Enhancing Kitchen Layout and Training to Improve Management and Employee Satisfaction at a Multiproduct Japanese Cuisine Restaurant

This study was conducted to improve both management and employee satisfaction (ES) at multiproduct Japanese cuisine restaurants. Conventionally, restaurant industry research has emphasized the improvement of management satisfaction. However, restaurants must improve employee satisfaction because it deeply affects labor productivity and food quality. For this study, the kitchen layout was remodelled, a cell production system was introduced to a multiproduct Japanese cuisine restaurant, and the kitchen was designed using a kitchen simulator to enhance cooking time and to improve the working environment of staff members. Salary and promotion systems were changed to encourage staff members to adopt the cell production system. Cooking times were measured (existing layout, immediately after remodel, and 2 months after remodel) as KPI to confirm the efficacy of the redesigned kitchen. Questionnaires were administered to confirm employee satisfaction (as same times as measuring cooking speed). Results show that (1) remodelling of the kitchen layout using a kitchen simulator is useful to enhance the food preparation rate of a multiproduct Japanese cuisine restaurant, (2) the rate worsens immediately after remodelling because staff members are not accustomed with new kitchen layout, and (3) employees estimate that the remodelled kitchen layout is better than the existing kitchen and that the new salary system is reasonable for them, but they do not want to advance their skills because of their age and difficulty (some are already multiskilled workers).