Case study

Pushing the Envelope on Settings and Supplies

Reuben Diaz was feeling good. It was a hot Saturday night, and things were starting to heat up inside the 125-seat Fiesta Grill. The Grill had experienced an upturn in business the past couple of months, and this was the busiest night Reuben had seen since becoming the general manager four years ago.

A wedding reception was in full swing in the banquet room. The dining room was full, with people waiting in the lobby for tables. And Ted, the Fiesta Grill's new catering manager, had left 30 minutes ago with food and supplies for an off-premises catering event 20 miles away. This was the Grill's first venture into off-premises catering, and Reuben just knew it was going to be a great boon to business.

Reuben walked through the dining room, encouraging his staff. They seemed hurried, but Reuben didn't think that was unusual under the circumstances. He decided to chat with some of the guests.

"How are you folks tonight?" Reuben asked a couple sitting at a table nearby. "I'm Reuben Diaz, the general manager here at the Fiesta Grill." There was a long pause. "Actually, we're not doing too well, Mr. Diaz," the man said icily.

Reuben was taken aback. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "What's the problem?"

"To start off, our salad plates were warm," the man began. "And coincidentally, so was the iceberg lettuce in the salads. Then we were told we couldn't get any wine because there weren't any clean wine glasses. To top it off, we waited 20 minutes for a cup of coffee."

"That's not all, Bob," the woman added, turning to her husband. "Even after our coffee came, we weren't given any cream. And then when our server finally brought us some, she forgot to bring spoons to stir it with."

"Let's just say it hasn't been our best night out to eat," Bob said with a forced smile.

Reuben felt his energy draining. He knew this couple was looking to him to solve their problem. "Please accept my apologies. Your dinners tonight are compliments of the Fiesta Grill. Although that won't change what happened, I hope it can be some consolation," Reuben said, trying to ease the tension a little.

"That's very nice of you," said Bob. "We appreciate it."

"Yes. Thank you very much," Helen added.

"You're welcome," Reuben said. "And please come again. I don't think you'll be disappointed."

"Yeah, we'll be back," Bob said. "But maybe next time on a slower night." He smiled.

"Well, I hope to see you again soon. Have a good night, now."

"Thanks," Bob said. "You too."

Before Reuben left Bob and Helen's table, he saw that none of their plates or small ware had been cleared, even though they were now eating dessert. On his way back to the kitchen, he noticed that several other tables hadn't been pre-bussed, either. "No wonder there weren't any spoons for their coffee," Reuben thought. He decided to ask the bus persons and Sylvia—Bob and Helen's server— about this, but as he reached the kitchen, Kevin, one of the Grill's dishwashers, raced past him toward the exit, pulling off his apron. He had a look of disgust on his face.

"Kevin, whoa—what's wrong?" Reuben stopped him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Diaz, but it's a mess back there, and I'm sick of it," Kevin said. "Someone just asked me for the fourth time to run two coffee cups through the dishwasher, and they're getting on my case because they don't have any plates. Hey, it's not my fault. I'm out of here."

Reuben began to realize the problem wasn't confined to just Sylvia or Bob and Helen. "Kevin, it looks like we're having some problems tonight with our supply of dishes, cups, and silverware. But could you just stick it out? I'm going to talk to the servers and ask them to take it easy on you. I promise this won't happen again."

Kevin thought a moment. "I don't know ..."

"Trust me, I'm going to take care of this," Reuben assured him.

"Well, all right," Kevin said. "You know, if you ask me, one thing you should do is tell the bussers to stop hoarding before their shifts."

"Hoarding? What do you mean?" Reuben asked.

"Hoarding—you know, bussers make a bunch of sets of rolled silverware and stash them in their areas so they don't run out," Kevin replied. "It's great for some servers, but a big pain for others. I don't think they should do it."

"Hoarding causes a lot of problems. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Kevin," said Reuben.

"Okay," Kevin said, and headed back to the kitchen.

Reuben followed him and found Sylvia in the kitchen.

"Sylvia, hi."

"Hi, Reuben," Sylvia said as she garnished some plates.

"I just talked to Bob and Helen."

"Who?" Sylvia quickly placed the plates on a serving tray, hoisted the tray onto her shoulder, and started walking briskly toward the door to the dining room.

"Uh, Bob and Helen, the couple at table ... let's see ... A2," Reuben said as he followed Sylvia into the dining room.

Sylvia stopped and thought a moment. "Oh, yeah, A2," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What do you mean? Were they giving you a problem?" asked Reuben.

"Back in a minute," Sylvia said as she hurried off to her table.

Reuben waited until Sylvia returned.

"What was the problem with A2?" Reuben asked her when she came back.

"Oh, they were just kind of rude when they didn't get their coffee or their spoons."

"Has there been a shortage of glasses and smallware tonight?" Reuben asked.

"Glasses have been running low, but we have plenty of smallware," Sylvia said.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" Reuben asked.

"The bussers made plenty of extras for their stations," Sylvia replied.

"I see," Reuben said. ("Hoarding ..." he thought to himself.) "But glasses are low, you say?"

"Yes."

Reuben was dumbfounded. How could this have happened?

Reuben started to recount the events of the past week: On Monday he got the call about Saturday's off-premises event. Sixty settings were needed. He checked inventory and determined that even with the banquet and a full dining room Saturday night, the Grill would be able to handle the off-premises event. But he knew it was going to be tight; there weren't going to be any spare settings lying around. But still, they should have had enough. Then he preset the banquet room three days ago and double-checked the inventory. Again, there were enough set¬tings. So what was the problem? Reuben decided to check inventory again. He was shocked when he found that the dish staff was struggling just to keep glasses, plates, cups—everything—in rotation. He shook his head. What was going on? He remembered that Ted took a cellular phone with him to the off-premises event, so Reuben went to his office, closed the door behind him, and called Ted.

"Ted? Hi. This is Reuben. How is everything?"

"Reuben—hey, everything's going great here, just great."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. Unfortunately, I can't say the same."

"Why? What's up?"

"We don't have any settings; servers are running out of cups and plates; guests are becoming irate ... I just don't understand it. I figured all this out earlier in the week. It was going to be close, but we were going to make it."

"I'm sorry to hear you're having problems there, but we took a hundred settings, and it looks like we have just enough—"

"A hundred?" Reuben interrupted.

"Yeah. One hundred."

"But that event was only scheduled for 60."

"Well, that was before they added 40. I told you about that."

"No, you didn't."

"I must have. I told Frank, and he made sure I got the extra food. I didn't tell you?"

"No, you didn't. There's nothing we can do about it now. We'll just have to make do here."

"I'm sorry, Reuben."

"That's OK. These things happen. Keep up the good work. I'll talk to you later."

But of course Reuben knew everything wasn't OK. Somehow he had to solve this problem for his guests and his staff—and fast. And he had to make sure the Fiesta Grill wouldn't face this problem in two months—at which time they were again booked for a banquet and an off-premises event on the same night.

Reuben grabbed a bottle of aspirin from his desk and bravely entered the kitchen. "Here we go," he thought to himself.

Issues discussed in the case study:
1. What steps could have been taken to prevent the shortage problems at the Fiesta Grill?
2. Assuming the continued success of off-premises catering, what options does the management team have in relation to securing the stock necessary to accommodate increased business? List the advantages and disadvantages of each option.