This document summarizes a group project analyzing the processes at a small Italian restaurant called Cenare. The group observed poor queue management, lack of communication and organization. Their objectives were to improve customer service and decrease wait times. Process analysis found employee confusion and lack of initial service. Proposed improvements included hiring a host/hostess for seating and a busser. Simulation results showed reductions in balking, reneging and throughput times with the new processes. Recommendations included improving queue management, balancing workflow and emphasizing customer interaction.

1. Cenare
Group #6
Braden Cedeno, John Cox, Grant Jolly, Alex Laric, Kevin
Marshall, Keri Stavinoha

2. Background/Process Issues
• Small, family owned Italian restaurant
• Based out of College Station
• Firsthand knowledge: group member is a server
Process Issues:
• Poor queue management
• Lack of communication to customers
• Lack of organization
• Overutilization of servers

3. Objective
• Qualitative Goals
• Centralize organization of seating by hiring a host/hostess
• Distribute server workload evenly
• Sectionalized seating
• Improve customer service
• Quantitative Goals
• Decrease non-value added time
• Reduce wait time, throughput time, balking, reneging
• Increase throughput rate

4. Process Analysis
• Recorded time trials of each activity in process
• Observed queue during peak demand times
• Received additional data from our sponsor
• Process times, balking, and reneging rates

5. ● Employee confusion
● Lack of service upon arrival

6. Process Improvements
• Addition of host/hostess
• Table assignments are centralized
• Better queue management
• Addition of busser
• Server is released earlier in process
• Server is utilized less

7. ● Inform customers
● Employees out of sight
● Multiple customers at once, less errors

8. Extend Model

9. Validation & Verification
• Verification
• Incremental building technique
• Removed variability to make the model deterministic
• Ran model multiple times to ensure same results were
obtained
• Validation
• Historical data from current server
• Triangular distribution
• Parameters of model emulate restaurant

10. Statistic Minimum Maximum Average
Balk 0 units 7 units 1.14 units
Renege 0 units 20 units 5.46 units
Throughput 35 units 49 units 40.94 units
Throughput Time 57 minutes 148 minutes 98 minutes
Time Between Items < 1 minute 27 minutes 6.5 minutes
Statistic Minimum Maximum Average
Balk 0 units 4 units 0.54 units
Renege 0 units 16 units 2.74 units
Throughput 36 units 48 units 43.36 units
Throughput Time 54 minutes 109 minutes 80 minutes
Time Between Items < 1 minute 26.8 minutes 5.9 minutes
Old
Process
New
Process
Simulation Results

11. Recommendations
• Improve queue management:
• Hire a host/hostess as needed
• Balance the workflow:
• Hire two bussers as needed
• Centralize table allocations
• Emphasize customer interaction
• Inform customers of expected wait times
• Keep customers occupied and engaged

12. Closing Remarks
• Concerns
• Trade off between customer service and labor cost
• Possible errors
• How big is a party?
• Demand is cyclical
• Unpredictable variation (events, weather, etc.)
• Reservations?
• Credibility
• First hand observations
• Member has tacit knowledge of process
• Quantifiable results

13. Thank You
Questions ?