Operation Planning Of KFC
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Nov 24, 2024
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Operation Planning Of KFC
Introduction
Organizational communication can be defined as the communication activity within an organization.
Communication can be achieved via different platforms, such as emails, memos, phone calls,
meetings, teleconferencing, video-conferencing, speeches and presentations (Cheney 35).
All businesses, organizations, corporations, non-profit agencies and government agencies need proper
communication structures (Arvid 10). Without proper communication structures, problems ensue;
orders and instructions are not followed, there is poor service delivery and generally business cannot
be done (May 32).
In this paper I have identified Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Cooperation as a case study to
investigate their communication structure and its effectiveness.
Background: KFC Organizational Chart
Kentucky Fried Chicken is a chain of fast food eateries founded in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A. KFC
has been a brand since 1997. It was separated from PepsiCo forming the Tricon Global Restaurants
Inc. The KFC restaurants are globally distributed and concentrate on selling chicken, sandwiches and
salads. KFC also offers beef, mutton and pork based products outside North America (James 98).
KFC Does two types of planning, Strategic Planning and Operational Planning. Strategic Planning is
done to increase its market worth value of the market share and Operational Planning includes
launching of new product to change or innovate its product line for the customers. Planning objectives
of KFC are to expand the organization on all over the UAE, to create and build superior quality for
the customers, to follow marketing mix strategies and to generate superior financial return for KFC
and KFC’s employees. Menu planning is done by researching. Supply chain management planning
includes the full process related to the supply of raw materials which include chicken, spices and
packing material and to increase operation, the objectives of supply chain management planning is to
increase the level of outsourcing, increase globalization, increase the supply, increase the competitive
pressure and increase the customers.The KFC mission statement is to “sell food in a fast, friendly
environment that appeals to pride conscious, health minded consumers”.
The Challenge: Time-consuming, spreadsheet-based planning processes
Good planning is crucial to the company's success in the fast-food business, where reaction speed and
the ability to adapt quickly to changing consumer trends is essential. As KFC grew, so did the
planning requirements, and the initial Excel-based planning system consequently needed to be
updated. This was because KFC's restaurant operations required the planning of sales, resources, and
many different variables such as electricity, uniforms, and security. Data drawn from different sources
and the manual preparation of that data in Excel files made the planning process at KFC a very time-
consuming and potentially error-prone business. In particular, subsequent changes and planning
scenarios were an extremely cumbersome and labor-intensive process due to the many variables that
had to be adjusted in Excel following even a minor change in the targets.
In order to address the shortcomings of the current planning process, KFC decided to implement a
tool for integrated restaurant planning. The business developed a concept for the modeling and
implementation of corporate performance management to optimize planning processes.
After a thorough software evaluation, it became clear that Board was the best fit for KFC's planning
requirements, especially because of the platform's ease-of-use and fast data processing and evaluation
time. A central data source (Single Point of Truth), as well as integrated calculations of the main
drivers and KPIs, was to be created in Board to automate planning processes as much as possible. The
ability to easily and quickly make changes to key assumptions and drivers, which used to take days to
implement across all the Excel sheets, was also a key target of the project.
To unify and improve the process of the software implementation, and react faster to problems and/or
errors, Board partner Better Decisions Group (bdg) proposed an agile project approach.
The Solution: Integrated Business Planning on Board
What used to be a complex, intertwined plethora of Excel sheets that were more or less connected to
each other was, one by one, transferred into a single, integrated planning solution within Board.
Starting from planning sales, all the corresponding variables and drivers, from labor requirements
down to uniforms, were integrated in an automatic process that calculated the numbers based on a
coherent logic, while still allowing the planning team to make changes at any point, if required.
Within a short time, bdg set up an integrated restaurant sector planning solution which was ideally
suited to KFC's business requirements. In addition to support and maintenance, the Board partner
provides support for customizing and extending the solution. Thanks to effective user and
administrator training, the KFC team can now independently control its planning solution and
optimize processes.
The Benefits: A significant increase in planning efficiency
The duration of the planning cycles was shortened substantially with Board, while at the same time
improving quality and enabling easier auditing; all information is now consistent and runs together in
a single data pool. Duplication in processes was significantly reduced by implementing a central,
integrated planning logic across all planning modules. This way, changes in key assumptions, e.g. an
uplift in sales overall, can now be calculated through all drivers in no time - a process that happens
frequently during planning and which used to take days. Also, this gain in time, quality, and level of
detail has made it possible to experiment with strategic simulations whilst maintaining depth of detail.
In the event that a worker has an issue, then the unit manager’s office should be communicated to
directly. Feedback to the organization is to be done through the worker’s unions through teams. They
can send direct emails to the general manager through the KFC portal email which is visible and is
always being monitored by the regional directors at the management board level.
The management board is the key decision maker for the organization. It consists of the regional
heads who sit with the company’s president. The general manager also has autonomy to make
employment related decisions at a local level. He can also sort out branch issues by following closely
the on-goings in the KFC unit branches. The general manager handles a certain number of units
within a region.
The unit manager solely runs and manages a KFC branch. He has an assistant and a shift manager.
They all answer directly to the general manager.
The KFC portal also has a customer/client feedback service, where the customers can directly feed in
and send messages to the Unit manager and general manager.
Conclusion
In conclusion, KFC being a fast food products outlet, generally has a classical top down instructions
communication structure (Redding 6). The use of technology and the implementation of the KFC
portal is huge plus for KFC as all employees have emails within the systems. All official
communication is done within the portal which is always being monitored. The workers are allowed
to give feedback and raise complains directly to the general manager through the KFC portal. This is
also a wonderful step towards making everyone’s voices heard (Buckley 5).
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