Systems Integration in Information Technology Research Paper

Systems Integration in Information Technology - Research Paper Example Shortly after the system wide integration, in 2006, problems within the system architecture resulted in a dangerous breach of patient care. The system breakdown as described by Kaiser Permanente executives and industry leaders was a direct result of integration of an information technology (IT) component of the KP Health Connect system. Kaiser Permanente envisioned the KP Health Connect system as a seamless integration of resources that in theory would electronically connect members to their health care team, to their personal health information, and to all relevant medical knowledge available to promote integrated health care.(Cochran, 2009) Ideally Kaiser Permanente members would complete an annual online health risk assessment, then receive customized feedback on behavioral interventions, start pro-active health behavior change programs, and choose whether to send results to KP Health Connect to facilitate communication and information sharing with their with their physician.(Montalbano, 2008) In reality Kaiser Permanente was abandoning a very costly attempt made in the late 1990’s and early parts of this decade to build its own clinical information system with IBM. Kaisers approach shifted to "buy, not build," (Montalbano, 2008) after the earlier failure with the IBM system. The project’s expansive scope was unprecedented for a civilian company. To purchase an â€Å"off-the-shelf system† (Montalbano, 2008), Kaiser studied two medical software vendors, Cerner and Epic Systems, ultimately selecting Epic as the primary vendor for a new system that would eventually become KP Health Connect. .(Cochran, 2009) Kaiser Permanente attempted with the â€Å"off-shelf† system to fully integrate the company’s previous EHR’s and collect all their data into one system.(Cochran, 2009) The resulting loss of access and availability of patient records and billing histories has

Management and Leadership Essay Example for Free

Management and Leadership Essay Management and leadership are considered synonymous, but actually they are two different words. Management is defined as, The art, manner or practice of managing, handling supervision or control whereas leadership is defined as, The ability to: express a vision, influence others to achieve results, encourage team cooperation, and be an example. Leadership is getting others to want to do things. Leadership is intimately tied up with motivating and influencing others. Managers are administrators who write business plans, set budgets, monitor progress, solve problems and facilitate meetings. A manager achieves authority and position through experience, understanding, time and loyalty. Managers have subordinates but a leader has followers. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. The leader of the work group may emerge informally as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the organization, without using his or her formal authority to do so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership. As put by Faye Wattle ton, The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.Organizational CultureAccording to Websters New Collegiate Dictionary culture is the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends on mans capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.Organization culture is a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its memebers .It includes routine, behaviors, norms, dominant values and a feeling or climate conveyed..The pupose and function of this culture is to help foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization much closer together and enhance their performance. A companys culture determines a lot of the organizations behavior. A culture may be strong (having a dramatic influence over an individuals behavior) or weak (having a relatively low impact on behavior).A strong culture is a coherent set of beliefs, values, assumptions, and practices embraced by most members of the organization. It fosters motivation, commitment, identity, solidarity, and sameness, which, in turn, facilitates internal integration and coordination. An understanding of organizational culture and how to transform it is crucially important for managers and leaders to achieve strategic outcomes. The position of strategic leaders in an organization assists them to see the dynamics of their organizational culture and attain the essence of strategic success through positive transformation. Effective managers recognize that replacing a long term culture of traditional values with one that embodies the competitive values needed in the future can take years. But the rewards of that effort will be an organization much more effective and responsive to its environmental challenges and opportunities.(Bateman Snell, 2007)Organizational Culture at Southwest AirlinesSouthwest Airlines was founded in 1971 as a low-cost regional air carrier. The companys mission stated on its website truly reflects its positive and healthy organizational culture. We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.Southwest Airlines has consistently been successful in terms of profitability, good employee and union relations, and customer satisfaction at a time when most airline carriers are struggling in all these areas. Central to the companys success is a culture of flexibility, family-orientation, and fun. They believe in, The way you treat and reward employees is one part of your companys culture. Culture is the companys way of life. It is how the business functions, operates, handles stress and reinforces its staff. It is the companys general attitude toward the world. Southwest has built a reputation as a fun, light-hearted and irreverent airline with a happy staff. It is said that Southwests biggest hiring criterion is whether an applicant smiles during his or her interview. Southwest feels it can train anyone to do the job, but it cannot teach a person to have a positive attitude. Southwest Airlines has recognized that smiling staff members can  handle negative issues skillfully and still satisfy their customers. Southwest is also identified as the early leader of worker responsibility. The company limits emphasis on the formal organizational structure. At Southwest, decision making is the process which is done by management/worker committees. Leadership meetings are taped and shared with employees. The researchers learned that productivity could be maximized when employees felt as though their needs were being considered by receiving attention for their work. This phenomenon became known as the Hawthorne Effect. It is as true today as it was during the last century that paying attention to our human assets produces tremendous results. Southwest Airlines has learned to capitalize on the principles of the Hawthorne Effect. Southwest Airlines has consistently remained at the top of its industry, while placing a rigorous focus on employees feedback and needs. Southwest seeks to share the companys success with its employees. The airline achieved high levels of employee satisfaction and was included in the Fortune magazines list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for three years in a row. Southwests no-layoff response to September 11 was a reminder to its employees of the organizations tradition of caring for its people. When asked to comment on this, an official explained, Its part of our culture. Weve always said well do whatever we can to take care of our people. So thats what weve tried to do. Many analysts feel that the remarkable performance of Southwest is because of its ability to build and sustain relationships characterized by shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect between employees. Southwests organizational culture was shaped by Kellehers leadership. Kellehers personality had a strong influence on the culture of Southwest, which symbolizes his spontaneity, energy and competitiveness. Southwests culture had three themes: love, fun and efficiency. Kelleher treated all the employees as a lovely and loving family. Southwest attempts to promote a close-knit, supportive and enduring family-like culture. The Company initiated various measures to foster intimacy and informality among employees. Southwest encouraged its people to  conduct business in a loving manner. Employees are expected to care about people and act in ways that affirm their dignity and worth. Instead of decorating the wall of its headquarters with paintings, the company hung photographs of its employees taking part at company events, news clippings, letters, articles and advertisements. Southwests organizational culture encourages employees to be innovative, to communicate, understand and care, be devoted to customer service and most importantly to be an Individual. It maintains its success due to employee education, much of which takes place in Southwest Airlines festive learning center: the University for People. Southwest sees learning as a never-ending process. University for People trainers, known as facilitators, build a foundation for an ongoing learning environment through a supervisory leadership class called Leadership Southwest Style, which utilizes the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® (MBTI ®) assessment for self discovery. At Southwest Airlines, management wants employees to feel comfortable, reflecting its philosophy that an employee who is comfortable can think more freely and creatively. Regular celebrations bring employees together. These include Spirit Parties, Culture parties, and weekly Deck Parties at headquarters. Activities at these events include talent shows, dance contests, limbo contests, karaoke, and famous person look-alike themes. The Culture Committee welcomes new employees with a New Hire Welcome Kit, which includes a bag, tee-shirt, badge holder, pen, and welcome letter. Southwest Airlines is an excellent example of social invention that helps people discover their true capabilities. The social environment combines humor with responsibility. Employees work in teams without outside supervision. At job interviews, along with other self-development attitude, the prospective employee must show a sense of humor. The company recognizes the key to its culture is The Spirit of LUV. Their commitment to hire people with the capacity to love and serve others has yielded a bountiful harvest of loyalty and money. Hence it shows a very well combination of management and leadership. Key concepts of organizational culture at Southwest Airlines †¢Encourage to assume ownership †¢Hire for life †¢Trust their decisions†¢Give employees  immediate access to critical information. †¢They have the power to make adjustments and to fix significant problems quickly. Results achieved through these concepts†¢On-time arrivals, proper baggage handling, and customer complaints are communicated on a weekly basis. †¢Everyone is focused on customer service and making Southwest a success which allows them to expand outside of assigned responsibilitiesStrategies that organizational managers and leaders can use to create and maintain healthy organizational cultureMotivation Management Leaders must have coaching skills, not control skills. Motivated people have goals and seek ways to achieve them. Efficiency is the result of motivated employees. The self motivated employees assume responsibility for their tasks. It creates an environment where workers trust management and management trust workers. Continuous Learning Opportunity Motivation is associated with the desire to learn. Without it, motivation dies. Most businesses operate with a wide knowledge gap between worker and management. All through history this has been the policy, it is job security for leadership. Today, efficiency requires workers to assume responsibility and this requires the narrowing of the knowledge gap. This is achieved by empowering workers. A strong organizational culture and an approach to learning that encompasses more than just training classes can create an organization that learns and improves upon its past successes. When change occurs, organizations with a learning culture and a focus on organizational development can surpass even their own expectations. ConclusionTo sum up, leadership is essentially related to a persons skills, abilities and scope of influence and management is a theory and a way of doing business. The managers who truly exercise the four functions of management; planning, organizing, leading and controlling, to accomplish their organizational goals are also true leadersAs time and requirements of  an organization change, there is always a need to change managerial functions. Managers at all levels must anticipate and adapt to changes. In any ordinary but expanding organization the next future change might be to restructure the organization. Technology is bringing a change in leadership styles. The command-and-control leadership methods of the last century are extremely inefficient in the fast changing technology world. Motivating environments are needed on the front-line with people who assume responsibility and exercise leadership. To attract and keep this type of person, the work environment must inspire and exploit employee capabilities. References Bateman, Thomas S. Snell Scott A. (2007). Management: Leading and collaborating in acompetitive world. (Seventh edition), Ch-2 12 pgs 66- 69 393-383Southwest Airline webpage. Retrieved on April 20, 2007 from www.southwestairlines.comSouthwest Airlines. Retrieved on April 19, 2007 from www.caseplace.orgFrazee, Bonnie (Nov, 2006).Organizational Behavior and the Learning Process. Retrieved onApril19, 2007 from www.innovativelearning.com

Evaluating the Strategic Role of Operations Management at Nandos

Evaluating the Strategic Role of Operations Management at Nandos Nandos can be described as a casual dining restaurant, which originated in South Africa with a Mozambique/ Portuguese theme. Nandos got its name from one of its founders; Fernando who had Nandos in the later part of his name. The Restaurant chain was founded in 1987 and has grown to operate in over thirty countries in over five continents. (www.nandos.co.uk) Most commonly, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Malaysia, Mauritius , Pakistan, Singapore, Zimbabwe, the united States of America and The united kingdom in which Nandos is trying to build a finger licking tradition. They received the highest accolade for excellence ( three stars) in the best companies annual accreditation awards. It is important to high light here that amongst all the large companies which entered for this award , Nandos was the only one who received the award. (www.nandos.co.uk) Nandos is specialized in serving chicken and chips , rice or mashed potatoes. They specialize in selling flames peri peri chicken and from a personal point of view I think that they do no only specialize in the selling flamed chicken grills , I think that they have revolutionarised the way in which we eat chicken and chips in the united kingdom. Chicken and chips in the united kingdom can to an extent be considered staple food, but with the establishment of Nandos in the country , its presentation and serving has been given a total over hall. The name peri peri is a south African Swahili word for what is called in Africa the birds eye chilli.. This chilli is exclusively indigenous to Africa. The chicken in Nandos is served in either quarters, halves or a full chicken. (www.nandos.co.uk)There are also butterfly breast which are sold exclusively to the Nandos restaurants in the united Kingdom. Added to chicken, Nandos also serves pitas, burgers, salads, wings and raps in their restaura nts. In other countries, Nandos sells, a large stand with a skewer of chicken breast and large peppers , chicken livers and a chicken and rice dish served in a traditional Portuguese copper dish. Nandos serves a wide range of drinks, but they are well known for their idea of serving bottomless drinks, which gives the customer the opportunity to drink and endless as much soft drink as they want, as long as they can handle it and nobody is allowed to take any away from the premises of the restaurant. (www.nandos.co.uk) Nandos thrives on excellence, this is embedded in the our promise section of the menu. In the promise, Nando says that nothing is more important that keeping a promise, and the symbol of the escudo is a sign of integrity, passion, pride and courage. (www.nandos.com)This is a promise by Nandos to give you the customer the excellent flavor and quality that you would expect. It is important to add her that every service sector company should strive to attain excellence. The survival of this type of business depends on people opinions as such it is very very essential that these kind of companies try their utmost best to keep customer satisfaction levels high. This could either be in the way of producing the best quality plate of food that a customer has ordered in the shortest time possible. (www.nandos.co.uk)This will reduce the waiting times by the customers, but still leave the customer with the excellent feeling of satisfaction of consuming your good or service According to accounts filed at companies house in 2009 , the financial crisis at Nandos worsened as they made a loss of about 23 million pounds. As a result of the financial crisis, consumer spending reduced and there was a rise in the cost of raw materials to the industry. This led to a rise in cost to the company and a fall in sale. It is important to not that the company made sales during the period of about one hundred and sixty seven million but due to other factors out of their control, they were still able to make a loss. Management also confirmed that they were happy with the performance of the company even though they did worse that the previous financial year. (www.nandos.co.uk) Operations management is responsible for designing, redesigning and overseeing business operations. It focuses on the process of producing and distributing goods and services efficiently. Operations management makes sure that business operations use as little resources as possible to produce the post resources as possible, it also has to be as efficient in the sense that it has to make sure that the customers requirements are met. Other activities that are associated with this process include inventory control, quality control, managing processes, storage , logistics and evaluation of processes. Substantial measurement and management of internal processes is therefore embedded in the operations management concept. Important to note therefore is that fact that the ways by which operations management is carried out in an organization depends sole or wholly n the goods and services that this The idea of the role operations plays in business is very important , as similarly as human beings, we have a role I our everyday existence. In the morning, we could be parents the our kids, later in the day colleagues at work, and later in the evening we could be friends to other people. The point which should be made here, is that we have a different function in every role we play. In the same way, operations in the business depending on what they are, perform a different function depending on what their overall objective is. The most basic role of strategic operations is implementing business strategy. Other important roles of operations are to act as support for the business strategy and to act as a driver for business strategy. The objectives Operation management objectives are generally every broad. However, it is important to note that operation management affect five different groups or stakeholders in the organization. (Micheal and McCathie ,2005) The first obvious group of people that are going to be affected by operations are the customers. The second group of people going to be affected are the suppliers who have to change or adapt to the changes in any operations so that the end results can be achieved. The share holders are definitely another group that are going to be affected by changes in operations. The better the operation performs, the more business will be driven to the company which in turn increases sales and in turn increases returns on shares. (Micheal and McCathie ,2005) Generally, employees implement operations processes, therefore it is important that the employees understand the objectives of this operation and are will and able to do everything possible to achieve this goal. Also there is a chance like with many companies, that if the employees perform well and this generates positive returns for the company, then they will be in turn better off as the company may be in the position to offer bonuses to them or maybe increase their employee benefits or salaries. Findings And Analysis This report is going to analyze the strategic role of operations and operations objectives, layout , flow , process, and capacity management of Nandos high cross Leicester. It finds that Nando is a high volume mass service restaurant operating with a low process variety level This report will examine and describe the main characteristics of Nandos service operations in the high cross in Leicester which was visited on the evening of Friday the first of April 2011. After making the necessary analysis, this report will end with a recommendation on how Nandos can improve their process. It is worth noting here that Nandos has become or is gradually becoming a household name in the United Kingdom. Demand for the products and services is so high in the Leicester area that they are operating two restaurants in the city center, one about four hundred yards from the other (Micheal and McCathie ,2005) Variation. Nandos can be said to have a fairly predictable variation in the daily, weekly and seasonal demand for its goods and services. Because of the type of food they sell, it is very typical for a Nandos restaurant to be virtually empty in the morning hours of the day. Generally , the most busy periods for the restaurant are evenings, weekend, launch time, and various holiday periods. Periods such as Easter, Christmas and the New year. As a result therefore, management of Nandos varies the number of staff in the shop at any one period of time so that they can be able to meet up with and adapt with changes in demand. Nandos also employs a good number of part time and temporal staff as such they can be called in at short notice so that unexpected variations in demand can be dealt with efficiently and time lags are avoided. Visibility Visibility can be said to be the level of exposure to operations that the customer experiences. Using this definition, Nandos can be said to have very high levels of visibility as they are exposed to all the front end operations of the business. In a typical Nandos restaurant , the customer is able to take a look at how his chicken is grilled. Basically take a look at how his/her meal is being prepared. However, if visibility is considered in terms of the extent to which customers can customize their meals, then visibility can be said to be between medium and low. Nandos, on most of the days and in the evenings can be considered to be a high volume restaurant. This means that you have a lot of people coming into the restaurant to eat. Customizing meals will not be very feasible as it will totally slow down operations. At some times of the day, say probably earlier on in the day, it is easier to probably try an customize meals. But id that is done then they will have to try to practice that through out the day and it will be virtually impossible to do during peak times. As such it can be said that due to its high volume nature, low to medium levels of visibility are necessary in order that the business can operate efficiently. Since customer satisfactions is greatly linked to quality of service, overtime Nandos has tried to increase visibility by increasing the options available to customers. they have brought in vegetarian options to their meals, increases they side dishes that they offer with their meal as well. Nandos used to only offer chips and rice as a side dish to your ordered chicken, now they have other additional options such as mashed potatoes. They have also introduced salads, burgers , pittas , wings and wraps. Also, overtime, they introduce the serving of desserts and now have a great variety of things you can have as desserts after you eat your meal. Hornets are a great example of something revolutionary that they have got in their starter menu. And because a lot of the stuff in the menu is unique cant be gotten from any other restaurant in the same way that it is served in Nandos, people keep on coming back. Variety. In my opinion, Nandos does not provide a lot in terms of variety on their menus. It is true that looking at the menu superficially, you have the feeling that there is a lot on there and you probably have a wide range to chose from. But for flesh loving customers, their choices are limited to chicken. On the evening of my observation, I saw a family of five , two parents, mum and dad and their children who came into Nandos to have a meal. While kids and their dad seemed to be enjoying the meal, the mum who was a meat lover but didnt like chicken had to manage through the evening. Understandably, Nandos as a restaurant cant satisfy the wants of everybody who walk into or thinks about walking into their restaurant, but a little bit of diversification in menu variety will do a lot of good and will definitely go a long way to increase consumer satisfaction. Layout, flow and process design. Nandos, high cross is kind of set in a new building which was open about three years ago. Nandos has what I will term a semi oval shape and the way the restaurant is set up, it gives easy access for movement around the restaurant even when it is at full capacity. It is important to note that customers have to go to the tills to place their orders, since bottomless drinks are very common in Nandos restaurants, customers have to be moving around as well to re fill their glasses and after placing orders, customer have to pick up their cutlery and sauces by themselves. So with all of this in mind, the restaurant is set up in such a way that it can accommodate the flow of customers at any given point in time. Just as you enter the restaurant, there is a sitting area which either provide accommodation for people who have placed take away orders and are waiting for it to be prepared or given a situation when the restaurant is so busy and at full capacity waiting customers can make use of th is area to wait. It is important to note that besides being convenient to the customers, the existence of a functional layout in the restaurant improves and increases overall efficiency of the operation. For example drinks and refill facilities are all set up at one place, plates and sauces with cutlery are also all set up at one place. This makes it really easy for staff to restock in the event that the run out . The big advantage of having a proper layout is that it allows customers for example to move directly to what they are looking for. It prevents people from wondering all around the restaurant in search of what they are looking for. Strategic performance objectives. There are five performance objectives which are common to all operations, these include dependability, speed, flexibility and cost. Quality: Customer satisfaction is directly tied to the quality of the goods and the service which is offered in a Nandos restaurant. If customers became dissatisfied service or quality of the food served in the Nandos restaurant, they might decide to eat somewhere else or why not decide to start eat strictly home made food. This will inevitable lead to a fall in revenue for the restaurant and who knows, might have a knock on effect to other companies in the same line of business. If for example, customers caught a bug from eating in the Nandos restaurant, there is really no guarantee that this bug isnt present in other restaurants, as such risk adverse customers will refrain totally from eating in restaurants, which brings on this knock on effect is spoke about . Due to the fact that this is a service sector industry and the food is prepared on the spot, it is hard to say that first piece of chick which leaves the grill will be exactly the same like another piece which leaves the grill and taking into consideration the fact that this food is prepared by human being, level of quality is susceptible to variations. Also the way the ay one staff treats a customer will not necessarily be the same way in which another staff will treat another customer. This will undoubtedly leave different customers at with different opinions about the quality of service at Nandos. Also talking to the manager at Nandos high cross, I was given the impression that student part time staff are a lot less committed and devote to their jobs as such they tends to provide a lower quality of service when compared to may be full time adult staff. Sometimes, the levels of quality can be reduced unintentionally or intentionally as a result of balancing quality with cost and flexibility. Dependability Nandos has its regular opening and closing times so that customers are clearly aware of the times at which they can attend the restaurant to have a meal. At Nandos High Cross, Sunday to Thursday, Nandos opens between 11:30 to 23:00 oclock and on Fridays and Saturdays, between 11:30 and 00:00 hours. Customers in the area are fully aware of these opening times and they are guaranteed that if they walk into the door of this restaurant between these hours , they are guaranteed to have what ever they order. To the best of my knowledge from personal experience and from talking to staff in the restaurant, I have not yet come across a scenario in which a customers order could not be met because certain things were out of stock. This therefore means that inventory in Nandos restaurants are properly taken care of and refilled where and when the need arises. Speed Speed is an issue generally in the Nandos restaurants. Sometimes you have a long queue at the till and you have only one of the tills being operated. This makes customers orders to be taken slowly and in turn makes the overall waiting experience really long. Also the waiting time for food sometimes ranged up to fifteen minutes. In the general perspective that is not a long time to wait for your food to be cooked and served, but say you dropped in for lunch in on your lunch break, you take a few ins to queue up to get your order started and wait fifteen minutes for your food to get ready, you end up discovering that when your food arrives you barely have enough time to eat properly before you get back t work. If Nandos can reduce the waiting times, I think customer experience is going to be a lot better. This is going to keep customer coming to the restaurant and in turn increase sales and income levels to the company. Flexibility. I personally do not think that Nandos is a very flexible restaurant , ninety percent of their meals are chicken dependent and demand and supply in the particular chain can be determined by factors totally out of the control of the restaurant. For example if we took the case of a bird flu pandemic in the country, this is going to lead serious fall in the supply of chickens to be prepared in the Nandos stores. This pandemic will not only affect the supply of chickens to the restaurant but it will affect customers perception. Customers will be wary about eating chicken at all and a sustained existence of this kind of pandemic will greatly affect sales at the restaurant. This will wholly be to the fact that Nandos sells only chicken do very little in the form of varying to other products. It might be nice for a change for Nandos to try and marinate beef or steak with their peri peri spices and serve with chips. This will and might increase their customer base and increase revenue. Cost. In todays economic climate, cost has become an increasingly become important. To the extend that it almost acts as a winner for restaurants. Other companies in the country such as Tesco, highlight the importance of cost in the economy by using slogans such as every little helps Personally I think that the cost of food in Nandos is fairly affordable and anybody who want to have a proper meal of chicken and chips can actually just walk into Nandos , buy a quarter of chicken and chips and have an unlimited amount of drink for themselves for a little under ten pounds. Quality Management Generally speaking, quality management is a very recent concept which gives customers the opportunity to be able to choose goods which meet a higher quality in standard that other regular goods. (Greasley, 2009) Customers have come to the realization that the quality of the good or service is a very important attribute. And companies have also come to the realization that the quality in the good or service that they provide can make the difference as to whether a customer chooses them or chooses their competitor. (Greasley, 2009) Quality management generally adopts a number of principle that cam be used by top management to organize the institution towards better or improved performance. Some of these principles include being customer focused; at the heart of a business like Nandos the customer is everything about the business. As such the present and future needs of the customer should always be looked at. Management should plan to tackle any needs that might be arising in the near future. (Greasley, 2009) Another aspect of quality management is leadership, the leaders in the organization are supposed to be able to adopt unity and direction of purpose and endeavor to stir the company in the direction of their target goals. Management has to try to involves the employees at all levels in the organization, this makes people to feel valued and it goes a long way to improve performance. A mutually beneficial relationship between supplier and business has to be built and an effective and efficient systematic approach to business has to be developed. As a company they has to be the need to constantly want to improve processes and work on customer beneficial approaches. Talking to the manager of Nandos, he told me that they keep quality at the top of their to do list. I can remember the first time I ate at Nandos I suffered from a bad after reaction, as the peri peri sauce that I used with my meal was stale. And I noticed this in a couple of other shops on different occasions. At the moment management has realized that they can no longer put sauces into a bottle and expect to refill it only when it is finished. Now the peri peri sauces are constantly renewed and refreshed to make sure that the customer enjoys the sauce when it is in its best state. Also over time, customer service in the restaurants has been greatly improved, customer focused training is given to all staff at the restaurant and they the staff are constantly being monitored by their supervisors to ensure that they carry out their work well and they have the best interest of the consumer at heart. On a negative not from a customers point of view, the sizes of the portions have constantly been reducing over time. They seem to be buying a lot smaller birds and they have even changed the bowls used to serve side dishes to smaller ones. This in effect has reduced the amount of food that is being served for exactly the same amount of money. This to the company is good, as they seem to make a lot more money for a comparatively smaller amount of good or service they are providing. In conclusion therefore, looking at the way operations are managed in Nandos, high cross Leicester, from talking to some customer and talking to staff and the manager in the shop, I think that they as a restaurant they have worked hard in the last three years to improve customer experience. They have tried to everything within their powers to reduce customer waiting times, they have worked tirelessly with staff to improves customer service and tried to build a good relationship with supplier to ensure that all goods are supplied on time and they have a rota which permits them to have adequate staff to be able to deal with all customer queries and enquiries at peak periods.

21 Balloons :: essays research papers

The 21 Balloons Text to Self: When Professor Sherman was taking off in his hot air balloon people started running down the streets to look. People were also running down the streets to get Ichiro bobble heads at a Mariners game. Text to Text: When Mr. Sherman saw the mines full of diamonds it made me think about the book Treasure Island when Jim Hawkins finds all the treasure. Text to World: As soon as Professor William Waterman Sherman started walking on Krakatoa he experienced earthquakes. The same thing happened to a lot of other countries. Vocabulary word. Definition. A sentence including the vocabulary word. Corinthian: a type of design used in some countries. The building was built in a Corinthian style. Flotsam: goods or belongings lost in a shipwreck. There was not a lot of flotsam in the water at the time. Tribune: the title of a newspaper. The New York Tribune covered every detail of Professor Sherman’s story. Rousing: to be full with happiness or excitement. The whole city gave the firefighters a rousing cheer. Cupola: a round, dome-like shape usually the top of a building. Many of the buildings in the city had a cupola for the top. Convey: to take an item from one place to another. UPS has to convey a lot of letters and packages on a regular bases. Aeronautical: a study of science that has to do with the air. There are some aeronautical scientists in the world. Postillion: a mailman or paperboy. Being a postillion lets you earn some extra cash. Ethics: to behave properly. Martha Stewart is suspected of having poor ethics. Intrepid: not to be discouraged. Even though he lost the race, the boy was intrepid. Chapters 6,7 Schema Text to Self: When William Sherman woke up in the morning he hadn’t really realized how his room looked. That happened to me when I got a new bed and new stuff put in my room. Page 77   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Sherman sees and feels an earthquake happening I can relate because I have also experienced an earthquake. Page 79   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mr. Sherman was told that the I family made Italian food, I have eaten Italian food. Page 90 Text to World: When Mr. M started building houses on Krakatoa that was like when a missionary went to an island to help the inhabitants rebuild their small residential area and convince them to believe in God. Vocabulary word. Definition. Sentence containing the word. Delirious: in a state of delusion. She was delirious after she woke up from the anesthesia.

Kfc Inventory and Process Management

Manipal Institute Of Management, Manipal| OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT| KFC Inventory And Process Management| | | Group 7 Section B| Roll No. | Name| Signature| 121202070| Niranjan N Naik| | 121202081| Binay Kumar Sahoo| | 121202031| Ribu Roby| | 121202050| Julian Joel Roche| | 121202120| Dhanush Patel| | 121202122| Suraj Pereira| | | | Submitted to: Yogesh Pai Date: 16/03/2013 Contents INTRODUCTION1 Logistics1 Inventory Storage2 PROCESS3 Cleaning4 Disposal5 Conclusion5 INTRODUCTIONKFC Corporation is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the world's most popular chicken restaurant chain. KFC and its franchised employees are more than 200 thousand, all over the world. It is the world’s largest and most well known  fast food restaurant preferably known as chicken restautants. Their restaurants are served in 109 countries and territories around the world. The study is done on a fast food restaurant and the analysis done on inventory management and process in kitchen. The study is rest ricted to KFC utlet present in Manipal. The purpose of the study was to understand the process of the organization and with the completion of this project we have learned that how operations Management Strategies plays very important role in achieving an organizational goals. The restaurant follows Just In Time (JIT) and First In First Out (FIFO) to manage inventory. Inventory, is divided into three types consisting of Daily, Weekly and Monthly inventory. The daily inventory consists fast moving products like Krushers, Non-veg items, ice-creams.Here the orders are placed by the inventory department every night after the restaurant closes for customers. The requirement sheets are filled inorder to place the order and products are moved from inventory. The weekly inventory consists of Dry storage items like disposal plates ; equipments and recipes needed to cook. The requirement sheet is filled while placing order which is placed every Thursday and the products reach the outlet to the max by Monday or Tuesday.The monthly inventory consists of detailed stock verification of the items present in the store and the products disposed off due too non consumption on reaching the standard time are also recorded. The update of stock verification is done via website and once updated its final and no changes can be done by the staff, if in case there are changes they call up the head quarters and make the necessary changes. Logistics The products/goods are transported from Bangalore warehouse via road transport. The outlet does not purchase from any other local dealers for any items.In regular process, the truck reaches the outlet on Monday or Tuesday between 9am to 11am. Before moving the products to storage the 3stage process is followed, at first the temperature is measured which should be between (-18oC to -23oC) , then expiry date of the product is verified and at last the quality of the product is checked via Tell-Through machine. At any point of the this 3steps any one step is not upto the standards the products are sent back to warehouse. In case of urgent stock from the time they place they take 2days to get the stock via courier. Inventory StorageKFC implements different storage for different products consisting of dry storage, cold storage (frozen) for non-veg items, chill storage and cold storage for veg products. Dry storage consists of items like cleaning products, Disposable plates spoons towels, recipes etc. The products are stored at room temperature. Cold storage consists of veg products, cold drinks, water etc stored at temperature (-1oC to -4oC). Cold storage fr non- veg products are stored at temperature (-180C to -23oC) wher the product validity is 6months. Older batches are placed at the front.Items are placed in simple rack system and fast moving items are placed in a such manner that they are easily accessible. The products are moved in FIFO method. Chiller storage are stored in temperature of (-1oC to -40C). It’s a no n-veg defrosting room. Stores fresh product and frozen product (for thawing) is placed here. Frozen product once taken out of freezer cannot be returned (expire time 12 hours). Items are placed in rack system placed along with time tag placed with it. PROCESS Here the items are moved from cold storage to the chiller are placed for thawing and defrosting with room temperature of (-1oC to -4oC).Frozen product once taken out of freezer to chiller cannot be placed back. Once the duration of 12 hours are done items/ packets are removed out and goes to the cleaning process. The duration of cleaning depends from staff to staff usually on an average 5-10 minutes are needed. After the items are cleaned, it is placed in an Marinator where basic masalas are mixed. The machine takes 10minutes and makes 300 rotations. Once the items are marinated there is a need for the products to absorb the masala so they are kept for absorption in a process called Ageing which takes 2 hours.After that the pro ducts need to get a layer for themselves so they pass through a process of Breading. On the basis of requirement cooking is done. Cooking consists of 3 types: Grilled, Fried and Baked. The duration of items which are grilled is 45 minutes from the time it is ready. Fried and Baked items duration is 2 hours from the time it is ready. Grilled and baked items are cooked in an micro oven called â€Å"Convotherm†. After that the products are placed in an oil dry machine which absorbs oil from the dishes which takes time duration of 1 – 2 minutes.At last the prepared items are moved to display rack where they are placed in tray along with an tag which determines the time and life span of the item. There is a time keeper who keeps record of the duration and expiry of products. If any of the products are not consumed till the expiry of duration there is an step is taken to dispose of those food items as wastage. The disposal items are recorded and then disposed. Its bee said t o us that for every 1 lakh worth inventory, company sets a standard of Rs. 1000 diposal waste as free as there are every chance of wastage at any point of time by human error. If at all the limit exceeds Rs. 000 there is a need to record it and report it to the demand manager and also be mentioned in the monthly inventory. As far as our study we found out that there is an wastage of 6000-7000 for RS. 1,00,000 inventory. In order to reduce the wastage and disposing items which at present is an complete waste in point of cost, the outlet can make some announcements when the food items are near to their expiry stating buy this particular food product in matter of 15minutes and get discount of certain percent as discount so that they could reduce the wastage and incur certain percentage as profit instead of waste. Customer happiness is our happiness and any customer should not leave the outlet unsatisfied†. Items like Krushers and ice creams are prepared on demand. The standard ti me once an customer places an order, the food needs to be delivered in 1 minute. At present in the outlet they take 5-6 minutes on an average to deliver the order. If at any point of time the food ordered by customer is not prepared or is in process the staff needs to deliver the food in time of 15minutes, if they fail to do so they should take every possible measures are to be taken to keep the customer happy.Steps like providing chocolates to customers or a sweet smile or providing free items as complimentary etc is done. During the crowded hours there is an need to have 1 helper each for 3 cashiers, 2 people working on juice and ice cream section so that they can work effectively and reduce the waiting time and keep the customers more satisfied. Cleaning Concealed drainage are placed on floor for easier cleaning. When it comes to cleaning of vessels, they follow 3 steps.First the vessels are washed with chemical water and then Sanitized with hot water with temperature of (32oC to 38oC) and at last they are Rinsed with normal and kept to dry. At present the cleaning area has only one entrance and the order of steps are chemical wash, rinse and sanitize there is an need to change this by having two entrance for cleaning area and order in sequential order of chemical wash sanitize and rinse. This will reduce the matter of plates falling from hand and causing damage while shifting from chemical wash to sanitize.Disposal Each counter has a separate disposal bin. All disposal collected in one disposal unit. Disposal bag is then taken to public disposal area behind the restaurant to be collected by municipal. Conclusion From a simple idea, and simple adventure, Harland Sandards started his dream, that had been grown and became one of the most popular restaurant among the world. Goodwill image, Loyalty, Spread, are 3 of the most important indicators of KFC popularity. Efficirnt utilization of space and all resource has reduced their expense.

The Most Disastrous Civil Conflict in American History

The Most Disastrous Civil Conflict in American History Differences between the Northern and Southern states of America triggered one of the most disastrous civil conflicts in American history. The height of the conflict was characterized by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 (Draper 2). The Northern faction was majorly constituted of Union states while the Southern faction was comprised of the federation states. This four year conflict happened from 1861 – 1865 (Draper 1).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Most Disastrous Civil Conflict in American History specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Since Abraham Lincoln’s election, the Southerners noted that he was focused on ending slavery and keeping the Northern union together but this ideology did not represent the Southerner’s way of life. In fact, the conflict was primarily brought about by the different ways of living both regions had. The Northern union was of the opinion that the Southerners sh ould give up slave trade, build factories and give up their farms as well. However, the Southerners could hear nothing of it. The federal government therefore treated slave ownership as a right to property and they never gave up this right even in light of pressures from the Northern states. This conflict cost America more than 620,000 lives with an unconfirmed number of civilian casualties (Radford 1). Most of the war was fought in the South but it took a lot of time for both states to recover from the effects of the war. Collectively, the difference between the two national blocks assumed an economic, cultural and constitutional nature. In terms of economic differences, the Northern states wanted the federal government to protect local industries from foreign competition through the adjustment of tax policies (Radford 1). The Southern states on the other hand preferred the status quo because they assumed that a change in the tax system would affect its sale of large-scale agricult ural produce to Europe (Radford 1). This assumption was majorly founded on the principle that taxation would ultimately change the prices of agricultural goods. This kind of stalemate characterized the conflict for a long time and it created a big economic gap between the two state factions. The Northern states generally had few capital reserves but they had a considerably good track record of investments. On the other hand, the southerners were better economically empowered because they received a lot of revenues from the sale of cotton, and tobacco (Radford 1). Culturally, the two regions supported different ideologies with regards to slave trade and traditional types of Jobs. In detail, the Northern union supported the end of slave trade but the Southerners preferred the continuity of the slave trade. The Northerners also supported urban white-collar jobs but the Southerners supported small village-like agricultural jobs because its economy was largely supported by agriculture.Ad vertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The two regions also supported different kinds of governmental set ups because the Northerners were of the opinion that there should be a centralized federal government which had power over all the states but the Southerners preferred that states should have a firmer grip on the running of state affairs. This was to be a secession kind of strategy for the Southerners. These kinds of differences openly played out even before the civil war when eleven Southern states declared secession from the American union and in turn formed the Confederate State of America which tirelessly opposed the Northern union’s government philosophy. Also, before the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, he strongly campaigned against the extinction of slave trade beyond states which were already practicing it (Radford 1). In a responsive manner, four other states also declared their secession from the American union (Radford 1). The American government thereafter started opposing calls for secession; terming it as an act of rebellion (Radford 1). This conflict later developed into a state of hostility between the two sides and the attack of the Southerners on a US military installation marked the beginning of the American civil war. Preferred Philosophy of Government The Northerners philosophy of government seems to be the most preferred form of government and indeed, the prevailing ideology after the civil war. This is true because the federal system of government advanced by the Northerners considers the political, economic and social problems plaguing a particular state (Dautrich 79). Local needs are best represented by state senators who live in the state itself and who are in a position to best understand the unique problems of the state and guarantee a unique solution to the same (Dautrich 79). For instance, when examining the poor sta te of traffic in Oahu, Hawaii, a long-term solution to the problem can be best formulated by representatives from within the community and not outside. The federal system of government advanced by the Northerners acknowledges these unique needs and provides a given level of autonomy to states to tackle their own local problems.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Most Disastrous Civil Conflict in American History specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The federal system of government also represents all manner of people in the population and it offers a blanket representation of people within various states who may have a different way of life, ethnicity or even cultures (Dautrich 80). A federal system of government is in a position to overlook these differences and offer a common solution that suits everyone. Needless to say, this is done in consideration to local needs and tastes. This system perfectly works for the ben efit of everyone. For example, in the state of Arizona, there is a predominant majority population of Hispanic speaking population and therefore the provision of bilingual education is a unique way that has been established to cater for the unique needs of the local population (Dautrich 80). In this manner, state governments are able to adopt policies and systems that are only unique to the state and which don’t need to be adopted by other states. For instance, the federal system of government does not offer legal recognition of same sex marriages but certain states within America have legalized such unions out of the independence state governments are given by the federal government. The divisive way in assigning duties between state and federal governments is also bound to increase efficiency because the federal government is in a position to tackle issues at a national level while the state government can easily tackle issues at a local level. In addition, the federal syst em of government provides an opportunity for innovation because the freedom it gives state governments to formulate their own policies provides enough ground for comparison of which state formulates the best policies (say, in taxation), so that examples can be borrowed for practicability at a national level. These advantages could be easily derived from the Policies advanced by the Northerners in the American civil war. With regards to the slave trade stand taken by the Northerners, the ideology of banning slave trade was a good position to protect human rights because the ongoing slave trade in the South greatly violated human rights. For starters, slaves were confined in deplorable conditions, chained and forced to work long hours without remuneration. In addition, the slaves were branded by hot iron, beaten and given little food to eat. They were also treated as commodities and not necessarily regarded as fellow human beings. Comprehensively, the slave trade was morally repugnant and the Southerner’s support of it to improve their capital base was unjustifiable.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Since the Northerners were more industrialized than the Southerners, they received great opposition from Southerners because the economic composition of the Southerners was greatly characterized by agriculture. The Northerners were therefore advancing for an industrial type of economy which has many advantages over the agrarian form of economy advanced by the Southerners. An industrial type of economy is characterized by mass production which could be potentially beneficial to the entire country in terms of exports and even in producing enough food to feed the entire country. The level of efficiency in an industrialized economy is also much higher as compared to an agrarian type of economy. In addition, an agrarian type of economy is also more prone to environmental conditions which increases the risks associated with such type of economies. For instance, if droughts or floods are experienced, there is little chance that production will be sustained in an agrarian type of economy. O n the other hand, an industrial economy is all-weather and production can be sustained all year round. These factors withstanding, the Northern ideology was better than the Southern ideology. Conclusion The ideology advanced by the Northerners prevailed in the American civil war and it characterizes the world economy today. The Southern ideology which prompted the American civil war was more a selfish move by Southern states and it posed a resistance to change because the agrarian type of economy represented an older type of economy when compared to an industrial economy. The Northern union also campaigned for an end to the slave trade and an upheaval of the federal system of government which was bound to uphold human rights and increase the level of nationalism in America. These factors stand out as some of the Northerner’s strong points which led them to win the war and determine the future we live in today. Dautrich, Kenneth. American Government: Historical, Popular, and Global Perspectives Texas Edition. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Draper, John. History of the American Civil War, Volume 3. New York: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. Print. Radford, Grant. The Civil War for Fifth Graders. 3. 2004. Web. https://www.radford.edu/content/radfordcore/home.html