taco bell
Information Technology in Taco Bell
Introduction
Taco Bell is a fast food chain that sells Mexican food. This company has become the worlds largest of its kind. This paper will study and analyse the impact and implementations of information technology to Taco Bell a bit closer. Firstly it will cover the period ’83 – ’94, but will later talk about the newer technology and how that can be used.
Analysing Impact
Early in the 1980’s taco Bell signed a new CEO, John Martin. Martin was able to turn the company into a very competitive player in the industry. He realized that they could simply borrow the information from other industries. In an interview Martin gave an example of such use: “When I think about cutting labour in the kitchen, there is some really neat stuff in the pharmaceutical industry that could be adapted”. (Martin, 1994)
Porter’s model shows the competitive forces that are faced by a company. Below is an overview to more easily see how information technology was adapted by Taco Bell, and how it used this technology to compete against these forces.
Fig 1. Porter’s industry and competitive analysis framework.
Bargaining power of suppliers: To gain more hand in the relationship with suppliers, Taco Bell has through the years adapted a better and better inventory control. That is, they don’t have to store vast amounts of unused food or decrease service when stock ran out. It all started in Martin’s first year, 1983, with a point of sale (POS) system that helped track sales. A bigger system called TACO was built that used the POS and made the information more useful. A regional manager could predict future sales and view stock based on all POS in his/her area. Taking decision-making down to a lower level with TACO II perked up the just-in-time inventory system even more.
Potential new Entrants: Taco Bell has not directly taken any action to prevent new similar companies blooming. But indirectly, some technology has
Introduction
Taco Bell is a fast food chain that sells Mexican food. This company has become the worlds largest of its kind. This paper will study and analyse the impact and implementations of information technology to Taco Bell a bit closer. Firstly it will cover the period ’83 – ’94, but will later talk about the newer technology and how that can be used.
Analysing Impact
Early in the 1980’s taco Bell signed a new CEO, John Martin. Martin was able to turn the company into a very competitive player in the industry. He realized that they could simply borrow the information from other industries. In an interview Martin gave an example of such use: “When I think about cutting labour in the kitchen, there is some really neat stuff in the pharmaceutical industry that could be adapted”. (Martin, 1994)
Porter’s model shows the competitive forces that are faced by a company. Below is an overview to more easily see how information technology was adapted by Taco Bell, and how it used this technology to compete against these forces.
Fig 1. Porter’s industry and competitive analysis framework.
Bargaining power of suppliers: To gain more hand in the relationship with suppliers, Taco Bell has through the years adapted a better and better inventory control. That is, they don’t have to store vast amounts of unused food or decrease service when stock ran out. It all started in Martin’s first year, 1983, with a point of sale (POS) system that helped track sales. A bigger system called TACO was built that used the POS and made the information more useful. A regional manager could predict future sales and view stock based on all POS in his/her area. Taking decision-making down to a lower level with TACO II perked up the just-in-time inventory system even more.
Potential new Entrants: Taco Bell has not directly taken any action to prevent new similar companies blooming. But indirectly, some technology has