Assignment 1: Analysis of Benihana Restaurant Case

Please carefully read the case for Benihana, then answer the following questions:

1. What is the transformation process of Benihana? Please design it and explain (refer to OM1, sl.
11)
2. What is Benihana’s position in the production and service matrix? Please design the matrix and
comment (refer to OM1, sl.37 -39)
3. What is the business process of Benihana? Describe it (refer to OM1, sl.25). Do you think it is
appropriate? Should they change it? Or make any adjustments?
4. What is the position of Benihana in the matrix production process? Please design it and
comment (refer to OM1, sl. 14). Is this position balanced?
5. How does it relate with the product life cycle? (Refer to OM2-1, sl. 4)
6. Design the production process of Benihana (refer to OM1, sl. 14). What improvements do you
suggest for the production process? What improvements do you suggest re: the floor layout of
Benihana (refer to Exhibit 2)? Please design both.
7. Based on Exhibit 1, build a three-year income statement for Benihana.
8. What is the order qualifier & order winners for Benihana? (Refer to OM2-3, sl. 8)
9. Choose two of the five performance indicators (Capacity, Lead Time, Efficiency, Flexibility,
Quality) and analyze them in relation to the Benihana case. (Refer to OM2-3, sl. 10)

The assignment is not to simply answer the questions, but to use them as a meaningful tool and
guidance for the teams to reach the solutions of the business case. Teams can use the discussions we
had in class, which will help to define the multiple problem definitions of such business case.
Please note that every PowerPoint presentation must include the following elements:
▪ Agenda (1 slide)

▪ Executive summary (1 slide)

▪ Demonstrations of each step, which contains all aforementioned questions

▪ Final analysis & conclusions (1 slide)

For a total of max 18 slides only

Also remember the golden rule of every PowerPoint deck, which is:
“Tell them what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said”.
This will help you to convey more clarity to you audience, but you must be very specific and detect your
key messages since the very beginning. Generic agenda & executive summaries won’t be accepted.
Finally, every presentation must also have a storyline, i.e., the beginning, the content and the end.
The flow of the presentation must be homogeneous, well-constructed, well-organized, with clear
structure and layout.
A presentation is NOT a cut-and-paste work from the Internet; further, it is NOT a pure assembly of
different parts made individually by each team member and then put together. A teamwork means that
you all meet, discuss together, craft the deck together.
A storyline also implies to kick-off your presentation with a framing story or an idea that will grab your
audience’s attention and at the same time tell them why they are there.

TIMING AND DELIVERABLES

Completion of the full scope project and delivery of the final work product will be staged over a
period of 2 weeks.