The Creamy Creations Take-over

The executives of Burger Barn have attempted to implement some new changes to Creamy Creations in a positive light. However, some of these changes risk having an impact on the rosy future they foresee for Creamy Creations. Currently, Creamy Creations is still profitable and the financial numbers have rose since they took over management, but there are few things I do not think Burger Barn put any consideration into when they looked at the current state of the business and the future they foresee if business continues down the glories trail it is on currently.

One of the things I feel Burger Barn did not consider when they predicted the future of Creamy Creations, is that Creamy Creations was still a relatively new business and it was getting praised by the members of the community and the college students namely the clientele. So, the reputation of Creamy Creations was still being created, built and growing when Burger Barn took over the business. The reputation of Creamy Creations was that you got good quality ice cream and made a relationship with your “creamy creator”. The wait was worth the quality of the ice cream, the customer service and the atmosphere of the Shoppe. The Burger Barn implemented changes which impacted the workers and the customers as well as the atmosphere and the reputation that was being built for Creamy Creations. When Burger Barn implemented the “work stations”, which eliminated the “Creamy Creators” per se, that completely changed the atmosphere of the Shoppe. It went from one day having the feel of a an old mama and papa store feeling of take your time, enjoy and savor the moment to order pay and get out; move, move, move people. It is very evident that Burger Barn executives specialize in fast food restaurants and do not really have a niche for taking your time.

Due to the change in the atmosphere, how the ice cream treats are made, and the high employee turnover Burger Barn should start to wonder about customer turnover. Meaning, customers will not be regular loyal customers, like they once had been in the past. They will start to be more infrequent with their visits to the shoppe and eventually the shoppe will have a chance of becoming a prime example of a tourist restaurant. This can cause the Ice Cream Shoppe to become more seasonal then year round. Burger Barn also needs to think about the high employee turnover. This could cause a business to go under really fast. If you get a reputation of never having a more regular staff, customers are going to start to receive huge variances in customer service and they may not return and you have a huge possibility of losing clientele. Also, you have a possibility of running out of people willing to work for a place which seems to not treat the employees well. People will wonder this because why else would the turnover rate be so high and the only constant would be the ownership or management. These are all reasons why Burger Barn should not be so optimistic about the future of Creamy Creations. There are few things that still need to be tweaked before they can really start to be optimistic.

Some of the principles of classical management have been reflected in what has happened at Creamy Creations. One of those principles is that management is making all of the decisions. Based off of the case study, Burger Barns executives have made all of the decisions without any input from the staff. The other principle which reflects on Creamy Creations is the division of labor.

There are tenets from Fayol’s Theory of Classical Management, Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy and Taylor’s Theory of Scientific management which are evident. The tenets, in regard to Fayol’s theory of classical management, are division of labor, order, and span of control. Management created the three different work stations and thus is evidence of the division of labor. Another tenet of Fayol’s which is apparent is order. This principle goes hand in hand with the division of labor. All the employees had an appointed place within the organization. All the employees were considered creamy creators and then they all had a work station they were assigned to too either be an order taker, scooper, toppings or cashier, creating a work station quite like Subway. The third tenet which is not bluntly stated but implied is Span of control. Management is in control of a limited number of employees. This is implied because there could not be a large number of employees making ice cream treats.

Under Max Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy, only one tenet was evident in Creamy Creations. This principle was the division of labor. Once again, management created “work stations” and assigned employees accordingly to the stations created.

Taylor’s theory of Scientific Management was evident as well. The first tenant evident was time and motion studies. Burger Barn executives watched the current operations of Creamy Creations before they implemented any changes. The time and motion study was used to find the most time efficient way to accomplish the task at hand. According to Burger Barn, the most efficient way was to make the line go faster by creating work stations and not having the Creamy Creators help a customer from start to finish. The second tenet evident is that organizational workers are best suited for labor. According to Burger Barn, their high employee turnover rate is not bothersome because they feel there is a large labor market in the community which is capable of doing the unskilled work. Taylor’s theory managers make the decisions and mental planning of the work and the workers provide the physical labor is very true to Creamy Creations.

The advantage to Creamy Creations for implementing the work stations is that the customer does get through the ordering line faster. However, the disadvantage to this decision is that it took away the friendliness of the experience and created more of an assembly line approach than anything else. A disadvantage of not involving the employees in any of the decision processes of Creamy Creations is that the employees are obviously not satisfied with the decisions made because their turn over is high. You need to have some of your employees needs met to keep them happy and wanting to work for your company. One would assume that the customers are not as happy with the customer service, but the product has not changed.

If I were to be called in as a communication consultant by Burger Barn executives, I would first start with asking the employees what things they would like different, what they thought worked best, and if the customers have made any comments on things they are not liking with the new changes. I would also speak to the customers and ask them directly what things they like, don’t like and what the miss about the old system. Customers are your paycheck so you need to appeal to the average coconscious. I would also ask the executives what things they would like implemented. Also, I would ask why they think those decisions would be the best plan of action.

I think I would find customers asking for the ice cream system to not feel so much like an assembly line. I think the customers would also like to see the “fast food” dynamic not so strong. I think both the employees and customers would like the interaction between not so impersonal. I think Burger Barn would like things to be much like they are minus the topping line to move faster.

I would recommend to Burger Barn executives, if they wanted to keep the station system in place to add an addition topping station. In that station they should place the employees that are the better creators. They could bring back the personal feeling back into the process. Those employees would bring back the friendly atmosphere and then customers could still get their favorite creamy creator and not have to wait a long time. I would also recommend that they decorate the shoppe with décor that would make the customers want to stay to eat their treats.

If the executives were accepting of removing the assembly line process, I would recommend that they create a system similar to Starbuck’s coffee. They go the cashier and order their items and if they prefer for a certain person to make their ice cream, then they can request it at the time of their order. Also, they can employee people to be the “waitress” if you will. IF the customer chooses to sit down while they wait for their ice cream to be made, then it can be taken to their table by an employee. This would help to increase the amount of people who stay to eat versus order to go. All in all I would mostly recommend Burger Barn executives to take the “fast food” mythology out of their system. I think once this went into place they started to have loss of employees, customers and a friendly environment. Sometimes faster is not always better.