Complete an analysis of QuikTrip. Assess the organizational layout, performance metrics, and the technology that is used to measure performance and connect with consumers.

Instructions
http://supplychainresearch.com/images/quik_trip.pdf

Using the QuikTrip case study, write a 6–7 page paper in which you:

Evaluate QuikTrip’s operations strategy and explain how the organization seeks to gain a competitive advantage in terms of sustainability.
Analyze how operation management activities affect the customer experience. Select two operation management challenges and provide the solutions for confronting them.
Examine QuikTrip’s value chain and evaluate its effectiveness to operations in terms of quality, value creation, and customer satisfaction.
Determine the different types of performance measurements that can be used to measure QuikTrip’s service-delivery system design. Select at least two types that can be applied and provide justifications for the selection.
Examine the different types of technologies applied to QuikTrip’s service operations and evaluate how the technologies strengthen the value chain.
Use at least two quality resources in this assignment that do not include the initial case study. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as quality resources.
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Analyze the impact of operational strategies and practices on a business.  Quick Trip Case Study Essay Example

Quick Trip Case Study

Quick Trip is a large business organization. It is a chain of convenience stores with over one thousand employees in its Atlanta area stores alone. By November of 2010, its chief executive officer was Chet Cadieux who is a son to one of the business’ founders. The organization and business enterprise was founded in 1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma by two gentlemen. By the year 2010, it had a presence in 11 cities in the United States. At that time, it had opened a total of over five hundred stores across those eleven metropolitan areas. According to Mr. Cadieux, their five-year strategic objective in that year (2010) was to have 732 stores by the year 2014. To begin with, the organization planned to open 33 new stores in the year 2011 alone. By the time 2011 came, the business enterprise was generating yearly revenues of over $8 billion (Ton, 2011). This paper is about the organizational strategies behind the success of QuickTrip as well as its management and the reasons behind its competitive differentiation position.
Competitive Advantage
QuickTrip’s operation’s strategy is clearly to target high-value high-potential markets and quickly saturate it before competitors catch up. These are what the CEO called the ‘Million Metropolitan Markets’ or 3Ms. By doing this, the management had come to notice that committing organizational resources on smaller low-value markets was neither being profitable nor enabling the company to grow. In other words, there were many opportunity costs associated with doing business in smaller markets while larger metropolitan markets with high potential remained untapped.
QuickTrip seeks to gain competitive differentiation in terms of sustainability by diversifying and responding to customer needs. This can be demonstrated by the fact that the organization started with convenience stores but then quickly diversified into selling gas. This was forward thinking by the founders since they figured out that by having gas stations within major towns, people will have to drive in to fill gas. While at thus activity, they would then strategically attach a convenience store to the filling station and the customers filling gas would then benefit from the stop to shop. By looking back, it can be seen that this is a strategy that worked and that has since been copied around the world.
Still on diversification, the organization’s directors listened to the wishes of the customers and started preparing fresh cooked foods that they then sold at their convenience stores. This meant that they were now covering customers who needed uncooked foods, but also those who required fresh cooked foods that they could eat on the go. Clearly, this strategy of responsive diversification kept the business ahead of its competitors. Another reason that can be drawn from this strategy is that the company’s executives did extensive market research. This means that their decisions were research-based and therefore evidence-based. This is how they were able to determine that there was a potential market for cooked ready meals at convenience stores within American cities.
Operation Management and the Customer
In any business enterprise, operation management activities have a direct effect on the customer experience. This is because of the fact of heterogeneity of services. Because the customer experience of service delivery depends on many factors, there is need to effectively manage its delivery and try as much as possible to make it standard and reduce the inherent heterogeneity. For instance, one of the factors that affect the quality of services delivered is the emotional comportment of the employees. This is something that inevitably changes from day to day depending on the socio-economic status, physical health, and mental health of the employees. For effective delivery and maximum customer satisfaction, therefore; operations management has to take into account the wellbeing of the employees if the reality of satisfied customers is to be achieved. What is undisputed is that this requires transformational leadership from the organization’s executives (Asiri et al., 2016; Choi et al., 2016). From QuickTrip’s approach, it can be seen that they have already made efforts at making the employees be part of the success of the company by allocating them shares within the company. According to CEO Chet Cadieux, a good majority of the employees were already shareholders within the company by the year 2010. A transformational leader motivates, empowers, listens, and cares for employees.
Challenges
Two operations management challenges that can be cited in this case are the logistics of preparing fresh foods for sale in QuickTrip outlets and management of the human resource. The solutions for confronting these lay in the importance of having transformational leaders running the organization. But first, the executives within this organization already figured out that if each outlet were to prepare its own food for sale, efficiency would not only go down but the quality of the food would also differ across outlets. The solution therefore lay in having a giant centralized food preparation kitchen from where the prepared food is then distributed to outlets within the catchment area. As for management of the human resource, it suffices to have transformational leadership and the employees will feel protected, cared for, and wanted. With this frame of mind, they will want the company to succeed and will thus do the right things for this to happen even under no supervision. They will for instance avoid pilferage. Quick Trip Case Study Essay Example

The Value Chain
A value chain is a series of tasks carried out by a company to generate value for its consumers. Because the way value chain activities are carried out influences costs and revenues, it is critical to understand the firm’s sources of value. QuickTrip’s value chain is clearly to come up with products and services that customers make use of on a day to day basis. The goal is essentially to create convenience in one place for the customer. This is why despite the fact that the business started as a convenience store, the owners found it fit to diversify into gasoline selling and fresh cooked foods. This is clearly an integrated value chain that fits what the busy metropolitan customer wants. It is this diversification strategy that is at the forefront in giving QuickTrip an unassailable competitive advantage.
The above value chain by QuickTrip has proven to be highly effective to operations in terms of value creation, customer satisfaction, and quality of service. In terms of value creation, the value chain has ensured that customers get what they want in one place and without spending much time. While at the filing station, a customer will purchase gas, ready-to-eat food, and other provisions within a very short span of time. This is both time-saving and convenient. By having this kind of integrated service delivery, it has been possible for the organization to consolidate quality management and improvement since one manager can oversee all the three components of the business (gasoline sales, convenience store, and fresh cooked foods). In the end, customer satisfaction will be at its optimum because of the well-thought out value chain by QuickTrip.

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Performance Measures
Enterprise performance indicators are a collection of quantifiable measurements derived from a variety of sources that, when combined with a proper analytical procedure, enable a company’s management to track and assess the present state of a certain organization, program, or operation. The management of an organization can use these performance measures to initiate quality improvement initiatives that will make the company’s products and services better and increase customer satisfaction. Some of the performance measures that could therefore be used to measure QuickTrip’s service delivery system design include revenue generated per client (RPC), the profit margin (PM), and the client retention rate or CRR. The revenue per client metric as a performance indicator assesses organizational productivity and is very easy to calculate. It can be determined by dividing the total revenue generated (for instance every year) by the total number of customers who were served in that particular year.
The number of loyal clients that the organization retains successfully is critical for long-term viability and profitability. The strategy in this case is to ensure that clients get what meets or even exceeds their expectations. Retaining clients successfully ensures a loyal customer base. Then the profit margin is what shows that the organization is doing well financially. Two performance measures selected for QuickTrip are CRR and PM. The justification for this is that the success of the firm means that it is profitable and that the profits come from loyal customers that have been retained over the years.
QuickTrip’s Use of Technology
Technology has undoubtedly assisted in improving service delivery in all spheres of business. In the case of QuickTrip, interoperability of the billing system as well as stock management and inventory software ensure that it is able to deliver what the customer wants all the time and maintain its value chain. Quick Trip Case Study Essay Example

Conclusion
This case study of QuickTrip is an illustration of how running a successful business enterprise is premised on listening to what the customer wants and doing intense and meticulous market research. The organization in this case has managed to maintain a value chain that meets its customer’s expectations by adopting diversification and transformational leadership.
References
Asiri, S.A., Rohrer, W.W., Al-Surimi, K., Da’ar, O.O., & Ahmed, A. (2016). The association of leadership styles and empowerment with nurses’ organizational commitment in an acute health care setting: A cross-sectional study. BMC Nursing, 15(38), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-016-0161-7
Choi, S.L., Goh, C.F., Adam, M.B.H., & Tan, O.K. (2016). Transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: The mediating role of employee empowerment. Human Resources for Health, 14(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0171-2
Ton, Z. (2011). QuickTrip. Harvard Business School. http://supplychainresearch.com/images/quik_trip.pdf

Title of the Assignment

Topic Introduction

In the introduction section, introduce the company selected. Also, provide background information about the company.

Competitive Advantage

Here you will evaluate QuickTrip’s operations strategy and explain how the organization seeks to gain a competitive advantage in terms of sustainability.

OM and the Customer

In this paragraph make sure you analyze how operation management activities affect the customer experience. Select two (2) operation management challenges and provide the solutions for confronting them.

The Value Chain

Examine QuickTrip’s value chain and evaluate its effectiveness to operations in terms of quality, value creation, and customer satisfaction.

Performance Measures

Determine the different types of performance measurements that can be used to measure QuickTrip’s service-delivery system design. Select at least two (2) types that can be applied and provide justifications for the selection.

QuickTrip’s use of Technology

Examine the different types of technologies applied to QuickTrip’s service operations and evaluate

how the technologies strengthen the value chain.

Conclusion

Example: “In conclusion, there is value is in… Provide your learning from the assignment and the research.”

Sources

1. Business Insider. (2016). These Are the 7 Biggest US Airlines. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-7-biggestus-airlines-2016-4#1-delta-7
2. Federal Aviation Administration. (2017). Air Traffic by the Numbers. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/
3. Brett Snyder. (2009). December Premium Air Traffic Down More Than 13 Percent. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/december-premium-air-traffic-down-more-than-13-percent/

THESE ARE EXAMPLES OF SOURCE PLACEMENT.  PLEASE UPDATE WITH YOUR OWN.  Quick Trip Case Study Essay Example