Assignment 1 Pret a Manger
Q1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Pret A Manger organizing itself so that the individual shops make the sandwiches that they sell?
- Advantage:
a. Since it is the same employee who serves your lunch that made the sandwich, he will be responsible for his job, I.e. ingredients selection, freshness, and packaging.
b. To keep items fresh and no overnight food is allowed, the volume of food prepared is relatively low, thus making staff do less repeating work.
c. Being a fast food store, the variety of its products is low, thus making the food preparation process standardized and routine, as well as saving unit cost.
d. The variation in demand is low, in other words, predictable, demand goes up at lunch time on weekdays and the preparation is carried out a few hours before. Based on this point, the forecast provided to supplier is accurate and wasted raw material is recued.
e. Targeted at white collars, its visibility is quite high. Once the customer is served satisfactorily, its concept will be broadcasted through word-of-mouth and its reputation will be improved.
- Disadvantage:
a. Since each employee has to be taught how to prepare sandwich as well as serve customers, the training process is more time consuming and costly.
b. Owing to the low volume of food, the unit cost is raised inevitably.
c. The low variety of food leads to customer disappointment when they want to customize their own sandwich with their preferred ingredients inside.
d. Due to the low variation in demand, a sudden increase or decrease in consumption will disturb its routine order quantity and staff arrangement, a disaster to the store’s operation.
e. Because of high visibility, employees need to be strictly trained to serve customer well and avoid long waiting time.
Q2. How can effective operations management at Pret A Manger contribute significantly to its success?
a. The concept of “We make food, we sell them!” makes it distinguished from other fast food stores,
- Advantage:
a. Since it is the same employee who serves your lunch that made the sandwich, he will be responsible for his job, I.e. ingredients selection, freshness, and packaging.
b. To keep items fresh and no overnight food is allowed, the volume of food prepared is relatively low, thus making staff do less repeating work.
c. Being a fast food store, the variety of its products is low, thus making the food preparation process standardized and routine, as well as saving unit cost.
d. The variation in demand is low, in other words, predictable, demand goes up at lunch time on weekdays and the preparation is carried out a few hours before. Based on this point, the forecast provided to supplier is accurate and wasted raw material is recued.
e. Targeted at white collars, its visibility is quite high. Once the customer is served satisfactorily, its concept will be broadcasted through word-of-mouth and its reputation will be improved.
- Disadvantage:
a. Since each employee has to be taught how to prepare sandwich as well as serve customers, the training process is more time consuming and costly.
b. Owing to the low volume of food, the unit cost is raised inevitably.
c. The low variety of food leads to customer disappointment when they want to customize their own sandwich with their preferred ingredients inside.
d. Due to the low variation in demand, a sudden increase or decrease in consumption will disturb its routine order quantity and staff arrangement, a disaster to the store’s operation.
e. Because of high visibility, employees need to be strictly trained to serve customer well and avoid long waiting time.
Q2. How can effective operations management at Pret A Manger contribute significantly to its success?
a. The concept of “We make food, we sell them!” makes it distinguished from other fast food stores,