Critical Analysis of Hospitality and Tourism Operations

Choose a hospitality and/or tourism organization of your choice and critically analyze one hospitality function out of food and beverage, accommodation operations and front office management. Critically evaluate how the quality of the chosen area has been managed by your chosen organization.
McDonald is one of the largest fast food restaurant chains, operating in more than 110 countries and having 32,000 locations. McDonald is having its own business and also franchises its brand to the local businesspeople. More than 70% of McDonald restaurants are franchised. McDonald in order to create a name that shows its quality, safety and adoptability tries its best to provide it customer with all that what is required by them. It is dealing with suppliers and with special attention to weather, it only add those ingredients to food that is of top quality. Mc Donald is dealing with manufactures and suppliers and created long-term relationship and is in constant contact to assure the quality of the raw materials. So the customers are able to enjoy best quality food and taste. All the beef used in its products is from the cattles raised in British and Irish farms. There is nothing addition or removed from the beef and the beef is clear from any kind of additive, preservative, binder or fillers. There is a special two sided plate machinery to cook the beef, so there is no need for extra fat to cook the beef. In 2009, the McDonald was the biggest purchaser of beef from British and Irish farms and 16000 farmers supplied them with fresh beef. The beef is 100 percent pure that is also of good quality accredited by national recognized farm assurance scheme. The burger contains beef from the whole cut with just little bit of salt and pepper added into it. The McDonald menu is prepared by products such as meat, egg, grain, chicken, milk, fish and potato. The significant amounts of products are gathered from United Kingdom .McDonald is a family restaurant and is able to serve more than 2 million people every day in UK. Its main priority is customer satisfaction and is food

safety. It will not use any product or ingredient that is harmful for the usage of its customer or that is not approved by EU and British authorities. It has developed a professional team that is in close contact with the suppliers to ensure the best quality standards at every step. It helps them to get high quality products regarding safety, tracebility to ensure its high standard. Now Mc Donald is much more concern about its customer health and thats why it has introduced fresh fruits and vegetables in its menu. It introduced fruit bags in 2004 and carrot sticks in 2005 to its menu. It introduced fresh orange juice and semi skimmed milk and water. During 2007, they switched by using semi skimmed milk for all of their coffee and tea. They now use only Arabic coffee beans that are from sustainable farms proved by the Rainforest Association. They are closely working with organization FSA i-e (food standards agency) to be aware of the food meet and if there is some problem, government guidelines can be taken. Since 2006, McDonald is doing its best to provide information to its customers by taking nutrition information initiative by providing GDA and nutrition information on packaging of the products. This information system is well organized and other sources include interactive and personalized tools on its website. It enables the customers to be well informed and make the correct choice. One of the major priorities of McDonald is to provide safe and quality food to its customer and for that they start taking care of this matter from the very beginning that is the farm and they have worked with colleagues across Europe in order to create an assurance Program that improves its standard and sustainable agriculture. McDonald agriculture assurance program is taking care of the fact that food quality and safety is integrated into its production cycle right from the very beginning. The program is developed to ensure improvement in areas like environment, animal welfare, animal medication, animal nutrition, genetics, transparency etc.The suppliers and the independent auditors on regular basis conduct the audit to be in clear picture about everything going on. So, in this manner, the whole supply chain is properly monitored to be well organized and creating a high standard of animal welfare, quality and safety. It provides them with full information about the farming, that also includes feed, animal

welfare and make them in full control to track right back on the farm where the livestock was raised. The chicken used in different product is of high quality and only breast filet are used in making burgers, snacks, nuggets etc.The poultry products are taken from the poultry producers that are regularly audiated by their suppliers. The nationally recognized farm assurance scheme is responsible for setting up the standard. The other source of chicken includes countries like Thailand, Brazil and other countries in Europe. It is also necessary that all the suppliers should be complying with the MAAP standards. High standards for animal welfare are made which are very clear to the suppliers. The feed that is being used for rearing the animal is free from any kind of antibiotic growth promoters. Diets are formulated by the nutritionists who are expert in their field and veterinary personnel monitor the bird health regularly. McDonald is also having the supply of pork from the suppliers that are totally complying with UK animal welfare legislation. The independent auditors on regular basis audit the manufacturing facilities. The suppliers pay extra attention on the quality checking for every batch. The fish that is used in filet-o-fish is the filleted Alaskan Pollock or the other kind is hoki. The fish is sourced from sustainable fisheries. The fish is free from any kind of additives and special attention is given so that only high quality fish is used in fish products available in McDonald.Differnt procedures are used to remove all kind of bones from the fish. From the very beginning of 2009, the eggs being used in the whole menu are free range. McDonald is paying special attention that eggs used must follow to the lion Mark program of preparation. The suppliers of free range eggs are credited by the free range farm assurance system. McDonald was awarded good business of the year award. Hens that are producing eggs are fed on a non-GM diet that is free from artificial colorants. The potatoes used to make French fries are of best quality that are russer Burbank,shepody and pentland dell,majoiry of which are from UK. The potatoes are chosen because of their size and shape in order to make long French fries. There is nothing added to these fries and only some salt is added before they are finally served to the customers. The milk used in milkshakes and other product is brought from British farms. The system is advance enough to trace the milk from the farms from where it is

brought. The milk used in coffee and tea is organic semi skimmed milk. The main component used in milkshakes is semi skimmed milk (about 75 %).The iceberg lettuce is used for making sandwiches as it is of great sweet flavor, famous texture and good quality. More than five varieties of salad are used in premium salads that count for about 2 out of 5 portion target for fruits and vegetables. McDonald pays special attention to environment and support good environment by doing water recycling to irrigate crops and the waste lettuce is used as compost. To ensure that less amount of chemical preservatives are used, sauces are formulated and pasteurized in a specific manner. They take possible actions to ensure the use of natural colors and natural flavours.Vegetable oil is used in preparing different products like nuggets, French fries, apple pies etc that is a mixture of sunflower oil, high oleic oil, oleic rapeseed. McDonald pays special care for its loyal customers and that why it is able to reduce the Trans fatty acids in cooking oil from 30% to 2% since 1998.This level is lowest level achieved because of the existence of naturally occurring Trans fats in the oil. Mccafes provide an extra range of bakery drinks and products.McCafes are exceptional in a sense that some of the products contain nuts as ingredients and some of them are produced in an environment where nuts are handled. Special attention is given that customers are well informed about this through posters, product labeling, door stickers, and stickers on the till. All the products are delivered in restaurant in sealed packaging. Its highest concern is regarding the safety of its customers. They dont use any ingredient or product that does not comply with their set high standard of safety and quality, or that doesnt have the required approval by the concerned UK authorities. They make sure that none of the products contain genetically modified ingredients or products containing GM material in their food. McDonald gives special attention to balanced diet, health and life style. Managing and controlling the flow of stock is one of the main challenges faced by McDonalds. So, managing the stock involves the balance between managing the customer need while on the same time minimizing the waste. So the wastage of product is reduced by accurate forecast of customer demand for the product in order that the product is not thrown away and also the exact stock control of the raw material. The usual practice in the past was

that ordering the stock was the duty of individual restaurant manager. They were ordering the stock by their own knowledge and also by viewing the analysis of the restaurant data demonstrating the store sold the prior day, week and month. It was a very simple way and there was involvement of specific methods and calculation techniques and there was no proper calculation to take account of things like national promotions or school holidays. It was creating a problem and manager time was being wasted in calculating and he could not properly manage the service, cleanliness in restaurant and proper delivering of quality products. So to deal with this situation, McDonald introduced a new specialist central stock management function in 2004 known as restaurant Supply Planning Department. This team is in regular contact with the restaurant manager to find out the local events. The team constructs these factors into the new foretelling and development system that is known as Manugistics-to forecast likely request of menu finished items. Like every other business, McDonald also has three kind of stock that is finished products, work in progress and the raw material. McDonald Raw materials are those ingredients that will be used in producing the finished product. In McDonalds, things like beef, fish, paper cups, salad ingredients, bun, and packaging. These ingredients are delivered between 3 and 5 times in a week. One lorry transfers raw material with three sections so that the products can be stored at a particular temperature. The three different sections are chilled; frozen, ambient like coffee or sugar etc.work in progress are those items that are under the process of being converted into the final finished products. Like a Big Mac consists of a small portion of seasoning, beef, pickle, patties, onion, sauce, bun, cheese. These items will be mixed together into the final product just before the customer order them, so that the Big Mac is fresh and hot served to the customer. Finished product refers to those products that are ready for instant sale to the customer. Like Big Macs, side salads etc.The three kinds of products of McDonalds are carried on the First in, first out basis. It means that the raw materials are used in the particular order as they are received. That is why the stock is always fresh as the products of McDonalds are sold in the way they are made. McDonald pays special attention in holding stock so it runs a lean stock in order to save money. To mange the stock more succefully, communication between supply planning team, individual restaurant and central restaurant is an effective way. A combination of

employees who were working in McDonald with specialist stock controllers creates the central team. The team consisting of fourteen regional planners works with almost eighty restaurants each and are in regular contact through mail and telephone. Any factors that can distress the sum of customers visiting an individual restaurant need to be recorded by the team. To predict the future forecasting, these are taken into consideration. McDonald supply planners are working with new stock control system, Manugistics, to ensure that raw material like tomatoes, beef, lettuce etc, leave the McDonald distribution centres. This helps in producing the meals required for the demand forecasted. Restaurants are also holding a little buffer stock. This is an extra amount of quantity of stock for unexpected demand. This stock helps as a tigger point on which more goods are being ordered. McDonald restaurant managers are using a simple web based communication toll called as Weblog to see and adjust store order proposals. In normal routine, weblog make a proposed order for the retardant manager to analyze and revise the order if necessary. Weblog helps in making new orders by enabling the manager and central planners to view that what quantities of stock have been ordered, and what is the current stock level is and also the exact amount of stock is due to be delivered on a particular time. Previously, the restaurant managers would have had to check their delivery for any shortages and input every item that had received. The new weblog system automatically generates a delivery note that gives the precise quantities and descriptions of the delivery. All the manager is to do is to just simply click confirm on the new weblog system. This system is very cost effective and saves time and makes the process fast. So lot of benefits of this new system, like restaurants are not running out of stock and customer can receive on time what they order. There is less wastage and that decreases the cost, and there is also reduction of emergency deliveries which helps in saving money. The stock level is also optimum. The orders are based on current stock so the manager simply inputs the current stock level. After the stock is delivered to the independent restaurant, then comes the serving of the products to the final customers. McDonald offer both drive through and the counter

service. It has indoor and outdoor seating arrangement for its customers. The employees of the McDonalds are very friendly and ask politely and with a smile to every customer that, can I take your order. As the customer places the order, the employee enters it into the computer. The order placed will be flashed onto two screens inside the restaurant. One screen will face the grill and the other one in the drive through and the customer is handed over their desired food and drink by another employee with a smiling face from the booth. This process is not as simple as it looks. Like for example, in lunch time, the production teams is very efficient an each task is broken down into smaller tasks. One person covers each task. The patties are cooked and the types and number of patties is decided by the grill manager. These cooked patties are then positioned on the warmer until they are needed. Then comes the next task of toasting buns. Next to the grill, there is a hamburger bun toaster. One person is responsible for toasting the bun.again, the toasted buns are place on the warmer till there properly assembly. The assembler takes order from the grill manager assembles the burgers. This worker grabs the beef, bun from the warmer and also assembles cheese, ketchup, onions, pickles, and place them on bun. He usually assembles twelve sandwiches at a time. These sandwiches are placed on tray that is passed to another worker of McDonald. (the Q-r and wrapper. the worker wraps the sandwiches in their respective packing and then Qs (microwaves) the sandwiches. The sandwiches are then passed on top of the microwave after microwaving. Then the sandwiches are placed on warmer bin by the grill manager, placing a number behind the fresh row, and the grill manager decide when to throw away the left over sandwiches as they are not fresh enough for the customers. For the French fries, one worker is always on duty and it is his duty of the French fry maker to make sure during rush hours, the store never runs out of French fries. It involves the reloading the French fresh disperser when it is low, and then putting again French fries in the oil. The dispenser system is working automatically and dispenses the right amount of fries into the frying basket, it is automatically operated and the McDonald employee place empty basket on shelf, which automatically slide down to be filled with French fries. So to help McDonald perform at a constant high level, technology is utilized

through out the company starting from service tills to the stock control, office work, administration, research, and training. The organization use modern technology in order to compete properly and improve business throughout all areas. Efficient service is provided to customers and they feel satisfied with the customer service of McDonald that is stress free and fast. One of the main purposes of McDonald is to serve good food in a modern, fun and friendly environment whilst giving customers with a high level of standard of quick service and value for the money. McDonald in order to satisfy customer satisfaction has and will always continue to develop new products ideas for great value and great taste. McDonalds has a new product development team that works with the suppliers to add new items in the menu and expand menu with promotional and new core food products. For quality concern, McDonald quality assurance experts do their best that all the food meet companies safety standards and high quality. McDonald is an international company that is serving 3 million customers on daily basis, this responsibility makes quality a consistent goal to achieve. McDonald needs the highest specifications and standards not only for the product ingredients but for every detail of service, preparation, delivery, transport, production is also monitored by McDonald. It is believed by McDonald that the food quality begins at the very beginning in supply chain, whether this is flour used in the buns, lettuces seeding, and dairy herds. So McDonald has attained team for quality assurance that verifies supply chain through site visits and audits. To ensure that restaurants consistently serve great tasting, fresh, hot food to all customers, they work with suppliers to develop and maintain product quality. To access McDonald suppliers facilities, independent food safety audits are utilized on a regular basis.

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4) O'Fallon J. And Rutherford G. (2010). Hotel Management and Operations. John Wiley
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