6 Waste Management in Hospitality Industry

E mer gi ng Ma na ge rs

Mr. Shresth Iyer MBA Batch 2019 -2021 ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad

W ast e Ma n agem en t in H osp i tal it y I n du st ry

Hospitality Industry is completely an employee delivering service. It is accomplished by DMAIC driven industry where every experience of the which means define, measure, analyse, improve Guest is driven by the way employee addresses it. and control. By following these steps any The employees of a Hotel carry out various tasks, organization can attain Six Sigma. A concept of each task identified by the way the employee acts Lean six sigma comes useful in the hotel industry with it making it very important for the employees to reduce defects and improve the process. Lean is to continuously improve themselves in order to a method that is used for increasing the efficiency make the guest happy and their stay more and more of the business process by removing any waste in memorable. the cycle.

The quality of service is the most important factor The key function of Lean Six sigma revolves in a Hotel. It is an inevitable choice for the hotels around the Japanese concept of “MUDA” or Waste. to implement continuous improvement as the guest In any hotel the main effort must be put into requests keep coming in, these small things take the identifying the waste; it can be in the means of hotel long way in being ahead of their competitors physical efforts, process, time or inventory. By and helps in poaching their guests by the positive identifying the waste areas the work can be started word of mouth spread by their guests. to reduce and improve those areas to increase the The process of Six Sigma comes a long way in helping the management mould and improve their Certain identified areas where the waste can be service standards for providing the best quality and improved: - standard service experience to the guests. Six Sigma is a project-based approach for improving Physical efforts effectiveness and efficiency. It is a disciplined efficiency. customer focused data driven approach for Unnecessary physical efforts of the employee improving the performance of the process of reduce their productivity, which can be avoided by

bringing in some changes in the process or the goes up and there is wastage due to higher amount layout of the facility. An example is, by not storing of inventory than required. the inventory too far in the kitchen decreases the there are times when there is excessive production time and steps of the chef which increases Using a much integrated all in one hotel software productivity and reduces time. which connects all the departments of the hotel namely Front office, Food and Beverage Service, Transportation kitchen, in room Dinning service, Housekeeping helps the hotel to know better regarding the An effective transfer of the inventory, data and processes and connects all departments together. material inside the hotel increases the efficiency Any request made by the guest reaches all the and leads to happy customers. By introducing new departments by use of this technology helping the systems for transportation inside the hotel is the key staff members process the request faster and to improve effectiveness. reducing the waste or any errors in the process.

Waiting Time The ultimate aim of the hotel is to make the guest experience memorable and make the guest happy to Any employee waiting on another employee or a bring in repeat business and referral business by guest to perform a particular task is a waste of time spreading of positive word of mouth. In this aim and a resource, methods must be designed to reduce they also look towards reducing the cost incurred this and the waiting time. by them in a way that it doesn’t affect the experience or the process. Each chain of hotels has Overproduction their universal SOP and way of functioning keeping Due to unknown demand and number of guests, activities are done. that in mind all changes and quality control because of which there is a lot of wastage and loss Six Sigma or quality control is thus a very effective for the hotel. way to improve the functioning of the hotel as it helps in reducing the waste and improving the Inventory process therefore reducing the total cost incurred by the management in turn providing a better Ordering or purchasing a huge amount of inventory experience to the guest where they can call it a due unknown forecast, the inventory holding cost “Home away from Home”.