Lean in Hospitality The Indian hospitality industry is growing at an incredible rate! The 2014 report published by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India states that the number of domestic tourist visits to all states and union territories is 1282 million and is growing at rate of 11.9% annually. The advent of the online world has made it a real flat world. Yatra.com, Trip Adviser, Hotels.com, Make My Trip, Zomato, and so many others have given the platform to the people to find, select, rate and criticize Hospitality & Service Industry. It is evident that people are traveling more often these days, stay at hotels and dine at restaurants. Most of us are fond of food, love variety and continually find better eating spaces more so as the Indian cuisine offers a plethora of options. It means a lot more inventory will be needed and stored so as to cook enormous varieties of food. This inventory is an endless list of quality items which are brought from various sources. Some of these items have short shelf life and some are very expensive. A good amount of cash is spent buying and managing the inventory. Any wastage must be reduced because any saving adds to our margin. Yesterday, no one cared about a bad omelet, stinking sink or dubious tariff cards however, today people have the master-key with them. They go online and compare. Service & Operational Excellence is no longer an exclusive feature, it is a necessity rather crucially vital for today and tomorrow’s market.
In order to sustain this kind of growth and development in the industry, the hoteliers need to take lead in making improvements in the quality of service and adopt best practices to optimize their operations. This will help them in winning the confidence of the domestic tourists as well as enhance their reputation and be competitive in the industry. However, if the Enterprises concentrate only on monetary gains, it reveals that they lack sensitivity towards organizational growth in terms of system, process and people development. It will force them out of the race.
The problems of the Industry or BITING THE BULLET In the hospitality industry,a product is processed just like it is done in any manufacturing company. This industry has similar quality, cost and delivery pressures as in any other segment of business. The constraints are the same and generally as follows:
Variation in demand – customer’s expectations are increasing with the change in global living conditions. High standards and disposable incomes have given to rise to behavioral changes in the customer who keeps looking for an out of the box experience.
Competitive pricing – new channels of hospitality have opened offering from home stays to heritage hotels which cater all kinds of sections of people
Fixed supply of resources and high operating cost
No multi skilling–a cook will only cook and not clean will make the job a lot tougher for the helping staff to maintain the work-stations neat and clean. Similar jobs can be combined to efficiently utilize time and deliver to the customer.
Seasonality – the changes in climate, holidays and vacations cause the ups and downs in business and buying patterns of the customer
Organizational learning – management fails to learn from best practices adopted across the globe. The change in culture can help achieve competitive advantage.
High rate of attrition–organizations fail to engage and involve all employees early in the process and this results in people doing unnecessary and meaningless work causing them to leave the job. Low Labor costs are also one of the causes.
Customer Requirement versus Organizational capability Hospitality is the process of relationship between a customer and the service provider. A customer, fundamentally, requires a physical product or quality service in a welcoming and clean environment. However, there are other factors too which discreetly determine the customers’ requirement:
Receiving special attention towards his personal needs
Honest and just treatment which reassures feeling of importance
Efficiency and patience of the staff serving affects customer’s behavior and decision making.
Courtesy and warmth offered by both management and the staff