Last week of internship

According to last Nabit meeting conducted by the patch Business consultants, customer relation manager and Hougang outlet restaurant manager , there are a few things in which they would like us to bring back into our current store. There are a few thigs in which they would like us to take note and for us to bring back the knowledge and good practices that we had gained back to our individual respective outlets and improve our overall standards. 1) Reduce customer complains received each shift manager have to get to 3 individual customers from their shift, get to know their customers names and from then carry on to get two feedback from them regardless of good or bad. try to settle customers complaints / negative feedback should they receive any on the spot and solve it or make the customer feel satisfied. By doing so, the customers will then not bring the complaint to the office and become official. must be observant , observe how the customer feel when having their meals in the restaurant. Get feedback on the QSCC( Quality, Service and cleanliness ) of the restaurant. E.g- if the customers feel that their fries are soggy and not fresh, the restaurant manager would then replace the fries with a good standard pack and satisfy the customer on the spot. 2) Managers should not get stuck at counters or stations helping their crew -pull out and try to observe the shift -find out what is wrong and what is the cause of the problem and why the shift could not go on smoothly as planned -make proper and correct arrangements to solve the problem -do not hide behind or inside the manager room, instead managers should be out front to observe how crews work under pressure and whether they can still provide that quality service and attitude when faced with all the difficulties. 3) All managers should be out front during peak periods of their shifts and should focus primarily on customer service. 4) Managers must not bring their emotions to work. Should draw a clear line between work and personal affairs. Also as a manager, we should also take the initiative to be the motivators for the crew and provide timely leadership advice. By doing so, a friendly and conducive work environment can be created and everyone would then be happy working for MacDonalds.

Learn training system for first assistant

Certain things that training manager need to take note of: 1) Training is important and should not be taken lightly as it can help to develop and improve the crews productivity level. 2) TNA( Training Need Analysis) have to be keyed in and submitted two months in advance. The cut-off deadline for all submissions will fall on the 25th of evey month

Crew Hiring

Firstly, we will choose a location which that is not only close to our restaurant but also have alot of HDB blocks or residential areas as it would make the process of coming to work for the new crew or staff much more convenient. Thus it would encourage them to come to our outlet for work. Secondly, we will then prepare ourselves for the hiring of new staffs. We will firstly start by printing the hiring application forms and after that, the managers will have to be in full uniform in order to appear more professional. We will also need to equip ourselves with the criteria and requirements when it comes to hiring new crews. By doing so, we then can help explain to the applicants about the pay, benefits and information that they will be interested to know. Lastly, we will then proceed on to the selected location and do the recruitment. We will then be thick skinned and must not be afraid of rejection. At the same time the managers will also have to do certain prospecting at that location. We will have to select certain people which we think would be interested and go up to attract them with the benefits of working at MacDonalds and if anyone is interested, they would then have to fill up the application form and we will then do the necessary follow up.

Management meeting

The restaurant manager will hold the weekly meeting and all the other mangers of the same store regardless of ranking will have to attend that session. Firstly, the restaurant manager will update us on the upcoming promotions in the next few weeks. Thus getting this information, we have to be fully prepared with the proper logistics when the dates draw nearer. Secondly, we will also talk about the things that we feel can be further improved and thus from that the group of managers will have to come out with a proposed solution to further improve the situation. There will also be a check to see if the situation have indeed improved in the few weeks after the meeting. Thirdly, each manager will do a sharing session about their covered duties, such as inventory, payroll and training. They will share their experience, and from that they respective managers will bring up respective problems or situations that will most likely affect the other groups and the whole group will work together to solve that problem. Fourthly, for the last part of the meeting, we would discuss on the changes in which the head office of the Singapore MacDonalds branch would like the store to take note of when hiring new staffs. For example, it would the need for more crew members at peak periods of the day and vice versa during the non-peak periods. thus scheduling is important. Lastly, we would also talk about the PEP(People, Equipment and Product) of the store. For people, we would talk about matters such as which crew is excelling in his respective roles and which is performing sub par. For equipment, we would talk about the efficiency of the machine and whether it is performing its ask up to standard, if not, we would then discuss whether it should be sent for maintenance or should be replaced. For product, we would then talk about the current line of products and the accessories which come along with it. For example such as the lack of ketchup pouch in the stall, we would find out the real reason whether the person in charge did not follow the standard operation procedure or the counter crew have been giving too many to each individual customer. That sums up the whole meeting, from which the whole store works together to solve the different problems in the store.

Attachment at SLM

Brand new year, after rotating all the other managers to clear their off days in January. My boss then find that he has too many managers so he kicked me out of store for attachment at SLM (seletar mall) because as an hourly paid floor manager, my hours will affect the store's labour. SLM is a newly opened store which just opened during December 2014. What's so special about this store is that it is the first dual point outlet in Singapore. Dual point system is something similar to the famous bubble tea company name "koi" whereby they have a point to set-up their counters to take order from their customers. The other point which is the "collection point". According to the queue number from the receipt, customer will go the the collection area and wait for their queue number to be shown on the monitor. Same for Mac Donald's, one point for ordering and the other point for collection. The collection point is link to the kitchen area. At the collection point, there will be two presenter, who will be in-charge of assembling and presenting the order to the customer. In order to save cost and the Earth, SLM is one of the few stores to change over from the napkin dispenser whereby the customer will be able to self-serve themselves for the napkins to counter crew providing napkin for the customer according to the napkin price sure.

Learn training

I will be undergoing the Mac Donald training system from my boss. I will be going through the manual and understanding how it works and what my roll as a training manager is. 1) Crew training training system tracking manual Understanding training manager roles and responsibilities -To provide timely, effective and engaing training that results in competent employee -In summary, the training manager role is a process of 8 week hiring generation of TNA, planning through training calender and ensure a systematic training following up was conducted. -Many systems will be impacted if Business Planning and Training system are not uphold in the restaurant. The systems impacted are: production/service/shift management/food safety/inventory management/people practices/planned & daily maintenance/safety & security/crew & management scheduling/internal communication 2) Objective: To provide timely, effective and engaging training that results in competent employee. 3) Developing crew house set-up Crew house set-up is for allocating of only crew and crew leader to a designated group or house determined by the store. Names of the "houses" are left to the discretion of the store management team. The goal of crew house set-up is to effectively group and administer process such as PR/WPR sessions, enthusiasm & welfare planning etc within the store. When a new crew joins the store, he/she must be assigned a "house" within the store's stipulated time period. The recommended period is 1 to 2 weeks. Every store should have at least 2 updates for "house" set up per month.

Going into ordering

1) Responsibility The ordering manager's primary duty is to ensure that optimal quality of raw products are delivered to the store and that all relevant administrations pertaining to the ordering system are updated and accurate at all times. 2) Accountability Daily: -Follow up on raw products quality rotation -Follow up on all stat & yield problem item(inventory/ procedures) -Ensure proper reports printed out for all OSD items -Follow up on raw and complete waste entries -Trouble shoot all ST in/ out items and updates accordingly -Follow up on EMC entries -Ensure zero difference for the daily inventory transaction report -Ensure zero ordering amendments eg. Pre-cut and Add-on -Follow up on accuracy of delivery from MB -Ensure that products are placed at the right place with the correct tag Weekly: -Follow up on storeroom/ freezer/ chiller organization and cleanliness -Follow up on raw waste %(for weekly break cycle) -Update complete product unit/ 100 TC(transaction count) (UTC) -Follow up on all OSD credit entries from MB -Follow up on weekly stat and yield report troubleshooting Monthly: -Follow up on MTD inventory transaction report (2X) -Check food promotion items, complete wastes and all selling prices and ensure that there are zero difference. -Follow up on MTD(month-to-date) ST (computer entries of tickets) -Follow up on MTD raw material summary report -Ensure correct ending balance entry for all -Check raw waste entries -Troubleshoot MTD stat and yield report + action plan to be submitted after every monthend -Update yield and condiment UTC Promotion: -Follow up on all preparation execution of products promotion(refer to store brief for projection as a guide) -Keep track of past promotions UTC that were relevant for 2 years

Good habits that I learned from attachment at other stores

At Toa Payoh Central outlet, I find that they have really get the crews to follow the cash handling policy. By giving the crew a fresh drawer and getting the crew to count and witness the float. At the end of the day, before the crew handover the drawer to another crew, the crew will take the initiative to count the drawer and see the variance from the "expected cash" printed from the report. By doing so, the crews will be more responsible in handling the money in the drawer and be more careful at finding change for the customers.

Understanding stat report and varience

Stat varience is a varience between an actual quantity of ingredient used(based on inventory) and an estimated quantity of ingredient used(based on pos data. Any difference between a quantity used and a quantity sold is "control loss" that can give a serious impact on profitability. Based on November monthend stat, we can see that the top losing items are Middle Wings(-$39.38), Egg(-$25.16) and Grill Chicken patty(-$16.24). Under the computed usage, this is what we stocked take on the monthend of November. We will be using the actual usage(waste, promotion, stocks delivered, sold) to VS it and this will give you the end results on loss and gain. So here we can see the overall ending now how much we loss or gain. For the month of November, we are doing quite well with the loss of only -$41.58. With a percentage of -0.03%. Based on the guideline(target) set by Mac Donald, we have achieve the target for the month of November.

Ordering system enhancement

1) To ensure accurate ordering in order to prevent over order -To allow restaurant manager to control "order buffer %" (maximum 30%) -To highlight manual adjustment or over-order in order list(maximize capacity) -To include a new delivery cycle - daily morning(6am-11am) -To update storage capacity - by raw item/ overall area (Ecosima) 2) To display active product list (permanent + active temporary items) in UTC computation screen 3) To minimize manual order adjustment, especially the top 3 high varience ending items - margarine/ sugar/ creamer 4) To renew current ordering procedure

Understanding of Ecosima

Background 1) Test started in 2006. Approved business case for Ecosima roll out in April 2007 and completed in 2008. 2) Revamp Ecosima implementation process and ordering manual. Verified in July with 5 stores (PMAL/JP/NTU/JB/JW75). Ecosima started to roll out in October 2009, was put on hold in December due to resource problem from HAVI. Key measurements Enhance ordering -less time spent on ordeing -Easy process -Review system calculation on product require till next ordering system. Food and paper items are kept at designated area(not exceeding the maximum case indicated on the label) Eg. Dry shelves/Frozen(column stack and shelves)/Chill(chiller shelves and trolley) Storage guidelines -Dry item 1 ft. above floor, no items are allow to place directly on the floor(food safety) -Frozen products on skid 2-3 inches above floor(meet NEA guideline) -Chiller products on trolley and shelves, no items are allow to place directly on floor Ecosima process Before: -Unorganized storage area -Spend more time in searching for products and arranging delivery -Products not fixed at designated shelving -Shift manager takes longer time to do pre-shift -No space catered for promotion items and happy meal toys -Cold room space not optimised/ most products on floor -Unsure of storage capacity -Not enough space captured for actual usage After: -Storage area neater and more organized/ better workflow -Fast moving products more accessible and takes shorter time to arrange delivery -Products being catered at designated shelving -Easier to check product availability -Sufficient space for promotional items and happy meal toy(FIFO) -More racking installed and used for cold room products(Easy to FIFO) -Maximum case indicated on shelving tags -Re-calculation of usage based on highest sales/ UTC(Unit Thousand Count)

Follow up on crew's training

The manager in-charge of training for this outlet will compute a "follow-up SOC(station observation checklist) master checklist" every month. The managers in the outlet will be distributed into different houses. For example, in my outlet, there is only 2 houses, "red" and "yellow". I am in-charge of the Yellow house. Mac Donald has created a guide rule to improve the crew's development. It is to allow the crew to learn 3 station in 60 days. After the crew learned the station, as a house manager, I will have to follow the checklist that the training manager had put up monthly and see during that particular month, which 3 station do I need to follow up on that individual crew. For example, this crew name "chen gek" and the following stations that I am required to follow up one her are "order taker", "initiator" or "assembler". I will have to choose either 1 of the station to follow up. How do I usually follow up? I will use the SOC follow up checklist and ask them certain questions on the checklist to test their knowledge of that particular station. I will also base on the daily encounter, obervation and work experience to grade on that crew.

Do ordering

This outlet is a daily delivery basis which means the manager in this outlet who do opening shift will have to do ordering every day. The outlet's freezer and chiller has minimum space. Hence, when we do ordering, we tend to order for one day's usage only. The advantage of this is that we will be able to use the product according to the daily usage instead of ordering too much and keep in store. Sometimes when we do not notice, products like 10:1 and 4:1 beef has short shelf life for 1 month only. So if we keep on ordering a lot and do not have sufficient time to FIFO the product according to its expiry date, product may expire without our notice. And if we serve expire product to customers, the consquences will be unbearable. Our outlet is one of the lower sales restaurant in the Singapore market. In order to maximise our profit, by ordering daily usage, we will be able to minimise the wastage. For example, the syrup that we use for BIM(blending ice machine) like strawberry banana/ mocha/ mango pineapple and caramel usually only has 1 week shelf-life. Hence, I think that it will be better if we order the syrup on the previous day before it expires.

Do UHC(Universal Holding Cabinet) chart

The chart is done by the inventory manager. I have to compute the chart according to last week's sales trend. This chart will guide the crew on how much protein they will have to maintain in the UHC. This is to ensure that there will be sufficient protein to serve the customer fast so that the waiting time for the customer will not be very long because "fast" is the basic thing for fast food restaurant. The UHC chart will also help to ensure the crew to not cook too much or too little. Every protein has its own holding time. For example, nugget is 20 mins and 10:1 beef is 15 mins. If the crew cook too much that they are not able to sell out within the holding time, the food that the customer received will not be at its best quality(hot and fresh). By updating the chart weekly, we are able to keep track of the protein sales trend according to the previous week.

Chect ST ticket

This is part of my task as a inventory manager in this outlet. I have to check all the ST(store transfer) tickets so that I can get hold of the items that have been transfered in and out of the restaurant. By checking the ST tickets, I have to ensure that the other outlets do not over-charge or under-charge my store and that my store do not mis-charge other store. I will also have to ensure that the code, outlet number and quantity of the item charged is correct according to the ST report. If this is not done properly, it will affect my outlet's profit and lost.

Arrange storeroom, freezer and chiller

1) This outlet has several chiller like reach-in and walk-in. Hence, different product will be put in the different kind of chiller respectively. 2) We have to arrange accordiong to the fixed arrangment. This will allow the crews easier to get what they want as they are familiar where the products are placed at. 3) In Mac Donald, there's a term call FIFO (first in first out) which means we need to arrange according to the expiry date of the product. The product which expires first will be placed on top to allow the crew to use first. By doing so, our wastage will be minimized, in other words, profit for the store will be increased.