London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel Kitchen’s Value Stream Map

📄 Words:	1166
📝 Subject:	Company Analysis
📑 Pages:	4
💼 Companies:	Marriott

Background
Evaluation: Current-State Value Stream Map
Projection: Future-State Value Stream Map
Analysis and Recommendations: Implementation Plan
References

Background

Marriott International is a leading chain of hotels and resorts in the global hospitality industry. It has more than 7,300 properties worldwide where it serves culturally diverse customers with a dedicated and committed workforce (Marriott International, n.d.). Its assets spread in 134 countries and territories include franchises and properties under such brand names as Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Residence Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, and Suites, and Bulgari (Marriott International, n.d.). A lean system will allow Marriott International to continuously improve and spread the lessons learned across the entire corporation leading to higher profitability and more excellent value for shareholders. It will also help the company maximize value by removing waste and delays from its activities. According to Krajewski et al. (2018), a lean system’s typical components are:

Operational strategy.
Process and layout design.
Quality and constraints management.
Supply chain articulation.
Technology and inventory control.
Waste elimination.

Evaluation: Current-State Value Stream Map

The kitchen is one of the critical departments or divisions within Marriott International subsidiaries. It is where these institutions produce the foods it serves their customers. Applying a “lean system” in the kitchen can result in optimized operations and more efficient services. To do this, one first needs to assess the prevailing system and use the information obtained to recommend improvements and make future projections. Thus, the value stream map in Table 1.1 below represents the starting point for examining London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchens. It shows the various types of waste and their current situation as it applies to the facility. Notably, since the Marriott hotels and resorts’ kitchens vary in some ways, it was necessary to select only one to conduct the assessment.

Table 1.1: Evaluation: Current-State Value Stream Map

Waste	Current Situation at Marriott Hotels
Overproduction	The London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen staff prepares some food items before customers order them. The management argues that doing so saves the company time when customers finally order the food. Unfortunately, while this may be true, the practice creates excess lead times and inventory. It may also result in spoilt food if customer orders do not match the anticipated demand.
Inappropriate Processing	Like most Marriott International facilities, London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel has a modern kitchen equipped with the latest appliances and technologies. For example, it has a Cheetah energy-saving system in its kitchen ventilation and the latest stoves, countertops, and cooking utensils and appliances. Although it is common to update operational tools, doing so may result in the unnecessary utilization of expensive equipment in places where inexpensive and straightforward options would suffice.
Waiting	Within the kitchen, London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s staff have to wait for customer orders. When these arrive, they have to cook and wait for the food to be ready before serving it.
Transportation	Chefs and other staff members within the facility’s kitchen have to move constantly, sourcing ingredients from the store and plating cooked food. They also move from the cooking area to the countertop or the sink during meal preparations, transporting components.
Motion	Chefs and other kitchen staff in the London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel also undertake unnecessary effort related to the ergonomics of stretching, bending, reaching, walking, and lifting.
Inventory	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen often orders its supplies, particularly seasonal produce, in bulk to take advantage of low costs when farmers harvest their crops. Unfortunately, the excess inventory consumes a lot of space and increases lead times.
Defects	Quality defects at the London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen include stale and poorly cooked food, which requires a rework. For example, burnt or under- or over-cooked food forces chefs to repeat the process.
Underutilization of Employees	It is not always possible for London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel to fully utilize its kitchen staff’s creativity, innovation, knowledge, skills, and experiences. Unfortunately, this failure impedes the company’s long-term waste elimination efforts.

Projection: Future-State Value Stream Map

With the application of a lean system, London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen can experience improved efficiency and effectiveness by eliminating all the eight wastes identified above. The key to achieving this aim, which is the lean system’s primary goal, is to produce products and services only as needed through just-in-time production. London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen also needs to embrace continuous improvement to add value to its operations. Table 1.2 shows an ideal future state value stream map for the facility.

Table 1.2: Projection Future-State Value Stream Map

Waste	Projected Future Situation at Marriott Hotels
Overproduction	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen has stopped producing any food in advance. Instead, it advises its customers to place their orders early enough.
Inappropriate Processing	Rather than buying and trying out new and expensive kitchen appliances and equipment, London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen immaculately maintains old machines, invests in efficient and flexible equipment, and merges process steps where possible.
Waiting	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen staff takes customer orders early enough and combines process steps to reduce waiting time. For instance, salad preparation happens between cooking (rather than being allocated own time) as chefs wait for food to be ready.
Transportation	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen staff now stores ingredients in places that are easy to reach. They have eliminated excessive movement because it wastes time and damages products or deteriorates their quality.
Motion	The company has redesigned the kitchen layout to ensure items are easily accessible to reduce effort related to the ergonomics of bending, stretching, reaching, walking, and lifting.
Inventory	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen only orders the supplies it needs when it needs it.
Defects	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen has trained its staff to improve their skills, motivate them and ensure their commitment to do quality work that does not require re-working.
Underutilization of Employees	London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen has capitalized on its employees by giving them autonomy and flexibility to do their job as experts in that field.

Analysis and Recommendations: Implementation Plan

Adopting a lean system requires an effective and reliable implementation plan. For any institution (including London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen), this entails examining internal linkages between supporting and core processes and external connections with suppliers and customers (Krajewski et al., 2018). Once it has done that, it will identify and rectify opportunities for improvement related to the eight types of wastes or Muda. Since a lean system is about continuous improvement, eliminating the eight wastes is a never-ending job underpinned by an effective strategy whose implementation is the company’s top priority. Training staff members to identify and eliminate the waste would effectively work as employees understand the internal processes more than the management. On-the-job meetings and briefings will give managers essential updates on what has changed and the support that staff members need to implement more changes in the future. The management should produce a key performance indicator that proves that the implementation team is creating and executing a plan that results continuously in lean processes in London Marriott Marble Arch Hotel’s kitchen.

References

Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., & Malhotra, M. K. (2018). Operations management: Processes and supply chains. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

Marriott International (n.d.). 2019 Annual Report. Web.

Background

Evaluation: Current-State Value Stream Map

Projection: Future-State Value Stream Map

Analysis and Recommendations: Implementation Plan

References

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