Productivity

What is « productivity »?
 ?????
• The ratio of what is produced to
what is required to produce it

• Encyclopedia Britannica
 PRODUCTIVITY

Food/Beverage + Services

Labor + Ingredients + Energy + Capital

 Marginal productivity theory
John Bates Clark et al

• It holds that a business firm would be

willing to pay a productive agent only what
he adds to the firm’s well-being or utility;
that it is clearly unprofitable to buy, for
instance, a man-hour of labor if it adds
less to the buyer’s income than to his
costs.
 Marginal productivity in real life
• Do we hire and pay staff on this basis?

OR

• Do hire staff based on what we « need »

and pay them what it takes to hire them?
 Law of diminishing returns
• It says that if one input in the production of
a commodity is increased while all the
other inputs remain fixed, a point will
eventually be reached at which additions
to the input yield progressively smaller
(diminishing) increases in output.
 Diminishing returns
• How many « inputs » do we have?
• What are they?
• (Storage ability) - production capability -
delivery capability - accommodation
capability

• At which point does an « input » become a

limiting factor?
 Productivity measurements in
Restaurants
• If we want to establish ratios between
« input » and « output » we must first
define what is an easily measured output
and what is an easily measurable input.
• What are the inputs?
• What are the outputs?
 Productivity, definition and
measurement
Internal and external
clients

INPUTS
• Employes Process and
• Mgmt operations
• Equipment OUTPUTS
• Installations 1 3 • Meals
• Product 5 • Experience
• Services
• Energy 2 4
• Capital

Information

http://www.belkcollege.uncc.edu
 Improving the ratios
• Some ratios are better if they are higher,
some are better if they are lower.

• Example:
• incr. Sales per manhour – better
• decr. manhour per customer - better
 Improving productivity
• To improve productivity we must have
either underused capability or
overproduction.

• Identifying overproduction is relatively

easy, finding and defining underused
capability is very difficult (and it is not in
your employee’s best interest that that you
find it!)
What role does DEMAND play?
• Improving productivity by reducing
required input for a constant or diminishing
demand is effective.

• To improve productivity output with

constant or increasing input capacity
works only if there is unmet demand.
 Measurements
• Salaries % of sales
• Employees per day
• Customers served per manhour
• Minutes required per cover
• Etc...
 Elements to consider
Staff OPERATIONS
• Salaries • Opening hours
– Fixed and variable • Sales/activity volume
• Number of employees • Ingredients
• Labor laws • Menu, popularity of
• Experience and skill dishes
• « Crosstraining » • Supplies
• Management style • Equipment
• Working conditions • Training
• Service methods
• Production methods
• Cashiering
 Production methods
Traditional production :
– Everything prepared from raw ingredients. Can do
anything
Traditional production with assembly :
– Partial utilisation of pre-prepared ingredients
Assembly :
– Systematic use of fully or partially pre-prepared
ingredients

Next level :
– Unpacking, reheating/regenerating, plating
 Service methods
Tableside
– Maître d’hôtel, captain, commis, flaming/carving at
table side
Assisted service
– Combination of table side and self service (salad bar,
dessert buffet)
Plated
--No preparation at table, everything plated
Self service
– Buffet, free-flow, scramble
 Service methods
• Take-out
– Counter, vending, kiosk, etc
• Others
– Dessert or Cheese board/cart, delivery, drive-
in, etc...
 Objective

Adequate number of staff present for the

demand during a given period.

NOT MORE, NOT LESS

 Hot or cold?

• Hot:
– Hot meals are prepared, shipped and
consumed the same day.
• Cold:
– After preparation the meals are chilled or
frozen before being shipped to the place of
consumption where it will be re-heated if
necessary.
 Staffing guide
POSITION 50 covers 75 covers 100 covers

2 (8.5hrs) 3 (14.5hrs) 4 (16hrs)

17:00 – 21:30 17:00 - 21:30 17:00 - 21:30
Servers 19:00 – 23:00 18:30 - 23:30 18:30 - 22:00
19:00 - 22:00
19:30 - 00:30
9 hrs 9 hrs 9 hrs
Barman
16:00 - 01:00 16:00 - 01:00 16:00 - 01:00
 Analyse de la performance
SERVERS 4 5 6 7
SERVICE DE MIDI May May May May
Covers 38 60 25 50
Hours worked 4 4 4 3.5
Covers/hour 9.5 15.0 6.3 14.3

Satisfactory, service gener

Stressed, uneven service
Ratio
Ratiosuggéré:

Lots of standing arou

suggéré:
Smooth, no problem

10
10Clients
Clients/ /Heure
Heure
Commentaires
 Basic process
Partiellement based on: Workforce
scheduling, by Gary M. Thomson, The
1 – Sales forecast Center for the Hospitality Industry at
Cornell University, 2004

2 – Workhour
needs

3 -Scheduling

4 - Control
 Labor Scheduling Software
• ADI: aditime.com
• Advanced Tracker: advancedtracker.com
• Amano: amano.com
• Automatic Data Processing: adp.com
• Data Management, Inc.: timeclockplus.com
• Galaxy Technologies, Inc.: galaxy-inc.com
• Knowledge Touch Pte Ltd.: knowledgetouch.com
• Konetix Inc.: labortracking.com
• Loki Management Systems: lokisys.com
• Radiant Systems: radiantsystems.com
• ScheduleSource, Inc.: schedulesource.com
• Timeco Systems Inc.: timeco.com
• Timera Solutions: timerasolutions.com
• TimeManagement Corp.: timemgmt.com
• Workforce ROI: workforceroi.com http://www.hospitalitynet.org