Video Case 2: Hard Rock Cafe

Production Operations Management

Video Case Studies

Video Case 2: Forecasting at Hard Rock Café

1. Describe three different forecasting applications at Hard Rock. Name three other areas in which you think Hard Rock could use forecasting models.

Sales forecasts:

* Long range forecasting: in setting a capacity plan

* Intermediate term forecasting: for locking in contracts for leather goods (used in jackets) and for food items as beef, chicken, and pork

* Short term forecasting: daily forecasts which contain the effect of special events in the town (including staff forecast)

Human Resources:

* Bonuses for managers: a 3-year weighted moving average is applied to cafe sales and if the cafe general managers exceed their targets, a bonus is computed

* Staff recruitment: Adapt the necessary workforce according expected demand.

* Staff management: Determine necessary roles on each section of the restaurant.

Menu planning/placement:

* Regression analysis.

* How could affect price variations on one product to the rest of the elements on the menu

* How could affect reorganizations of the menu to the sales.

Other possible areas of application:

* To include seasonal forecasting in the menu planning

* To predict customer behaviour changes.

* To apply forecasting to every single element of the menu.

* They could forecast "booming areas" to build a Hard Rock Cafe there.

* Forecasting of customer satisfaccion compared with real data from customer satisfaction surveys:

* Relate customer satisfaction delivered by each employee.

* Calculate the difference between the expetected global customer satsifaction against the real customer satisfaction for each employee.

* If real data outperforms data: bonuses for those employes attending that table.

* If real data  is below forecasting: employee revision

2. What is the role of the POS system in forecasting at...