Recommendations

Kean Starbucks is very successful in providing their customers with great quality service and end products.  However, while they are providing this quality, they are not accurately measuring their success to determine if they are actually doing an excellent job or if they should find more ways to improve upon their processes and services. There is no doubt that Kean Starbucks possesses the capabilities it needs to implement good quality services and products however based on such the broadness of the interview and lack of suitable measuring techniques we make the following recommendations.

Kean Starbucks expresses that they aim to fulfill a customers order within a 3minute time span. Currently there is no technique in place to make sure that they are meeting, exceeding, or underachieving these goals. We would like to introduce a Statistical Process Control Method (SPC) using Control Charts, an R Chart and an X-Bar Chart.

An R-Chart is used to monitor the variation of processes and determine weather they are in control. The R-Chart measures characteristics such as length, weight, diameter and time. The X-Bar control chart is used to measure to see whether the process is either producing on an average that is consistent with a target value that was set by the management or if its current performance is coherent with the past performance or if it has deviated from the target value either positively or negatively.

The following is an example of an R-Chart and X-Bar Chart that Starbucks can use. We plugged in some numbers to resemble Kean Starbucks target goal just for a model like purpose.

R-Chart & X-Bar Chart

O’Halloran specified that on average, off the top of her head, Kean Starbucks encounters approximately 5 complaints on a weekly basis. However, Kean Starbucks does not have an actual way to keep track of these complaints. We recommend that Starbucks record all complaints and follow up with a bi-monthly test to measure if they have improved the amount of defective items or vice versa. These SPC measuring methods are called the C-Chart and the P-Chart. The C-Chart measures defects on a discreet basis (measures the amount of all defects or complaints) while the P-Chart measures a specific type of complaint. The following Charts will explain the difference and the use for the two.

C-Chart

P-Chart

Last but not least, In order for these SPC measurement to actually be have an effect after you have the information you need, actions must be taken towards planning and implementing on a process that have been evaluated and are in need to be improved. Therefore we recommend that Kean Starbucks incorporates an SPC Method called the Deming Wheel also known as the Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle.

The Deming Wheel is a form of continuous improvement and is used for problem solving.  This is a simple outline to follow as it means exactly what it states.

"Plan" simply means selecting a specific process that needs improvement, recording the processes, set goals on areas of improvement, and develop a plan to achieve those goals. Currently Starbucks does not know if their processed need improvement but they do have specific goals that they have in place which is fulfilling an order within 3 minutes and having no more than an average of 5 complaints per week.


The "Do" concept is simply to put the plan in the implementation stage and monitor and measure the progress throughout. The new process procedures in which Starbucks comes up with should be put into action but not made standard as it is a test. Currently Starbucks plan is already implemented. This stage is where there monitoring process will begin using the recommended SPC tools.

"Study" or "Check" phase is an analyzation of the collected data results from the "Do" stage to see if it is coherent with the "Plan". This is where Starbucks will review the results to see if they actually meet, exceed, or have underachieved their goals.

"Act" could be either final (successful) or may result in having to try again beginning from the plan stage.  When the "Act" stage is successful the the process becomes a standard procedure or process. For Starbucks, this will require then to continue their processes or stop the process completely and revamp it using the plan phase.