Applying Six Sigma to Chinese Restaurant Industry in the USA Custom Paper

Project description
This is a PhD-level thesis that applies six sigma to the Chinese restaurant industry in the USA. This will be based on 1 macro-level survey and then further conducting case studies on 6 Chinese restaurants located in Massachusetts region (based on the results of the survey). I chose the focus on restaurants in MA/Boston cause of ease of data access and so you’ll need to explain that in the thesis too. Although all the restaurants included in this entire study are real, you’ll need to make up all the results/findings/procedures etc. (although you’ll present them as real in the thesis write-up).

I’ve already written 35 pages in the introduction/literature review which you can ignore. The purpose of you will be to focus on the remaining unwritten chapters which are stated below.

1) Research Methodology (29 pages)
2) Macro-level survey analysis (15 pages)
3) Case study analysis (6 case studies) (65 pages)
4) Consolidation of all the results (from the survey + 6 case studies) (37 pages)
5) Main conclusions (along with limitations and recommendations) (14 pages)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

– Explain the entire research methodology and reasons that support the choice of methodology. Includes info regarding the structure/design, target population development, implementation and data collection procedures of the the macro-level survey/6 case studies. Although the participating restaurants are real, all results and procedures are made up (but treat them as real when you are writing).

a) SURVEY METHODOLOGY
o An online survey was created and disseminated via Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA) by which 63 managers of Chinese Restaurants located in MA respond back (only managers are requested to respond in the survey cause they have the most knowledge/control over the business). I already created the bulk of this survey myself (will be uploaded to my account but parts are still missing).
o The survey asks about demographics, whether they know/understand/practice Six Sigma and how they rank 15 factors that may affect “restaurant quality”. Within each of the 15 factors, there are several more sub-factors that fall within those categories and they are similarly ranked in order to filter down to more specific results.
o Eventually, the survey leads to the overall ranking of all of the stated 15 factors that most affect “quality”. A pareto analysis is done on those 15 factors ranked in order to find out which are the highest prioritized Top 4 ranked factors.

b) CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY
o After filtering for the Top 4 factors, we filter for only restaurants that claim to practice/know/understand Six Sigma and those who recognized one of the 4 factors from the pareto analysis in one of their own Top 4 rank choices. We approach those restaurants for participation in the case study. Eventually, we aim to collect 6 restaurants to participate in the case studies.
o For each case study, we will investigate how each restaurant tries to conduct one full-scale six sigma project to improve on one of the “top 4 quality factors” determined in the survey. Each restaurant/project regardless of which top 4 factor they choose to improve, must use the same pre-set list of 25 Six Sigma “DMAIC” tools (5 tools for Define, 5 for Measure, 5 for Analyze, 5 for Improvement and 5 for Control phases). Can’t skip/add tools, must use only those specific 25 tools in every project!
o You must come up with what those 25 pre-set list of tools are! Explain sufficiently what those tools are and why we are investigating them as opposed to hundreds of other alternatives using sufficient literature/proof/reasoning/theory.
o We’ll monitor each case for 6 months to see if it’s a success/failure and then draw conclusions on the following questions:

Q1. What success factors are of importance for succeeding with regards to implementing Six Sigma in Chinese restaurant businesses in the U.S?
Q2. For Chinese restaurant businesses in the U.S that have successfully implemented Six Sigma, how did those particular organizations function to enable the successful usage of Six Sigma and what challenges emerged during the implementation process?
Q3. What are the most successful techniques and tools used to implement Six Sigma in the Chinese restaurant industry in the U.S and why?
Q4. What do Chinese restaurants in the U.S consider as the most important factors of quality and how can Six Sigma help to improve those areas of concern?

2) MACRO-LEVEL QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS
– Examine the results gathered from the macro-level survey conducted on 63 Chinese restaurants in Massachusetts.

– As the survey was not actually carried out, you will need to create hypothetical data/statistical analysis to analyze for this section. Focus on the use of statistical analysis to improve the credibility/support of the findings (e.g. f tests, correlation coefficient, bias tests, pareto analysis etc.).

– During the pareto analysis of the survey, you end up with the top 4 quality factors as follows: #1 Wait Times, #2 Kitchen Management, #3 Food Quality, #4 Service Quality. Must provide sufficient explanation/proof/literature on why this particular ranking/order likely occurred in the survey to support why we are correct in focusing on these factors in the case studies.

3) CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
– We end up persuading 6 restaurants to participate in the case study: Cathay Center, Cathay Pearl, Kowloon, Rice Valley, Billy Tse and Cathay Pacific.

– For each case study, we will investigate how each restaurant tries to conduct one full-scale six sigma project, and examine the CSFs ,CTQs and KPIs. The project will improve only one sub-factor for one of the following survey categories: Wait Times, Kitchen Management, Food Quality OR Service Quality.

– Although I give you flexibility to determine the content for each case, I want you to create the following results:

a) Cathay Center (Positive Six Sigma outcome on “Kitchen Management” factor by which “Delivering meals promptly” within that category is the focus – refer to survey for more details)
b) Cathay Pearl (Positive Six Sigma outcome on “Kitchen Management” factor by which “Holding Times & Food Temperature” within that category is the focus – refer to survey for more details)
c) Rice Valley (Positive Six Sigma outcome, “Kitchen Management” factor by which “Holding Times & Food Temperature” within that category is the focus– refer to survey for more details)
d) Kowloon (Positive Six Sigma outcome, “Wait Times” factor by which “Managing table turnover” within that category is the focus– refer to the survey for more details)
e) Cathay Pacific (Negative Six Sigma outcome, “Kitchen Management” factor by which “Delivering meals promptly within that category is the focus– refer to the survey for more details)
f) Billy Tse (Negative Six Sigma outcome, “Wait Times” factor by which “Managing table turnover” within that category is the focus– refer to the survey for more details)

– You must explain why restaurants chose only kitchen management and wait times to do the six sigma projects on while ignoring food/service quality (even though food/service quality as also recognized as top quality factors). Is it something to do with subjectiveness/human-factor/immeasurability etc. State reasoning for this.

– In presenting each case study restaurant, you must also include the background of the business such history, organizational chart, /table/kitchen layout (if relevant) etc. I will upload you files with such info to base your writing off of but feel free to amend accordingly.

– The same pre-set list of 25 Six Sigma “DMAIC” tools must be used in all 6 case studies, no more or less. So ensure you explain in detail how those each tools is applied in each DMAIC phase.

4) CONSOLIDATION OF ALL RESULTS
– Consolidate all the results of the study based on findings from the macro-level survey and the 6 case studies conducted.

5) MAIN CONCLUSIONS
– Brief summary of the research and the main conclusions with respec