Identifying Muda in a fast food service process in Spain

Abstract

Purpose Identification and elimination of Muda (any activity adding cost but not value from the customers’ perspective) is one of the main objectives of Lean service. Whilst there is significant research on implementing lean in manufacturing and some service industries, there is little information related to its application to the fast food service industry. The purpose of this paper is to try to fill in this gap by answering the research question: What type of Muda could be identified from the customers’ perspective within the service production processes in the fast food restaurant industry in Spain? Design/methodology/approach An exploratory case study has been conducted. Three multinational companies were selected and several sites observed in Madrid, Spain. Three methods were used to gather data: document analysis; direct and participative observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings The paper identifies the seven types of Muda: defects, movements, process, inventory, overproduction, transport and delay. The results are discussed for Cases A, B and C, showing that A and B present higher potential for Muda, compared C. Practical implications Threefold value for practitioners and managers: waste identification is an opportunity for non-efficient processes improvement; observation/analysis from the customers’ perspective reveals that customers perceive these inefficiencies; a guideline/audit tool for future assessments. Originality/value The paper contributes to the limited existing literature on lean service in fast food industry and disseminates this information to provide impetus, guidance and support toward increasing the productivity, efficiency, consistency and quality of service.

Leagile manufacturing system adoption in an emerging economy: an examination of technological, organizational and environmental drivers

“…The TPS has profoundly impacted the development of comprehensive strategic approaches to managing operations in many industries (Huang et al, 2020). The focus of the TPS has been on minimizing costs by eliminating sources of waste in manufacturing processes including overproduction, over processing, unnecessary transportation, waiting (Queues), avoidable motion, excessive inventory and defective units (Morales-Contreras et al, 2020). The critical driver of lean manufacturing systems is providing valuable products to customers while utilizing the minimum amount of resources during the production cycle, maintaining low inventory levels and ensuring continuous improvement.…”

Lean Management Approach to Reduce Waste in HoReCa Food Services

“…Lean Principles and Food Waste [42] Literature review categorizing lean services; One of categories dedicated to lean hotels and restaurant X X [43] Comparison of three restaurants; limited to takt time and lead time X [44] Examples of lean approach in services; Taco Bell example (line approach in restaurant, push/pull interface) X [45] 5S, forecasts, linear programming, long-term orders, and inventory management X [46] Justification of line approach in services; Taco Bell example X [47] Lean combined with 6 sigma and TRIZ * in fast food chain; VSM **, 5S X X [48] Three case studies of restaurants in Knoxville (Tennessee) X X [49] Explanatory case study of lean management in a restaurant; Discussion of applied methods, tools, techniques and achieved results X X [59] Measuring green practices of restaurants in China; Proposed a waste framework adopted from lean management X X X [60] Identifying waste in a fast food service process X X Lean restaurants, together with hotels, are treated as one of the categories of lean food services. The articles found in the literature in this category are case-stories, anecdotes and general practitioner-oriented narrations on successful applications, but pitfalls, barriers and shortcomings are marginalized or even omitted [42].…”

“…Some articles adopted a comprehensive review of lean management approaches and reported details of applications of full-scale lean programs [42,[44][45][46][47][48][49]51,53,55,61,62]. Others addressed one or more specific tools [43,50,52,55,59,60], environmental issues [52,55,59,62] or proposed lean implementation and waste frameworks for HoReCa [54,59,60].…”

“…Other papers contained limited discussions or links with lean management that were rather fuzzy or mentioned only one specific tool, e.g., takt time calculations for benchmarking [43], an auditing tool for food waste in restaurants [60] and a data mining approach to the analysis of a catering lean service project [50]. Once again the importance and applicability of line approach and flow improvements was demonstrated, but on a limited scale [43].…”

Laying foundation for successful implementation of lean manufacturing through the elimination of non-value adding activities in conventional engineering products manufacturing companies

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] The origin of lean manufacturing can be traced to the implementation of Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing at Toyota during the 1980s. 1,7,8 In 1990, Womack et al adopted the terminology, 'lean manufacturing' in their book titled 'The machine that changed the World' to bring out the expanded and refined form of JIT. 9,10 The term 'lean manufacturing' was introduced by Krafcik in 1988.…”