognise quality problems is The Gap Model. This model
identifies that there can be different ways to be unorganised and mismanage the formation
and delivery of high levels of quality. These “Gaps” are shown in the model below (Collier &
Evans, 2007).

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We can use The Gap Model to analyse and guarantee that there is no breach in providing
good quality to Nothing Fancy customers.

Gap 1.
The first gap is the inconsistency among customer anticipations and management
perceptions of those anticipations. The most significant outlook of quality is the customer’s,
goods and services must be intended to meet customer expectations and needs for quality
(S. Russell & W. Taylor, 2016). For Nothing Fancy, the customers’ expectations link to what
they read about the restaurant, they were told to expect amble amount of parking, good
quality, plain and no “frills” meals and décor, and amble amount of seating. From the
restaurant review, it is evident that there are some serious issues within this first gap.
Management perceptions of the quality they are providing greatly differs from what the
customer expects and experiences at Nothing Fancy.

Gap 2.
The second gap is the difference in what management perceives a target level of quality
requires and the actual task of translating the perceptions into feasible actions. Simply put,
this means that management believe they can reach a certain target quality level but do not

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consider how they will achieve this level of quality. Nothing Fancy have wanted to provide
good quality but remain plain and simple, what the restaurant management did not think of
was how they would maintain this level of quality throughout a working day. The review
explains that when the customers received their table, the table cloth and napkins were
dirty and so were the knives, this suggest that none of these items were changed after the
previous customers sitting at that table. As Nothing Fancy decided to go with good quality
white table clothes and napkins, it would suggest that stains are not easily removed, as the
customers transfer meals from the share plates onto their own plate this would create a
mess and the linen would need to be changed. There is a clear issue within this gap as
management have not performed any actions to ensure they maintain good quality service.

Gap 3.
The third gap of this model is described to be the difference in the specifications and
regulations outlined in training documents and manuals and the actual implementation of
these documents. As evident in the review, this gap has many issues relating to Nothing
Fancy. There is a discrepancy between the expectation hygiene levels of a restaurant and
the cleanliness of Nothing Fancy’s bathrooms. There is also issues with the staff of Nothing
Fancy not being adequately trained in terms of knowledge, procedure, training, and
appearance.

Gap 4.
The fourth gap can be described to be the difference in the performance of the delivery and
manufacturing and the relay of information back to customers. Nothing Fancy fail to do this
effectively in their restaurant as per the review. When customers arrived at the restaurant,
even though being on time for their booking they were told to wait around “for a few
minutes”, the customers then had to wait to receive each course of their meal, finally the
customers had to wait again to receive their bill. The restaurant failed to properly
communicate with their customers when waiting times were different to what they were
being told and failing to keep customers updated on the status of their meals while other
patrons were receiving constant attention and food.

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Gap 5.
The fifth and final gap is the discrepancy between customer expectations and perceptions.
This gap relies and depends on the other four gaps in this model, due to issues arising in all
other areas, it is safe to say that there is a large breach between the customer expectations
and customer perceptions. Everything the patrons expected of Nothing Fancy were different
or non-existent. The food at the restaurant was the only thing that did not have a gap
between expectation and perception.

It is evident in this Gap Model that there are many changes that the Nothing Fancy
Restaurant must make in order to reduce these gaps in their services.

Customer Benefit Package and Value Chain.

Customer Benefit Package:

A customer Benefit Package is identifying the actual and perceived needs and wants of
goods and services. Nothing Fancy’s primary core product is to provide customers with food
(meals). Along with providing the actual product, to satisfy the needs and wants of
customers, Nothing Fancy also provides peripheral goods and services that make the

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experience of receiving a meal from their restaurant more enjoyable and satisfying for their
customer (see above graphic). These peripherals also help Nothing Fancy keep up with
competitors as they are able to see where they can provide a better service, some of the
peripheral goods and services are; providing dining services, providing the ability for
customers to socialise, providing hygienic and sanitary service, supplying an easy meal
efficiently, providing variance in customer’s choices, and providing an atmosphere to
enhance the experience.
Operations Management needs to focus on creating and maintaining value for the
customer, the value chain is a network of processes that creates value for the consumer
(Collier & Evans, 2007). A Value Chain analysis gives Nothing Fancy the opportunity to
process how they can increase the amount of value their customers receive when dining at
their restaurant. As the product and service goes through each activity in the chain, the
product and service gains some value, by the time it has reached the customer, it has gained
a lot more value than it had in the beginning (Realtime Board, 2018). Below is Nothing
Fancy’s unique Value Chain.

3.0 Corporate Social Responsibility issues.

There are many significant risks and the danger of facing public criticism of corporate social
responsibility issues in the supply chain for the food industry (J. Maloni & E. Brown, 2006). It
is a business’s responsibility to make sure that they are conforming to social standards,
some of the key corporate social responsibility issues facing Nothing Fancy are; Using food
from sustainable and local suppliers, using recyclable materials, ensuring diversity in the

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workplace, and creating a sustainable workplace. These issues also relate to Human
Resources and environmental concerns. The pyramid below is one way total corporate
social responsibility can be monitored, it is divided into four criteria sections that can be
looked at when determining whether a corporate business is socially responsible (Samson &
L. Daft, 2012).

As per the customer review, there is one main corporate social responsibility concern that
Nothing Fancy faces. The restaurant is being very wasteful as there is a lot of food being
thrown out. Nothing Fancy could fix this issue if they reviewed the portion sizes their dishes
are or by simply altering their menu to show how many people the dish will feed on
average. This would reduce the amount of waste that Nothing Fancy creates as customers
will only order what they can eat and it will help Nothing Fancy save more of their produce;
this situation also relates to economic responsibility because Nothing Fancy will save money
by not throwing out so much produce.

4.0 Issues and Recommendations.

From this investigation and further analysis, the following issues have been identified and
solutions have been recommended as to how to improve the Nothing Fancy restaurant so
that future guests do not have such a bad experience. The key problems are first identified
and their causes are analysed and then a recommendation is proposed.

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First Issue and Recommendation.
In the review, the first problem identified is the limited amount of parking, while Nothing
Fancy promised an abundance of parking, it turned out that their car park was full and on
street parking was limited. There are two major factors to the cause of this problem,
1. The restaurant’s carpark is not regulated to make sure it is only Nothing Fancy
customers parking there. It was noted that some people parking were walking into
other businesses and were not customers at Nothing fancy.
2. Because the restaurant is located on the edge of an industrial area, street parking
was taken up by large heavy vehicles associated with the industrial businesses
surrounding Nothing Fancy. There was no other space to park as the industrial
businesses around Nothing Fancy had bollards in their driveways so that there was
no unauthorised parking.

To address this issue, there are a few solutions that Nothing Fancy can apply to their
business. Firstly, it would be beneficial for signage to be introduced at the driveway of the
parking lot, this would state that the car park was exclusively for Nothing Fancy customers
and all other vehicles will be towed at owner’s expense. This would prevent non-Nothing
Fancy customers from taking up car parking spots. Nothing Fancy could also speak with the
industrial businesses around them and develop relationships so that they may be able to
work together in providing more parking, in return, the restaurant may provide discounts to
the people who work at the industrial business. Finally, Nothing Fancy should work towards
providing faster service so that customers spend less time in the restaurant and parking
becomes available faster.

Second Issue and Recommendation.

The second major issue for Nothing Fancy seems to be their level of customer service that is
provided. In the review, there is multiple sections where the customer has complained
about the customer service of Nothing Fancy. When the customer arrived, they were told
that the table they had booked was not yet ready, one of the waiters that tended to them
gave them the wrong meals and insisted that it was what they had ordered, there was more
waiting issues when they had to continuously wait long periods of time between receiving

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their meals while noticing that a different table was being prioritised and always had a
constant stream of food. The last issue that was put in the review is that the customers had
to wait again for the waiter to bring them their bill, there was no payment counter and they
had to wait for the waiter to bring them their bill and the eftpos machine.
The only way Nothing Fancy will receive returning customers is if those customers are loyal
to them. It is important to provide a positive customer service experience so that the
customer wants to return for the goods and services, if a patron has received a bad
customer service experience, they are less likely to want to return to the place they
experienced this. Loyalty is a fundamental part of doing business, not many businesses are
able to survive without establishing a loyal customer following (D. Gremler & W. Brown,
1996).

To improve the customer service at Nothing Fancy, a Quality Management system should be
applied, these systems refer to methodical policies and procedures that are used to
guarantee goods and services are created with suitable levels of quality to meet the needs
of customers (Collier & Evans, 2007). The Deming Wheel: PDCA cycle (as seen below) is
when the business plan, do, study and check, and act on a management system they have
applied to their business.
The Deming Wheel: PDCA cycle.

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This would be a valuable quality management system for Nothing Fancy to use. To
successfully implement the system, Nothing Fancy must follow the four steps.

Step 1. Plan.
Nothing Fancy need to plan the way they are going to change their customer service level,
the process needs to be studied, the problem can be identified (the customer service level),
goals can be set, and a plan can be developed for improvement.

Step 2. Do.
This is the step where the plan can be implemented on a trial basis, this is so it can be tested
against Nothing Fancy’s conditions and can be measured for improvement.

Step 3. Study and Check.

This step is where the plan gets assessed on whether it is working effectively and the way it
was intended to. Nothing Fancy also needs to check if the goals have been achieved since
implementing the system, if the answer is no, the plan needs to be redesigned and the goals
that it did not achieve need to be taken into consideration.

Step 4. Act.
This is the final step in the process where the plan should be able to work independently
and not require changes but still incorporate improvement.

After the full process is completed, it can be repeated and new concerns for Nothing Fancy
can be identified and the process can be restarted.

Third Issue and Recommendation.

The third major issue that Nothing Fancy must amend is the hygiene and cleanliness of the
restaurant. In the customer review, it is stated that the stiff white table clothes, napkins,
and some of the cutlery was still dirty. When the customers visited the bathroom, there was
mould and mildew in the corners of the room, there was not much toilet paper, and the
rubbish bin had not been changed in a while as it was overflowing. The hygiene and

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cleanliness of the restaurant was repeated with that of one of the waiters that served the
customers, he was unprofessionally presented. He was wearing a dirty shirt and his hands
were unwashed and unclean. The cause of these issues is the fact that Nothing Fancy does
not have the proper standards and regulations in place to ensure that this does not happen.

It is recommended that Nothing Fancy introduce standards into the management of

operations in their restaurant. A standard is a document that provides requirements,
specifications, guidelines, or other precise criteria that can be used consistently to ensure
the materials, products, process, and services are fit for their purpose (S. Russell & W.
Taylor, 2016). ISO standards address issues relevant to consumers such as food safety,
nutritional labelling, hygiene, food additives and more (International Organisation for
Standardization, 2017). Implementing these standards would ensure that Nothing Fancy’s
hygiene and cleanliness levels of their workplace will rise and will provide a better
atmosphere for their customers.

5.0 Conclusion.
Nothing Fancy customers expected everything that the restaurant described they had,
unfortunately based on the customer review, there was not a lot of truth to the background
information of the restaurant. It is evident that throughout this report and according to the
customer review, the Nothing Fancy Restaurant needs to ensure they incorporate
Operations Management into their business (Prajogo, McDermott, & Goh, 2008) (McKnight,
2009)s. There are three main critical points that all managers need to take into
consideration when running a business, these are, Productivity, Cost, and Quality, if these
three areas are not achieved at high levels, customers will not be satisfied and it will
decrease customer value. This can be done by following the recommendations above and
addressing the issues outlined in this report.

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6.0 References.
Collier, D. A., & Evans, J. R. (2007). Operations management: goods, services and value
chains (2nd Edition ed.). Ohio: Thomson South-Western.
D. Gremler, D., & W. Brown, S. (1996). Service Loyalty: Its Nature, Importance, and
Implications. Idaho: University of Idaho.
International Organisation for Standardization. (2017). ISO and food. Geneva: ISO Central
Secretariat.
J. Maloni, M., & E. Brown, M. (2006, July 12). Corporate Social Responsibility in the Supply
Chain: An Application in the Food Industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(1), 35-52.
McKnight, S. (2009). Bridging the gap between service provision and customer expectations.
Performance Measurement and Metrics, 10(2), 79-93.
Prajogo, D. I., McDermott, P., & Goh, M. (2008). Impact of value chain activities on quality
and innovation. International Journal of Operations & Production Management,
28(7).
Realtime Board. (2018). Value Chain Model. Retrieved from Realtime Board:
https://realtimeboard.com/examples/value-chain-model/
S. Russell, R., & W. Taylor, B. (2016). OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (9th
Edition ed.). Wiley.
Samson, D., & L. Daft, R. (2012). Fundamentals of Management (4th Edition ed.). Cengage
Learning Australia.

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