Case Study - Bringing Order to a Chaotic Restaurant Amy Peters, the co-owner of a restaurant in Stamford, Connecticut, has been feeling the pressure. When Vistas opened last year, it was the culmination of years of hard work learning the demanding culinary trade, working late nights, and suffering her share of disappointments along the way. Finally, after years of working in various positions within other restaurants, Amy found a business partner who shared her dreams. Together, they launched Vistas to considerable fanfare in the local community, with Amy running the business side of the venture and her partner serving as the executive chef. The restaurant had a large and diverse menu and the largest wine cellar outside of New York City. The future looked bright indeed. Less than 10 months after the opening, Amy found running a restaurant of her own to be less than she had hoped for. In particular, patronage was down and repeat customers were simply no longer coming, in spite of praise for the quality of the food and competitive prices. This behavior was puzzling, because there seemed to be no obvious reason why people were not frequenting the restaurant as much in recent months. As Amy started scanning online rating services like Yelp (San Francisco, CA), she started noticing a pattern. Customer comments were generally positive, although there was one intriguing thread that seemed to run through many of the customer comments: "If you want to enjoy the widest menu options, make sure to arrive early." Amy was curious about this opinion, and one Saturday night she made a point of staying until closing to get a sense of what was happening. She was dismayed to discover that by 9 pm almost half of the advertised entrees were no longer available, as the kitchen had run out of stock. When she questioned her partner, the chef, he admitted that they had no good idea of how many ingredients to order and, to cut down on expenses, he preferred to underestimate food service orders rather than carry too much in the freezer. He also was unsure of the amounts and types of food products that they needed to keep in stock to make many of their specialty dishes.

Reference:

Venkataraman, R., & Pinto, J. (2017). Bringing Order to a Chaotic Restaurant. Sage Business Cases

Amy realized that they had to do a better job if they were to stay in business. She hired you as an advisor to help develop a business plan. As part of the business plan, Amy wants to understand the following key important elements. 1. Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Amy wants to use a system to better manage the materials in the future. She wants to know what P2P (also known as eprocurement) is and will do for her business. Provide a detailed description of what it is and how it is helpful for her to invest in it. /4points 2. RFQ vs RFP Amy is confused about the difference between RFQ and RFP. Given your knowledge in this area, please provide a detailed description of the differences for each. /4points 3. Ethics and Sustainability Amy read an article on Ethics and how this is related to sustainability but is curious how this relates to the procurement process. Given your knowledge in the area, provide a detailed description of what these topics mean, how they are related to each other, and how they relate to her business including suggestions on how to improve. /6points 4. Technology Implementation Given that she wants to implement a P2P and its a form of technology, what is some specific advice to her regarding implementation and risks associated with it? /4 points. What processes might she need to adjust in order to get the most out of the system and why? /2points