Application Of Information Technology In The Management Of KFC, Essay.

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Kentucky Fried Chicken which is commonly known as KFC is a fast-moving food restaurant that deals mostly with fried chicken and other items related to chicken. According to Pradhan (2018 p. 18), the company which was incorporated in 1995 was begun by Harland Sanders. KFC headquarters are now in Louisville in the United States of America. The company stands to be the second fast moving food restaurant after the biggest one McDonald's. KFC has opened many branches in many countries of which is about 120 countries with about 19000 branches worldwide. Harahap (2018 p. 80) argue that in the beginning, the company owned its own brand but KFC now stands to be under the Yum! Brand. The Yum! Brand also has other branches under its umbrella.

The branches are the Taco Bell and the Pizza Hut. According to Okazaki (2005 p. 170) the famous thing about KFC is that it offers its fried chicken prepared with spices and herbs. The company up to today has employed around 16000 employees in all the branches.  According to Isher et al. (2005 p. 495) initially, Sanders Harland started the company by opening a roadside restaurant which was in Corbin Kentucky. Sanders then started to franchise with the restaurant in order to make his recipe more famous. Pantoja et al. (2018 p. 141) In a period of ten years, in 1963 KFC had around 600 franchises and was still growing. In 1964, and due to the uncontrollable growth of the company, Sanders decided to sell the company to his investors for $2 million including salary to be paid per year which was $40000. The salary was increased later to $200000. Later, Sanders decided to sell KFC but by this time he was earning $300000 pure profit.

KFC was one of the fastest growing companies and it was expanded to Britain, Mexico, Canada and to Jamaica. Today, KFC operates in South and North America, Africa, Europe, Australia and across Asia. In 1968 KFC was owned by another company PepsiCo which bought it at an approximate price of $800 million. PepsiCo, later on, turned its company group to the public company and opened another restaurant which was named Tricom Global restaurant. Tricon also owns the two companies, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. In 2002, Tricom was renamed and the new brand was called Yum! Brand.

This report shall be discussing the impact of the information technology on the management of the KFC. Today the technology is changing rapidly and the application of the technology in management has some impacts. Many fast-moving food restaurants use the current technology and many of them like KFC have online ordering of food and the food is delivered at the doorstep. The use of technology includes the use of the system such as customers interactive systems where the customers can order food while at home, pay for the order and get the order delivered at their doorstep.

Application of Information Technology

Like many other fast-moving foods applies information technology in its management to boost the and enhance customers satisfaction. Mostly, the commonly used technology in fast food chains is the web-based system known as Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM). Qin et al. (2010 p. 430) argue that there are automated online questionnaires for collecting feedback from the customers who give the company satisfaction feedback and suggest improvements on the services. Aliyu et al. (2017 p. 3) in KFC, there is need to use information systems and in fields like marketing, supply chain and operation administration. ECRM is used for servicing customers via the Internet to provide fast and quality services. The other systems are used for marketing the brand, billing such as billing system and the system for running the administration.

 The other commonly used system is called the Management Information System abbreviated as MIS. According to Hujainah et al. (2017 p. 9140), MIS is an integrated system used in the management of many organizations. KFC also applies the use of the MIS to make its operations smooth. Application of MIS in the organization has many positive impacts. MIS comprises integrated computer systems where there are many departments of the organization using the system. KFC use management information system which comprises of the human resource part, accounting and also the production part. Mondurailingam et al. (2015 p. 52) argue that the system helps the human resource to come up with set policies which help in the rating of their employees. The MIS assist in the processing of any needed information required by either the executive or the general workforce. MIS systems are usually useful in the management of any organization since they help collect data and produce useful tools for making of decisions.

According to Ribeiro-Junior et al. (2018 p. 372) information technology helps also in the effective communication between the customers, the employees, and the management. The employees will receive the feedback from the customers and pass the feedback to the management for decision making. This will help improve customer services and also help the company grow. Suchun (2007 p. 10) the other internal systems such as the MIS will help the human resource department which comprises of the management to come up with reports for rating the employees and monitoring the performance of the employees. The system comprising all the segments of the MIS and ECRM is known as the Enterprise Resource Plan system (ERP).

Information Technology and Management

KFC makes use of ERP to process data and enable smooth management. Enterprise Resource Plan system is a system that is composed of many applications such as Customer Relation Management system, accounting system, order tracking system, invoicing system, payroll system, and many other systems. Olszewski (2015 p. 124) argue that there are many benefits which come when a company is using the ERP system. Some of these benefits include costs like maintenance and training costs are cut, it is simple to keep the data held in the system up to date and the software expenses are generally reduced.  

The main functions of the ERP system in KFC are the systems handles manufacturing, distribution and logistics, shipping, inventory control, accounting and invoicing. Jiang et al. (2018 p. 412) argue that the system can also be used to handle and control many activities such as sales and marketing, delivery where the customers can track their order, quality management to ensure customer satisfaction, production, and billing.

The ERP is applied in the following ways at KFC;

1. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Shen et al. (2015 p. 83) argue that this is the form in which data is transmitted from one computer to another in an organization. This can be the transfer of data from one department such as marketing to another department such as procurement.
2. Attendance Monitoring System (AMS). This monitors the registration and the attendance of the employees in an organization. According to Bhatet al. (2018 p. 654), it helps the human resource department to capture data for the employees and monitor their job attendance. The advantage with this system is that it allows the use of distributed processing where the data is stored in the database server.
3. Computer-Aided Design. Li et al. (2018 p. 112) believe that this system helps in the manufacturing department of the organization. This is where there are a drawing and design of the products to be manufactured.
4. Document Management System (DMS). This system is used for the storage, security, and version of the data. It can also be used for the retrieving of documents. The system allows editing, confirmation and crosschecking of how authentic the documents are.
5. Communication Management Systems. This is the system used for the entire communication of the organization. This includes communication with the customers who have made online orders.
6. Security Management System. According to Dhandaet al. (2005 p. 148) this system is used for maintaining security in the organization. It can track the movement of vehicles, people and even other materials in the organization. It also restricts any unauthorized access and therefore making the entire organization safe.

According to Harrington et al. (2017 p. 560) KFC uses the tall hierarchy management system. In this system, the manager is at the top of the organization. The general manager is usually assisted by the assistant manager who is second in the rank. At the bottom of the assistant manager is the shift manager who is in the same rank as the unit manager. The unit manager is in charge of a single unit in the organization and has an assistant. Mills et al. (2008 p. 70) the unit manager have several duties which include, he is the overall manager for the team leaders, maintenance technician, food service worker, customer service worker, counter person, fast food crew member, preparation team member, and the refrigeration team member.

According to Liu et al. (2018 p. 860), each of the team leaders, unit manager, and the assistant and the shift manager represent a department. The maintenance technician deals with the technical department, the customer service worker deals with the customers' services delivery, the food service worker deals with the quality of the food to be delivered the preparation team member organizes and prepares the team and refrigeration team member makes sure that all the products are well refrigerated.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Company Organizational Structure

The use of information technology has had a great change in KFC. It is therefore recommended that the company should use the ERP and other important practices of information technology in order to improve further in its operations. Use of many feedback automated forms where customers can suggest and comment on their satisfaction will help the company to capture all customer needs. By doing this, the company will start offering products acknowledged and exceeding customer expectations.

KFC Organizational Structure

The use of an ERP system leads to enhancement in supply chain management, financial management and most importantly human resource management. The new system also is quicker in generating revenue, sales, and inventory reports. It is therefore recommended that KFC should renew or update their system frequently.

Conclusion

In conclusion, information technology is useful in the management of any organization. This will help attain customers’ needs and even sometimes exceeding the needs. The rapid development in technology urges all the organizations to consider applying current technological practices in its management. Technology has been there to help the organizations to improve and grow faster. However, it has some negative impacts if used wrongly. It can lead to loss of customers which will lead to the loss of the organization. Since all organizations are working hard to double their profits, gaining losses can be very disappointing. The use of the information system enables centralized data storage, this reduces the cost of finding many storages. The system also allows the use of automation of the invoices. This allows the flow of the work to be smooth and helps keep and maintain consistency and efficiency in the operations. Therefore, KFC made the best choice to use the information technology in the management to run their operations.  

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