Question

Hard Rock Cafe: Operations Management in Services

In its 48 years of existence, Hard Rock has grown from a modest London pub to a global power managing 163 restaurants, 23 hotels/casinos, and live music venues. This puts Hard Rock firmly in the service industry—a sector that employs over 75% of the people in the U.S. Hard Rock moved its world headquarters to Orlando, Florida, in 1988 and has expanded to more than 50 locations throughout the U.S., serving over 100,000 meals each day. Hard Rock chefs are modifying the menu from classic American— burgers and chicken wings—to include higher-end items such as stuffed veal chops and lobster tails. Just as taste in music changes over time, so does Hard Rock Cafe, with new menus, layouts, memorabilia, services, and strategies.

At Orlando’s Universal Studios, a traditional tourist destination, Hard Rock Cafe serves over 3,500 meals each day. The cafe employs about 400 people. Most are employed in the restaurant, but some work in the retail shop. Retail is now a standard and increasingly prominent feature in Hard Rock Cafes (since close to 48% of revenue comes from this source). Cafe employees include kitchen and wait staff, hostesses, and bartenders. Hard Rock employees are not only competent in their job skills but are also passionate about music and have engaging personalities. Cafe staff is scheduled down to 15-minute intervals to meet seasonal and daily demand changes in the tourist environment of Orlando. Surveys are done on a regular basis to evaluate quality of food and service at the cafe. Scores are rated on a 1-to-7 scale, and if the score is not a 7, the food or service is a failure.

Hard Rock is adding a new emphasis on live music and is redesigning its restaurants to accommodate the changing tastes. Since Eric Clapton hung his guitar on the wall to mark his favourite bar stool, Hard Rock has become the world’s leading collector and exhibitor of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, with changing exhibits at its cafes throughout the world. The collection includes 70,000 pieces, valued at $40 million. In keeping with the times, Hard Rock also maintains a Web site, www.hardrock.com, which receives more than 100,000 hits per week, and a weekly cable television program on VH1. Hard Rock’s brand recognition, at 92%, is one of the highest in the world.

           

Source: Adapted from J. Heizer, B. Render, and C. Munson (2020) Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Global Edition, 13/E, Pearson

In every successful brand such as Hard Rock, there must be strong contributions and coordination among different functions to make an operation successfully runs smoothly. Many of the decisions made by operations managers are dependent on information from the other functions. At the same time, other functions cannot be carried out properly without information from operations. Referring case above, kindly answer the questions below:

How does Information System function contribute towards the success of Hard Rock operations?

Apply 5W1H writing strategy - Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How
explanation and give and example.

Answer 1

Who contributes towards the success of Hard Rock operations

the information system is one of the major factors for the success of Hard Rock operations. Being a big business, they are always keen to get feedback from people, understand the environment change, and keep track of their customer's preferences online. It has helped them in being successful in this long stride and venture into similar businesses.

What function information system contribute towards the success of Hard Rock operations

Hard Rock is massive in its expansion and served more than 100,000 meals each day around 1988. Apart from that a lot of employees in a cafe and impressive menu items need an information system so that different operations can be streamlined. Plus, the satisfaction or feedback can be used to inform the operations again regarding possible changes. The regular surveys keep their quality top-notch and understanding people's visits to the website helps them modify their restaurants and business. Thus, a lot many functions are made successful with IS

Where IS can contribute towards the success of Hard Rock?

Hard Rock cafe manages 163 restaurants, 23 hotels/casinos, and live music venues. Thus, they just do not have an eatery to look after but the entire cult and environment that they are taking forward. So, all these places and avenues need to be connected in terms of information passing. For example maintaining the uniformity of theme across hotels, restaurants, and music venues. It must be reflected in all things they do. Thus, at all of their business. IS is essential for its success.

When IS function contribute towards the success
They have been running successfully for decades, hosting millions of people each year. Whether it is the regular survey, or while staff dealing with the customers at a retail shop or cafe, information regarding the customer feedback grievance, inventory, or the demand forecasting is necessary. This information is then passed on to other operations to help cater to the customers. Thus, information was important all the time, but its usage and analysis has changed over a period

Why IS function contribute towards success?

Information is essential. As they say, Data is the new fuel. So information processing can bring insights that may help in projecting the business better. Understanding people's demands and fulfilling them. Plus, it also helps in expansion, like from cafes, to hotels and music venues. Data is needed to find the possibility of the leap. Coordination among different functions is also possible due to information.

How does Information System function contribute towards the success of Hard Rock operations?

Hard Rock Cafe is a big business with chain spread all across the world and its multiple businesses. They use surveys that evaluate food and service at the cafe. They are rated on 1 to 7, and being strict in their judgment they consider it a failure if not 7. The significance is also given to changing time and tastes. Restaurants and menu are modified accordingly. They maintain a website that also helps them in tracking the people and their preferences.