Quality Management

Yellow Cab Pizza Co, being mainly focus in providing service and high-quality product
among their customer, they have a goal to reach the customer expectations and be satisfied to
gain their loyalty and eventually maintaining their good reputation in the food industry. In order
to do so, there are actions made from the owner and employees which helps the company in
establishing a good quality management among the workplace. The following dimension are put
into consideration

1. Convenience

a. Location

Yellow Cab Pizza Co. operates 145 branches of which three are operated
internationally (Qatar, UAE and China). Yellow Cab Pizza Co. franchise located in
Lipa City along Ayala highway was chosen as the subject of this research. Lipa
City, being a first-class component city in the province of Batangas in the
Philippines and currently being recognized as “Manila of the South”, has paved
its way to be a more commercialized city in the Philippines. With the fast
development and the continuous rising of business establishments in Lipa,
Yellow Cab Pizza Co. find it fitting to establish a new branch of their own located
along the highway of Lipa along with the other high-end restaurants. The branch
provides service 24/7 which gives them the edge among other food industry
competitors. The location is very accessible to both public commuters and private
vehicles.

b. Service offered

Yellow Cab Co. offers three different methods of selling its product directly to
its market. The following are:

 Delivery

Yellow Cab Pizza Co. – Ayala Highway branch was first made for
deliveries only. Customers can reach the company ahead of time
indicating the place of order, and the place where the order will be sent.
 Eventually, due to the success of the business, operations were
expanded by providing dine-in and take-outs.

 Dine in

As a regular course of the business, they provide dine-in orders as

well as take-away services. Their dining areas provide the most aesthetic
vibe with New York Style inspired theme. Lightings and ventilation with
the view of the road provides a friendly oriented environment. Drinks are
easily accessible. Menus are displayed accordingly giving the customers
a variety of options. Customer service is excellent with regards to delivery
time and responsiveness.

 Online ordering

Yellow Cab Pizza Co. provides service through online ordering for
convenience purposes. Customers can now go on the Internet to place
their orders. It is availability is accessible nationwide. However, accounts
are needed for verification. Set of menus are displayed alongside with
their prices. It is only one-click-away for having your order delivered
home. Credit card payments are accepted.
(For verifiability, visit http://delivery.yellowcabpizza.com)

2. Reliability

Yellow Cab Pizza Co., establishing a good reputation in the food industry, has
proven itself to have been reliable in terms with the service they provide as well as the
quality of products they serve. As their tagline says “Great Time, Great Pizza” sums up
what Yellow Cab is really about. With regards to employee hiring, all workers are
required to be a graduate of any four-year college course for their bachelor’s degree.
They also require them to have basic knowledge of the food industry. As mentioned, they
are HACCP accredited, which means that application of effective control of safety food is
practiced by the company. It has 145 branches locally, and three are established
internationally. They also ascertain management commitment procedures through the
use of their systematic management control procedures.

3. Assurance
 The products made at Yellow Cab are quality assured. The overall team plays a
significant factor throughout the quality supply chain outlets of the company. This is done
by setting rigorous standards during product development through the use of systematic
control procedures. In order to ensure the standards, there is regular monitoring system
in place. Quality assurance is achieved through the complaints monitoring system and
their corrections through available remedial methods. According to their management, as
part of their daily routine, they conduct travel path or process path to ensure that every
station follow the standards. Sanitary procedures are also observed to maintain a
healthy and high-quality food.

4. Tangibles

Staff and personnel of Yellow Cab Pizza Co. undergone medical examinations
before being hired. Also, safety procurements are observed by each of the staff which
are monitored by the manager in charge. Complete uniform with hairnet and caps are
the proper attire for the operation. Gloves are also changed every after four hours of
duty. With regards to product quality, they make sure that it is beyond gold standards. In
ensuring gold standard, they follow the HACCP Standard. Haccp accreditation instantly
demonstrates to customers the company’s commitment to producing or trading in safe
food. HACCP certification is an international standard defining the requirements for
effective control of food safety. It helps the company focus on the hazards that affect
food safety and hygiene.

5. Responsiveness

Yellow Cab Pizza Co. takes customer service a step further. They are not only
responsive to the feedbacks of customers but also are open-minded with regards to
developing new ways to connect with their customer. The use of websites, commercial
advertisements are some of the ways to enable customers to quickly get information
they need in the company. Their websites are very accessible because it displays their
menus, blog, trending topics, news and ways to entertain their customer. For this reason,
this lessen frustrations of customers to navigate company information. Also, they
 prioritize call based deliveries to help ensure that the client’s concern is addressed
quickly by a member on duty. Changing your telephone system to automatically direct
important clients to a staff member increases responsiveness to your top tier customers.

6. Courtesy

Customer complaints are inevitable especially to food industries. As part of their

core competencies, they handle conflicts and complaints by considering or treating it as
a gift rather than obstacles. The management treat it as a door of improvement rather
than a problem to be solved. According to the management, they handle problems out of
love by providing what the customers want in order for them to be satisfied. In terms of
delivery service, they observe proper etiquette while conversing with the customer.
Whenever miscommunications occur, polite response are practiced by the staff.

7. Time

Delivery time is mostly the main cause of problems in their operations. According
to the manager, Ms. Louie, since products are made-to-order, prolonging service time for
customer is what they usually do so that customers would be knowledgeable on how
long their order is going to be serve. In terms of delivery, they have four motor cabs
available for delivery so that orders are delivered simultaneously avoiding customer
frustrations. These solutions help the company with complex logistics, increase the
effectiveness of teamwork and task division and thanks to complete transparency, they
bring a superb customer experience, which in turn helps to boost the customers’
retention.

8. Consistency

The company view consistency into two dimensions:

 a. Place consistency

According to the manager, Ms. Louie, all branches, outlets and

distributors of the company has almost the same service providers
despite the differences in locations. All branches provide the same fast,
reliable and efficient service to all customers – whether owned or
franchised. Customer views one outlet as the same as the other. She
then added that misconception about how customers sees the difference
of between franchise-owned and company-owned ones. Size is not an
excuse. If the big and small branches offer the same product or service,
they should provide it with the same promptness, efficiency, and courtesy.
There is no reason for smaller branches to be intentionally designed to be
inefficient from the very start. All branches should be self-sufficient and
have adequate capacity to cope with the expected demand for their
services.

b. Product Consistency

Products served are of best quality of exact proportions which caters the
wants of the customers. Detailed menu showing different variations of
products are displayed for the customers to choose. Promos, reservations
and bulk orders are also listed for customer preferences. The main
objective to attain consistency of products is to serve the food with
finesse and perfect quality for the customers to enjoy. Also, they aim to
meet customer expectations by providing service and products aligned
with customer wants.

IV. Problems of the firm in their operations

A. Causes of the problems

 A food industry is no stranger to struggle. As a matter of fact, 59% of food
industries, particularly restaurants fail within the first 3 years (Dixon, 2017). After
almost 17 years of the company’s existence, the brand has established a
competitive edge in the in the food industry all over the Philippines. However,
minor problems still occur within the business especially at operations and
productions. Common causes of the problems in operations are:

a. Malfunction of machines and equipment

Despite the quarterly maintenance of equipment in the company,

uncontrollable events are still likely to happen in operations. One common
problem that is faced by Yellow Cab with regards to their machines and
equipment are:

 Malfunctioning of ovens.

The common cause for this disruption is due to faulty

thermostat. The oven can also overheat if there is a malfunction
with its heating element. Explained by the management, if the
temperature sensor inside the oven is not working as intended, it
can cause the oven to not heat to the correct temperature.

 Refrigeration system

Refrigeration breakdown can result in business interruption

that may result to property damaged loss. This breakdown would
much likely increase loss due to spoilage.

Common causes of these breakdowns include:

– Control failure
– Vibration
– Lack of lubrication
– Scale build-up
– Rapid weather change

 Fryer and Burner

 The breakdown of such equipment would cut-off the
production of pastas and chicken orders. This equipment is
vulnerable to breakdowns due to:

– Control failure
– Scale build-up
– Inadequate controls of safety devices

Costs for repair would be expensive that’s why the company applies preventive
measures to facilitate their machinery and equipment to minimized repair cost
maintenance and be able to be more efficient in producing products of the company.

b. Scarce supply

Supplies are delivered on a regular basis. However, whenever

quantity demanded by customers is greater than the number of supplies
the company has, shortage occurs. Common causes of scarce supply, is
whenever unexpected delay of supplies happened. The sources of
supplies come from Metro Manila, on which heavy traffic occurs. This is
one of the causes of the delay of supplies. Another reason is when
unexpected increase in customers happen, especially during peak
seasons. Since supplies have a specific day of delivery, and customers
for a specific day varies, it will then be a result of variances between the
supply of company and the demanded order of the customer.

With regards to catering customer demand, the primary problems faced by the
company is the delivery time. Peak seasons, especially during holidays, brings a big
challenge to the company. Despite this, preventive measures are practiced to minimize
the failure of operations and dissatisfied customers.

B. Effects of the Problem

 Generally speaking, the management take all these problems as a door
for improvement rather than a challenge to be solved. They maintain a positive
outlook despite the negative feedbacks on both customer’s perspective and
management handling. However, these problems can cause the failure or delay
of operations which leads to dissatisfied customer. Dissatisfied customer then
leads to disrupting customer loyalty which affects business reputation thus
reducing sales. This means that one problem relates to the other, and that’s what
Yellow Cab is trying to avoid.

C. Actions / Solutions done by the firm

The following solutions are practiced by the management to mitigate problems of

the operations: (They used

a. Inventory Management

A systemic point of sale system is used for the tracking of sales

per operations or on a daily basis. They keep track of equipment used for
production through regular inspection done weekly and monthly. Inclusive
in their management of inventory are the supplies (particularly
ingredients) that were used and that are still on hand. At the same time,
assess the risk that each equipment poses. They use asset management
software to prioritize the maintenance of equipment to yield a higher
potential impact on the security of food as well as those that are critical to
food production.

b. Maintenance Schedules

Manuals or guidelines are available for proper handling of

machineries and equipment to assure the maintenance of equipment
functions. They account every malfunctions or problems diligently.
Computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) ensures in
keeping these documents in one location and being accessible to the
staff. Every document must contain detailed descriptions of how each
machine must be maintained. These guides are generally broken down
 into daily, monthly and annual maintenance categories. They create a
master schedule which allows them to track down machine and
equipment failures. They put into consideration how maintenance
schedule will fit into their operational schedule in the best manner
possible.

c. Research and development process

Yellow Cab Pizza Co. follows the star – r process wherein after
circumstance of incidents, they investigate or discuss the root cause of
the problem. This is helpful whenever same scenarios occur in their future
endeavors allowing them to counter-act the problem. It is also conducted
on a regular basis for further improvement of operations management.

d. Supply resource management

Whenever shortage of supplies occurs, the management tends to

prioritize the supplies based on the most significant once. They assess
them based on most demanded product to the least demanded one. They
also ensure that the right amount of supply is available and recurring
expenses are tracked at every stage.