The Operational Challenges Affecting Kiwanis International

BUSINESS REPORT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF KIWANIS INTERNATIONALBy (Your Name)Institutional AffiliationCourseInstructorTutor DateTable of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.0 Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc14528303 \h 32.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc14528304 \h 43.0 Overview of Issues PAGEREF _Toc14528305 \h 44.0 Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc14528306 \h 64.1 Improving the Input Processes PAGEREF _Toc14528307 \h 74.1.0 Improving the Structure of the Company PAGEREF _Toc14528308 \h 84.1.1 Integrated Ticketing System PAGEREF _Toc14528309 \h 94.2 Output Processes PAGEREF _Toc14528310 \h 104.2.0 Getting Rid of Refills PAGEREF _Toc14528311 \h 105.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc14528312 \h 11References PAGEREF _Toc14528313 \h 11
1.0 Executive Summary
This business report aims to understand some of the operational challenges affecting Kiwanis international. Kiwanis International holds an annual pancake festival attended by people from different locations.
Management issues within the company can often make the company to incur loses without noticing. As an operational manager, identifying the challenges is often complicated unless one goes out to the ground to feel the situation as it is.
This business report takes into account the operational management concepts. The utilization of the operational management concepts throughout the report has been illustrated through the diagrams.
Finally, the recommendations provided in this report can be utilized to improve the operations of the company. Some of the recommendations are cost-effective and the company will require minimal investments on new structures.
2.0 Introduction
Operational management is critical in a business organization since it plays an important role in improving the activities within the company. It is defined as the process of managing the resources and transferring service with the aim of streamlining operations within the company CITATION Ann16 \l 1033 (Annarelli & Fabio, 2016).
According to Slack, Chambers and Johnson (2010), operations management is one of the three core activities of an organization. Other activities include the marketing function which is the communication about the services and products offered by the company and product development function whose main activity is to come up with new products and services to improve the experience of the customers CITATION Sla10 \l 1033 (Slack, et al., 2010).
3.0 Overview of Issues
Kiwani International faces a number of issues arising from the operational structure of the company. The different departments within the company are not well structured and this has often caused the company to incur losses due to the waiting time. As Corsiglia and Hunter (2018) notes, failure of the company to put in place the appropriate structure for the different processes can lead to losses CITATION Cor18 \l 1033 (Corsiglia & Hunter, 2018).
The first issue that the company needs to address is the take-out orders and the people who have come to pay cash. The people who have already purchased their orders should be given priority since it indicates that they were planning to come for the event and as a way of avoiding the wastage of time they bought the tickets. The customers who have already purchased the ticket are not supposed to be in the same line with customers paying cash. Differentiating among the two different kinds of customers would create value for the company.
Another common issue that causes time wastage in the service delivery of the company is the issue of the customers going back for a refill. As identified in the case study about 25% of the customers go back for a refill after they have finished the meal that they have purchased. It is also important to note that Kiwani International does not provided the exact time that the customers can go back for a refill meaning that they can go any time that they feel like. This is likely to cause an issue since the same cooks who are serving customers in line are the ones offering refills. There is need for the company to either do away with the refill since it leads to the wastage of time or provide the appropriate time when the customers should go for a refill.
There are also about 6 stoves that are manned by Kiwanians who cook and serve the customers. It is also indicated that the cook must finish serving all the pancakes before cooking others. Even though this plays a great role in preventing wastage of the pancakes, there is need to have a bigger picture. There is so much wastage of time that takes place since the same people who are cooking are the ones serving. As identified in the case study, the customers sometimes think that the cooks do not have the pancakes to serve the customers. The cooks can also be fatigued by the nature of work since they are carrying out so many tasks. This can slow down the delivery of service to the customers.
Lengthy discussions play a great role in building a rapport with the customer. However, these discussions should not last for long since there are so many customers in line. The cooks should have short conversations such as knowing how the customer is doing and nothing much. Other conversations can follow when the customers are taking their meals.
The company also lacks adequate record keeping on its customers. As identified in the case study, Kiwanis International does not have factual number of customers who take-out and the ones who dine-in. Collection of data is important since it will help the company to understand the customer better and come up with the appropriate strategies of improving customer case services. Data will also predict the number of customers who will arrive at the company during the annual festival thus ensuring adequate preparation.
4.0 Recommendations
As McFarlane (2014) notes, the 21st century business environment has become more complex and it is therefore upon the operational managers to come up with the appropriate strategies of streamlining operations at a company. The first step towards responding to these changes is coming up with processes that will ensure value creation for the customer and the company CITATION McF14 \l 1033 (McFarlane, 2014). Robert Howard as the new service operations manager needs to come up with cost-effective strategies that will move Kiwanis International to the next level and ensure that the company maximizes profit during the annual pancake festival.
The processes should also be focused on ensuring continuous improvement within the company as shown below. The improvement process should also be continuous as depicted in the Kaizen process improvement mode CITATION Gra18 \l 1033 (Graban & Swartz, 2018)l.
Figure 1: Kaizen Improvement Model
Source: CITATI...