Management Control System in Food Chains
By
Vibhash Gaurav
Student (2006-08 Batch) ICFAI Business School Hyderabad
Have we ever thought why every Pizza or a Berger from a Pizza Hut or McDonald's tastes the same irrespective of the location of the outlet .This is due to the standardization of their operations, services and the overall business procedure. The day when customers start saying that one outlet of Pizza Hut or McDonalds is better than others then that day marks the failure of its control system. The most important and distinguishing feature of food chain industry is the standardization of their operations, services and the overall business procedure. Since all the restaurants/outlets are working under single brand name, it is essential to maintain brand image through standardization. The food chains take these Quality Control measures for this purpose. • Standard Purchase Specification • Standard Production Process Standard Purchase Specification: The purchasing made by each outlet is uniform in terms of quality, size and quantity subject to demand. Since the input is same across all outlets the output across all outlets is expected to be the same. Standard Production Process: The production process for every item in the menu is standard across all the outlets of any food chain. There is fixed recipe and measurement spoons for every dish prepared across all the restaurants of a food chain. For example if two spoon of salt is used in one of the outlets of Pizza Hut then same measurement spoon will be used in another outlet. Cleaning: Cleaning is also one of the most important quality control measures in the food chain industry. On an average it is done three times in a day for most of the multinational food chains. Once in a month the outlet is closed for a complete cleaning and overhauling of the restaurant. Replacements are also one of the most important things food chain as the crockery and cutlery are used to wear and tear and it being one of the strategic things in this industry. The replacements for crockery, electric equipments and other small equipment are done preemptively on monthly, quarterly or annual basis depending upon the estimated life of particular equipment.