Chapter 8 – Challenges and Trends of Managed Services for Food Services Operations

Airlines and Airports

There are many things to consider when using managed services of food services for airlines and airports.

Challenges

1. Offering a variety of food choices from different countries: There are a lot of airlines companies from different countries. Customers expect to eat different foods during mealtimes. Furthermore, airlines need to consider the menu cycle which needs to be changed in order to ensure variety and in line with seasonal and produce requirements. This is particularly important to an airline’s most frequent travellers to ensure they experience a variety of meals and choice.

2. Catering to different needs: People have different medical, dietary, and religious needs that airlines must try their best to accommodate when preparing their inflight catering requirements. Specialized meals that should be offered are: vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free. There should also be meals that meet religious-based criteria such as kosher, hindu, and muslim.

3. Limited time for delivery: Food and beverages should be supplied to the operating flight in a timely manner. Unreliability or inability to delivery can lead to long term consequences that may deteriorate the relationship between the airline and caterer. A strong cooperative relationship is needed in order to function efficiently and effectively. Other factors that need to be considered are the infrastructure of the airport (loading/unloading of food) and weather.

4. Ensuring food quality and safety: Flying decreases the sense of taste by 30%, as the mouth’s sensitivity to salt, sweet, and spicy is altered in the pressurized cabin. The food should align with the standards and requirements set by the airline but also taste good.The selection, preparation, and the storage of the food are important. There is a high risk of contamination of food products which could lead to food poisoning for the passengers, damaging the airline's reputation.

Trends

1. Company-owned food operation: Airlines used to own and operate their own catering divisions before being outsourced to companies such as LSGSkychefs and GateGourmet which are specialist inflight catering firms. But now, cutting 

2. Customers are more demanding for 
3. Food and drink are sourced locally from reputable suppliers before being freshly prepared on their flights. Knowing the origin of all meals is good. 

Lesson learnt from Disney : Disney Quality Standards

In Disney, all Cast Members (employees) need to follow four Disney Quality Standards, which are safety, courtesy, show and efficiency.

Safety

Same as other service company, the first priority of Disney is to ensure guests’ and fellow Cast Members’ safety. In the Disney University, Cast Members will learn safety procedures to keep guests and themselves safe. Disney keeps exploring some innovative ways to enhance safety by using technology. For example, the F&B operators created 11 colorful icons that describe some important safety concepts in the kitchen.

Courtesy

All Cast Members respect, appreciate and value every guests and treat them as VIPs. Service is provided from the standpoint of guests that the quality is above guests’ expectations.

Show

It means Deliver flawless and professional presentations every day. For example, the painting in the hotel room keeps the fantasy image in the guest’s mind around the clock.

Maintain a clean, neat and organized work location. Disney always assign cast member to clean the park to ensure the ‘stage’ is clean and good looking.

Efficiency

The notice board located at the lobby of hotel shows varies of information including the opening hours of park, weather and other useful information. That design can assist cast member and guest to know the latest information in a short time.

Fast Pass System: Customer don’t need to wait for a long queue. They can obtain a fast pass from the machine and come back at the specific time. It save guest’s time and reduce a long queue. This arrangement can achieve Efficiency of Disney Quality Standards.

Reference:

http://a.dolimg.com/safety/Safety_Report.pdf

http://worldclassbenchmarking.com/disneys-four-keys-to-a-great-guest-experience

Chapter 8 : Unique features in managed services of food services operations

1. Challenge to please guest and client

The managed services of food services operation providers are providing an integrated food service to other organizations. The other organizations usually do not have their own food service. Therefore the main challenge of food services providers is to please both guest and client.

For example, the food services provider is servicing a secondary school. In this case, the party that receiving food service is students (guest) and the school and parents (client) give the opportunity the provider to serve. It is a huge challenge for service provider to please both guest and client since they have different needs and wants. Probably student more focus on taste and choice but parents want their children eat healthy, and then parents always consider the nutrition.


2. Guests are captive clientele

This means the guests have no option and they are captive clientele. For the same case, students may only eat inside school during break and they do not have any other alternatives. Other examples like students in primary schools and patients in hospitals. What is more, the guests may be eating the foodservice operation only once on a daily basis.

On-site food service is a “captive market”. Restaurant customers have always had a range of choices, including choices of facilities and menus. While for the guests of on-site food service, they do have a choice in the long run but in a much lesser extent.

3. Food service is not the primary business

Organizations like primary schools are providing education service, hospitals are providing medical service, and hotels are providing accommodation service, etc. All of them have a similar relationship. Their primary business is not food service. However, almost all of them providing food service by other food service operation providers in order to provide an integrated service and increase their overall quality of services. Some companies may provide the food service for the employees’ dining in order to maintain the labor relations.

Although both commercial restaurant and food managed services provide food services and use similar marketing and managerial techniques, there are differences between two markets. Food service of host organizations is a small part of a lager operation with a greater purpose of overriding importance: health care in health care facilities, education in primary and secondary schools and universities, or businesses in industry. Organizations like primary schools are providing education service, hospitals are providing medical service, and hotels are providing accommodation service, etc. All of them have a similar relationship. Their primary business is not food service. However, almost all of them providing food service by other food service operation providers in order to provide an integrated service and increase their overall quality of services. Some companies may provide the food service for the employees’ dining in order to maintain the labor relations.
4. Produce food in large quantity

Many managed services providers produce large quantity of food for a fixed period to serve. For example the lunch breaks of primary schools and secondary schools. As all of the students with the same school, they will have lunch in the same fixed period and it is almost more than a hundred peoples that the managed services providers need to serve.


5. Volume of business is consistent

The volume of business is consistent than those commercial restaurants. It is because they are serving their guests in a fixed period with pre-order. Hence, it is easier to predict the number of meals and portion size, it is easier to plan, organize, produce and serve meals. Besides, the other reason is they usually get the pre-order from school (guests and client) monthly before.


6. Success is measured by the participation rate

The success of food managed service is measured by the participation rate of the guests. In an age of consumerism, guests don’t hesitate to complain even they can’t “vote with their feet” and have other dinning alternatives. Therefore, the marketing techniques and management skills of the food service contractors would be considered during the selection of food service contractors.



References: http://zh.scribd.com/doc/55313641/34/Comparing-On-Site-and-Commercial-Food-Services
http://hmshine.wordpress.com/category/managed-services/

Chapter 3: The recent trends and development about operating rooms division in hotels

1. Diversity of Workforce
  - More women involve in hotel industry


2. Increase in use of technology
  - Reservations are being made by individuals via the internet

3. Continued quest for increases in productivity
  - Managers are seeking different ways to increase productivity and to measure productivity by sales per employee.

4. Increasing use of revenue management
  - To increase profit by effective pricing of room inventory

5. Greening of hotels and guest rooms
  - Such as using environmentally friendly products and recycling

6. Security
  - Hotels are trying to improve guest security

7. Diversity of the guest

8. Compliance of the ADA (American of Disabilities Act)
  - All hotels must have new constructions that are designed for disablilties

9. Use of websites
  - Hotels are trying to persuade guests to book rooms via the company website instead of other internet site

10. In-room technology
  - Hotels keep upgrading in-room technology

Chapter 7 : How restaurants do their forecasting and food cost control process

Forecasting for a restaurant is a big challenge; it must be a high level of accuracy. A good forecast will usually be in hours rather than weeks. The manager must take in many factors to consider to forecasting and food cost control process for a restaurant. Such as the size of the restaurant, how many guest counts, how many hours the restaurant is open for, etc.

Every restaurant forecast their business differently and often gets very creative. For example, we are forecasting sales for a restaurant. We need to factor in the location, when does it get busy, what hours of the day are busiest, how many tables, how many guest can fit at maximum capacity.

Then the restaurant would do the math to considering the number of tables multiply the amount of guest on each table if at full capacity. Then estimate how long it would take a guest to have lunch/dinner. After we must figure out the turnover for each table and how many guests we are able to serve.

Also factor in the average cost of the meal. In order to conclude a high level of accuracy, restaurant must have reasonable information from personal experience. With an idea of what sales might be in a maximum day, the restaurant can now look at how sales might vary depending on the days of the week. This help shows a weekly base line. The restaurant cannot just multiple the sales by four weeks per month.

The point of a forecast is to not under/over buy food. If restaurants do not accurately forecast, then the restaurant can either over purchase and food goes to waste or under purchase which causes menu items running out and customers not returning because of it. Another main point of a forecast is under/overstaffing. Either the restaurant does not have enough staff causing customer dissatisfaction or overstaffing and the restaurant losing profit.

Chapter 3: Using Yield Management to Maximize Profit

First off we have to understand what revenue and yield management are as they go hand-in-hand.

Revenue management is used to maximize room revenue based on supply and demand.

Provide customers a better experience

Yield management is used one step further to provide customers a better experience and generate even more revenue. Rather than being based simply on supply and demand, demand is examined over several years in order to determine the demand for a particular product or service. Yield management in hotels is selling rooms and services at the right price, at the right time, to the right people. This is an example of the more specific inventory-focused branch of revenue management that involves strategic control of inventory (rooms).

Variable pricing strategy

Yield management is a variable pricing strategy. Through thorough examination, we learn to understand, anticipate, and influence consumer behaviour in order to maximize revenue. Hotels use this system to calculate the rates, rooms, and restrictions on sales in order to best maximize their return. These systems measure constrained and unconstrained demand along with pace to gauge which restrictions to implement. Some restrictions include length of stay and non-refundable rate.

Yield management teams in the hotel industry have evolved over the last 10 years. As globalization is forcing more competitiveness in the industry, targeting the right distribution channels, controlling costs, and having the right market mix are very important for yield management to generate even greater profit.

Chapter 3 : Rooms Division operations: functionality of EMS,PMS,CAS,GDS,CRS

EMS
An energy management system (EMS) is a system of computer-aided tools used by operators of electric utility grids to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of the generation and/or transmission system.

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_management_system

 

 Key Benefits

Monitors and controls generation, transmission and distribution assets in real-time

Provides real-time situational awareness coupled with advanced visualization capabilities for faster user recognition of the overall system status

Analyzes near-term operating grid contingencies and provides alternative solutions to reduce potential outages

Economically provides increased grid capacity while maintaining overall grid reliability and regulatory requirements

Reduces overall system support costs through intuitive data and display maintenance support tools

Meets today’s secure system needs with flexible environments including fully redundant primary and backup production, quality assurance, training and development systems

 

Advanced functionality:- Enhanced grid reliability

 

- Increased grid capacity

- Advanced contingency awareness

- Decreased system support costs

- Secure system that meets worldwide regulatory requirements

 

From https://www.gedigitalenergy.com/uos/ems.htm#fitsol2

 

PMS

 

Property management systems also known as PMS under business terms may be used in real estate, manufacturing, logistics, intellectual property, government or hospitality accommodation management. They are computerized systems that facilitate the management of properties, personal property, equipment, including maintenance, legalities and personnel all through a single piece of software. They replaced old-fashioned, paper-based methods that tended to be both cumbersome and inefficient.

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_management_system

 

 An efficient property management system will also have features that will assist in analysis, forecasting and control of room rates. This will help the management in ensuring that their rooms are being offered at competitive rates in the market. Further, there will be additional features for the management that will help them make sound business decisions and understand whether they’re able to draw enough revenue from their property. If not, the system should be able to generate reports that can help in taking corrective measures.

 

 Another important feature that any successful property management system should have is – Profile handling. The main purpose of this feature is to keep comprehensive records of all the groups, guests, agents, sources, business accounts and other important contacts of the hotel. Room management is the other feature that keeps track of the housekeeping, maintenance and facility management. The accounting feature in a property management system is generally used for accounting functions like billing, invoicing, bill payments, accounts research etc. The reporting feature is basically meant for generating reports for management, which are then used to take critical business decisions aimed at improving customer satisfaction levels in the hotel.

 

From http://www.hotelogix.com/blog/2011/09/08/property-management-systems-what-to-look-for-in-them/

 

 CAS

A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that allows computation over mathematical expressions in a way which is similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists.

Many also include:

• a programming language, allowing users to implement their own algorithms
• arbitrary-precision numeric operations
• exact integer arithmetic and number theory functionality
• Editing of mathematical expressions in two-dimensional form
• plotting graphs and parametric plots of functions in two and three dimensions, and animating them
• drawing charts and diagrams
• APIs for linking it on an external program such as a database, or using in a programming language to use the computer algebra system
• string manipulation such as matching and searching
• add-ons for use in applied mathematics such as physics, bioinformatics, computational chemistry and packages for physical computation

Some include:

graphic production and editing such as computer generated imagery and signal processing as image processing

sound synthesis

 

Some computer algebra systems focus on a specific area of application; these are typically developed in academia and are free. They can be inefficient for numeric operations compared to numeric systems.

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_algebra_system

 

GDS

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between third parties and booking agents in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers. A GDS can link services, rates and bookings consolidating products and services across all three travel sectors: i.e., airline reservations, hotel reservations, car rentals, and activities.

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Distribution_System

 

Main Functions:

• Reservations: creating a PNR (Passenger Name Record = booking file containing all relevant reservation data)
• Back-office integrations
• Management Information:
• Yield managmment
• Market Information Data Transfer (MIDT)

 

From http://www.slideshare.net/magielsr/gds-overview-1232798141856259-2-2359117

 

CRS

 

Central reservation system (CRS) is a computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities.

A central reservation system is a tool to reach the global distribution system as well as internet distribution systems from one single system. A CRS assists hotel managers in managing their online marketing and sales, allowing them to upload their rates and availabilities to be seen by sales channels that are using the CRS. Sales channels may include conventional travel agencies as well as online travel agencies.

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_reservation_system

 

Primary Functions of CRS

• Intuitive easy to use platform.
• Manage rates, availability, and content from single entry point.
• Connects hotels to GDS, online travel agents, your website and mobile booking engines as well as our call centers.
• Fully scalable as your business and needs grows.
• Easily control property merchandising and packaging.
• Channel manager with central web interface that connects multiple distribution channels.

 

 

Detail Management

• Allocate room types, rate plans and close-outs by sales channels.
• Modify room/rate, property and inventory.
• Create new rates, packages and edit content by sales channel.
• Digital media content management tools.

 

From http://www.genares.com/central-reservation-system.html