Case study

Operations objectives at the Penang Mutiara

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1-Is the hotels's operations management appropriate for its strategy ?

Answer1

Yes the hotel's operations management appropriate for its strategy

If any operation wants to understand its strategic contribution it must answer two

questions. First, what part is it expected to play within the business - that is, its role in

the business? Second, what are its specific performance objectives? Both these issues

are vital to any operation. Without an appreciation of its role within the business, the

people who manage the operation can never be sure that they really are contributing

to the long-term success of the business. At a more practical level, it is impossible to

know whether an operation is succeeding or not if the specific performance objectives

against which its success is measured are not clearly spelt out. This chapter deals with

both these issues. On our general model of operations management they are

represented by the areas marked on Figure below

So The hotel tries to anticipate guests' needs in a number of ways. For example, if

guests have been to the hotel before, staff avoid their having to repeat the information

they gave on the previous visit. Reception staff simply check to see whether guests

have stayed before, retrieve the information and take them straight to their room with-

out irritating delays. Quality of service also means helping guests sort out their own

problems. If the airline loses a guest's luggage en route to the hotel, for example, he

or she will arrive at the hotel understandably irritated. 'The fact that it is not us who

have irritated them is not really the issue. It is our job to make them feel better.'

2-can the hotel implement changes in strategy ?

Answer2

Yes I found more change in its strategy

So i can think management make sure that the way he manages the hotel is

appropriate to the way it competes for business For get a biggest development, and

get more success, Penang Mutiara has to:- Expand its business in other areas to

acquire more market shares against other high-class and strong competitors inthe

whole Asia region, or even in the world;- Offer the differentiation, high standard

quality and characteristic hotel services, and comfortable environment for customers.-

Pitch itself as an "up-market" end hotel business that targets customers are those who

are high income and high consuming individuals, and the high class business

and political unions or organizations. b) implement any change in strategy- Through

concession and alliance with other business such as tour companies, ocean & safari

theme park, moviecompanies, golf or car club, complete set of hotel industry which is

gathering tour, amusement, business exploiture,relaxation together.- Complete

foundational services, such as transporting line services; wireless internet;-

Diversifying its services to satisfy different demands of customers, such as offering

difference holiday traveling packages; seasoning conference market different

packages; diversified types of foods.- Develop automatic system to offer, services and

payment- Form registering membership with loyal consumers who can be offered

more free services or good price and receiving the latest promotion information.-

Expand existing business to developing e-business; alliance other hotels in

other areas;c) develop his operation so that it drives the long-term strategy of the

hotel- Building and developing hotel website, including introduction of hotel services,

traffic map, resource and promotion information, booking on line, requirement and

feedback of customer, online payment.- Continues improvement for whole operation

developing to match the market requirements in operations decisionsand long time

strategy, such as implementing ISO 9001/2000 standard, TQM and cost control

system.- Develop Statistical Process control (SPC) for measuring the service quality,

rates of customers' satisfaction andcomplaint, cost controlling, deciding for

new services which match with customers changing demands.- Develop a top-down

strategy to reflect what the hotel's vision and mission, changing strategies,

requirement.- Building an automatic system to improve reliable and speed that

ensuring JIT for collecting correct informationof customer requirement, conveniently

e-pay, delivering and exchanging information for corresponding with

eachdepartments, ensuring security.- Offer continual training for staff to improve

the standard quality of services, English and foreign languages speaking, handling

these new automatic system and internet using.Adding the advertisement through

TV, internet, high-income reader journal or fashion magazines and

newspaper.Keeping and developing a high standard quality and low cost supply chain

which including ensuring purchasing atthe right quality, fast delivery, retaining

flexibility, right prices; collecting and utilizing resources form internet or global;

building physical distribution management and internet; keeping a high quality

materials; building a goodrelation ship with suppliersQuestion

3-how quality ,speed ,flexibility and cost impact on the hotel's external

customers? Explain

Answer3

Flexibility means a number of things to the hotel. First of all it means that it

should be able to meet a guest's requests. We never like to say NO. For example,

if a guest asks for some Camembert cheese and we don't have it in stock, we ~II

make sure that someone goes to the supermarket and fries to get it. If, in spite of

our best efforts, we can't get any will negotiate an alternative solution with the

guest. This has an important side-effect - it greatly helps us to maintain the

motivation of our staff. We are constantly being asked to do the seemingly

impossible - yet we do it and our staff think it's great. We all like to be part of an

organization which is capable of achieving the vel}' difficult, if not the impossible

Flexibility in the hotel also means the ability to cope with the seasonal

fluctuations in demand. It achieves this partly by using temporary part-time staff.

In the back-office functions of the hotel this isn't a major problem - in the laundry, for

example, it is relatively easy to put on an extra shift in busy periods by increasing

staffing levels. However, this is more of a problem in the parts of the hotel that have

direct contact with the customer. 'New temporal}' staff can't be expected to have the

same customer contact skills as our more regular staff. Our solution to this is to keep

the temporary staff as far in the background as we possibly can and make sure that

our skilled, well-trained staff are the ones who usually interact with the customer. So,

for example, a waiter who would normally take orders, service the food and take away

the dirty plates would in peak times restrict his or her activities to taking orders and

serving the food. The less skilled part of the job, taking away the plates, could be left

to temporal}' staff.'

So four-stage model analysis: The four-stage model of operations contribution

developed by Hayes and Wheelwright's scale uses to assess the role of competition

and the operation function contributing for a company.

Stage 1: External neutralityIt is a stage the operation compares itself with its

competitors' performance and adopting the 'best practice' that taking the best idea

and norms of performance from them, tries to be tries to be 'appropriate' or ' external

neutrality'. Thus, in this stage, Wernie might look for what is best expected from the

best hotel and try to imitate form it t