IT induction in the food service industry
| Date | 01 February 2001 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570110365961 |
| Pages | 13-20 |
| Published date | 01 February 2001 |
| Author | P. Pete Chong,Ye‐Sho Chen,Jason Chou‐Hong Chen |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
IT induction in the food service industry
P. Pete Chong
Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA
Ye-Sho Chen
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Jason Chou-Hong Chen
Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA
Introduction
In the constantly changing environment
today, businesses large and small need to
have a well-thought-out strategy to provide
customers with the best-of-breed products,
services, and excellent support on a timely
basis. To meet this challenge, many
businesses turn to information technology
(IT) in hope of gaining an upper hand.
Furthermore, in the early 1990s, companies
began to realize that they must redesign
business processes and move toward a more
horizontal organization structure in order to
induct IT effectively. In their well-known
book on business process reengineering
(BPR), Hammer and Champy (1993) define
BPR as ``the fundamental rethinking and
radical redesign of business processes to
achieve dramatic improvements in critical,
contemporary measures of performance,
such as cost, quality, service, and speed''.
They also point out that IT can be a great
enabler to rapidly improve an organization's
business performance, and the food service
industry is no exception. Taco Bell is
probably the most well-known case of BPR in
the food service industry (Hammer and
Champy, 1993). In this process, Taco Bell
eliminated layers of management and
redefined nearly every job in the operational
processes. It implemented a kitchenless
restaurant, shifted itself from a
manufacturing to a retail service restaurant,
and proposed the idea of alternative points of
distribution and new applications of
technology. As a result, Taco Bell realized
greater quality control, better employee
morale, fewer employee accidents and
injuries, big savings in utilities, and more
time to focus on their customers.
Facing global competitions, major
companies have downsized to increase their
productivity, forcing many laid-off managers
to start their own businesses. Thus, the
competition has trickled down to mid-size
and small businesses as well. This
competition is especially fierce in the service
industries such as smaller restaurants where
capital requirement is relatively small and
the complexity of the operation is often
unknown to newcomers to become a
deterrent. On the other hand, though lacking
specific knowledge in restaurant operations,
these newcomers are cash-rich and, due to
their exposure to larger firms, possess
knowledge of new technology and
management techniques.
The food service industry can be
segmented into quick-service restaurants,
institutional service restaurants, and table
service restaurants (Kasavana, 1994). A
quick-service restaurant features counter
service and customer self-service where a
customer passes along a counter, buffet, or
cafeteria line to place their orders and pay
the cashier. An institutional service
restaurant is found in schools, nursing
homes, hospital facilities, prison, and
catering services; and it offers contract
dining with a host of cyclical menus. Table
service restaurants are characterized by
having service crews such as waiters/
waitresses and bussing people to serve their
customers. When compared with the other
two types of food service establishments,
table service restaurants have the most
sophisticated processes (Robinston et al.,
1984). Restaurants are labor-intensive
businesses. Numerous labor costs (e.g.
payroll taxes and the workmen's
compensation insurance) are associated with
the wage expenditure. Furthermore, health-
care reform may mandate the employer to
provide health insurance to employees. Due
to such financial constraints and low-skill
help usually associated with the food service
industry, the ideal improvement should cost
as little as possible and require minimal
training time.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
[13]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
101/1 [2001] 13±20
#MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
Keywords
Food industry, Service operations,
Information technology, Strategy
Abstract
As part of the business strategy in
a competitive environment, for an
organization to induct information
technology (IT) appropriately,
business process reengineering
(BPR) must be conducted. We
propose a process that
incorporates both management
information systems and strategic
management concepts for the IT
induction. First, we develop a
business competition strategy
based on Porter's five competitive
forces; second, using concepts
developed in the field of
information systems the business
processes are reengineered to
improve effectiveness and
efficiency; and finally, IT strategy
is developed to achieve these
goals. A real-life case in the food
service industry is used to
illustrate this process.
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