03 Engineering Management 1 Muren Shen 2003534120
Keywords: process object specialization, bottlenecks, work design
I have been working part-time at KFC Hundred Flowers Restaurant from last summer vacation until now. I have a better understanding of the production operation of KFC Hundred Flowers. So I do a detailed analysis of KFC's production operation organization, production operation process, and work design.
KFC has burgers, chicken rolls, fried chicken wings, New Orleans wings and more than ten kinds of food. That his production equipment is to take what kind of production operation organization? KFC adopts the organization of process object specialization. Here I take the spicy chicken wings, French fries and New Orleans wings as an example.
In fact, the KFC fryer has several function keys. You can choose the function keys according to the food you want to fry, and the machine will automatically adjust the appropriate temperature and time. It can be said that KFC all fried food through the fryer. And foods like spicy chicken wings, New Orleans barbecue wings, etc. have to be defrosted, cleaned and marinated in the marinade room beforehand. These arrangements are obvious process object specialization. This kind of multi-purpose has a better adaptability to the change of products; it is beneficial to make full use of the equipment and staff's working time: it is easy to manage the process. The disadvantage is that sometimes when several products are in short supply, especially during peak meal times, there is simultaneous competition for limited resources.
While KFC's equipment utilization is relatively reasonable, some products are still bottlenecked. For example, Mexican chicken tacos are in short supply during lunch and dinner hours of the week. On the one hand, because KFC's food to implement the principle of freshness, the food on the shelves more than a certain period of time will be discarded. And Mexican chicken tacos have the shortest shelf life, only ten minutes. More than ten minutes, the outside of the chicken roll layer of the pancake becomes hard, affecting the taste. In order to give customers the most delicious food, these "expired food" to be discarded. In order to reduce waste and save costs, KFC is more careful in the development of chicken roll production plan.
Flow chart of the chicken taco production process:
On the other hand, the output of the chicken taco production process is determined by the slowest of the several processes, the deep-frying (7 minutes). That is, the deep-frying process is the bottleneck. You may think that 7 minutes is a very short time, but it is enough to reduce customer satisfaction. As a customer, of course, you want to have freshness as soon as you arrive. But since chicken tacos are not as popular as French fries with every customer, they are usually made to order. However, during the period of high demand for food, the fryer, which is the object of the production process, is competing for resources. In other words, when you want to fry chicken strips, you have to wait for the fryer to become available. In response to this problem, KFC's restaurant manager had to understand the flow of people each week and pay attention to whether there was a large event held near Baihua Plaza or to some festivals to change the production plan to increase supply. That's why it's critical to start forecasting the time of the fried chicken strips. Generally on weekends, no more than 2 chicken tenders are on the shelves during the 8:00-10:00 am period. By 11:00-14:00 and 17:00-19:00 the shelves are kept supplied with 5 strips. The reason is that we have to consider both freshness and non-disposability, and customers' tastes are more elusive. So for the bottle diameter problem, it can only be said to be alleviated but not fundamentally solved. As Prof. Zeng said, "The perfect calculation in the textbook won't work in practice, because there are too many factors to consider".
Any production system consists of equipment, technology, organization and human factors, etc. So this time I will talk about KFC's production organization and human work design together.
In KFC, standards are above all. There is a high degree of standardization and specialization in the work of employees. The so-called work standardization refers to the time required for a trained person to complete a certain job, and he should complete such a job in a predetermined way, with his normal level of effort and normal skills, so it is also called time standard. KFC has different standards for employees in different positions. For example, to assess whether the work of a Mexican chicken taco producer is qualified, just according to his production speed, whether the work steps are correct, in the sauce and vegetables with the right amount. Then all of these criteria are quantified (3 points for excellence, 2 points for good, 1 point for qualified, 0 points for unqualified). At the beginning of each month, the restaurant manager will be based on his appraisal form to assess the performance of his work.
The advantages of such standardization and professionalization are:
1. less time is needed for the staff to master the methods and steps of the work
2. faster work and high output
3. less requirement for the staff's skills and level of education. Therefore the staff is adequately sourced and the wage level is not high. That's why KFC pays $3.50/hr.
The idea of this method of work and job design in KFC is mainly towards the technical side and has certain limitations. These limitations are:
1. Refinement, simplicity and standardization of work like this often tends to produce a sense of monotony, it leads to people become indifferent to the work, and they may become accustomed to or blind to some of the work problems.
2. Focusing only on individual efficiency, emphasizing the improvement and optimization of individual work methods and ignoring the importance of teamwork. This leads to separation between work processes and is detrimental to improving overall efficiency.
So I think: KFC in the case of advanced equipment, optimized production organization, in the work design should be more humane, to stimulate the enthusiasm of employees. If employees have a high degree of motivation to work, he based on experience and reflect the situation to the upper management will even into the greatest efforts to improve or assist in the reform. For bottlenecks or other problems can be better solved, because the human factor is very critical in the management of production operations.
Through the study of the course "Production Operations Management" and the practice in KFC, I have learned the strengths and weaknesses of KFC's production operations, but also to get the revelation, it is really beneficial!