Question

After completing his entrepreneurship course from Australia, Sanket came back to India and started a coffee shop 'Premium Cold Coffee' in a famous mall in Delhi. Its speciality was the special aroma of coffee and a wide variety of flavours to choose from. Somehow the business was neither profitable nor popular. Sanket was keen to find out the reason. He appointed Riya, an MBA from a reputed college, as a manager to find out why the business was not doing well. Riya took a feedback from the clients and found out that though they loved the unique aroma of coffee but were not happy with the long waiting time being taken to process the order.

She analysed and found out that there were many unnecessary stoppages in between which could be eliminated. She set up a standard time for processing the order. She also analysed that there were many flavours of coffee available for which the demand was very less. So she also decided to discontinue some of them. Within a short period, Riya was able to attract the customers. Identify and explain the management techniques used by Riya to solve the problem.

Answer 1

Riya analysed and found that there were many unnecessary obstructions which could be solved through fixing the standard time and discontinuing the sale of flavours not demanded in the market. Hence, Riya adopted the following two techniques of scientific management to solve the problem of the business:

1) Time Study: According to this technique, there must be a standard time limit for the completion of a task. With repeated observations with regard to the time taken in completing a task, a standard limit is set. This helps in deciding the number of employees which would be required in completing a task. For example, if it is observed that one person can manufacture one unit of a commodity in two hours, then in a working day of 8 hours, each worker can manufacture 4 units of the commodity

2) Simplification and Standardisation of Work: Standardisation refers to a process wherein standards are set for any production activity. The standard is then used as a benchmark for evaluating the tasks done. In simplification, unnecessary varieties in design, size etc. which add to the cost should be avoided. This technique aims at the full and efficient utilisation of resources, reducing inventories and increasing the turnover.