Introduction
To manage a project effectively, the managing team should make plans, organize them and control the resources to realize the set objectives. Every project has a beginning and an end (Maylor 2005, p. 154). An order process can also be taken as a project with set objectives, a start and an end.
There is the essence of time management in the process, and funding and resource availability are considered as constraint in realizing the objectives. To effectively achieve the goals, management strategies are very important (Clements & Gido 2009, p. 289).
This paper focuses on an order process as an activity of operations to establish the operation ‘fit’ and strategy of the process to realize operations techniques and management of the process in an effective manner (Goetsch & Davis 2010, p. 57). The process or order of my choice for this assignment is green curry chicken. This is an order the organization wishes to establish in the restaurant as it expands.
Findings and analysis
Analysis of the process of establishing green curry chicken in the restaurant helps in showing how the restaurant wants to fulfill its mission. Everybody in the restaurant should know their work and how what they do impacts the general organization. The interaction between departments is very important and this should be focused for the process to be completed successfully (Hoyle, 2007, p. 212; Katsioloudes 2002, p. 225).
In this scenario, the process to be analyzed is the establishment of the order in the restaurant. This process has various steps to see its successful completion. From the time the proposal is presented until the time the recommendations are implemented, the processes should be effectively followed. Each process or activity has to take time and some resources, which must be effectively allocated. (Kenny 2005, p. 658-812).
Having identified the project (introduction of green curry chicken) the management designed a six phase activity work schedule. To successfully complete the process (Green curry chicken) in the six phases, the managing team proposed the following process that explains nature of the task and the person carrying out the task (each activity will be carried out within a one month’s period).
Activity 1
State the result the general organization is going to achieve through the process, this will be done by the management team.
Activity 2
Look at the situation both in and out of the organization (Asia restaurant) and find out whether there are any influences that may affect it negatively, and the marketing department will carry out this activity.
Activity 3
Analyze the situation and measure the health of the process in relation to its mission, and establish the goals of the process, to be discussed by both team manager and marketing department.
Activity 4
Establish methods or strategies to reach goals where the strategies must be efficient, practicable and affordable. The senior chef and the staff below will be involved in this activity.
Activity 5
Set the objectives that will help achieve the goals where each objective will be assigned time lines when it should be realized. The head management team will see through this process.
Activity 6
Every one will be involved in this process and everyone should know their roles, and acknowledge that the process is complete and celebration for the success.
A critical path analysis will be used to determine activities and the time allocated for each activity. This analysis will assist the team find out whether the time scheduled is used to the maximum and how best to improve the chosen process.
The first process allocates each activity three months to be complete and so the whole process will take a period of 1month.Below is the critical path analysis graph that analyzes the time allocated for each of the above planned activities.
On analysis of the green chicken project, the time allocated to complete each activity, was too slow and to cut back delays, time allocated for each activity had to be reduced from one month to two weeks. The main aim of reducing the time allocated was to have the green curry chicken introduced by the end of the year.
The managing team was to able to reduce the time allocated for each activity by two weeks through employing longer working hours and adding of two extra people in the team. The time reduced is represented below by the Gantt chart. A Gantt chart is a tool that shows how the project or process progresses (Meredith 2006, p. 104)
Gantt chart
Conclusion
The Gantt chart shows the improvement on time taken by the team to complete each activity in two weeks where the rows of bars in the chart indicate when each activity begins and when it ends.
The time was able to be improved because, after the completion of the first activity by the team, another activity begins immediately to reduce maximum time to deliver the green chicken. The improvement of the process sees through the project in 3months, as a result of extra hours put in and an additional two members of the team (Rosen 1995, p. 96; Meredith 2006, p. 103,118).
In the planning, the business process team should always relate every step with the objectives of the process and the predicted outcome of the time each of the activity takes. The critical path analysis helps one to make improvements on the process, by reducing the maximum time allocated to deliver the product.
The Gantt chart reflects the improved process by the team, when time has being improved on to deliver the product successful, without delays. Every process taken is analyses and the time allocated evaluated to improve on the process and yield results faster.
References
Clements, P. & Gido, J. (2009) Effective project management. London: Cengage Learning.
Goetsch, L. & Davis, B. (2010) Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hoyle, D. (2007) Quality: Management essentials. Oxford Burlington MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Katsioloudes, M. (2002) Global strategic planning: cultural perspectives for profit and non-profit organizations. Woburn MA, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Kenny, G. (2005) Strategic planning and performance: develop and measure a winning strategy. Oxford Burlington MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.
Maylor, H. (2005) Project management, New York: FT Prentice Hall.
Meredith, R. (2006). Project management: A managerial approach. Huboken NJ: Jonh Wiley. P. 103-118
Rampersad, K. (2003) Total performance scorecard: Redefining management to achieve performance with integrity, Amsterdam; Boston MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. P.13-16
Rosen, R. (1995) Strategic management: An introduction. Harlow: Financial Times /Prentice Hall.