Using lean manufacturing as service quality benchmark evaluation measure

Purpose – A lean manufacturing metric called Takt time is used as a benchmark evaluation measure to evaluate service quality at fast food restaurants. The metric is applied to find the relative efficiency between three fast food restaurants belonging to different chains. The purpose of this paper is to help guide management through ways to improve customer service and increase performance. Design/methodology/approach – The customer lead time (the time taken by a customer from arrival at the service queue until their order is fulfilled) is the focus of this study. Takt time is used to find the relative efficiency of service time between three fast food restaurants. Findings – It is shown that Takt time can be used effectively to measure the level of efficiency of the services provided. It measures the relative efficiency and identifies bottlenecks among different entities providing the same services. Practical implications – The results can be used as a guide to rank the efficiency of the length of service time of different entities by taking the whole system into consideration rather than just measuring and comparing the service time itself between the entities. The results show the effectiveness of using lean manufacturing practices in pinpointing the relative inefficiencies between different service provider facilities. Originality/value – This research presents a procedure to measure relative efficiency between different service providers to enhance their services. It can be applied to any service management systems that deal directly with walk-in customers.