Procurement Of Raw Materials At Punjabi By Nature Restaurant: Impact On Environment And Improving CSR And Non-CSR Activities

Question:

Discuss about the Restaurant Of Punjabi By Nature.

In this report a restaurant called ‘Punjabi by nature’ has been taken as an example. The activities of the restaurant regarding procurement of its raw materials are being discussed along with its impact on the environment. This report is also going to discuss regarding suggested CSR and non CSR metrics and their positive and negative impact on the business. This report is also going to introduce modification on the CSR and non CSR metrics to improvise on the previous suggestions and also discuss the positive and negative aspects of recommendations made regarding the changes on CSR and non CSR activities to become more environmentally sustainable.

Punjabi by nature is a restaurant located in Noida India. There are two main objectives of the business one is to provide prompt services and products that are healthy for its customers and two is to obtain cost efficiency in its services. The chief problem faced by the company is the quality of the products that are received by the company and also the price of the products. The suppliers of the company are providing the company with products that are unhealthy in nature and it is also very expensive which ends up in increasing the menu price of the products.

The main function of the restaurant Punjabi by nature is to serve Punjabi food. The methods of serving the food till now have been serving in the restaurant. The products and services of the company include serving good food and nice ambiance for the customers visiting the restaurant. The company however plan to introduce some additional services for the improvisation of some of its functions like its corporate social responsibility and the supply functions.

The previous diagram showed that there are two tier of the supply the chain the tier 2 include the wholesaler, local farmers who provided vegetable to the primary supplier of the Punjabi by nature of vegetable and meat. The main problem with the veggie basket was that there is high content of pesticide and fertilizers used on the vegetables and the meat is also processed which create environmental pollution.

Fresh diary is the supplier of the diary products of Punjabi by nature. They procure their products from RK food land and other local diary suppliers. The chief problem with the diary products include bad impact of fertilizers and depletion of nutrients and using of plastic packaging creating non bio degradable waste (Story et al. 2008).

Individual/Family

Thus the company should contact with the local farmers and diary workers and make negotiations for conducting direct business with the company and making contracts for using organic sources for production. The extra investment that is going to be necessary for the investment of purchasing organic products can be reduced from the extra charges that were being paid by the company to the middleman in the supply chain i.e. veggie basket and fresh diary.

It is not possible for the restaurant to take the step suddenly as the requirement of the products are a daily need of the restaurant and sudden change is going to hamper the regular operation so it is advisable for the restaurant to try and develop the other option while continuing with the current scenario.

The chief problem in the non CSR issue is that the use of technology slows down the process of the placing of order and the acquiring of the vegetable and the diary products. This can be dealt by two methods that is either by making the entire process manual which is not going to be feasible in case the business grows and the second is the use of special software that is going to automate the entire process of inventory management, placing of order and thus speeding up the process of receiving the products. The introduction of automated technology is going to reduce the interference of the workers.

The second diagram showed the procurement of electrical appliances and furniture products. These electrical products are being purchased from Voltas. The chief problems due to the use of the electrical appliances by Voltas are the excess use of electricity and the release of chlorofluorocarbon in the air negatively impacting the environment (Park & Lee 2009). The company Voltas purchases its products from its wholesalers.

The furniture requirement of Punjabi by nature is fulfilled by RK furniture. The using of furniture impacts the nature through deforestation. This is also a serious environmental issue.

The only method that can be used by the restaurant to create a more responsible method of dealing with the problem involves safe disposal of the old products that produces CFC and using of new products that doesn’t produce any CFC emission. The company can ask its supplier to provide non CFC products in exchange of the old CFC products (McCulloch, Midgle & Fisher 2010).

The restaurant can start using non wood furniture instead of using wooden furniture. the use of plastic as furniture is not harmful to the environment and thus can be an option for Punjabi by nature.              

Large group

The purchase of the furniture requirement is done through the evaluation regarding the number of customers visit in the restaurant and the order is done by using of technology. The restaurant aims to purchase non expensive furniture by identifying the expensive furniture provider. This again can be done by locating non expensive furniture dealers and providing order to them. This is not a difficult task as the requirement of furniture is not continuous

Identifying the expensive furniture provider

There are certain factors that have to be kept in mind by the owner of the business while implementing any changes. There are certain common constraints in the business which are

• The current suppliers of the business cannot be suddenly changed. Change is possible but it is going to take certain amount of time to execute the change. As a result the restaurant has to continue with the current suppliers while building a new chain.
• There are constraints in the budget as the restaurants aim to provide good service to its customers at reasonable cost so the procurement of supplies should be feasible or using of CFC products.
• The technical knowledge of the employees is limited and more employees in technical field can cause more expenses as the staffs are not computer literate.

The non CSR metrics that is being used is the use of POS software. The main functions of POS software are

• The POS software is automated and minimum intervention is being required from the side of the employees.
• The POS software just needs the input of data at regular interval of time which can be done by the person dealing with the cash. The POS software automatically calculates the rest of the functions. The software can automatically send orders when the software goes beneath a certain level. The order amount and placement of order is also done through the software.
• Extra human effort is not required more people can engage in the regular operation of restaurant

There are some additional efforts that are to be done be done by the owner of the business to implement this change

• Train the cashier in using the POS software
• Make the suppliers aware of the method that is going to be used by the business to place orders.
• The cashier has to manually input the data regarding the transactions as well as inventory management.
• There is a certain set up expense of the entire POS system.

The technology has been an issue for the business in this particular field and the aim of the business is to increase the speed of service to provide greater customer satisfaction (Reijers & Mansar 2007). The introduction of the POS software is going to increase the speed of the process by reducing the manual interference to the minimum thus it can be stated that the changes brought about by the introduction of the POS software can be considered as a consistent with the company aim.

The POS software is the technology that is going to be used in this scenario.

There are chances that there is resistance from the side of the staff as it require some adjustment on their part. But if the owner is ready to provide training to the cashier the resistance can be overcome. The person dealing with reporting inventory or cash can acquire the required skill for using the software. The number of people is using the software is also less and the resistance might not become an issue.

The practices of the suppliers won’t get much effected by the use of the software as it is not mandatory for the supplier to use POS to receive order from POS software it is only expected that a supplier is able to use mobile phones. In case a supplier is unable to use mobile phone the execution of this method might get jeopardised.

The changes introduced in this non CSR activity are:

• It is important for the restaurant to do a calculation of the asset valuation cost and locate the exact suppliers who are responsible for charging high on supplying furniture
• This process is going to help the company to save money by reducing the expenses that are incurred on the suppliers charging extra.

Identifying the expensive furniture provider

The impacts of the introduction of this operation process are:

• One of the objectives of the company is to reduce the cost buy identifying the suppliers that are causing the extra expense is going to help reduce the expense to some extent so it can be considered consistent with the purpose of the organisation
• There is going to be no technology needed in implementing this metric
• There cannot be any staff resistance as there is going to be no pressure put on the staff to execute this metric
• Supplier has to be eliminated and new contracts are to be gained to bring the change mentioned in the metrics.

• The introduction of this metric is going to eliminate the middlemen in the supply chain who are primarily responsible for the using of the fertilizers and the depleting of nutrient from the diary product this is going to provide health benefit to the customers as well as the environment

• The chief negative aspect of the process is that it is difficult for the company to take the step as the supply of these food products are a regular operational necessity of the restaurant and is difficult to execute.

• The using of the non CFC technology in the kitchen has great environmental benefit. This gas has various negative impacts on the atmosphere and the businesses are primarily responsible for large amount of emission. This step is going to be profitable for the environment in general

• There is a certain amount of expense that the restaurant has to bear for the purpose which can go against the objective of the restaurant that is to be cost effective.

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be said that there are methods that can be used by the business to enrich its current practices both in terms of CSR and non CSR functions. There are positive and negative sides on implementing such changes. There are some organisational objectives and organisational value both of them has to be weighed and decision shall be taken by the owner of the business.

References

Story, M., Kaphingst, K. M., Robinson-O'Brien, R., & Glanz, K. (2008). Creating healthy food and eating environments: policy and environmental approaches. Annu. Rev. Public Health, 29, 253-272.

Sulek, J. M., & Hensley, R. L. (2007). The relative importance of food, atmosphere, and fairness of wait: The case of a full-service restaurant. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 45(3), 235-247.

Park, S. Y., & Lee, S. (2009). Financial rewards for social responsibility: A mixed picture for restaurant companies. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 50(2), 168-179.

Reijers, H. A., & Mansar, S. L. (2007). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4), 283-306.

McCulloch, A., Midgley, P. M., & Fisher, D. A. (2010). Distribution of emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 11, 12, 113, 114 and 115 among reporting and non-reporting countries in 1986. Atmospheric Environment, 28(16), 2567-2582.