Case Study Library
Each article details case studies of our continuous improvement program helping restaurateurs engineer the balance between customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and company profit.
"Whether they know it or not, restaurateurs make capacity management decisions every day. Each time they add new menu items, run a promotion, install a new piece of equipment or change a work schedule they are making critical capacity decisions that affect their profitability."
Throughput Capacity Management is a new way of looking how to make these decisions in a measured, predictive way. Because when you think about it, every work position, process, equipment piece and facility in a restaurant has a capacity that can be measured and, therefore, managed. If we measure operations in capacity terms – that is, in terms of their full potential – we can better direct the outcomes that grow the business. The simple logic of this philosophy states: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
The Evolution of Capacity Management in the United Kingdom
By Brian Sill, FFCSI,The Consultant. How Deterministics Capacity Management strategies repositioned an ailing pub restaurant industry for future growth.
Capacity Management: Engineering the Balance Between Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction and Company Profit
By Brian Sill The Consultant. If we define brand standards in capacity terms - that is, in terms of our full potential - we can better direct the outcomes that grow the business. Testimonials and case study results of six restaurant chains are detailed.
Applying Capacity Management Science® - The Case of Browns Restaurants
By Brian Sill and Robert Decker The Cornell Quarterly. A case study example of how Deterministics teamed up with a London-based restaurant chain to train and apply Capacity Management techniques that dramatically improved the quality and profitability of their business.
Welcome To Throughput Capacity Management (TCM)
Emily Pacifico, Contributing Editor, Foodservice Equipment Reports. Three Deterministics clients are profiled who reaped considerable rewards with our industrial design techniques. Benefits of applying TCM in the facility design process are highlighted.
The Evolution of Capacity Management in the Restaurant Industry
By Brian Sill, The Consultant. The history of Capacity Management from the Industrial Revolution of the 1800's, to Brian Sill's application to restaurants in 1991, to the present day Information Revolution is chronicled. While engineering measurement techniques are still needed to manage the capacities of workers and machines, information technology will extend society's capacity to produce in a way unprecedented in human history.
Managing Capacity Properly
The Peach Report. Brian Sill, head of the Seattle-based Deterministics, first coined the phrase "capacity management" in the context of running efficient restaurants back in the early 1990s. His theories have been adopted by operators worldwide, and also by others trying to cash in on his original approach. Here he revisits the key principles that are as relevant as ever
Labouring the Point
M&C Report. Deterministics and T.G.I. Friday's UK have adopted a scientific approach to labour in the kitchen. The result? Greater efficiency and happier customers." By Brian Sill and David Carroll, T.G.I. Friday's Business Development Manager published in the UK's M&C Report, the leading UK chain pub/restaurant publication.
Re-Engineering Brand Delivery
By Bruce Whitehall, FoodService Europe & Middle East . "The first thing TCM helps you do is understand what labour you need to utilise to deliver your standards and your menu. Then you go into process improvement to try and look at how you can do things more efficiently." says Andrew Gammage, Beefeaters's head of service quality.
Forecasting Change: A new software program promises to transform the way restaurants forecast and schedule labor
By Quinn Bowman QSR Magazine. The Deterministics Labor System debuted at the November 2006 FS/TEC show in California is designed to help restaurants create more accurate and efficient staffing schedules. The system includes a forecasting tool that predicts labor needs based on food purchased and preparation time, and a scheduler that uses the forecast information to create an efficient staff timetable
Operations Engineering: Improving Multiunit Operations
By Brian Sill. The Cornell Quarterly. To compete effectively in today's saturated restaurant markets, all stages of food-service production and service must operate in concert so as to ultimately deliver quality products at the right price to the right guests at the right time. Operations engineering provides a measured and systematic approach toward achieving this goal by analyzing the interplay of layout, equipment, system, and worker performance. The application of those measurement methods will enable management to design results, and not simply to make decisions that may or may not lead to desired outcomes.
Capacity Management
By Brian Sill The Cornell Quarterly. Brian Sill’s first Capacity Management treatise in 1991 detailing why capacity measurements of restaurants help operators do more with less as store sales become constrained in a maturing restaurant marketplace.
The 10 Commandments of Service Design
By Brian Sill, The Consultant. Many companies are experimenting with new service delivery systems including “curbside takeout” and “fast casual.” We define the 10 important elements to good service while describing how service delivery must be designed around three objectives: meal sequencing and duration, throughput cooking times, and peak hour sales goals.
French Evolution
By Janice Cha, Foodservice Equipment Reports. The results of our Throughput Capacity Assessment of la Madeleine’s new prototype is featured.
Pubs and the appliance of science
By Brian Sill - M&C Report. With the advent of smoking bans across the UK many pubs are turning their focus to food. Deterministics' Brian Sill says operators need to make the most of the opportunity.
Analyse This – Can Consultants Make Your Business Boom?
Editor Chris Maillard of London's Restaurant Magazine, sent a couple of writers to the USA to investigate Deterministics work. In their case study review of Red Robin, they asked whether our “time-and-motion style efficiency methods would transfer from the USA where they seem to love corporate culture, to the ramshackle UK where many people in this industry seem to thrive on chaos, charisma and creative disaster avoidance. In fact, it's not as bad a fit as you might think” confirms the editor.
Fine Tuning for Better Ops Capacity
Janice Cha, Senior Editor, Foodservice Equipment Reports. Brian Sill's speech on Throughput Capacity Management (TCM) given at the inaugural Multi-Unit Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Conference in Park City, Utah is reviewed. The article discusses how TCM was used to re-engineer prototypes for Panera Bread, TGI Friday's and Ponderosa Steakhouse “to boost throughput and labor efficiency.”
10 Golden Rules of Service Delivery
M&C Report. Deterministics Engineers Brian Sill and Hugh Cade identify 10 Commandments to ensure companies don't over-promise and under-deliver, but make excellent service an acheivable goal.
If Tesco was a Pub
By Mark Stretton - M&C Report. Learn how Deterministics took Toby Carvery from 800 to over 3,000 covers a week by streamlining operations.
Energy Efficiency
Fred Burger, Contributing Editor, QSR Magazine. The editor describes how our Throughput Capacity Management services can make quick-serves more efficient and profitable. Opportunities to increase peak sales and productivity in the quick-service environment are discussed in the context of retrofit facility designs and staffing deployment systems.
Profiles in Design - Re-Inventing the Steakhouse Experience
Nation's Restaurant News. Time/Motion Study of production and service delivery combined with an equipment layout analysis will help identify operating standards and the best facility design.
The Bottom Line On Service Quality - How To Design A Consistent Experience
By Brian Sill Nation's Restaurant News. Time/Motion Study of production and service delivery will help you eliminate service bottlenecks and know when to apply service buffers to protect the guest.