Hard Rock Café: Operations Management in Services

Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Isaac Tigrettand Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. Currently, there are 191 Hard Rock locations in 59 countries including 145 cafes, 21 hotels and 10 casinos.

From the case (HRC), I identify 10 operations management strategy decisions are applied at Hard Rock Café. The first is design of goods and services. HRC customer do not just want a meal, they want an experience. So, HRC’s product is not only the food, they also provide drinks, music, memorabilia, rock concerts, retails...etc. They create and test products for customer satisfaction and cost is one point of their success. Customer recommendation make HRC improve their food, music and services. The second is the quality. HRC hired the quality people, then trained them to provide the quality services to the customers. The third is process design. I think this is the most important. A good food production process can decrease the money cost and time cost, and make sure to provide quality meals. Also, a good process of receiving the customers can make the restaurant receive more customers in peak time, increase the efficiency and table turnover rate of restaurant. HRC works to create products in an efficient manner, analyzing them for cost, quality, and labor requirements. The whole production process, from receiving ingredients, storage, grilling, baking, and frying is designed to create a quality meal for the customer. The forth is the location strategy. Location is a major long-time decision that can make or break business strategy. HRC’s customer objective is tourists, so they are located in destination cities. The fifth is layout strategy. An efficient kitchen layout can increase the efficiency. A good dinning layout can make the customer more satisfactorily. The sixth is the human resource. HRC...