by Juan Martinez, Ph.D., PE

Rebranding and store redesign are easy expenses to justify in prosperous times. But when funds get short, quick-service brands may be tempted to shrink rather than grow. However, proactive ones know this is the time to forge forward, whether through rebranding or store redesign.

While others sleep, the proactive brands are at work, including engaging industrial and operations engineering or other foodservice consulting firms to undertake such redesign efforts. Foodservice consultants offer brands multiple advantages as they reinvigorate the concept, including improving the execution and delivery of the customer experience.

Breadth + depth of knowledge

Consultants, through their experience, bring a significant breadth of experience and industry knowledge to an organization that adds to the company's existing depth of experience and knowledge. Such outside consultants are not replacements to a brand’s internal expertise but rather are extensions of the groups within.

By means of their expertise in the foodservice industry, consultants provide knowledge that crosses all segments, from catering and casual dining to QSR and fast casual. This position allows consultants to pull from a vast well of resources across different concepts as they consider solutions to improve operational execution and customer experience.

Outside objectivity

Operations and industrial engineering consultants like ours provide a different view of a company's operational execution paradigms and current performance. Such consultants uncover issues and objectively quantify and detail specific improvement opportunities in the current operational execution and use of resources. This information creates the baseline for the necessary strategic efforts and changes to increase return-on-investment to fuel brand growth.

For example, the importance of speed of service is most acute for QSR concepts, where every second counts. Consider that a 10-second window-time improvement can result in a peak hourly throughput increase in the drive-thru of somewhere between 15 percent and 25 percent. Sometimes, finding those 10 seconds can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Operations and industrial engineering consultants are well equipped with the tools, methodologies and experience to help QSR brands pinpoint those weak points and offer solutions to those challenges.

Competitive benchmarking

Once that baseline is determined, consultants also can provide brands with competitive benchmarking information in many operational areas including:

• Labor cost and labor efficiency management
• Customer service levels
• Peak hourly throughput
• Operating costs
• Resource utilization
• Facility size and overall design

This competitive benchmark information provides a clear view of the brand's current operational performance in the marketplace, including objective metrics on the concept's operational and facility strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Best practices

Consultants are a great source of best practices in many areas, whether equipment and technology applications, operating processes and procedures or labor management practices. They can also provide insight into design processes, including "employee-centric" ergonomic work stations, resource optimization, existing facility re-engineering or new prototype design and "right sizing."

Change catalysts

Proactive brands understand that today's strength can be tomorrow's weakness and improvement and evolution should be a continuous journey, not a destination. Consultants, then, are catalysts for change, supporting executive decision making that can result in brand improvement and increases in customer satisfaction.

Consultants can help with this positioning by creating designs that combine groups of ideas to maximize the impact. Their experience and methods allow them to provide brands a unique objective quantification and representation of the business. Paired with competitive benchmarking and best practices, their insight helps create the perfect platform to support evolution, growth and improvement of the brand.

Implementation support

The best ideas can fail with poor implementation and execution. Consultants also provide brands with support throughout the implementation phase to support the translation and application of the new ideas and designs. This support includes overseeing the cultural and organizational impact that often accompanies change.

The benefits outside consultants offer foodservice organizations are significant, especially during the current recession. As companies optimize their resources and apply greater fiscal responsibility, outside consultants can be part of this fiscal plan. These outside experts provide a great ROI for foodservice organizations, including QSR concepts, by helping brands design operating platforms and concepts that deliver profitable hospitality, through holistic integrated designs.

Source: http://www.qsrweb.com/article.php?id=14143.

The Foodservice Consultants Society International recognizes the top foodservice consultants worldwide. The Society proudly calls Randall S. Phelps, FCSI, CP-FS, of Phelps Food Service Consultants a member.

When considering a foodservice project, an FCSI consultant should be your first choice. FCSI is the only such consulting society in the world. FCSI maintains a global focus with members in over 43 countries dedicated to providing the highest quality of service. Members attend educational seminars that focus on cutting edge developments in the foodservice industry. Members also have the benefit of networking with other professionals in the foodservice industry during Society sponsored activities.

In order to gain acceptance into the Society, members must meet strict criteria assuring their experience and over all professionalism. FCSI consultants maintain high ethical standards and work efficiently to achieve total client satisfaction. To learn more about the FCSI Code of Ethics, go to the Society website at www.fcsi.org.

Tracey Burg is a Registered Dietition, Nutritional Educator, Chef and Culinary Expert with over twenty years of experience in the food service industry. Ms. Burg is a Culinary and Nutrition Instructor at the prestigious John C. Stalker Institute for Food and Nutrition in Framingham, MA. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, with a degree in Occupational Science in Culinary Arts, and a Cum Laude Bachelor of Science in Food and Nutrition. Ms. Burg is available for menu development and analysis, workshops and seminars, speaking engagements and training sessions. As a member of the American Dietetic Association, Massachusetts Dietetic Association and the School Nutrition Association, Tracey is prepared to bring your staff training and nutritional programs into the new millenium!

Dear Fellow Food Service Professional,

We often find the holiday season to be one of the most profitable and the most hectic times of the year. Having experienced every facet of the Food Service Industry since 1967, Phelps Food Service Consultants is uniquely qualified to assist your restaurant in getting on the Profitability Track and keeping you there.

With a proven success record in hospitality "mystery guest" auditing, PFSC will help you and your staff achieve the degree of professionalism necessary to put dollars in your pockets, now and in the future.

PFSC does not employ the "shopping bag ladies" approach to this auditing process, but sends out experienced professionals, trained to observe and prepare a comprehensive report of their findings at your facility.

Call 978-430-1845 or contact us online today to schedule your confidential audit for your dinging room, lounge or overnight room stay— see what your customers see!