Analytics applications, limitations, and opportunities in restaurant supply chains

Abstract

Technology, market, and competitive dynamics are requiring firms in restaurant/food service supply chains to improve their analytics capabilities, which have tended to lag behind other comparable industries. The global COVID‐19 pandemic has further encouraged industrial leaders to evaluate new challenges and opportunities. Our research provides insights into current applications of analytics technologies and organizationally integrates these insights for decision‐makers in restaurant supply chains. The study applies decision theory as a framing perspective to this phenomenon, thereby advancing the academic literature on the interface between data management, analytical techniques, and computing. We combine data drawn from interviews of leading players in U.S. and Chinese‐based restaurant chains with insights from trade publications and social media posts to identify best practices for analytics usage and supporting organizational changes. Our analysis provides examples of ways in which business leaders are applying analytics technologies to structured and unstructured data to address targeted objectives for demand/supply processes and to foster higher order organizational learning. In keeping with the stated objectives of this special issue of Production and Operations Management, this study provides an overview of both current state‐of‐the‐art and next‐generation capabilities for analytics in the restaurant industry. We further identify specific limitations of current processes, opportunities for development and theory‐based research, and challenges to implementation.

Do a non-core worker's procedural justice concerns influence their engagement in helping behavior? A multi-method study

“…The services provided by logistics and supply chain workers in the retail sector can have a significant impact on a firm's customer experience (e.g., Swink et al ., 2022). However, improving the performance of logistics workers remains a serious challenge because several sectors of the economy are either experiencing severe worker shortages or significant employee turnover, thus affecting the nature of team dynamics, team productivity, and customer service levels (see Table 2: Griffith et al ., 2006; Cantor et al ., 2011).…”

“…In restaurants, for example, many workers who oversee food and beverage services are responsible for inventory management and replenishment, and hence, their decisions can have immediate consequences for customer service (e.g., stock-outs leading to lost sales and damaged firm reputation). While this holds true across many other industries, including the manufacturing, defense, and public sectors (Swink et al ., 2022), it is of particular importance to the retail logistics sector, which was valued at $219.5 billion in 2021 and is expected to increase approximately 12% in 2022 (Global Newswire, 2022). Given this enormous growth, it is critical to recruit and prepare logistics workers for rewarding career opportunities in this and related industries.…”

“…We empirically test the study's hypotheses in the retail (restaurant) sector for several reasons. First, this service context consists of core workers (e.g., restaurant managers and lead servers with several years of work experience in the restaurant industry) and non-core workers (e.g., prep cooks, bussers, and related wait-staff with relatively less experience), thus offering a rich environment to study team dynamics among employees and their productivity (Swink et al ., 2022). We add to prior research that has studied the dynamic interactions of logistics workers (see Table 2: Keller and Ozment, 1999; Cantor et al ., 2011).…”

Balancing resilience and efficiency in supply chains: Roles of disruptive technologies under Industry 4.0

“…Targeted research is predefined and typically used to solve SC resource optimization problems. By contrast, exploratory analysis focuses on learning to develop new insights rather than determining optimal solutions (Swink et al, 2022). Based on this framework, we provide two broad agenda for future research: Influence mechanism research and trade-off mechanism research.…”

Emerging research problems in different business domains: An analytics perspective

“…In the same vein, Swink et al. (2022) use decision theory to analyze information obtained from interviewing leaders of five US and four Chinese‐based restaurant chains and their logistics service providers, as well as data drawn from social media posts and trade publications. The study first describes the major sources, processors, and limitations of data in the main upstream, midstream, and downstream tiers of operations in the restaurant industry.…”