The Crepery Strategic Plan

Scheduling

Group 6 Section 2
(Lea Landaverde, Aaron Chugg, William Lewis, John Singleton)

MIS 3050
Professor Harris
11/23/15

Table of Contents
1

Introduction

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Porters Five Forces

Possible Solutions

Recommended Solution

10

Conclusion

13

References

15

Introduction
The Crepery is an exclusive Paris-styled cafe, located in both Logan and St. George,
Utah. The cafe serves an assortment of authentic crepes, and gourmet coffee. The business in St.
George, Utah has been open for nearly a year, and has not only exceeded expectations, but could
be seen as surpassing the original location in Logan. The Crepery has consulted with the MIS
3050 class, and discussed that their major conflict is their scheduling. They currently have 16
employees, which is a mix of regular laborers, college students, and high school students,
majority being college students. The manager, Jacob Peterson, currently uses Google Sheets as

his main form of scheduling. On top of having to input everyones schedule in manually, he also
has to make sure that: he has sufficient employees working that day, that all positions and shifts
are correctly filled, approving or declining requested days off, and ensuring that the schedule
doesnt conflict with his employees personal schedules. Mr. Peterson personally said, this
technique is both time consuming and difficult. As a group, we discovered a few solutions but
chose one alternative to possibly help Mr. Peterson with his scheduling issue. In this document,
you will find viable information accompanied with our recommended solution.

SWOT Analysis
The Creperys variety of unique meals help create a much needed distinction between
themselves and their typical competitors, which consist of restaurants and diners. The companys
strong knowledge of European creperies and their ability to utilize this knowledge, has created a
successful marketplace, and their company has flourished allowing the opening of their second
restaurant here in St. George. However, with the ability of the aforementioned competitors, they
too may be able to capitalize on this marketplace by incorporating it into their own menus.
Therefore, well-established competitors could be the biggest threat to The Creperys long term
success.

Strengths

Weakness

- Quality Employees

- Scheduling Issues:

- Flexible with their scheduling

- Low amount of Openers/Closers

- Works with high school students college

- High school students are hard to schedule

students as well as those who only work full

- Need to have enough employees during

time.

busy hours

- Unique atmosphere

- Requesting days off policy

- Simple Menu

Opportunities

Threats
3

- No competition other than Dennys &

- Well established competitors using The

Kneaders (franchise)

Creperys success and utilizing it in their

- They are local

own business model.

- Room for expansion and more locations

-Franchises
-Location

Strengths
The Crepery has a strong presence in a niche market specializing in something that is
unique to the state of Utah. Their crepes and lattes bring a flair of European vibe that is
emphasized with the modern decor of their restaurant. This creates an environment that is homey
and comforting for all their customers. All these aspects create a strong distinction from their
competitors and should allow them to hold a significant portion of the marketplace.

Weakness
They have major struggles with scheduling due to the diversity of employees that they
hire and the individual schedules that each employee has. The Crepery has a low amount of
openers and closers which makes scheduling difficult and time consuming. There is also a low
amount of open to all hours employees. Most employees have a specific schedule, because of
college or high school, and cant be relied on to ensure specific shifts are covered. Although the
Crepery does have a consistent method of requesting time off for their employees, it still seems
to be tedious and time consuming when writing the schedule.

Opportunities
The Crepery has a lot of opportunities, because they are a local company. Local
companies are highly supported by the St. George community. The Crepery is one of a kind in St.
George, Utah. They dont have any local competition. The Crepery has possibilities for
expansion and are currently outdoing their original location in Logan, Utah.

Threats
Franchises are a threat to The Crepery. Black Bear Diner, Dennys, IHop, and Kneaders
all serve crepes. Crepes are not their focus but these franchises do serve crepes. Another threat to
The Crepery is imitation of the atmosphere of the company. New businesses may imitate the feel
of the Crepery. They may copy the success of The Crepery and add it to their own business for
future success.

Porters Five Forces

Threat of New Entrants
New entrants arent as much of a threat to the company as are the franchises discussed above.
But as the success of the company continues to grow, the threat of new entrants will no doubt
become a reality. Established franchises have the marketing, advertising, and capital to mimic
some of the successful attributes of The Crepery, and essentially cut into the market share. Since
The Crepery is a well established local company new entrants would not harm The Crepery until
the new entrant gains a loyal clientele.
Threat of Substitute Products or Services
When it comes to substituting products and services, the franchised places mentioned above
would be the only threats since they offer similar products and are in the same type of service. If
theres an instance when a customer isnt satisfied at The Crepery, they may seek the other
restaurants that serve the same type of food products. With this being said, it would be best if
The Crepery kept their customer satisfaction up since there is substitutes that can be easily
chosen instead.
Bargaining Power of Customers (Buyers)
The buyer has very little bargaining power at this time due to the distinct and new variety The
Crepery brings to the local area. Therefore, with the inability of competitors to emulate the
experience and menu, you as a buyer have very little choice. If you want this type of food and
experience this is your option as a buyer. They have a very set menu and little room for
customization for the buyer.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The suppliers would most likely have the upper hand in bargaining. With an abundance of
restaurants in the area that use similar products, this allows the supplier to dictate terms and more
importantly set the prices they charge. This can be very detrimental to a company that has just
moved to the area and could ultimately cause failure. As stated in one of the answers to our
questions, The restaurant industry is incredibly difficult to be successful in. The vast majority of
restaurants go out of business within 2 years of opening. High overhead and high variable costs,
such as equipment costs, labor, and food costs are large entry barriers.(Citation) However,
because they are in a niche market they can most likely transfer these costs to the customer and
remain successful in their endeavor.
Intensity of Competitive Rivalry
The Crepery has its own unique atmosphere which gives it the upper hand on the franchised
restaurants. With its cafe style feel that you get entering the restaurant, it becomes difficult to
duplicate the this type of service and atmosphere. Its not certain or proven, but the more success
The Crepery has the more likely competitors will follow suit and try to mimic the winning
formula. So, as long as The Crepery has success, the competitive rivalry is always going to be
high. If The Crepery stays true to its uniqueness, it will always have the upper hand and
competition may slowly decline as time goes on.
Possible Solutions:
Our goal was to discover and discuss a method in which scheduling for The Crepery
becomes efficient, quicker and understandable. We did this by finding a way that is not only
practical, but allows for a better allocation of time and effort. Our recommended solution to the
scheduling issue should mitigate headaches and allow management to devote required energy
and time to issues that create profit and/or value for the company. Our extensive research of the
current method used, as well as, other methods (software, excel, etc.) utilized by similar
companies in the industry, should prove to be useful for the current dilemma. Knowing the
current scheduling capabilities of the Crepery, we believe that we have found a feasible and
inexpensive alternative, that should change The Creperys current methodology of scheduling.
We are hoping by solving these scheduling issues employees will appreciate their employers

ability to be flexible with their schedules, and more importantly minimize managements time in
creating a feasible schedule. Time is money!
When we were first introduced to the problem, we went straight to excel. Although this
can be seen as a viable option, already demonstrated by the current scheduling method being
used (Google Sheets), we quickly concluded it doesnt fix the issue. Our attempt to combine two
excel scheduling templates, was only successful in creating a more user-friendly and

aesthetically pleasing model (Figure 1), without the capabilities of connecting online.
Figure 1

After realizing we would have to take a different approach, we began to investigate other
restaurant methods along with online scheduling software. First, we interviewed both an
employee from Chick-Fil-a and another from Orange Peel. The Orange Peel is a locally owned
business, and has successfully become a franchise in all of Utah. One of their night managers
discussed with us that they have a planner in which they request days off and the store manager
initials the requests if they are approved. If the employee can not attend their shift, it is
mandatory that someone covers. Then, the store manager picks each employees schedule by
availability and writes up their schedule by hand. The store manager then inputs their schedules
on a Google Docs calendar, and shares the schedule through text message group chats. They also
make their schedules every week. The night manager gave us an understanding that their
scheduling process was not a hassle for them.

Chick-Fil-a is also a locally owned business as well as a successful franchise that is

continuously growing throughout Utah. They have 80+ employees at this location in which they
have to schedule on a weekly basis. Their scheduling approach is quite different than anything
we found. The scheduling software that they use is actually developed by Chick-Fil-a corporate
offices which makes it very difficult to use or duplicate. As far as requesting time off they take a
similar approach to the Orange Peel. Using a planner, employees can request time off, given that
they request it off in a decent amount of time before the requested date (especially during the
holidays). They try to be as accommodating to everyone's schedules as they can but that doesnt
always happen. So, those who request time off first are given first priority. As soon as the
schedule is finished, individual schedules are emailed to each employee and it is also printed out
for viewing at the store as well. If the scheduled worker cannot make their shift it is their
responsibility to get it covered with the exception of emergencies.
Second, we looked at a plethora of scheduling software packages that are available online
(Figure 2). Biggest concern with this approach is, in most cases, they all had a price tag (Figure
3). Because of the price associated with the software it was difficult to determine if it would be
cost effective for management to implement the software. Even after coming up with a dollar
amount of what it would be worth for management (apx. $40/hr) to purchase software like this, it
is still hard to justify because it is more of a measurement of time. It takes approximately 2 to 2
and a half hours to complete the weekly schedule, which ultimately costs the company nothing
but results in the loss of time that could be used in a more efficient manner; i.e., to create value
or correct other concerning company inefficiencies.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Recommended Solution:
After sifting through the software that had a price tag we did come across some easy to
use options but even better, they were FREE! Not all of the free options were very appealing so a
little bit further research was done to choose the one that we did. The program that we chose to
use is called, ABC Roster. Having spent some time with the program, which was easy to
download from their website, we found it a very useful tool for scheduling. It has all the features
that any small business would need to schedule their employees. Features of this program
include:

Easy-to-use
ABC Roster provides a simple and intuitive user interface
Automated planner
The automated planner that can generate schedules for you
Exporting
You can export the schedules to Microsoft Excel, PDF and HTML documents
Managing all aspects of scheduling
Manage employees' availability, days off, leave, events, bookings, ...
Email employees
You can email the schedules to employees directly from the application
Its Free
Last but not least, it is 100% free
ABC roster allows the user to manage so many things just from within the program. They
can keep track of all your employees information in the program. Inside the employees window
it keeps track of: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, position, skill level, pay rate, and
whether they are full time or not. There is also a section for side notes about each employee if
they do so desire. (Figure 4)
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Figure 4
Along with employee records and information, the program allows the user to set their
individual availability schedules. (Figure 5) When the availabilities are set ABC will not allow
users to schedule those employees in those shifts that conflict with their availability. Constraints
are also an option to set for each schedule. Using these constraints allows the user to set the
maximum and minimum number of people for each shift so that shifts are never over or
understaffed. Then after all the shifts are filled ABC will show a schedule cost based on the
wages of your employees, that way users can more effectively schedule without losing track of
their labor cost, an important aspect of a growing business.

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Figure 5

One of the most important things about scheduling other than labor costs is letting the
employees know their schedules. A business can not have effective labor costs if the employees
do not know when their shifts are. So, in order to assist the user with this issue it has a feature to
export created schedules into a few different formats. (Figure 6) Which format is used all
depends on the user and which format they prefer. The three formats are: Microsoft Excel, PDF,
or HTML file. The user can also use the data base of their employees emails and send the
schedules directly to them to access. This prevents silly excuses when someone says that they did
not know when they worked or what time. Resulting in less of a headache for the employer. The
schedules are also able to be exported in different views: Employee View (Figure 6), Shift View
#1 (Figure 7), Shift View #2, and Coverage.

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Figure 6

Figure 7

Conclusion
In conclusion, we would like to highly encourage Mr. Peterson to invest his time in
learning how to operate ABC roster. ABC roster has efficient, easy-to-use scheduling techniques
and can solve Mr. Petersons concerns with his personal scheduling method. The other methods
that we researched were either too time consuming or came with a price tag. We wanted to
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propose a technique that would eliminate both of those factors. Eliminating these factors will
allow Mr. Peterson to focus more time on other company inefficiencies as well as saving him
from having to pay a monthly liability. ABC roster is an excellent, easy to use program and we
hope Mr. Peterson decides to invest his time to acquire the skills to use this program.

References
Facebook,. 'Facebook-The Crepery St. George'. N.p., 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

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Kendricks, Brandon. Chick-Fil-A Scheduling. 2015. in person.

Porter, Lydia. Orange Peel Scheduling. 2015. in person.

Roster, ABC. 'ABC Roster - A Free Software Application For Employee Shift
Scheduling'. Abc-roster.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

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