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Executive Summary - 1 page - part 2 - someone in charge of this as the final stage - summarize everything in this assignment into 1 page form intro to conclusion

Company Background/Overview

What-A-Bagel was started over ten years ago in Thornhill, Ontario with one location. In the span of these last ten years, What-A-Bagel has seen over ten stores sprout in the GTA. This specific Richmond Hill location has been open for nine years now and has been owned by the same proprietor since. The company produces mainly retail products and rarely offers wholesale activities. The store is operated seven days a week and 364 days a year, opening at 7:00 am daily and closing on average at 8:00 pm. It employs over ten employees full time and five part time and is run privately and with rare interference by the franchise owner.

The bakery offers products such as baked goods, breads, fine cakes and pastries. It also offers services such as catering all events and special order cakes for specific occasions.

The company is run by the two owners which act as top management and presidents as well. The two are responsible for all management tasks in the company and are as well charge of all economic and safety issues. Some employees receive salary based pay while others pay by the hour. There are no bonus offerings within the company and there is no tangible reward system in place.

What-A-Bagel is a mid price range bakery and offers discounts on items throughout the year and holidays. Its main competitors are Great Canadian Bagel, Gryfe's bagels, My Zaidy's Bakery and St. Urbain Bagels. On average, their competition offers a variety of products at a higher price than that of that What-A-Bagel's variety. What-A-Bagel has made sure to not fall behind their competition and stay stagnant after their rise to success. The store is constantly bringing in new products and continuously improving and upgrading present items.

What-A-Bagel's current customer base is predominantly Jewish from the surrounding area. The store reaps on holiday sales in the Jewish religion and culture. The company's majority owner is Jewish and has an eastern European background, while the other is Jewish from an Israeli background. These two bring in the store's organizational culture and it feeds off of historic and generational traditions from these backgrounds. Most products offered have some sort of connection with these backgrounds and the service itself mimics these cultures' tendencies.

Analysis/findings

Management

As stated above, there are two main managers that are usually on site. When they are not present, a senior employee takes the role of manager and oversees all activities and processes.

Employees start off with a long training schedule. Every employee is trained by a senior staff member and management for at least two weeks before they are left to do the job alone. In these two weeks the employee is taught almost everything they will be responsible for and no corner is left untaught. Employees do not have to have any background and expertise in the field, and everything is taught form scratch.

Once employees are settled into their jobs, the responsibilities rarely differ and change. Employees have certain chances for job rotation in the bakery but usually are left to their original duty. When an employee wishes to work at a different segment of the bakery, they are trained by the employee currently there and will assist that employee in day to day activities. Most positions at the bakery are only filled by one or two people, and are not sought after by others.

Many of the daily schedules are micromanaged by top management and certain duties are not left to the discretion of the worker. All daily activities are planned the night before by management. All inventory orders are done by management with barely any consultation from line employees. Junior staff is not empowered whatsoever. Every step they take is closely watched by senior staff and the management. This is done to provide guidelines and recommendations as they grow, but the junior staff will not be able to make mistakes and learn from them properly.

There are not staff meetings and all changes in process are told to specific employees in their respective segments and time if work. This can create problem sin the work place when certain employees do not understand that the process ahs changed and how it affects their job as well.

Process/products

The process is highly dependent on human workmanship and is partly machine oriented. The process always starts off with inventory being in place and pre-orders. The two managers order their inventory on a weekly basis from several suppliers. There is a quota on all inventories for each week and management basis their levels on upcoming holidays, events and projected sales. Inventory is counted before orders are placed by employees and checklists are handed back to management. All orders are done through a phone basis and supplied on a common day each week. The inventory levels are meant to stay healthy for each week with no loss of work time. Inventory is done on a very simplified Just In Time procedure, but is never ordered or supplied on uncommon days. Inventory levels are kept low so as not to use valuable storage space and have money tied up in rarely used supplies. Specific supplies are ordered from manufacturers and suppliers and are never changed. Certain flour, sugars and other key ingredients are supplied by a major company every week. This helps What-A-Bagel be able to know their ingredients and their products will not fluctuate with ingredient change.

Once all ingredients are at the bakery, an employee will mix specific ingredients per batch by measuring cup. The ingredients are put into a mixer and are mixed for about twenty minutes. The baker must decide whether the dough needs more time and more ingredients such as water to make the dough fit the perfect specifications. This decision is impacted by many external factors such as the weather. If it is a rainy day, the baker knows to put in less water, but there is no specifications and guidelines for this.

Before the dough comes out of a motorized oven and boiler, human work sets it to be ready. The dough is cut into specific shapes, placed on trays and moved from a proofer (a heating room, to a fridge. The movement from the proofer to the fridge is done when the dough is at an exact shape and size. This is done by human eye inference and can pose problems. There is so actual technical way to tell if a bagel is at its specific specifications, and can lead to over or underproofed bagels, which return