Sweet Ride is a busy coffee shop in the casino food court with a million dollars of annual sales, but the physical space is difficult to work in. Students on the MotorCity team will analyze and optimize the space and operations at Sweet Ride to improve customer service and the bottom line.
Abstract:
The MotorCity Casino has a wide array of food and beverage services between the casino, hotel, and bars. Sweet Ride, located in the casino food court, sells Starbucks Coffee, and snacks such as sandwiches, popcorn, and fresh baked pastries. This coffee shop does over a million in sales annually, but is a suboptimal workspace with opportunities for improvement in sales and service. Currently, Sweet Ride struggles with capturing post-concert and conference center business rushes. They would benefit from a better promotion of their product while guests are lining up, and optimizing spur of the moment “check-out line” sales. Sweet Ride also needs a more efficient workspace for the team members to increase output.
The food and beverage team at MotorCity plans to reimagine the space and process flow at Sweet Ride. Students on the MotorCity team will do a full study of the space and how it is utilized, identifying process bottleneck and areas for improvement (e.g., equipment change, menu adjustment), developing and recommending a redesign of the space and processes to improve the customer experience, the workers environment, and profits.
Impact:
Optimizing the operations at Sweet Ride will allow MotorCity to provide the high level of customer service and satisfaction they strive for. Additionally, a more optimized layout and process will make work easier for their employees, and drive efficiencies that will directly impact their bottom line.
Scope:
Minimum Viable Product Deliverable (Minimum level of success)
- Background and literature review that includes current theory and practice in time/motion studies, best practice examples from within the restaurant industry, the MCC food and beverage physical facilities, MCC financial and operational goals within their food and beverage portfolio, identifying necessary equipment and understand proper use, etc.
- Identifying and benchmarking best in class operations.
- Interviewing the different stakeholders (customers, food service workers, management, facilities, etc.) to understand their needs and perspectives.
- Analysis of operations at Sweet Ride including cycle time, inventory, throughput, sales, etc.
- Optimization proposal, given the constraints of the current equipment and footprint of the facilities.
Expected Final Deliverable (Expected level of success)
- Verification of process optimization proposal with real world data.
- Proposed changes to physical space and operations to improve profitability, throughput, etc. supported by simulation results.
Stretch Goal Opportunities: (High level of success)
- Identify new tools and technologies to further increase production, such as robots and cobots.
- Recommend menu changes that would improve aspects of the operations (throughput, waiting times, staffing efficiencies, customer satisfaction, reduction in order errors, etc.)
- Include a process for supporting online orders.
Below are the skills needed for this project. Students with the following relevant skills and interest, regardless of major, are encouraged to apply! This is a team based multidisciplinary project. Students on the team are not expected to have experience in all areas, but should be willing to learn and will be asked to perform a breadth of tasks throughout the two semester project.
Operations Analysis (3-4 Students)
Specific Skills: Understanding and experience with cycle time, throughput, and variability measurements.
Completion of IOE 440 is a plus.
Likely Majors: IOE, DATA, ISD, BBA
Quantitative Modeling (1-2 Students)
Specific Skills: Well-developed practical quantitative modeling and simulation skills.
Likely Majors: IOE, DATA, MATH, STATS
Facility Planning/Ergonomics (1-2 Students)
Specific Skills: Ideal ergonomics and facilities planning
Completion of IOE 447 is a plus.
Likely Majors: IOE, ISD
Additional Desired Skills/Knowledge/Experience
- Proactive self-motivated individuals, with strong problem-solving skills.
- Interest and ability to work in a multidisciplinary team environment.
- Experience working in a restaurant or food service is a plus.
- Experience/interest in data analytics applied to a business environment.
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Sponsor Mentor
Michael Golden
VP of Food & Beverage
Michael is currently the Vice President of Food & Beverage with MotorCity Casino Hotel. He joined the team as the Banquet Chef in 2009. His career has been focused on the seasonal, recreational and entertainment based service industry, from Mackinac Island to the Detroit Red Wings.
Faculty Mentor
Oshin Tyagi
Oshin is an assistant professor in the department of Industrial & Operations Engineering. Her research interests are in neuro ergonomics and occupational biomechanics with a focus on investigating and supporting human capabilities in critical states, such as stress and fatigue, or high-risk environments. Her proposed research work integrates neuro ergonomics with traditional HF/E approaches to better understand human capabilities and task demands associated with physical performance under cognitively demanding conditions, or while using emerging technologies like exoskeletons, virtual reality, and augmented reality. In addition to her other achievements, she was awarded the Human Factors Prize at Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) in 2022
Weekly Meetings: During the winter 2025 semester, the MotorCity team will meet on North Campus on TBD.
Work Location: Work will take place on campus in Ann Arbor. There will be periodic field trips to the MotorCity Casino location in Detroit to interview stakeholders, develop a better understanding of the business environment, and collect observational data. MDP will provide transportation to the facility as required.
Course Substitutions: CE MDE, ChE Elective, Data Science MDE/Capstone, EE MDE, CoE Honors, IOE Senior Design, SI Elective/Cognate
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students. Note: International students on an F-1 visa will be required to declare part time CPT during Winter 2025 and Fall 2025 terms.
IP/NDA: Students will sign IP/NDA documents that are unique to MotorCity Casino.
Summer Project Activities: No summer activity will take place on the project.
Learn more about the expectations for this type of MDP project
If you have any of these characteristics, highlight them on your Experience and Interest Form and talk about them in your (optional) one way video interview.