Application of Lean Tools in a Pizza Store

06-91-590-34
Lean Manufacturing/Process Improvement

Submitted to:
Dr. Ahmed Dief, PhD, P.Eng, L.B.C
Associate Professor
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
August 7th, 2014
Submitted by:

Abstract
Lean Manufacturing is a production philosophy that considers the expenditure of
resources in any aspect other than the direct creation of value for the end customer to be
wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. The spectrum of the uses of Lean
Manufacturing is large and is used from major companies to small convenience stores.
The application of lean Manufacturing has changed and perfected through time. This
project presents the application of Lean Manufacturing Tools in a Pizza store. The store
that was chosen is Pizza Pizza which is located at at 2203 Wyandotte Avenue W. It
focuses mainly on the whole process of the delivery of Pizza to the customer in store or
home. The use of tools like 8 types of waste, Value Stream Mapping, Root Cause
Analysis and 5S were used to study the process the store imbibes and propose places of
improvements.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction..4
2. The selected Shop.4
a. Layout.. 4
b. Machine and Equipment...4
c. Storage System.4
3. Pizza Preparation Process.5
4. Other Supporting System.5
5. Problem Identification. 6
6. Identification of Waste 7
a. Correction 7
b. Overproduction 7
c. Processing.7
d. Conveyance..8
e. Inventory..8
f. Motion..8
g. Waiting.9
h. Under Utilization of Man Power and Resources..9
7. Value Stream Mapping.9
8. Root Cause Analysis.14
a. Man Power14
b. Measurement.15
c. Mother Nature...15
d. Materials15
e. Machine.15
f. Methods 15
9. Application of 5S.. 16
a. Sort Phase. 16
b. Simplyfying Phase.16
c. Sweeping Phase.17
d. Standardizing Phase..17
e. Sustaining Phase...17
10. Recommendation..17
11. Conclusion18
12. References19

1. Introduction
2. Pizza Pizza is a franchise which has a total of 722 stores around the country. They sell a
variety of pizzas with various toppings. They also sell fast food products such as fried
chicken wings, fries, pops, sauces, garlic bread and sandwiches etc. but their main business
focused on delivering quality pizzas.
3. The selected shop
4. For this project the store selected is the Pizza Pizza store closest to our campus located at
2203 Wyandotte Avenue W. This Franchise store is owned by Mr. Hussain who himself
works in the pizza store and manages it. This store remains busy during September to April
due to availability of university students. During May to August sale goes slow. The
customer area of this shop is around 13 km towards east and south and 5 km towards north
and west.
5. a. Layout
6.
The total shop area is around 500 sq. feet. It is divided into three main sections.
40% remains for customer and 60% are used for storage and preparation of products.
7.
Freezing
Storage

9.

Sink

10.
11.

Cooking
Area

12.
13.

D
o
u

W/R
Customer sitting Area

8.

Order Taking

14.
b. Machineries and Equipment.
15.
The main machineries of this shop are oven, freezer storage, freezers, storage
rack, different utensils, various cutting equipment, various types of containers, different
types of table chair and other furniture etc.
c. Storage system
16.
The ingredients are temperature sensitive and need cool environment to preserve.
There is a big chilled room at the back of the store. Usually the food ingredients are kept
inside the freezer storage area and other general stores such as boxes, other nonessentials
4

are kept into general storage at the basement. Dry stores and POPs are stored in a small area
between the Sink and Freezer compartment.
17. Pizza preparation process
a. . The first step of pizza making is preparation of dough. Prepared dough is
supplied through the central supply system. Each types of pizza needs specific
amount of dough. During the morning the order remains slow and usually the first
delivery driver prepare the particular amount of dough for different types of pizza.
Normally the owner works during the opening hours and he decides the quantity
of each type dough.
b. The pizza making system follows pull system .Orders are controlled through
central OPD. Whenever somebody orders the OPD receives the order and then
send the same according to respected pizza pizza store based on the responsible
area. After getting the order the cook starts preparing pizza. He takes the preprepared amount of dough and prepares the base with the dough, he then put the
ingredients and toppings according to the customer order.
c. The uncooked pizza is then put into the oven and it is cooked for about 6 minutes,
in the middle the cook checks the quality and arranges the specific boxes.
d. When the pizza is cooked a beep signal is given by the oven. The pizza is then
brings out from the oven and put into the box. Then the pizza is sliced according
to the customer instruction included in the order.
e. If the pizza is subject to deliver for pickup then it is given to the customer hands if
it is ordered to deliver to the customer premises then this handed over to the
delivery driver. The delivery drivers check the order and take everything
according to the order. The put the pizza into specially made hot bag and deliver it
to the customer end.
f. The total process from order to deliver the maximum time is allotted is 40
minutes. After 40 minutes of order customer gets the delivery free of cost. The
process is shown below:
18.
19.

Dough Preparation

Adding ingredients
and toppings

Putt ing uncooked

pizza into the oven

Cook for 6 minutes

Place prepared
pizza into box
and cut into
slices

Deliver to the customer or handed

over to the delivery driver for
subsequent delivery.

20. Other supporting system

1) Supply system: All the ingredients are supplied by the central supply system. Each
Sunday detail inventory is calculated and ingredients demand is placed based on
forecasted demand for the week. The amount is ordered one day earlier and weekly 3
supplies are made to the store.

2) Inspection and monitoring system: Central inspection and monitoring system is

carried out by the corporate regularly. These inspections are both scheduled and
unscheduled. Inspection report is sent to the franchisee for necessary improvement.
3) Safety System: Pizza pizza follows strict safety system and they set standard zero
tolerance on safety as a corporate requirement. A detail safety instruction is displayed
for all to see.
4) Cleaning system: A cleaning requirement is specified to the store and the
responsibility is given to the franchisee. In this store the concern people keep clean
their respective area but it is the discretion of the individual concern. Detail schedule
is not prepared and there is no specific instruction as well. A cleaning culture is in
place where everybody cleans whenever they gets time.
5) Ingredient replenishment system: Toppings and other ingredients are prepared for the
day early in the morning and kept in specific container. The containers are kept in
some order. There is a place on the cooking table for all the first hand ingredients and
toppings. Pizza is made with these ingredients. Whenever some toppings become
short then cook walked to the freezing room and get the concern toppings.
6) Scheduling: Usually scheduling is done by the owner himself. He prepares a schedule
based on weekly forecasting. He uses his experience to do this.
7) Preparation of boxes and location: Boxes are made when the order is slow and kept
closest to the oven so that prepared pizza can be placed into the box within minimum
effort and time. The box area is replenished whenever it gets low.
8) Work Instruction: Most of the people working in this store are over 2 years
experiences. Physical work instruction is not available although people know their
charter of duties through practice and they follow this.
9) Work culture: The store is running with trusted employees. Owner Mr. Hussain is a
total gentleman, he believes on trust rather than push and it works great.
10) Utensil/Garbage system: There is no instruction on garbage cleaning, whenever any
driver gets time they clean the utensil and garbage.
11) Manpower: The store need two types of people cooks (usually 2 person at a time) and
delivery driver (usually 2/3 person depending on how busy hour).
12) Training : No formal training is given whenever a newcomer join the store he has
been put with an experienced person for on the job training
21. 5. Problem Identification:
22. We have talked to the owner and asked him about his main problem. He is apparently
happy the way things are going on. But when we asked to single out the problem for the
improvement, he came out with more organized and cleaner shop. He also specifies
occasional delivery and quality problem of pizza. Some time it is over cooked and
sometimes delivery drivers could not coup up with the time frame resulted free delivery
to the customer.
23.
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24. 6. Identification of Waste:

25. After observing the store we have identified the following eight areas of waste:
26.

a) Correction:

27.
28.
29. Correcting or repairing a defect of a product adds unnecessary costs because of additional
efforts and labor expenses. During our observation we have noticed that there are
occasions the pizza is burned or over cooked, sometimes improper toppings have been
put and it is identified after the pizza is made. Primarily these incidents are happened
during busy hour or when cooks are tired due to extra hours working. Another reason we
observed that except dough other ingredients are added by hand and manual estimation of
cook. These results pizza with over or less ingredients and received customer complain or
return in many cases. Since there is no scope of repair in prepared pizza the returned or
poor quality pizza become a garbage item.
30.

b) Overproduction

31.
32. Over production is producing more product than required. It may be due to the process
capability, minimum batch size or over prediction of market. In our project pizza is
usually make to order. There is little scope for over production. Only the front display
quantity is prepared without customer order and serves the running customer need. Most
of the times the quantity is consumed although at the end of the day there are few pizza
become surpluses and treated as waste.
33.
34.

c) Processing

35.
36.
37. Processing waste refers the work during the process which has no connection with the
production process or improving quality of the product. In pizza making we have
observed that there were no standardized work methods or specific policies or
procedures. People doing things their way which often was not the most effective or
was very wasteful.Different cook prepare pizza base from dough do not follow standard
procedure they do it as per their own style. As a result different people take different
time. Similar case happened with the addition of toppings. Somebody add toppings one
by one, somebody add all together etc. While putting into the oven people follow
different procedures which include many over processing steps. Since the dough is
7

prepared during morning and based on arbitrary forecasting, almost every next morning
some part of the dough become rotten and become garbage.
38.
39.
40.

d) Conveyance

41.
42. Conveyance is related with transportation misuse, incidental, required action that does
not directly contribute value to the product. Its vital to avoid conveyance unless it is
supplying items when and where they are needed .In pizza delivery system in the input
end ingredient supply is done three time in a week and at the output end delivery drivers
deliver the pizza to the customer address. Many cases drivers lost their way without GPS
particularly new drivers. Roads and houses in Windsor is not continuous and in good
order. There are many isolated houses around and same road is separated in many cases.
We have observed most of the delivery driver do not use GPS and none encourages using
this outstanding technology for some unknown reason. This resulted unnecessary use of
fuel and wastage of time.
43.
44.

e) Inventory

45.
46. Keeping inventory is considered as major waste at the same time failure to satisfy market
demand is also a big loss. Appropriate forecasting through methodical analysis can strike
a balance and ensure minimal inventory waste. In our pizza store forecasting is done
through experience and realistic gauging by the owner. Some time it goes fine and many
a times we have seen shortfall of ingredients due to that failed to fulfill the customer
demand. In other cases there are many over inventory exists. Usually the store maintains
7 days inventory and many cases these are perishables. This inventory sometimes become
total wasted.
47.
48.

f) Motion
49.

50. Any type of extra movement refers as a motion waste. It may be for the within the
process or beyond the process but within the system. In our pizza store we have observed
that the freezer room is the farthest from the kitchen. Prepared toppings are kept inside
the freezer room. Whenever there is any shortage concern cook had to walk down to the
freezing room and bring the item while most of the time some drivers sitting idle for the
delivery. No signal or information system is available except verbal request to somebody.

Due to noise many a times request could not be well understood and wrong items has
been brought. A proper signaling system could reduce the motion waste and save time.
51.
52.

g) Waiting

53.
54. In any process waiting time is one of the most important waste and to improve a process
most of the efforts are taken how to reduce this waiting time. In our pizza shop the main
waiting time is while pizza is inside the oven. Usually each cook prepares alternative
order. So until next to next order receive the first cook remains inactive. Delivery drivers
were not always kept productively busy when waiting for an order to be delivered was
completed. Some would take it upon themselves to help out where needed. Others just
stood around or went out of the shop area and smoked until an order came up.
55.
h) Under Utilization of Manpower and Resources
56.
57. The eighth waste is the underutilization of manpower and resources. We have observed
that the scheduling is not done properly as a result most of the cases there are over
population exists in the store. For example we have seen three delivery driver and two
cook total 5 people were employed for 5 hours whereas the order was only 6. Each driver
delivered only 2 pizzas for 5 hour and each cook prepare only 3 pizzas in 5 hours. This is
a common scenario we have observed for last several days. Due to the closeness of
university many of the employees are highly qualified some of them doing Ph.D. and
masters some are highly qualified in IT and business. If proper motivation and some extra
incentive are given, owner can utilize these employees to improve his overall process.
58.
59. 7. Value Stream Map
60. To make a pizza the process steps required for the operation are
-

Make Dough and add sauce

Add cheese and toppings
Cook
Deliver

61. The total time required for the whole process from the order of the pizza to delivery is
expected to be completed in 18 minutes.
62.
63.
64.
9

65.
66. Timeline of the process
67.
68.

69.
70. Total Cycle Time

9.75 min

71. Total Value Added Cycle Time

8 min

72. Total Non-Value Added Cycle Time

1.75 min

73. Lead Time

19.25 min

74. WIP Time

14.25 min

75.
76. As seen the Lead time of the process is 19.25 minutes which is more than the expected
completion time which is 18 minutes.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
10

83. Mapping the Information Flow

84. The Complete view of the whole process of ordering a pizza is shown in the following
diagram
85.
86.

1. Wa

87.
88.

3. Or

der

it
Sta
ff

2. Or

der

89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.

4. C

u
s
t
o
m
e
r

95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
11

101.
102.
103.

Mapping the Piece Flow

104.
105.

106.
107.
In the above push process, each step of the product pushes its product to the next
phase where the product stays in the inventory until that phase is ready to receive it.
108.
It can be seen that the total value added cycle time is 8 minutes and the lead time
from when the customer places the order and when the order reaches the customer is 19.5
minutes. In the first step of the process the cycle time is 1.25 minutes but the value added
cycle time is 1 minute. Meaning, a non value added cycle time of 0.25 minutes is getting
wasted at this place. Similarly near the delivery the cycle time is 2 minutes but the value
added cycle time is 0.5 minutes. Meaning, a non value added cycle time of 1.5 minutes is
getting wasted at this place.
109.
The initial stage of the process can be substituted with a pull instead of a push
system so that the receiving process can withdraw from the supermarket when necessary.
Pre-made pizza shells can be made with the combinations of sauces and cheese as most
of the time these combinations remain constant.
110.
A conveyer pizza oven is implemented to create a FIFO lane between the add
cheese and toppings step and cook step. This helps in implementing process flow by
reducing inventory. The process can be made faster by implementing electronic flow of
information between the wait staff and the cook staff. This is done by replacing paper
orders with an electronic ordering system.
111.
112.

12

113.
114.
115.
116.
117.

Mapping Future State

118.
119.

Wait Staf

Food Inventory

Order

Customer
Supermarket has 4Electronic
each
Improved
delivery
of
pizza
Transfer
of the six combination
sauce and cheese

Make Dough, add sauce &Cheese

Add Toppings

FIFO

Cook

Cooked Pizza
4
1 min
Deliver

Cycle Time = 0.35 m Cycle Time = 6 m Cycle Time = 2 m

Pre made Shells
VA CT = 0.35 m
VA CT = 6 m
VA CT = 0.5 m
0.75 Min
1 Min
2 Min
0.35 Min
6 Min
0.5 Min

120.
121.

Total Cycle Time

8.35 min

122.

Total Value Added Cycle Time

6.85 min

123.

Total Non-Value Added Cycle Time

1.5 min
13

124.

Lead Time

10.1 min

125.

WIP Time

10.1 min

126.
127.
Hence it can be seen that by implementing the necessary steps the lead time is
reduced to 10.1 minutes from 19.5 minutes. With the introduction of a Kaizen burst to the
value stream map the supermarket of premade pizza shells is highlighted to show the
improvement to the value stream. [1]
128.
129.
130.

8. Root Cause Analysis

131.

Fish bone diagram:

132.

Fish bone is a cause and effect diagram to identify potential cause of problems.

Pizza Pizza always try to have a good production and sales system and if there are any
lack of production or sales, what are the main cause of it. These causes can be well
explained by the fish bone diagram.
133.

14

134.

135.
136.

Man power:

15

Because of less experience, workers may not be able to handle their duty properly this

enhances decrease in production

As there are no contract employees there is a possibility for absence of workers this

affects production and sales

The entire process of making pizza is very slow because of not well-trained workers
137. Measurement:
Inventory plays key role in this process as it indicates the number of available raw
materials (Bread, toppings and other ingredients). Poor inventory disturbs the whole
process. If the new management is not aware of inventory system there could be a
possibility of running out of the materials, sometimes this may lead to stoppage of the

138.

whole process.
Poor experience in handling of accounts impacts the whole production system
Improper scheduling definitely affects production and sales at various time periods
Mother Nature:
Poor maintenance system promotes failures of machines. There is a possibility for two
failures one is power failure and other one is Oven failure. As this whole process is
dependent on these two, without these two, the process of pizza making cannot be

proceeded further
There is a possibility of ingredients to be spoilt because of weather or improper storage

this affects production of pizza

139. Materials:
There is no capacity for handling huge volume of orders at peak times
As everything is unorganized they could not make proper use of space
140.
141. Machine:
The production will get decline due to inefficient handling of machine by a new less

experienced workers
Machine failure due to no maintenance affects production of pizza(Less output)
Cant handle large number of orders during peak periods (Night) because of small sized

ovens. It leads to less production of pizza

142. Methods:
Because of poor supervision due to lack of experience during production leads to poor

handling of large orders

Poor delivery system results poor dispatching of pizzas to customers. It will affect the
sales and customer satisfaction

143.
16

144.

9. Application of 5S:

145.
5S is introduced in industrial sector. It is equally applicable for other sectors and
processes. For our project we tried to use this in pizza pizza store. We have observed the
existence of 5S in the store first. From our observation we noticed that the store do not
use 5S as a tool but in many cases they organized things which is close to 5S system in
some cases they are beyond 5S system. For the purpose of the application of 5S in pizza
store we could not reorganize things since the owner was not very interested to rearrange
things and he was kind of happy with the present setting. As a result we have some
before picture but could not get any after picture. However we tried to identify the
possible potential 5S area and added as a recommendation with the project.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.

Sort Phase:

151.
During this phase we tried to separate from required and not required items. We
found many items he doesnt need even there are many unserviceable items were in the
storage room such as broken machines, unserviceable containers, extra equipment. If
these items can be discarded there will be savings of many space and things can be
organized in better way.
152.
153.

Simplifying Phase:

154.
The layout of the store is not well balanced. By rearranging equipment travel time
between processes can be minimized. Particularly the customer using area seems too big
to us. We observed that orders mostly delivery order and the customer area remains
unused almost every time. Re-arranging this space can add a new dimension of the store.
Putting more space for first using ingredients for the cook can reduce frequent movement
of cook and reduce possibility of error during busy time in particular.
155.

Shinning Phase:

17

156.
There is no standard instruction exist for sweeping the store. It is done by
individual if he feels necessary. As a result there is pile of garbage accumulated in the
store which could be a serious hygienic threat for the cooked pizza. We consider if this is
disclosed to customer it may create serious observation by the customer. We recommend
a scheduled cleaning system should be incorporated. Instead of doing it end of the day
cleaning should be at least hourly. This will provide a knit and clean and above all
hygienic environment which can be a promotional tool towards increasing sales.
157.

Standardizing Phase:

158.
Some of the items are kept nicely particularly drinks and dough trays but some of
the items such as cutting machines and containers are not at all organized. Toppings are
kept side by side inside the freezer room but there is no container number. Same
container is used by different toppings. There exists every possible scope to mix toppings
and made mistake particularly during busy hours. We recommend changing separate type
of container for individual toppings. This can be done by color, size or shape of the
container. If not possible at least separate tag can be placed to identify the container and
place separate tag to each ingredients location.
159.
Cleaning tools are kept on the floor and do not have any specific location. As a
result it is very difficult to find out the required stuff when it is needed. Tremendous
amount of time is wasted. We recommended that a specific area should be nominated for
the cleaning items.
160.

Sustain Phase:

161.
This is the most important phase of 5S. By nature people try to resist the changes.
This is not different in pizza shop. We recommend a high standard of commitment of
owner to implement this. We tried to make him understand the outcome and positive of
this philosophy. He also agreed with us but was little reluctant to implement it right way.
We have provided him the examples hopefully he will implement it soon.
162.

10. Recommendation:

163.
At the end we tried to make some recommendations to improve the overall
process of the store.
a. Scheduling: A precise scheduling system is a must. For effective scheduling instead of
manual employment appropriate software may reduce duplication of manpower and will be
efficient and cost effective.
b. Standardization: All activities should be standardized. Proper data should be sorted for
different activities and after periodical analysis standard timings and quality standard may be
maintained.
18

c. Reorganize: Reorganization of the overall layout may provide scope for better utilization of
resources and elimination of waste.
d. Documentation: All the activities should be logged and proper documentation may maintain.
e. Driver Management: Drivers timing are not maintained. In-Out timing should be recorded
and distance need to be logged. Thereby average travel timing can be sorted and performance
measurement may be measured.
f. Information flow system: An electronic information system and signal may ease effective
operation.
g. Instruction board: Boards may be placed with various types of information and employee
must be informed the performance of the store.
h. Charter of Duties: Charter of duty of every individual is highly recommended. This will
reduce confusion and provide clear guidelines for individual responsibilities.
i. Safety Practice: A safety instruction is a must and proper monitoring system must be in place
to ensure safety practice.
j. Fire protection system: Fire protection and emergency mitigation procedure must be prepared
informed to all employees.
k. Garbage management system: An effective garbage cleaning schedule is required to be
prepared and adhered.
l. Employee meeting and Feedback: Regular employee- employer meeting is highly
recommended and employee feedback is encouraged to implement this suggestion box may
be created.
m. Introduce Performance appraisal and reward and punishment system
n. Improvement suggestion box and incentives
164.
165.

Conclusion:

166.
Through this project we were able to understand and implement few of the Lean
manufacturing tools on a local pizza store. This project made our paths cross many
problems in an industry which cannot be taught theoretically. One of the observations
was that people in industry are reluctant to apply lean. This is because they presume the
philosophy of lean to be complicated and fail to implement it. It was also observed that
people are reluctant to any sort of change and want to abide by their traditional way of
achieving the required goal. However, this project has enriched our confidence and
helped us understand the application of different lean tools in an industry and we hope to
carry it out in our career confidently.
167.
168.

References:

1. Lean thinking by James P Womack and Daniel T. Jones.

2. Learn to See by Mike Rother and John Shook
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3. http://www.minitab.com/uploadedFiles/Documents/samplematerials/TrainingSampleValueStreamQC3.pdf
4. Lean Enterprise System by Steve Bell
5. Design and Analysis of lean Production System.
6. The lean Design Guidebook by Ronald Mascitelli
7. Lean Manufacturing that Works by Bill Carreira.
8. The illustrated Lean Agile and World Class Manufacturing Cookbook compiled by
Francois De Valliesrs
9. SAE 2008, Application of lean and Six Sigma for the Automobile Industry
10. The Complete guide to Just-In- Time Manufacturing by Horoyuki Hirano
11. The 5S Philosophy Nilesh R Arora
12. Fundamentals of Value Stream Mapping by P. Alvarez and Martin

20