Mario’s Pizzeria
John Doe
OPS/571
8/10/10
The Man

Mario’s Pizzeria People who are inspired to run or own they’re own business must be able to distinguish between deciding factors that are practical while optimizing the necessary processes. Mario, who owns Mario’s Pizzeria, has owned this successful business, which is located in an indoor shopping mall for 60 years. One of the issues that Mario is dealing with in his pizzeria is the wait time his customers are experiencing while waiting to be served. By reducing the wait time and creating an experience that the customers will enjoy, Mario believes that his business will grow. There are day’s that the wait time is too long, which in return is causing some customers to leave and go elsewhere. As of recently, Mario has decided for a period of two months that he will allow his grandson to make the necessary changes that are needed in order to maximize profits for the business. If Mario’s grandson proves to be an asset to the pizzeria and is able to create a system that is sustainable, Mario will then pass his business down to his grandson. One of the first deciding factors that Mario’s grandson must make is to identify problems or potential problems that can create a loss for the business. After a review of the pizzeria’s layout, it shows that there are 14 tables that sit four customers at a time, and two tables that sit two customers, which include a wait staff of four employees and two kitchen workers. In order for Mario’s grandson to reduce his customers wait time of nine minutes he must make the necessary changes to the pizzeria’s overall layout in order to seat more customers. Mario’s grandson ultimately decides to accommodate for 10 tables that would seat four customers at a time, and eight tables that would seat two. However, the wait staff of four employees, and two kitchen workers would remain the same. The end result of Mario’s grandson’s decision to accommodate for the seating in the pizzeria reduced the overall wait time from being nine minutes to lowering down to just under six minutes. This process led to an increase in the overall sales for the pizzeria. However, due to two of the ovens in the pizzeria being inoperable and two others taking too long to cook, the business was still losing money due to customers walking away. Mario’s grandson must now determine whether or not it makes enough business sense to fix or replace the two broken ovens with a new conveyor oven. The new conveyor oven would be able to process eight pizza’s in four minutes but would cost the restaurant $4,500 and would have an operating expense of $30.00 per day. Along with fixing the oven process, Mario’s grandson must also decide whether or not to purchase an automated order processing system that would reduce the wait staff’s processing time by five minutes. The cost of the automated order processing system will cost the restaurant an additional one-time fee of $45,000. Mario’s grandson decided that purchasing the new conveyor oven and removing the old ovens along with purchasing the automated order processing system would reduce the mean processing times from 15 minutes to four minutes. In return, reducing the wait time from 13 minutes to eight minutes would increase overall profits leading the new purchases to ultimately pay for themselves. Mario’s grandson has been taking strides in improving the overall processes of Mario’s Pizzeria, but the wait times have still caused customers to walk away without visiting the restaurant. Recently, the bakery next door to Mario’s Pizzeria went out of business. Mario’s grandson must now decide whether or not to install a take out counter or possibly look into renting the adjacent bakery next door. By renting the bakery next door, it would provide the restaurant with an additional seven tables that would sit four people. It would also provide four additional tables that would sit two people along with adding two additional wait staff employees. Mario’s grandson ultimately decided that by renting out the adjacent bakery and absorbing it into Mario’s Pizzeria would give the restaurant the additional much needed space for customers to enjoy a pleasant experience, which would reduce the wait time to 3.15 minutes. By expanding the restaurant and reducing the wait time, Mario’s grandson has determined that this would improve the restaurants processes, and help by increasing the overall profits of Mario’s Pizzeria. The learning curve used during this simulation was built around improving the processes that it takes to serve customers along with increasing sales. Mario’s grandson learned that by making the much needed changes to Mario’s Pizzeria, it would improve the overall daily processes and reduce the amount of wait times customers were experiencing. The new and improved Mario’s Pizzeria resulted in customer satisfaction and increase of profits.

References
University of Phoenix. (2010). Simulations: Pizza Store Layout Simulation. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from University of Phoenix, Week Two, Resource. OPS531-Operations Management Course Web site.