Challenge of 2019

Jardine Restaurant Group, a proud member of the Jardine Group, is one of the leading restaurant groups in Asia, operating over 740 outlets with more than 23,500 employees in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and Myanmar. JRG is one of Pizza Hut’s largest international franchisees and operates KFC outlets in several Asian and South East Asian countries. With such solid foundation and industry experience, JRG, however, currently still faces several challenges. Like many other industries, the consumer demand for the F&B industry has been shifted by continuous technology advancement and readily available and accessible information. Quality and convenience alone are not enough anymore to maintain and sustain consumer interests. To meet and exceed customer satisfaction of the new era, JRG must rejuvenate and innovate.

How can you be the impact of our present and future?

As a leader of the F&B industry, JRG’s innovative vision is to provide a stage for talents to not only make, but also be the impact. Here at JRG, we strongly believe that many talents will shine through and change the future of many in the F&B industry. Register and share with us your ideas and solutions on how to create a brand-new customer experience to win a fully funded start-up opportunity on top of a real-world internship program mentored by industry experts. Join us and create an innovative and influential future and be the impact now.

Challenges for HardUST and HackUST 2019
            What Will You Have to Achieve in This Hackathon@HKUST 2019?

  Imagine you are co-founders of a new start-up partnering with the Jardine Restaurant Group, which operates a large chain of catering outlets in different countries and locations, providing new and creative solutions for the Group’s business that will enhance customer services and optimise business operation while achieving its position as a pioneer of innovation in the catering profession. Every day, thousands of JRG staff work hard in preparing food, serving customers of different age and background and meeting various customer needs in outlets of different formats. Customers can be reached in different ways including serving in store and delivering food to customers at their preferred locations for different occasions. On top of maintaining the consistency of high-quality product and services, JRG seeks to evolve F&B industry by exploring smart, digital and creative solutions. What ideas do you have to help develop brand-new business formats and operations and provide smart solutions to the senior management of the Group for the next ten years of development?

Supporting Information- F&B Store Formats

The current store formats of F&B mainly consist of Back of house area, which are production areas such as kitchens and storages, and Front of house area, which are lobbies, counters and dining areas. Businesses are restricted to production capacity, dining capacity, labour and rental costs.  
Major existing store formats as below
1.    Red Roof- Restaurants without delivery
a.    Table serviced
b.    Store size: 2000-3000ft2
c.    Seating capacity: 80-230seats
d.    Operating hours: 11am-10pm
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 30-40

2.    Restaurant Based Delivery- Restaurants with delivery
a.    Table serviced
b.    Store size: 2000-4000ft2
c.    Seating capacity: 70-240 seats
d.    Operating hours: 11am-10pm
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 30-40

3.    Delco- Takeaway and Delivery services Only
a.    Counter service
b.    800-1000ft2
c.    No seating 
d.    Operating hours: 11am-11pm
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 20-30

4.    Delco with seats- A smaller restaurant format with limited service 
a.    Counter service
b.    Store size 1000-1500ft2
c.    Seating capacity: 40-90 seats
d.    Operating hours11am-11am
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 20-30

5.    Fast Casual Delco- 
a.    Counter service
b.    Store size 1000-1500ft2
c.    Seating capacity: 40-80 seats
d.    Operating hours 7:30-11pm
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 20-30

6.    Express
a.    Counter service
b.    Store size 800-2000ft2
c.    Seating capacity 20-40 seats
d.    Operating hours 11am- 7pm
e.    Number of staff available on rotation: 5-10

 
SUPPORTING INFORMATION- STATISTICS OF LOGISTIC OPERATION

March 2019    Full Time Riders    Part Time Rider
No. of riders              19                         114
Hours worked          5,625                    13,462
Orders delivered     7,090                     15,923

The averaged Peak hour quote time is 68 minutes and averaged Trough Hour quote time is 47 minutes.
Orders delivered through other vendors and vans have increased over the past 12 months which contributes to logistic costs. 

SUPPORTING INFORMATION- LABOUR INTENSIVENESS IN F&B
The daily operation of restaurants relies heavily on human labour. From production to front of house service area, each customer touchpoint requires human labour input. For example, to maintain the quality of our products, we create the pizzas from dough making, which involves mixing ingredients, kneading the mixture and proofing the dough before adding toppings to order. The pizzas then go through the oven for cooking and finally cut, plated and delivered to our customer either to the table or via delivery services to home. This process is both labour and time consuming.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION- F&B MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION 
The most common communication methods between store and restaurant supporting functions mainly rely on email, phones and communication apps such as Whatsapp and Wechat. In order to maintain control of the business operation of more than 23,500 employee, there are many layers of approvals in place before a decision can be made. This relies heavily on physical paperwork, manual signatures and transfers of documents. The process of information exchange requires time to complete and as a result, business decisions can be delayed. For monitor and control purposes, area coaches and managers must physically call the shops to understand the status of operation. There is no existing real-time tracking of store situations and performance. 
 

Themes

 

        HARDUST

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Retails/Shopping

How might we, as a pioneer of the F&B industry, create the dining experience of the future, that overcomes business limitations?                                                                            

How can we leverage data and create new hardware and supporting logistics for food services to meet the growing demand of speed, convenience and accessibility, making dining with JRG frictionless? How can we allow customers to be served anytime, anywhere, without barriers?  How can we create smarter interaction and connection between JRG and its customers?  How will we achieve operational efficiency while performing in more sales with better quality of services?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        HACKUST

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SocialInnovation

How can we effectively meet the evolving demand of customers with the help of technology and creativity?                                                                            

How Can data help to improve both operation and customer experience? How can we predict new needs and offer services in advance and prepare our staff for more customer-oriented services using technologies? Can we expand our customer base using these technologies? Can we leverage on any synergies, resources and opportunities between countries, brands, stores and teams?

Logistic

How might we, as an experienced player in the delivery scene, reach more customers faster, with efficient resource utilisation?                                                                            

How can we reach our customers with our product, faster? Can technology help optimise our logistic operation and eliminate idle resources being wasted? Are we able to perform better and more with less hurdles?

ManagementSystem

How might we, as an organisation of 23,500 employee, help simplify procurement, paperwork and reporting, given that all functions need to be appropriately controlled?                                                                            

How can we simplify and reduce manual tracking and monitoring of the store operation with distance in a real time manner? How can we reduce time delayed for business decision in layers of approval while maintaining adequate control of the business and its resources? How can digitisation help off-loading manual handling of physical documents?

Automation

How might we help to complete production more efficiently, given the product quality is to be maintained?                                                                            

How can we simplify our operation with the help of automation to reduce reliance on manpower and maintain controlled operational consistency? Can tasks be completed with minimal labour input? Can this be applied for supporting functions (business functions such as marketing, finance, IT and supply chain to support front line operation and business decisions) or production?

Criteria

Idea/ Technical Delivery 25%	•    Is it relevant to the challenge imposed?  •    Is it a good solution to the initial challenge?  •    Was the problem appropriately understood?  •    Do they understand the multiple stakeholders who might be involved?
Creativity 15%	•    How creative is the challenge?  •    Was it incremental of existing solutions or a radical solution?
Practicality/ Execution 15%	•    Does it work?  •    Is it testable? •    Did the idea come to live?  •    What is the UI and UX like?  •    How good is the design?  •    User friendliness?  •    Any bugs?
Design and Polish 15%	•    What is the UI and UX like?  •    How good is the design?  •    User friendliness?  •    Any bugs?
Feasibility 15%	•    How feasible is the project?  •    What is the key value of the project economically, socially and environmentally?  •    Is it sustainable?
Presentation 15%	•    How well are you selling it?  •    Is it convincing?  •    Are you confident in their idea and in answering questions?