The tour you are about to read is about:

Kabab-ji Grill, a fast growing restaurant chainserving Lebanese cuisine. Having started in Lebanon in 1993, the concept was expanded through the Middle East, starting with Kuwait, and now has expanded beyond that region, to the USA. Many "Mediterranean" restaurants worldwide in fact serve Leba-nese cuisine, or cuisines influenced by it. Now operating in seven countries, Kabab-ji Grill was a concept developed in Lebanon in the early 1990s. The first store opened in Jounieh, a commuter city just north of the capital, Beirut. The restaurant became an instant success, with its concept of fast, home-style, healthy grills.

Kabab-ji Grill was the idea of Touific Khoueiri. His idea was to introduce the concept of the quick casual restaurant to Lebanese cuisine. The quick casual restaurant is more refined than a fast food outlet, but more informal than a traditional restaurant. Service is rapid, but items are prepared and cooked to order. Kabab-ji's emphasis on healthy, fresh, and rapid cooking powered the rest-aurant chain to spread across the region.

CONCEPT

Khoueiri's simple concept has led to a successful formula. Kabab-ji aims to combine traditional culinary excellence with a modern casual setting, emphasizing fresh ingredients and timely service. The company's mission statement is to "Serve healthy food for

today's and future generations, simply 'Because We Care' ". The vision is to "Redefine and fulfil consumer appetite for new taste sensations with carefully developed recipes that appeal to all tastes and introduce the concept of eating pleasure once again

OPERATIONS TOUR

Kabab-ji Grill just north of the capital, Beirut. The restaurant became an instant success to markets that are bored with the mundane". Accordingly, the company's operations emphasizes freshness of ingredients, on-demand preparation, and healthy cooking, combined with a casual ambience and highly-trained, customer-focused staff.Lebanese cuisine is famed for its variety of ingredients and variety of dishes. Kabab-ji adopts the traditional Lebanese-

Mediterranean menu and presents it from an open grill in a contemporary design.The menu comprises varieties of Lebanese flavours. The restaurant serves an array of kababs (marinated skewered meat), dips (notably the famous hummus), sandwiches, and salads (including tabbouleh). Appealing to modern tastes, the kababs are barbecued without additives, charcoal-grilled to retain no fat, and smoked at distance from a flame grill. Small round bread is served fresh from the oven. Kabab-ji offers a rapid waiter service for dining in. Restaurants typically open from late morning to late evening, serving lunch and dinner, and also provide take-out, delivery, and a catering menu; some branches have bar areas.

Marketing and Growth

Kabab-ji's stated aim is "a long-term brand building strategy focused on creating a loyal and sustainable customer base". The first restaurant opened in 1993 and catering services were begun in 1995. More restaurants in Lebanon followed over the next 10 years, all situated around the Greater Beirut area. Largely through licensing to franchisees, the concept was expanded through the Middle East, starting with Kuwait, and has now expanded beyond the region, to the USA.

The company targets perceived customer demands. To develop its customer base, it seeks to create through its operations and marketing an image of creditability, integrity, and perceived value. Akin to fast food chains, the Kabab-ji group intends customers to experience the same level of product and service at each branch.

It has standardized processes, an actively managed supply chain and quality assurance, and an emphasis on staff selection and training.Founder and Chairman of the Board Khoueiri said: "The Lebanese are able to produce interesting and viable concepts simply because, as people, they are exposed to global trends in food, and as providers they are constantly developing their productions to match the advanced food culture of the public." The company solicits and actively supports franchisees. It has defined standard manuals, menus, and training modules, and has outsourced proprietary mixes for its seasonings, marinades, mixes, and sauces. Its Franchise Program includes support, operational training, and design, launch, and operational manuals. It awards franchises by territorial regiontypically by country or state.

Location

Kabab-ji prefers to situate its branches at strategic locations, primarily in high traffic locales, on main roads with easy access to major residential areas. In this way, demand comes from passing individuals and families, as well as local offices and businesses.

The concept of a Kabab-ji Expressin mall food courts was pioneered in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and U.A.E.Since its founding in Lebanon, the company has opened five further branches in the country. In the region, it has expanded mainly by franchising, to Kuwait (11 branches; the first country to open the Kabab-ji franchise), Saudi Arabia (6 branches in the capital), Jordan (1 branch), U.A.E. (2 branches in Dubai, 1 in Sharjah), and Qatar (3 branches). In 2009 the first franchise branch outside the Middle East was opened, in Washington DC, USA.

The company sees other restaurants in a given area as an advantage, due to the draw of customers. It argues that "regardless of the extent of advertising and the number of restaurants in any particular area, consumers will ultimately settle on taste preferences and products with the highest perceived value".One reviewer of the Washington DC branch wrote: "It's a little more stylish than most kebab shops and an extremely popular place to sit and sample fresh and delicious kebabs and grills."

Processes

A typical restaurant processes more than 100 orders during the lunchtime peak (dine-in, take-away, and delivery, but excluding catering, which is operated separately). From a process viewpoint, a restaurant is divided into the front of house and back of house processes. The front of house concerns all activities directly serving the customer, such as order taking. The back of house executes orders and places them on plates or packages them for delivery.

Kabab-ji's back of house comprises six workstations: cold station, bakery, butchery, barbecue (i.e., grill), hot kitchen, and drink station. Each of these stations is responsible for managing its inventory and for having the necessary personnel.

One front of house staff greets and, if necessary, shows customers to seats. Waiters take orders from customers and input them into a computer system through terminals at the "nucleus" of the restaurant. The system splits the order into components:

A typical dish served at Kabab-ji Grill and passes them to screens in the relevant stations. After an order is completed, it is taken by a runner from the nucleus to the table.

Inventory Management

At a company level, Kabab-ji sources ingredients for all branches in an area. Fresh ingredients are delivered to each branch every morning. Within each restaurant, each station stores its own inventory. A safety stock of 10 -20% (no more, since ingredients are perishable) is stored at a nearby warehouse.

Part of Kabab-ji's competitive advantage is its proprietary mixes for its seasonings, marinades, mixes, and sauces, which provide the consistent taste. These are produced in a centralized way by means of an outsourced contract to suppliers. The company deliberately invokes its Lebanese heritage in ingredients as well as decor and menu; branches worldwide serve Lebanese olive oil and bottled water.

Layout

All Kabab-ji branches adopt a distinctive decoration. The style is clean lines of dark wood and stainless steel. Walls have exposed red brick with large, rough cut stones (the Lebanese style) and wood panels. In accord with Kabab-ji's emphasis on the freshness of its recipes, the centrepiece grill sits behind a giant display of prepared but uncooked kebabs in a glass-fronted refrigerator. Chefs can be seen preparing the grills to order; the barbecue station is located to face the dining area.

Branches usually adopt a product-focused layout in order to maximize capacity during busy periods. In Lebanon, this corresponds to noon to 4pm (the Lebanese typically eat a late Mediterranean lunch, around 2pm). Seating in a standard branch is allocated between tables for two or four people, which can be assembled to accommodate larger groups. There is a small waiting area, possibly a bar area, a single cashier, and a delivery preparation area.

The back of house stations are grouped together, except for the drink station which may be placed closer to the customer area. The barbecue grill and the "nucleus" order entry and assembly area form the interface of the front and back of house areas.

Employees

The Kabab-ji operations manual suggests that a dine-in branch requires about 55 employees, depending on its size; an Express unit requires about a third of the number. During a given shift, a restaurant's front of house will have 4 waiters who take orders, 3 runners who take food to the table, and 1 cashier; the back of house will have 3 - 4 chefs who process the orders.

Quality

In line with its operations strategy, Kabab-ji aligns decor, design, layout, food, menu, policies, and service to target consistency. Employees undergo intensive training to the "Kabab-ji Way". Its quality of ingredients, market niche, and customer service allow Kabab-ji to adopt a price premium relative to comparable restaurants. The company's marketing motto is "Kabab-ji goes the extra mile to bring you fresh quality food that tastes great every

time". Note how the company's marketing aligns with its strategy of retaining its customer base and providing consistency.

Kabab-ji implements a HACCP management system (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). Food safety is sought using a combination of testing and prevention in the supply chain and during the pre-production and final preparation of the food.

Questions

1. Describe a working structure and system for Kabab-ji including the h top management, departments and develop each proposed employees job design with a bias for efficiency.
2. Indicate how and why each of these factors is important to the successful operation of a restaurant:
3. Customer satisfaction.
4. Forecasting.
5. Capacity planning.
6. Location.
7. Inventory management.
8. Layout.
9. Scheduling.
10. What are some of the ways Kabab-ji links strategy and operations in order to gain an edge over its competition?