Reference no: EM132804816

BSBMGT517 Manage operational plan - Acumen Education

Assessment - Project

Monitor and review operational performance

Task 1 - Project - Monitor and review performance
The following expense ratios (costs as percentage of sales) were the financial performance indicators that were agreed upon for achieving breakeven:
• Labour cost as a percentage of sales - 28%
• Food and beverage cost as a percentage of sales - 46%
• Overheads cost as a percentage of sales - 26%

In order to reach a profit, these costs must be even lower.

The following were the non-financial performance indicators that were agreed upon for the catering operations.
• Customer satisfaction level - 95%
• Percentage of service deadlines met - 95%
• Quality of services - 95%

It is now 10 weeks since the start of the offsite catering service and you have noted the status of Pesto's Catering services is as follows:
• The initial estimated covers for achieving breakeven were 6 parties in a month, of approximately 60 covers at an average spend per cover excluding GST = $80.00.
• In the month that Pesto's catered for 6 parties, there were a total of 420 covers.
• Turnover for that month was more than the forecast and it should have meant that Pesto's not just achieved break even, but made a small profit.
• However, two of the financial indicators (food and beverage, and labour costs) were not met. Therefore, despite increased revenue, Pesto's could not meet its breakeven milestone.

Details of costs and financial performance indicators are given below.

Task 1: Analyse and interpret budget and actual financial information, and identify solutions

1. From the data above, calculate the actual expense ratios (cost as percentage of sales) of food, labour and overhead costs.

Use the following formula to calculate the three expense ratios:

2. Based on the data and your calculations, identify and briefly describe two areas of favourable variance.

3. Based on the data and your calculations, identify and briefly describe two areas of under-performance and their impact on profitability.

4. Identify two solutions to improve the productivity of operations and achieve breakeven as soon as possible.

Task 2: Role-play - Implement systems to ensure mentoring support to effectively, economically and safely use resources

Scenario

This is a continuation of the scenario in Task 1.

You have checked the status of the off-site catering initiative at the 10 weeks mark and analysed the performance. You know this is closely linked with the staff performance. Monitoring of staff performance shows that the newly recruited Catering Coordinator has had difficulties in meeting the productivity targets of customer service, timely responses and maintaining menu profitability and ordering accuracy.

There have been some customer complaints regarding delays in service as well as shortfall in food during catering events.

Catering Coordinator's Performance Data at the end of the first month is as follows:

Identified problems and possible solutions

You have general information about the challenges faced by the catering team, such as:
» It can be extremely challenging to plan the amount of food required for an event.
» When the venue, menu and party size constantly change, it can be challenging to stay organised. It can result in the team arriving at an off-site catering venue and realise they have forgotten some key ingredients or equipment.
» If there is no system of managing customer queries, the Coordinator may miss responding to some calls or respond very late, which could result in customer complaints.

Some solutions for this problem of logistics are:
» have run-throughs or rehearsals with staff before the event and ensure nothing is missing
» have a higher volume of small plate options, instead of smaller volume of large plate options
» have good food storage processes for off-site catering, preferably in the van
» acquiring a catering management software program that helps in order management for the event, calculate accurate quantities of food, calculates labour and manages suppliers and customers

Task:

Conduct a formal performance meeting with the Catering Coordinator, according to your performance-monitoring plan. The aim of this meeting is to:
» discuss the challenges faced in meeting the productivity targets
» collaboratively create a mentoring plan for the Catering Coordinator

When the Catering Coordinator requests you to mentor them, you must agree and collaboratively develop an action plan for mentoring, during the meeting.

The development of the mentoring plan should show a collaborative approach. The plan must include:
» Mentoree name
» Mentor name
» Two Mentoring Objectives
» Two Learning Activities, their outcomes, resources required and relevant dates.

You must use the Mentoring Action Plan template given in Appendix F.

This is a Role Play. Your assessor will play the role of the Catering Coordinator.

Your assessor will assess your performance using the Role Play Observation Checklist for this task.

Before the assessment, go through the role play checklist to familiarise yourself with the performance criteria.

Task 3: Project & Role-play- Coaching
Implement systems to ensure coaching support to effectively, economically and safely use resources

Scenario
The catering team's Performance Data at the end of 10 weeks is as follows:

In the first month of operation, the Catering team provided catering for five events.

The following is an extract of an Incident Report submitted by the Catering Coordinator:

An extract of notes made by the WHS committee following the incident is given below.

Task
Your task is to prepare a WHS coaching plan in consultation with the catering team.

Conduct a meeting with the Catering Coordinator and the other two catering staff. During the meeting you must:
• provide an overview of productivity issues and reason for meeting
• suggest coaching to overcome productivity issues
• seek the team's inputs on the areas for which coaching is required
• prepare a Coaching Action Plan in consultation with the team

The development of the plan should show a collaborative approach that includes:
» three areas of coaching
» one success metric for each area of coaching
» actions on various team members
» actions on manager
» resources required
» duration and frequency of coaching for each area

You must use the Coaching Action Plan template given in Appendix G.

This is a role play. Your assessor will play the role of the Catering Coordinator and organise two other student volunteers to play the role of the two catering staff.

Your assessor will observe you acting out this discussion and preparing the plan in consultation with the team.

Task 4: Role Play - Negotiate recommendations for variations to operations plans and gain approval from the management team

Scenario

In the process of implementing contingency measures, you identified the following additional operational costs that constitute a variation to the operations plan:

The increased cost will affect the financial milestones of the catering operations.

Task

Conduct a meeting with the owner/ CEO, Chef Mario, and the finance manager, and:
• summarise the issues with productivity that have necessitated additional expenses
• identify the expenses and why they are necessary variations to the operations plan
• analyse and discuss how the expenses will impact the achievement of financial milestones
• negotiate and gain their approval for expenses This is a role play.
Your assessor will play the role of Chef Mario, and a student volunteer will play the role of the finance manager.

Task 5: Project - Make changes to Contingency Plan
Based on your discussion with management in Task 4, update Section 4 of the Contingency Plan you have already prepared.

Identify the variations approved by management during your discussion.

Attachment:- Manage operational plan.rar