Assignment 1: Developing a Purchasing Process
Due Week 4 and worth 280 points
For a hospitality business to be successful, the management team must have a strong purchasing process which includes both selection and procurement. This process must be well-established in order to control costs and deliver the best possible product / service for its target customers.
For this assignment, you will choose one major restaurant chain (global chain or regional chain) that uses central commissary and develop a new purchasing process for a single restaurant unit. You will use this restaurant chain as a framework (i.e., the menu, average restaurant size, and management / employee organizational structure) for developing a new purchasing process. Note: You must create your own purchasing process for a single restaurant unit based on the concepts you have learned in the course. Do NOT just report on the restaurant chain’s current purchasing process.
Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:

Choose one (1) major restaurant chain and provide a brief overview including:

A history of the chain
The type of cuisine(s) and theme
The number of restaurants
The average restaurant size (seating capacity) and layout (both front and back of the house layouts)
The standardized menu (both food and beverage)

Describe the restaurant chain’s central commissary including the products it supplies and it doesn’t supply, and analyze how the central commissary benefits a single restaurant unit.
Select at least three (3) purchasing technologies from the following list: inventory-tracking, storage management, product ordering, product identification, and bar-code reader. Explain how those you have chosen will be used to optimize the purchasing process for this restaurant chain.
Speculate on at least two (2) foreseeable forces affecting distribution systems that could impact this restaurant chain in the near future and suggest how to mitigate them.
Explain how the new purchasing process for this restaurant unit follows and abides by the five (5) major purchasing objectives. Provide a rationale for each objective.
Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Explain how to analyze various procurement requirements to determine the optimal quantity, price, payment policy, and supplier.
Explain the steps in the purchasing process.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in purchasing and cost control.
Write clearly and concisely about purchasing and cost control using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills. Click here to access the rubric for this assignment.