Reference no: EM133186872

Congratulations! You have been hired by a new fast-food company "Basta! Pasta" offering fresh pasta to-go in 10 cities. As an operations manager, you will have to create a robust customer service process by analyzing the operations and process flows, optimizing them, improving inventory and supply chain management that is expected to result in an increase in the company's performance. At the end of your trial period, you will have to present the result of your work in front of the Board members.

Description:

"Basta! Pasta" points are fast-food stands in the main streets and shopping malls. Customers can choose one of 4 shapes of pasta and one of 5 sauces. Additionally, customers are offered desserts and drinks. The customer service process looks as follows:

The first employee takes an order and asks to choose the shape of pasta. She puts a portion of the precooked pasta into boiling water, where it remains for one minute. When the timer rings, the second worker takes the pasta out of the water and puts it in the pan. He asks the customer to choose a sauce, adds it to the pasta, mixes and cooks it. Then he puts the pasta in a container, asks the customer if he would like to add parmesan and arugula. The third employee offers dessert and drinks, dispenses cutlery, wraps the finished order in a paper bag, and accepts payment.

Table - Processing time (in seconds)

Read the following articles and answer the questions below:

• "Bottleneck"
• "How to Manage Bottlenecks in Operations Management"

1) How would you define what a bottleneck is? What is the bottleneck in the client service process of "Basta! Pasta"?

2) Think how the bottleneck that you found could be off-loaded. Identify at least three ways the bottleneck can be managed and describe how you are going to apply them in detail