Functions F&B operations
As
F&B operations include managing the operations of different
department, the major functions of F&B operations may be
cross-departmental and include the followings:
Managing kitchen:
Labor costs represent the most significant variable costs in this
area, F&B operations should include staffing day by day. Also,
F&B may also need to visit kitchens to observe the service
delivered. For example, tasting the food in kitchen.
Managing food operations:
F&B functions as an advisor and supervisor for food operation area.
For example, F&B director needs to meet executive chef and
purchasing director, to check whether the food operation is in right
direction.
Supervisor for managing bars:
As the beverage profit margin is higher than other food items, bars are
an important revenue source for F&B departments. F&B should
tightly supervise the operations of bars, such as supervising the
beverage cycle. Moreover, F&B help imposing strict policy and
procedure guidelines for bars employees. For instance, strict policies
help avoiding the problem of pilferage.
4 Supervisor for managing stewarding department:
Stewarding department employees need to clean the china, cutlery etc.
Therefore, the problem of pilferage may exist. F&B needs to ensure
no guests and employees can take away the stocks. F&B department
needs to impose strict inventory control and constant vigilance.
5 Supervising operations of catering/ banquet:
F&B functions as a supervisor and an advisor to oversee and give suggestions to catering and banquet operations.
Supervising room service:
F&B directors need to check room service to forecast demand, to
check whether food & beverage can be delivered correctly and on
time.
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Pilerage problem of Food & Beverage Operations
Is piferage a common problem of Food & Beverage Operations? If so, how can it be avoided?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rFOIrkF0gs (Wine pilferage)
http://sleeping-around.com/practical/hotel_amenities_theft.shtml (Hotel pilferage)
The
above links tell us the dilemmas of F&B operations nowadays-
pilferage. As wines’ profit margin is much higher than other food items,
employees are easily attracted to steal wines. Thus, the problem of
pilferage exists. It is difficult to arrange supervisors to keep track
of everything. The dilemma of F&B operations right now is to avoid
pilferage. Many hotels set strict rules to keep pilferage to a minimum.
However, if the rules are too strict and harsh, the morale of employees
will be affected. F&B departments should be aware of the above
problems.
Furthermore,
as the rules are not clear enough sometimes, employees and guests don’t
know what they can take away. They may take something away that they
shouldn’t take away. For some tricky guests, they know the rules
clearly. Thus, they may take away something that’s valuable but not
clearly listed on the rules. Employees also create such problem to
F&B operations. So that, F&B department should be careful to
handle pilferage problem.
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Trends and Challenges in operating Food & Beverage Operations
What are the trends in Food & Beverage Operations?
Although
the functions of Food & Beverage operations are similar within the
industry; in the meantime, the environment of the industry changes
rapidly. The trends are as follows:
1. Healthy food demand:
Nowadays, people are concerned about health. Their eating habit changes
to a healthier style. In order to meet their needs, the food supplied
to customers should be healthier. More specifically, the food should
contain more low-fat, low-carb.
2. Increasing use of technology:
Technology plays an important role for F&B management in recent
years. For example, automatic dispensing system helps avoiding
mischarging customers. Furthermore, technology helps guest ordering (PDA
for ordering), marketing(Internet), management control and
communication(e.g. Facebook).
3. Theme restaurants:
In order to differentiate from competitors, theme design is more often
used in hotel restaurants. For example, forest design is oftenly used
for theme restaurants designs.
Besides, Food & Beverage industry needs to deal with the challenges they are facing. The challenges are as follows:
1. Pilferage:
Pilferage is still the major problem for F&B operations, especially
for beverage. In order to tackle this problem, most hotels set-up a
CCTV system to supervise the hotel. Moreover, some hotels set strict
rules to punish pilferers. However, as it’s difficult to keep track of
everything(costly), pilferage can not be completely tackled by F&B
department. It can only keep pilferage to a minimum.
2. Demand forecasting:
Nuclear crisis in Japan causes a fear to people to eat Japanese food.
The demand for Japanese food sharply decreased during the crisis. As the
F&B department can’t forecast the earthquake and nuclear crisis, it
can’t forecast the decreased demand for Japanese food as well.
