Marios Pizzeria

Mario’s Pizzeria

Dan Stanley

OPS /571

May 26, 2011

Anthony Di Gaetano

Mario’s Pizzeria

Mario’s Pizzeria is a well-established restaurant located in the Palm Springs, California Mall (University of Phoenix, 2011). Mario is nearing retirement and this writer has been granted a two-month opportunity to learn and manage the business. After the two-months, Mario will decide if he is to pass the business down. Mario’s decision will be based on this writer’s ability to recognize the learning, or experience, curve and understand the restaurant as it functions today. The following synopsis defines the learning curve and evaluates three decisions to improve the business during the two-month period.

I. The Learning Curve

a. “A learning curve is a line displaying the relationship between unit production

time and the cumulative number of units produced” (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006, p. 135).

b. Experience equals efficiency

II. Maximizing Resources

c. Tables

i. Convert four, four-person tables to eight, two-person tables

d. Wait Staff should not be changed

e. Kitchen Staff should not be changed

III. Equipment Improvement

f. Menu Point is a good investment

g. One Plax Oven can produce enough to meet demand

ii. However, redundancy is recommended on equipment that is required to generate revenue

IV. Expanding Operations

h. Renting Cream Puffs space is a sound long-term decision

iii. Increases tables which will be utilized

iv. Increases kitchen size

i. Adding Take-Out counter is not a good use of the limited space when volume of diners is expected to increase

The learning curve is based on a theory which may be broken down into two separate observations. The first observation is that humans have the capacity to learn, and in industry, as they perform their jobs they learn to become more efficient in their actions. The more...