Analysis of a Coffee Shop That Uses PERT-CPM
Training coffee shop employees to work together as a team requires a strategy for teaching smaller skills within the context of the larger operation. The "critical path method," called CPM, is a system for project completion. It can help coffee shop employees understand the mandatory steps in making coffee drinks and filling customer orders. The "project evaluation and review technique," known as PERT, has elements in common with CPM, and allows for adjustment to project completion steps.
The critical path method is a means of determining a given project's essential steps to ensure timely completion. In a CPM model, delays in meeting benchmarks along a project's critical path also cause delays in completing the project as a whole. The project evaluation and review technique is a method of determining the time needed to complete project steps. PERT uses multiple completion times to create several scenarios a team can use in determining the best course of action. Over time, these two methods of project completion have merged into a single technique known as PERT-CPM. Together, these techniques allow a project team to create a diagram showing points or nodes along a project's critical path and the objectives needed to satisfy each node.
Coffee Shop Operation
The often fast-paced environment of a modern coffee shop requires employees to complete tasks, including making drinks and completing sales, in short amounts of time. A coffee shop using the PERT-CPM method can train employees to follow specific steps along critical paths to complete customer orders quickly with little wasted time. This can include assigning specific customer service tasks to each employee over a given shift. For example, one employee focuses on taking customer orders while another employee focuses solely on making coffee drinks. The division of labor allows for overall faster delivery of customer orders.
Performing Specific Tasks
Training coffee shop employees to perform specific tasks within assigned roles is integral for the PERT-CPM method of project completion to work for the small business. For example, training employees to make espresso drinks that satisfy various customer orders requires education in proper tamping technique, obtaining the correct grind for espresso beans, correct pulling times for liquid espresso, proper milk temperatures, and wand techniques. A coffee shop using the PERT-CPM method creates a diagram showing the nodes along the steps to making basic espresso drinks, while detailing the variables employees use when making special customer orders.
Relationship of Activities
All project steps within the PERT-CPM method interrelate, in that the team works on individual benchmarks to achieve common goals. In a coffee shop using this method, employees work together within individual assigned roles to complete larger tasks. No single employee is responsible for the completion of entire customer orders. This compartmentalized focus allows employees to place every effort into completing each step along the critical paths of every customer order. Employees also understand the order of events needed to complete orders in a timely fashion. For example, employees working at the espresso bar understand they can't begin to make drinks until customer service employees clearly communicate orders.
Jonathan Lister has been a writer and content marketer since 2003. His latest book publication, "Bullet, a Demos City Novel" is forthcoming from J Taylor Publishing in June 2014. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Shippensburg University and a Master of Fine Arts in writing and poetics from Naropa University.