This summer I have the privilege for working for Levy Restaurants in Chicago at their Oak Street Beach location right in the heart of Downtown. During my journey I have had the opportunity to view many of the topics discussed in my operations management class. One of my first experiences was running out of condiments which prompted me to think about forecasting and better ways to stay on top of the types of demand we were experiencing on a weekly basis and how in the future we could be better prepared to accommodate our guest.
At my restaurant we have worked out most of the small kinks being that we are open only for five months during the summer the process is a sort bump your head and don’t let it happen again. But of course those are all things within our control. It wasn’t until last week that I experienced a huge operations management problem that we just simply had no control over.
It was tuesday of last week when I stocked the coolers with all the different beverages that we offer so that we would have backup beverages ready for when our front of house inventory had been depleted as the week went along. after completely stocking the cooler. I went to my manager and informed him that i had put the last of most of the beverages we had in back stock into the coolers and that we were sure to need some more.
He kind of smirked. I believe he was happy that I had noticed that we were short but informed me that he was on top of it and that Pepsi was scheduled to make a huge delivery on friday. I had the next few days off and when I returned on saturday there were still no beverages. I was approached by my manager who let me know that we needed to be sparing with the amounts of water we were taking out of the coolers because what was there was all we had and we needed to effectively distribute the product between the three stations that we operate as needed.
Having analyzed the buying patterns of our customers I knew that our bottled water was one of our cash cows with about every seven out of ten people purchasing at least one bottle. While we quickly came up with solutions on how to accommodate our guest because we’re just that good, I had to know just exactly where our supply was. I asked my manager about the situation and he informed me that he had spoke with Pepsi and they said the supply would be deliverd on Friday. He had called saturday morning and was assured that it would be delivered by the end of the day. Of course once again the truck never showed and I’m just wondering.
PEPSI: WHERE, is my supply?
What do you think should be some penalties for suppliers who do not deliver on time?
What could be some backlash for a company that has not received its product due to a slow supply chain?
What are some things that a company could do to alleviate this type of issue?
For the last few years I have lived in a condo and conveniently on the corner sits a McDonalds. Upon moving into my place I considered that a plus. It could be like my life saver: I could always find a cheap meal that is. What I soon found out was that this was possibly the worst McDonalds on the planet.