Effective Control Of Food And Beverages In The Catering Industry

1.0 Introduction

Catering is defined as the business of providing food and drink, typically at social events and in a professional capacity either on-site or at a remote site. The term was originally coined by the Merchant Marines, who were among the first to employ catering officers for their vessels. These catering officers were responsible for purchasing goods, preparing food, and serving the meals and beverages to the other people on board the vessels. They also had to perform other ship-related tasks.

However, the trade goes back much further than that. Catering dates back in the 4th millennium BC in China. The culture of grand eating and drinking was also present in old Egypt at that time. Most of the services were provided by slaves. The ancients Greeks are credited with making catering a trade by offering free services at their inns and hostels which continued into the Roman Empire. At this time the intent was primarily to serve soldiers. In the middle ages catering centered around monasteries and the Christian pilgrimages in Europe. The trade spread during the reign of Charlemagne. By late middle ages the new bourgeoises and a monetary economy helped the popularity of catering to flourish. When the industry drew the attention of German legislators in the 14th and 15th century, food and beer regulations began to take form. But much of the industry was still primarily seen in feasts and celebrations for kings and other noblemen. After the French revolution in the 18th century and the lack of an aristocracy, catering guilds were forced to find new ways to sell their talents and the first French restaurants were started.

In America, the catering industry is still very young. Catering started booming after the war when companies who had previously made food supplies for World War II needed something to do. As people became wealthier and the economy grew, caterers found there was a demand for their services, which has previously been reserved for the very rich.

The modern improvement of transportation, technical innovations, population increase, and sudden rise in the trade of travel and tourism has given gastronomy today an ever-increasing rise in popularity and major factor in our current economy. TGIS is proud to be part of this rich and coloured history of gastronomy for nearly 25 years.

1.1 Background to the Study

In the catering industry food cost control is very important because as it requires proper budgeting as cost control can limit waste. Food cost and control when properly done and attention given to every detail and process in it functions and activities results into growth of the industry. The method and application of food costing and control in the industry can be achieved through placing accurate budget in the industry. This can be done by knowing and taking the price of each item or product used in the food production unit and also taking into account all the perishable goods and products in the industry. It is important to know that costing help in keeping cost low in planning ahead. More of the knowledge of the number of in-house guests makes it easier to control cost. There are various methods used in the different organizations including cost plus. In preparing or making appropriate food cost and control in the industry, the general manager does the budgeting, and in some hotels the breakfast supervisor carries it out, depending on the establishment while in some, the general manager, accountant, store man, purchasing officer, food and beverage controller, food and beverage manager, supervisors, kitchen supervisor, restaurant and bar supervisors does it, while in some organization food and beverage manager and supervisors takes care of the food cost and control. It is important to operate food costing and control in the industry as far as food is involved, even if it is only staff meals, because this is part of the hotels expense and it needs to be controlled properly. Food costing can be said to be the all-time function in the industry including regular and ad-hoc function operations.

Understanding control system and how to apply the system the first in first out (FIFO) system is applied in order to prevent throwing food away, we make sure all items that were brought first are used first in all functions and sales outlets including stores and purchasing various things, like in portion control and audit, stock taking, sales, cash control, cashiering and reporting, prevention of theft, and pilfering etc. In the hospitality industry different portion control methods are involved and it affects the industry positively, when it is well applied or done through weighing of items and making sure that each plate that leaves the kitchen has the exact same amount of items on them and extra has to be charged extra, these methods help to standardize things. Monthly figure and operating statements are involved in the hospitality industry, just to access, evaluate and monitor the operations and to determine where you stand in business either you are making it or losing and also determine the levels of your progress, if you targets are been meet or not, as this will help in overview of the revenue and expense, been a very important aspect of controlling. To understand the rationale behind feeding and its effects on food cost, percentage is necessary so that you can determine, amend, moderate or reposition and re-strategize on your food and beverage operations as this helps food cost controlling to be done properly. Food cost involves cost of production and labour which actually looks at purchasing within season and purchasing outside season, cost of extra labour within and outside season and management decision on causal staff.

Management cost is not over looked where the cost of supervision and control is considered, the input of the management staff per hour and their monetary value. Operational cost is also an important factor in food cost and control; here the cost of labor is the chief operating factor, involving expense on production, time and wage, expense on maintenance and services and expense on disposal. Also of importance is the selling price, which is the actual cost of food, including the accumulated cost for sales, mark-up for sales, sales variation and sales function, this is of importance in this study as it help in contributing immensely to food costing and control in the hospitality industry with the Nigeria perspective playing a major role.

Controlling and improving quality has become an important business strategy for many organizations, manufacturers, distributors, transportation companies, financial services organizations, health care providers, private and government agencies. Quality has become one of the most important consumer decision factors in the selection among competing products and services. The phenomenon is widespread, regardless of whether the consumer is an individual, an industrial organization, a retail store, a bank or financial institution, or a military defense program, manufacturer, designer to mention but a few. Consequently, understanding and improving quality are key factors leading to business success, growth, and enhanced competitiveness. There is a substantial return on investment from improved quality and from successfully employing quality as an integral part of overall business strategy. Quality is a competitive advantage and therefore any business that can delight customers by improving and controlling quality can dominate its competitors (Douglas,2009). Competition is one of the most important factors in running a business in the world economy today. For almost every product or service ever designed, there is more than one organization trying to make a sale. Price is, of course, one of the major issues in whether a sale is made or lost. If the cost of producing goods or services results in high prices, a firm may not be competitive. But another factor that a customer considers before buying a product is quality. In fact, a reputation for producing quality products is often a major marketing issue (Akinnola, 2009).

Tamini and Sebastianelli (1996), says Quality can be a confusing concept, partly because people view quality in relation to differing criteria based on their individual roles in the production- marketing chain. In addition, the meaning of quality has evolved as the quality profession has grown and matured. Neither consultants nor business professionals agree on a universal definition. Accordingly, a study that asked managers of 86 firms in the eastern United States to define quality; several dozen of different responses such as: perfection, consistency, eliminating waste, speed of delivery, compliance with policies and procedures, providing a good usable product, doing it right the first time, delighting or pleasing customers, and total customer service and satisfaction were obtained. Thus, it is important to understand the various perspectives from which quality is viewed in order to fully appreciate the role it plays in the many parts of a business organization.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Effective control of food and beverages has been a major phenomenon which the catering and hospitality industries in Nigeria has over looked over the time. Effective control of food and beverages is a way through which catering industries determines how to place price tags on their food and drinks taking all factors of its production into consideration. The negligence of this has contributed immensely to the down fall of many catering industries in Nigeria. This project work therefore will focus on throwing more light on the essence of effective control of food and beverages in the catering industry with a view on how to encourage and educate catering and hospitality industry owners to key into this concept.

It is not enough to focus on the finished products that customers received. How these products are produced i.e. the processes, also needs to be addressed most especially in this era of strain on the resources and rising costs of manufacturing/production. It becomes increasing apparent that decision must be made on facts, not just opinions; consequently, data must be gathered and analyzed in order to help guild the decision-making process and as such SPC technique would help in analyzing the process quality of Habila Food and Beverages Nigeria
Limited so as to monitor the volume dispersion in the filling process.

1.3 Research questions

The basic research questions that prompted this write up are:

1. Can current data be used to improve the quality of machines processes, or is it just data for the sake of data?
2. Does both bottle and cans of the products properly filled as calibrated by the machines?
3. Is Company’s quality cost really known?
4. Does the company know when to perform preventive maintenance on machines?

These were some of the questions posed for this write up.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The principal aim of this project work is to apply SPC as a QC tool to Habila food and beverages Nig. Ltd in order to monitor the volume dispersion in the filling process, thereby reducing the stress of final inspection of products produced.

The specific objectives are;

1. To establish the upper and lower control limits of machines processing lines using SPC technique as QC tool
2. To construct the X – bar and R chart QC charts of the process and then use it to detect or identify the cause of variation (if any) in the production process before they result in defective products
3. To profound possible solution to causes of variation identified in (2) above
4. To determine and analyze the process capability of the filling process so as to ascertain which of them fills the bottles/containers according to specifications.

1.5 Significance of the Study

This research work is expected to be of a great importance to the students of catering/hotel management as well as students of hospitality management as it will help them to understand more about effective control as is used in the catering industry and hospitality industry. It is expected also to be of a direct benefit to catering industry and hospitality industry owners who are yet to key into the idea of practicing effective cost control management to realize the degree of importance of effective cost control management.

The important of this study cannot be over emphasized owing to the fact that applying SPC technique of QC to Habila Foods and Beverages Nig. Ltd would not only eliminates the need for final inspection, identify the causes of variation ( if any) but equally reduces the amount of inefficient production lines alone with direct and indirect labor costs. The result is a direct increase in bottom line profitability and to improve production processes.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The scope of this project report covers only the machines processing line i.e. its processes in fruit and juice section. This research area was limited to just production process line of the company. However, the technique could be extended and applied to other process lines and other divisions of the organization where it is necessary.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

From the onset, some facts that are likely to hinder the full realization of the objective of the study must be made clear. In a country like Nigeria where the culture of reading is not well developed and imbibed by individuals and organizations, there is a strong tendency that information (data) collected will contain errors of misrepresentation especially in a study of this nature where the information (data) sought concerns the internal and operational issues of an organization as it might be rightly or wrongly thought that divulging such information will be inimical to public judgment.

The above fact is further compounded by the following limitations:

• The study lacks sufficient access verify the given data
• All efforts to access other quality control data so as to expand the scope of this study prove abortive; hence this study is limited to (machines) production process lines only.