PROJECT PLANNING & SCHEDULING

Starbucks corporation has a variety of projects ranging from developing a new type of drink to renovating a location. For the purpose of this blog we will focus on a single retail location of the company. Starbucks retail outlets only really has two projects. These projects are building/renovating stores and operations changes. This blog will focus on a recent operations change that just occurred. The project is repeatable routine of beverages.

The tasks for the project are:
1) Gather information regarding customer wants
2) Analyzing the wants into categories
3) Create a training plan to deliver to stores
4) Train the executive regional trainers on delivery of repeatable routine to the district managers
5) District managers train all store managers within district on repeatable routine
6) Store manager set store meeting on repeatable routine
7) Individual reinforcement of repeatable routine
8) District mangers check on store partners on knowledge/ability of repeatable routine




Once the tasks are set Starbucks uses network diagrams to ensure proper timing of the rollout of repeatable routine. To create this network diagram Starbucks utilizes Microsoft's powerpoint. They also use this program to create the training books to be given out to the mangers. This allows for easy reading and for changes that may need to occur within the tasks much easier, as well as send out corrections to the store faster and more efficiently.

The rollout normally goes smoothly and little recommendations are needed. The biggest recommendation that needs to be delivered is to obtain feed back from partners as well as the customer. This will be vital with timing of the roll out for tasks 6-8. This roll out happened far to quickly for a major change and left many partner confused as to proper operating flow

Quality Management

Starbucks uses several quality systems.  The first starts with the baristas on the floor.  The drinks are called from the barista on the point of sale to the barista making drinks.  This is then recalled to the first barista.  When the drink is called back it is checked for accuracy as well as making sure no drinks are missed.  After the drink is made the barista checks the drink for accuracy before handing it off to the customer.  A second system that Starbucks uses is random check ins from District Managers (DM).  In these check in the DM talks to the customers, watches the baristas, and do random checks of drinks to ensure quality.  The final system the Starbucks uses is a third party.  Starbucks uses a company called ECOSURE to to perform checks on all the stores to ensure all quality standards are met every six months.  The stores have a copy of the required qualifications that it must meet to prepare for these checks as well as maintain these standards.
Quality of Design: A cross-functional design team, including members from marketing, engineering, operations, and other departments are responsible for the quality of design. Customer needs are taken into consideration during this process. Starbucks knows customers are looking for a variety of caffeinated or decaffeinated drinks to start their day. The CEO of the company added even more choices after spending time in Italy and loving their blends of coffee. They have experimented with many different combinations and flavors, which is what makes them so popular today.
Quality of conformance and Availability
Quality of conformance is meeting specifications regardless of what quality of design was reached. For example, Starbucks meets specifications by allowing customers to have their coffee to their liking, non-fat, decaffeinated, foam, a shot of espresso, and other personalized options. Also, availability, reliability, and maintainability, are Important for conformance. Availability is when the product or the machines to make the product are up and running. Starbucks has more than one machine in each store and each employee is trained to service the machine to ensure that it’s working, which makes them more reliable as well. To maintain each machine employees clean them every night and have proper training to use them correctly. The rare occasions it does fail a new machine is ordered or fixed depending on the severity of the problem and within three days everything is back to normal.

Field Service
Field service is customer service and refers to warranty and repair or replacement of the product after it has been sold. Starbucks can fix their problem very quickly because if its not to the customers liking they could just add whatever is missing or make another one to meet the expectations. Also, field service refers to promptness and Starbucks, although there are many locations that have a lot of traffic, speed things up by splitting up the work two people may be in charge of ringing up orders while two others make the drinks or prepare the food the customer orders.
Some new ideas that Starbucks can use as a system is increase the ECOSURE checks to every four months.  This will help ensure that the standards are better maintained.  A second system that could be put into place could be a way to measure the drinks weight before handing off to the customer to ensure proper weight.