Komala’s restaurant of Singapore

• Main Authors: Viswanathan, S., Allampalli, D. G.
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Case Study
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/99798; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/13537; http://www.asiacase.com/case/ntuAbcc/komala.html
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Serving Thosai, the most popular south Indian snack, within three minutes after placing the order is a tough challenge for any restauranteur. But Sekar from Komala's of Singapore achieved the feat with the successful adoption of the fast food and self-service concept. Studying the Little India outlet in Singapore, the case documents the service concept of Komala's by describing the process enablers for service concept and presenting how the Sekar brothers used a well-designed, four-station operations system with clearly specified tasks for the crew involved in the workflow. This helped to accomplish the business goals of offering a large product range, providing a superior ambience to customers, attracting skilled manpower and competitive pricing. As a result, the volume of business operations soared. However, the seasonal peak demand created capacity constraints and this resulted in customers being lost to neighbouring restaurants. The case provides an opportunity to apply process analysis concepts to identify bottlenecks in a service operation. Period covered 1995 – 2000