Business Efficiency Success

A Bakery Client

Our bakery client have a fabulous product range. With a desire to bring their delicious baked goods to even more customers, they commissioned our business productivity consultants to review efficiency. With the necessary financial backing already in place, our client wanted to make sure their core market operating model was as slick as it could be to provide a solid base for expansion. They wanted proof that their hunches about the operation were correct, as well as a data set to provide solid evidence in order for them to make important future decisions.

Our efficiency experts undertook measurements in twenty stores across two markets to:

  • Measure task times for all customer-facing and back-of-house processes, creating a basis for resource planning and identifying process stages that were ripe for speeding up
  • Track team efficiency and map how well deployed team resources matched demand, surfacing insights on how the operation stacked up versus our benchmarks and quantifying efficiency opportunities
  • Shadow management roles to measure time spent on tasks that prevented them from being able to support their team and drive business forward

What did we find?

  • Store layouts were inconsistent and colleagues often had to walk a long way in order to retrieve everything they needed to fulfil a customer order. This led to simple changes, such as making sure everything needed was to hand, along with bigger changes impacting overall counter design and customer displays
  • The counter layout and menu boards meant many customers waited until they were being served at the counter before deciding what they would order. Showing customers the tempting cakes and tasty sandwich range before they arrive at a service point makes queues move faster and gives customers more time to make a choice 
  • Small batch production of sandwiches was labour intensive and available production space was not optimised to create the best workflow
  • A relatively new Drive-Thru operation needed set-up tweaks to keep the most requested lines closer to the Drive-Thru window
  • Admin and management tasks were well designed, keeping time to a minimum, and creating options for a slimmer management structure that still created time for people development, coaching and leadership

How did it help?Business Efficiency Success Story - A Bakery Client

The insights from the data and our analysts’ observations gave an evidence base for the business to make changes to their operations in a way that reflects the different markets and customer expectations. Our client has established their efficiency baseline and can now remeasure to check they remain on track to take their baked goods to even more grateful consumers.

How can we help you?

Would you benefit from a business process improvement? We all know we can do things a bit better, but having an actionable plan of where you can make process improvements will save you time, energy and money. It is an investment that will make a huge impact on your bottom line.

Speak to our productivity experts and discover how we can help your business thrive? Get in touch today.