THE CHALLENGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE OPERATION

MANAGING A FOOD AND BEVERAGE OPERATION
Whether small or large, is challenging for many reasons, food and beverage service involves both manufacturing and service-related operations that demand that the manage have not only technical knowledge and skills, but also business knowledge and people skills. The manger must know how a product is manufactures, how it is marketed to the consumer, and numerous other operational functions and activities. Above all, the manager must be able to relate well to people and to work effectively with them.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE OPERATIONS
There are two basic categories of food and beverage operations:
Those in lodging properties, restaurants, and other for-profit enterprises are considered Commercial Food Service Operations.
Those in organizations such as schools, nursing homes, hospital, and military services are considered noncommercial or institutional food service operations.
It also separate the noncommercial segment into self-operated and contract management company operated facilities. As the name implies, self-operated food services are those managed by the organization that offers them. By contrast, some facilities employ a contract management company to operate food services for its students, patients, resident, employees, or other constituencies.
OVERVIEW OF HOTEL ORGANIZATION
Rooms Division Director
Human resources director
Acounting
Engineering and mainteance
Director of Security
Director of Marketing and sales
Food and Beverage director
All them coordinated by the general manager
THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE DEPARTMENT
Separate and distinct from other hotel departments, the food and beverage department typically encompasses such diverse services and operation as:
Coffee shops
Dinning rooms
Room service
Lounge, bars, and other alcoholic beverage services
Banquet services.
Other (employees cafeterias, beverage centers)
The food and beverage department is an integral part of the operation of a lodging property. A full-service hotel, With more than 200 rooms generates almost 30 percent of its total revenue from the sale of food and beverage products.
In some large convention hotels, food and beverage sales may account 50 percent or more of a property´s total revenue.
The economic success or failure of many hotels is directly tied to the ability of the food and beverage department staff to effectively plan and control its operation and to provide food service that will attract hotel guests
OPERATIONS CHALLENGES
Production facilities: Managing food production is a major responsibility in every food and beverage department
Operation challenges: Profitability, availability, dinning benefits, multiple food outlets.
Revenue and support centers: F & B contributes departmental income (revenue minus direct expenses) that contributes to the hotel´s overhead (fixed costs) and profit requirements
Overall responsibility: F&B department in a typical hotel lies with the F&B director.
Management System Design: The diverse services and complex organization of a F&B department require an effective management system.
All F & B management system begins with the menu
The operation’s menu determines what productions, service and managerial responsabilities must be met.
Developing the menu is only the first, and most basic, step in planning F & B operations
The goal is to implement an efficient operating control cycle for all revenue and supports centers in the operation
THE OPERATING CONTROL CYCLE
Menu planning
Purchasing
Receiving
Storing
Issuing
Production (includes preparing, cooking and holding)
Serving (from production to service personnel)
Service ( from service personnel to the guest )
THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Involves seven basic components:
Planning
Organizing
Coordinating
Staffing
Directing
Controlling
Evaluating
PLANNING
Is the management task of creating goals, objectives and programs of action to reach those goals and objectives .
Should be done before other management tasks are undertaken.
Effective planning includes: in formation, communication, flexibility and implementation
Time should be set aside regulary for managers
ORGANIZING
Involves establishing the flow of authority ( power) and communication among people.
Care should be taken to make sure each employee has only one supervisor.
Employers are empowering people to make decisions as well
An organization chart should be updated regulary so that gives current, accurate picture of how operation’s human resources are organized
COORDINATING
Is the management task of assigning work and organizing people and resources to achieve the operation’s objectives
Coordinating depends on communication
Delegations is an important aspect of coordinating
Ultimate responsability or accountability, however , cannot be delegated.
STAFFING
Involves recruiting and hiring applicants
The goal of staffing is to bring the best-qualified employees into the food service operations
List the personal qualities necessary to perform the jobs efecctively
A well-planned employee orientation program is neccesary to properly introduce new employees to supervisors, co-workers and the organization in general
DIRECTING
Management is often defined as getting work done through other people
Directing includes supervising, scheduling and disciplining employees
You must know exactly how much labor is needed then be able to work within those parameters and treat all employees fairly
It is useful to think about how you would like to be treated
CONTROLLING
Control procedures for purchasing, receiving, storing, issuing, preparing and serving products are neccesary
The process of control actually begins with establishing a budget
A budget indicates expected revenues and costs levels
You must measure the extent to which budget goals are met
If the variance between expected results and actual results is excessive, corrective action must be taken and the results evaluated to asses whether the corrective action was effective
EVALUATING
Reviewing the operation’s progress toward achieving overall organizational goals
Measuring employee performance
Assessing the effectivenes of trainning programs
The constant question for managers must be “ how well are we doing?”
Evaluating is too important to be done only “whenever there is time”
INTEGRATING THE PROCESS
During a tipical day the F & B might:
Help develop next’s year operating budget ( planning, controlling)
Deal with problems caused by improper delegations ( coordinating )
Work with a colleague in another departament to plan and upcoming special event (planning, and coordinating)
Carry out routine supervisory activities
(directing)
Revise standard food and labor costs ( controling)
THE LABOR SHORTAGE
The needs for qualified and trained professionals in F & B operations is great and basic strategies managers can adopt to address this problem are to:
Increase productivity
Reduce turnover
Offer competitive salaries and benefits
Revise recruiting and hiring procedures to accommodate non-traditional workers
Use training, cross-training and self-improvement.