Caesars Casino’s Lean Operations Implementation Case Study

Introduction

2008 was a hard year for many organizations due to the fact that the economic environment was challenged considerably. The gaming market underwent considerable changes and the unpredicted reduction of customers, who were eager to spend their money on entertainments in casinos, because of the US macroeconomic collapse. Lean operations are the methods to eliminate wasteful steps in a working process and focus on such issues as time, efforts, and knowledge.

According to Wilson, Lean operations should make an organization more flexible and responsive (9). This paper aims at discussing the case study of Caesars casinos, the outcomes of its manager’s intentions to implement Lean operations in the organizational environment (Hyer, Hirsch, and Brown 1), and the challenges that can be expected regarding the available material and working conditions. The idea to use kaizen events helps to involve different departments in the problem-solving process and understand how to beginning a working process, where to search for credible information, and who to use the data offered.

Challenges Caesars Experienced during the Lean Implementation Process

The manager of Caesars casinos tried to weight all pros and cons of an improvement process; still, several challenges took place. One of them was based on a lack of professional knowledge. The point is that not all casino employees knew and comprehended clearly a definition of the term ‘Lean’. Some of them defined it as an opportunity to cut jobs. To reduce the impact of this problem and promote a clear understanding of the goals, Caesars casinos’ managers had to talk to the employees and explain them the essence and goals of this process that were to eliminate wasteful activities, improve customer experience, and increase effectiveness of the work (Hyer, Hirsch, and Brown 2).

Another significant challenge that was observed was the impossibility to get the required portion of a financial support to be sure that all physical and organizational changes were made successfully according to the recommendations offered. Sometimes, it is expected from leaders to obtain a higher-level approval of the intentions identified (Hyer, Hirsch, and Brown 10). In other words, the developers of kaizen events were not sure if all their ideas and thoughts could be financially approved. The challenge was overcome as soon as all goals, activities, and outcomes were clarified. When leaders observed the benefits and success of the chosen direction, the problem of financial support was solved.

In general, two challenges of the implementation process were successfully eliminated. The solutions to the problems were effective as no financial efforts were spent, and all physical and emotional efforts were justified.

Kaizen Event to Improve Guestroom Housekeeping Operations

As a manager of hotel housekeeping at Harrah’s Metropolis location, I have to follow the current success and challenges. Recently, the company’s service scores have declined considerably during the last several years. It is necessary to improve the quality of guestroom housekeeping services as a part of the Lean rollout. A properly chosen key performance indicator should prove if the chosen direction is correct or wrong and what improvements can be done in a short period of time (Parmenter 7).

There are several KPIs that can be offered:

• The level of employee satisfaction with training programs should help to understand if the offered improvements are appropriate for workers and what improvements can be observed in their work according to their personal points of view;
• Employee perception of management commitment can be investigated to clarify the attitudes of workers to their duties and their intentions to work better or vice versa;
• Percentage of services that can have healthy and safety impact on casino’s visitors should be used to attract the attention of potential customers and create a solid competition for other similar organizations;
• Average number of responses to the positions in housekeeping should provide the information about the intentions of people to improve the quality of services, the level of knowledge, and the level of readiness to work at the chosen position;
• Customer perception of employee work can be used to clarify if the customers are satisfied with the changes that are offered by employees, who have to work in accordance with the kaizen event offered.

The choice of these KPIs has the following rationale. These KPIs touch upon different spheres of life: customer satisfaction, employee devotion, financial indicators, and even environmental conditions. As soon as these KPIs are used, it is possible to identify if all changes implemented through the kaizen effort are effective and lead to the improvement of performance.

Detailed Agenda for a Kaizen Effort

The area of housekeeping should be improved in terms of floor store organization, cleaning capacity utilization, exclusion of the defects in rooms, decreasing the number of guests waiting for rooms. The following outline of the event should be offered to all front-line employees to be approved as a new possibility to improve the quality of the work in housekeeping and guestroom cleaning services.

Day One: Documenting

1. A single guestroom cleaning process is viewed to define performance time, male a list of activities, and calculate the required number of housekeepers per one room (30 minutes for a physical observation and 30 minutes for analysis);
2. Individual responsibilities are identified for each team member (1 hour);
3. Every team member should pass through training on the kaizen event and its goals (1 hour);
4. A kind of value stream map can be developed to underline the required changes, possible outcomes, and expectations (3 hours);
5. Summary of the daily activities is developed (1 hour).

Day Two: Evaluating

1. To analyze the impact of waste in a working process (2 hours);
2. To understand and identify the losses and their impact (2 hours);
3. To develop several Pareto charts and box plots (2 hours);
4. To identify the resources that can help the promotion of the event and describe their usage (2 hours).

Day Three: Planning

1. Team members are informed about several solutions for a process using the graphical material (1 hour);
2. The changes are offered (1 hour);
3. The changes are evaluated (1 hour);
4. Health and safety issues are considered (1 hour);
5. Testing the offered changes in practice to illuminate all shortages and make the improvements.

Day Four: Implementing

1. Identification of the goals (30 min);
2. Re-arrangement of housekeeping equipment (1 hour);
3. A new way of housekeeping is offered and explained (1 hour);
4. Housekeepers are trained (2 hours);
5. Innovations and changes are implemented (30 min);
6. Discussions take place (2 hours or more).

Day Five: Debriefing

1. Enumeration of the goals planned and achieved (1hour);
2. Identification of the results with their positive and negative aspects (1 hour);
3. Communication and attention to the opinions of the housekeeping department representatives (2 hours);
4. Making the final improvements (1 hour);
5. Discussion of future prospects of the work (1 hour)
6. Preparation of final documentation and getting approvals (2 hours or more).

The rationale for each agenda item is as follows. Each step and the ideas offered have a reason and goal. Each point helps to promote communication and develop relations between different employees of a housekeeping department. Finally, the chosen kaizen event helps to touch upon some managerial aspects and the conditions under which a portion of physical work is performed. It means that the effectiveness of the event can be approved as soon as the first activities are taken.

Improvement Approaches: Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Choice

At the end of the case study, Hirsch, the General Manager, faced the necessity to choose between two different approaches that can be used to improve a working process and the quality of services offered. On the one hand, there is an expert-driven approach with its benefits and challenges. On the other hand, there is an employee-centered initiative with its strong and weak aspects.

The experience got in Tunica proved an essential role of leaders and their inabilities to adopt new operations quickly and support the Lean shift in a short period of time. Such uncertainty may be a sign or poorly developed social and technical skills. Still, the implementation process has several positive results and helps to delete wasteful activities, engages as many workers as possible, and promotes a team spirit that motivates each team member. As soon as each member of a team understands the importance of change and is ready to take some steps, the success of any operation is possible. Motivation and the desire to implement changes are the basics in a working process. However, employees should think about the time that has to be spent, and that is actually available.

The benefits of an expert-driven approach are connected with the possibility to involve a small group of people, who know how to promote a change in a short period of time. This group knows how to save time and money and explain the peculiarities of a process in a clear way as soon as the situation is studied thoroughly. Though it is expected that all employees are involved in a working process, their activities are under the control of several people.

Such dependence leads to the main disadvantages of the approach – the impossibility to consider the opinions of all employees but the necessity to follow the orders. In other words, there is no freedom and choice for ordinary workers but new instructions to be followed. Such result contradicts one of the main working philosophies that is the consideration of employees’ opinions and their possibilities to be involved in improving their working conditions.

In my opinion, the Metropolis facility can win with a properly implemented employee-centered approach. First, every employee should have a chance to share his/her personal opinion on how to improve the services and attract the attention of many customers. Employees can use their personal observations and evaluations of guests to explain their suggestions. Metropolis’ casinos aim at leading competitions. A professional approach is something that can be done by any organization. The attention to employees’ opinions and their unusual ideas can help to compete regardless the standards. In brief, to be motivated to work better, employees should feel their urgency for a company and develop their ideas regularly.

Works Cited

Hyer, Nancy Lee, Hirsch, Brad, and Karen A. Brown. “Implementing Lean Operations at Caesars Casinos.” Thunderbird: School of Global Management 2014. Web.

Parmenter, David. Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using KPIs. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2015. Print.

Wilson, Lonnie. How to Implement Lean Manufacturing. San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print.