For Good Measure
By Donna Hood Crecca, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 10/15/2005
Measure, measure, measure. That’s the mantra for improving service times at the 25 Taco Bell locations, which include five co-branded with Pizza Hut, operated by Federal Way, Wash.-based Northwestern Restaurants. “Fast food needs to really be fast to keep the customers coming. The only way to know if we’re delivering quickly or can improve is to track service times,” says Director of Operations Todd Stoner. Each day, managers, district managers and home office personnel examine reports from the previous day on service times at the counter and drive-thru, all analyzed by daypart.
Helping managers translate those numbers into action is the key to actually achieving improvements, according to Stoner. The organization has developed a program called TRED to “give some legs to the effort,” explains Stoner. “TRED is an acronym for Target, Readiness, Equipment and Deployment. It’s the foundation of our speed-of-service initiative.”
Target refers to goal setting, communication and motivation. Managers track speed of service by day, daypart and individual, and set goals that ensure the team is focused on achieving improvements. “This also prompts them to communicate with their employees about the importance of speedy service and allow for feedback,” says Stoner.
Readiness calls for managers to schedule and train staff appropriately to deliver fast service.
The equipment element of the initiative requires that all headsets, belt packs and kitchen equipment function properly. “If the equipment and setup isn’t correct, all the planning, motivation and communication is lost,” Stoner notes.
Deployment is also crucial. “You need a full staff, fully trained, and all individuals in the right positions to deliver quick service,” says Stoner. “Having all your ‘aces in place’ really makes it happen.”
Another crucial element of the TRED initiative, which has evolved over the past five years, is the franchisee’s ability to identify bottlenecks and rectify them quickly. “Maybe we see delays at the drive-thru speaker or with the expeditor in the kitchen, but we can find the problem pretty quickly because we have the daily measurements and managers are keyed into the TRED points,” Stoner says.
Stoner won’t quantify how TRED has improved service times or increased customer counts, except to say, “We’ve seen dramatic improvements in our service times in each of the past few years, and we’re always looking to get better. The whole point of fast food is quick service, so we’ve got to be on our game all the time.”
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