Simply Delicious is a local pizza shop that prides itself in serving customers fresh, locally sourced

ingredients with unique and innovative recipes at an affordable price. The company has been

operating for more than 20 years. With increased customer demand and growing competition,

the owner recently found that the quality of service that they provide their customers has

suffered, and that their customer ordering and pick-up process is a little archaic,

as Store Owner, Mr. Ollie has described it. The time it takes from when a customer first places

an order online or via phone to when they are served their order takes too long. As well, some

customers are finding that when they arrive to pick-up their order, they are stuck in lines for too

long. This is worrisome as it has reduced the number of customers they can serve, and we are

starting to lose customers to a nearby competitor. Mr. Ollie has asked for your help to make

better use of our capacity I know that we have enough capacity to get everyone through the

process and their pizza orders in a reasonable amount of time and with shorter waits, but we

just arent using that capacity properly.

The Pizza Ordering Process

Overview

The pizza-ordering process is conducted in a manner in which, customers complete one activity

in the process before proceeding to the next. Often this, along with the general variability in

service times at the activities, leads to line-ups in front of the different activities. Mr. Ollie has

had the theory of constraints described to him, and has commented that although some of the

activities are more to blame than the others, there doesnt seem to be one identifiable

bottleneck sometimes there will be lines in one area, and sometimes lines in another.

1. Placing a pre-order

A customer can place a pre-order in one of two ways. First, by calling into the store, where they

are greeted by a friendly Service Representative. The Service Representative will take the name

of the customer and ask which pizza they would like to order and if they have any specific

topping preferences and provide order pick-up instructions; payment is taken at the store. On

busy nights, the phone rings constantly and the queue can we quite long for customers.

Secondly, by placing the order online in a self-serve manner. All product offerings or specials for

the day are available online for the customers to make their own selections and even payment

online so all they have to do is arrive to pick-up their order. Mr. Ollie says this is a new process

that they recently adopted and it really should go quickly, but the problem is some people still

prefer to place orders via phone as they like asking for recommendations or clarification on the

pizza options & ingredients and that is when the phone line gets slowed down.

2. Entering the shop

When customers first enter Simply Delicious Pizzas shop, they are greeted by a service

associate who will instruct the customers to either head straight to the counter to place their

orders (if they are ordering in-store) or payment if the ordered via phone. There is currently

only one cashier available and customers are shown a paper menu at the counter to help with

their Pizza selection. The average time a customer waits to place an order varies, depending on

the person in front them.

For customers that are only picking-up orders (made online), the Service Associate will direct

them to a second line next to the counter labelled Order Pick-up as they wait for their orders

to be ready. The average time a customer has to wait to pick-up an order varies, depending on

the person in front them and if their order is prepared and ready.

3. Making the order

Once orders have been placed in-person or payment has been made, the customers will join

the other customers in the line labelled Order Pick-Up next to the counter as they wait for

their orders. The general process at this activity is: (1) the Chef will review the pizza details on

the order form from the cashier or online/phone order, (2) they will clarify and confirm the

order with the cashier/Service Representative if any information is missing, (3) there will be a

minute or two where the Chef needs to grab all the ingredients, (4) the Chef prepares,

assembles and cooks the pizza, (6) the Chef sometimes needs to visit the storage unit at the

back of the kitchen to re-fill popular ingredient, which can take up to 5 minutes, (5) the Chef

places the completed pizza order at the pick-up counter for the customer waiting in line, (6) the

Chef repeats the whole process.

4. Picking-up the order

Customers will pick up their orders at the Order Pick-up counter once they are ready. Once

the order is ready, the Chef calls out the name of the customer. Generally, customer orders are

made correctly, but there are instances where pizzas are made with missing toppings or

incorrect cheese. When this happens, the customers will bring it up with the Chef, who will

happily re-make the order. The only issue is that the Chef starts to see a pile up of orders in the

queue and it causes confusion for customers waiting as they are not certain which pizza order

belongs to them and often they will confirm with the Chef before taking the order.

As mentioned earlier, Mr. Ollie is concerned about the total cycle time for customers, as well as

the time it takes in line-ups, and feels that some of the fundamental principles within the TOC

steps (exploit, subordinate to, elevate) would be useful in alleviating some of these

problems. Your job is to help him in this regard.

Case study Question :

Mr. Ollie is concerned about the total cycle time for customers as well as the number of

queues. Please apply Theory of Constraints (TOC) thinking to the specific operations

described in the case and make specific recommendations for how the customer flows

and the capacity of the activities and the system can be better managed in order to

reduce customer time spent in queues, make best use of existing capacity, and, if

necessary, increase system capacity in a cost-effective way. Make explicit reference to

TOC steps (exploit, subordinate to, elevate) in your discussion. Also, be mindful of

the business strategy of Simply Delicious in your analysis