Inefficiency the silent killerNot making use of the resources available to you can drain your budget for no return.

www.innovationagency.com | South Africa, Johannesburg

2013

Scenario:Due to the poor maintenance habits a formerly lovely restaurant is being faced with closing its doors.The quality of the food being provided to the restaurants patrons is very poor.The kitchen has a foul odour hanging in the air and several large rats have taken up residence behind a box of six month old frozen chicken pieces.This has caused the restaurants customers to move further afield on days they wish to eat out, as a result the restaurant is not making sufficient money to keep all the staff it has hired and is forced to retrench several of them. In turn there is ill feeling among the employees towards the owner of the restaurant and if things continue in this manner the restaurant will be forced to close its doors.

Approach:The inability of the restaurant to maintain basic cleanliness is symptomatic of a greater problem. By monitoring the interactions between staff members in any organisation using techniques developed for social network analysis (SNA) we are able to plot the roles each member of staff takes on and the duties they perform. By understanding these roles it is possible to streamline business practice to provide the greatest level of efficiency improve the quality of products and services and gain a greater market share.Without streamlining efficiency organisations do not make use of the opportunities before them.

Results:Using social network analysis (SNA) techniques the owner of the restaurant would have been able to plot the tasks his employees were performing.This way he would have been able to ensure the kitchens were kept clean, the food being served was utilised in a manner that would ensure as little wastage as possible, and the manner in which the kitchen functioned could have been streamlined to maximise quality and efficiency. In turn this would have kept overhead costs down, it would have kept the customers happy with the service and food quality they were receiving and ultimately would have had an impact on the success of the restaurant as a whole.

www.innovationagency.com | South Africa, Johannesburg

Inefficiency the silent killer