A Simple Measure of Restaurant Efficiency

Abstract

Establishing an appropriate measure of production efficiency is difficult in service industries, especially in restaurants. In manufacturing, such measures are relatively easy to establish: count the number of items produced in a given period of time and compare that number to the rated capacity of the plant or its machinery. To develop a similar measure for restaurants, one must develop analogous measures. The unit of production is one complete turn of the service cycle, from the time the guest is seated to the time the table is reset for the next guest. The time period for measurement can range from a meal period to the entire time the restaurant is operating each day. By factoring the number of seats in the restaurant with the service-cycle time and the hours of operation, the manager can first calculate the restaurant's potential maximum capacity. Then, by counting the number of service cycles in a given period and comparing that to the maximum number of cycles, the manager can establish the ratio of capacity use. That number can be used as a gauge for analyzing the effects of changes in the restaurant's operation, such as, for instance, shifting demand to off-peak hours or shortening the service-cycle time.