Situational Analysis for Hotel Jerome

Case 1: Operations Strategic Role

Hotel Jerome, Aspen, Colorado

Operations Management

MANT 212

Situational Analysis and Operating Environment

Hotel Jerome is a luxury boutique hotel located in the historical region of Aspen, Colorado. Jerome is the self proclaimed quintessential Colorado ski resort for many reasons ranging from over a century's worth of history to their unsurpassed quality of service.

The features that characterise Hotel Jerome are:

* Historical Aspen land mark, been operating since 1889 (121 years)

* Located at the base of Aspen mountain Ski field.

* Top end luxury hotel industry.

* Caters to wealthy customers whom which price is no object.

* Being primarily a ski resort it is very seasonal but also offers activities during the summer months.

* High quality luxury facilities, amenities and resources.

* Knowledgeable, well trained, friendly staff that tend to every need no matter how hard or what time.

* 94 guest rooms with 4 different types.

* Each room is uniquely decorated to the highest of standards.

* Flexibility with 24 hour room service, customer care and check-in.

* Twice-daily maid service

* Complimentary local transport in a luxury SUV.

* Four diamond award winning.

* High quality dining experience.

* Reputable J-Bar

* Personalised weddings, services and functions.

* They guarantee the happiness of guests during their stay.

Thanks to all these features Hotel Jerome has gained competitive advantage through Quality and dependability with speed and flexibility being underlying factors that help achieve this.

Transformation Process

The transformation process is core to all operational activities. The process involves transforming inputs into outputs. There are two types of inputs that are used in this process, Transformed and Transforming. Transformed inputs are the resources that are changed in the process and include Materials, Information and customers. Transforming inputs are the resources that interact with the transformed resources to generate the desired output. Transforming resources are comprised of Facilities and Staff. The outputs are the goods or services. Most operations these days are a combination of both. It is important to be aware of this process and what our desired outputs are (good or service) to accurately inform the operations management decisions.

A basic model of the transformation process is shown below.

Keeping this key process in mind we can analyse the input resources for Hotel Jerome. The first resources are transformed such as Materials, information and customers. The materials used in Jerome's process are things like the ingredients for the food served in the restaurant and room service, beverages at the bar or in the fridge, and the transfer of hygiene products such as shampoo and soap. Another Transformed resource is the customer. Customers are Jerome's main input as being a hotel their primary purpose is to accommodate people. With their complimentary transport service they also transform the location of their customers. The final input resource for the hotel is information. They take customer information and transform it into a database that is key to keeping the hotel running smoothly and efficient.

The other form of inputs are transforming resources such as the facilities and staff. Being a luxury hotel the facilities are very high quality but are relatively 'low-tech'. They make possible the generation of the desired output. These facilities include the lobby, computer network, restaurant, kitchen, bar, guest rooms, offices, cars, pools and spa. Transforming resources also include the staff. The staff are the people who operate, maintain and manage the operations. In this hotel the staff include waiters, cleaners, desk staff, managers, cooks, bar staff, drivers and spa staff. As Hotel Jerome is a top-of-the-line hotel it is very important that all staff are well trained, knowledgeable and friendly to keep the standard of service high. An Organisations output can be one of pure goods or services but most are a mixture of both.

The diagram below demonstrates the differences between goods and services and shows where Hotel Jerome falls on the scale.

Hotel Jerome is close to being a pure service as their primary function is to accommodate people which is intangible, cannot be stored and involves high customer contact. However as mentioned previously they do have some tangible outputs such as the food and beverages they serve, and the complimentary hygiene products.

With the knowledge of what inputs are involved and what type of output they are transformed into, the hotel can prioritise its key operations resulting in more effective and efficient operations management.

The 4 V's

Some of the organisations more specific characteristics can be identified with the 'Four V's', Volume, Variety, Variation in demand and Visibility. The Diagram below shows these characteristics:

Hotel Jerome has a low volume of output. Being a luxury boutique hotel with only 94 rooms the tasks are relatively low repetitiveness, the staff are well trained and knowledgeable so they can perform multiple tasks if necessary and the price for the service of being accommodated is high. These are features of low volume output.

The Hotel would also be considered high variety for a few key reasons. The first is the flexibility they offer with 24 hour room service, check-in and customer care. The next reason is that the staff are available any time of the day to satisfy any customer request matching the service to the