Using Simulation to Limit Risk and Stay Competitive in the Restaurant Industry

Changes in the marketplace and new business opportunities can significantly impact a company's infrastructure needs as well as its operational efficiency. In the quick service restaurant industry, new product introductions, marketing promotions, seasonality, even new process designs can dramatically affect customer demand. In addition, small changes to the design, staffing, and production process can significantly impact customer experience and the total sales volume capabilities of the quick service restaurant.

Simulation modeling addresses these complex systems and problems, and can also be a valuable marketing tool: it can demonstrate how to effectively integrate multiple brands, maximize operations with customized offerings, and, with minimal investment, evaluate new design concepts and prove their effectiveness with quantifiable data.

AAI's recent client, Yum! Brands - the holding company for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers, A&W and Taco Bell - utilized a custom version of AAI's Restaurant Modeling Studio (RMS) to test the "multiple brand" store concept. AAI provided a "virtual test bed" that allowed concepts to be screened and electronically prototyped prior to actual construction, and helped Yum! Brands answer three main questions that typically arise when building or retrofitting a restaurant:

• How do you design a restaurant for maximum operational efficiency?
• How do you adequately service existing and new customers during peak periods?
• How do you best staff the restaurant in order to maximize the number of transactions per hour?

Read the full restaurant simulation case study