Learning_Curve_Theory

Running Head: LEARNING CURVE THEORY Abstract Dining out has become an American standard. More and more Americans have breakfast, lunch and dinner at a restaurant several times a week. They are always on the go and want to have their food faster than what they can do for themselves. According to www.foodfit.com a recent report in the Washington Post stated that “about 11 percent of morning meals are eaten out and six percent are eaten on the go - double rate of a decade ago.” Everyone is trying to get to work and ahead of the traffic therefore, they do not have a lot of time to cook every morning. Lunch and dinner is no better; there are many restaurants that are only open for lunch, dinner or both. Many families are always on the go with work, school, plays and games that we eat out more than we would like to. This time frame is from 5:00pm to at least 9:00pm at night. Because of these types activities Mario’s Pizzeria is gaining more business. Learning Curve Theory According to the simulation, there are 61,269 pizzerias in the United States that serves 60,875 customers a year. Mario’s Pizzeria was established in 1950 and is also included in one of the thousand of pizzerias that serve customers. They are currently trying to manage their kitchen, wait staff to provide their customers with small lines and less wait time. As acting manager of the pizzeria, I have to determine an alternative process for their current system. In determining an alternative process, we can apply the learning curve theory to assist. Learning curves aid in making decisions on pricing, cost, and investments. Organizations can utilize the learning curve by making changes to their equipment, product, and administration based on the following: 1. Amount of time to complete a task. 2. Unit time will decrease. 3. Reduction will generate a pattern (Chase, p. 135). This can also be used for Mario’s Pizzeria. By using a learning curve to plot the amount of customers they are serving for a given time frame, the management can determine what measures to take in order to service customers faster and efficiently. The first three to four weeks of the simulation, we needed to determine how much kitchen and wait staff was needed and the amount of table space in order to accommodate the customers. The first choice to make was to decrease the four person tables and increase the two person tables. Also, we adjusted the wait staff to utilize more individuals in the kitchen and those waiting on customers. This decreased the average wait time to 8.19 minutes. It also decrease the queue time of the customers. The next decision was to decide if the pizzeria needed a menu system that would send the customer’s order to the kitchen and decrease the wait staff time of delivering orders. Also, the number of manual and automatic ovens needed to increase for productivity. The decision was made to purchase the menu system and obtain one manual oven and two automatic ovens. This decision decreased the wait time even further and increased profits for the pizzeria. The mall was beginning to offer promotions that would cause Mario’s Pizzeria to obtain more business. They had to decide what actions were needed in order to prepare for the increase in business they were expecting. They had to make a decision on whether to rent additional space or begin to offer take-out orders. The final decision was to rent out additional space. The choice decreased the wait time of customers even further and it also increased profits for the pizzeria. Making a few administrative changes to the pizzeria provided some significant benefits to the way the company service their customers and achieve maximum benefits. Repetition of the changes did not make immediate effects on the pizzeria but the changes continued to improve the process of the business that will eventually result in a more efficient and rapid pizzeria operation. Reference Chase, R. B., Jacobs, F. R. & Aquilano, N. J. (2006) Operations Management for Competitive Advantage. 11th ed. New York. McGraw Hill/Irwin. http://www.foodfit.com/centers/nra/healthyNutriSmarts_breakfast.asp