Case Details
Wong’s Egg Waffle Store: Streamlining Operations and Demand Surge
Wong’s Egg Waffle Store is a small family-run shop in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong, located near HKU and popular with students, residents, and tourists. After a social media influencer featured the store, demand surged sharply, creating long queues, longer waiting times, and operational pressure on Mrs. Wong, who usually runs the shop alone during weekdays. The store sells two flavors—original and chocolate—both priced at HKD15, with original accounting for about 70% of demand. Production involves order taking, batter pouring, cooking, removal, cooling, packaging, and payment. Although the store owns five waffle irons, Mrs. Wong can effectively manage only three when working alone, while Mr. Wong’s evening and weekend support allows all five irons to be used more efficiently. The main constraints are waffle iron capacity, labor availability, flavor-specific iron allocation, and defect rates, especially during peak hours. The case asks students to analyze process flow, cycle time, bottlenecks, effective capacity, defect-adjusted output, equipment reallocation, and the value of adding a sixth iron. It also introduces possible technology solutions, such as a queuing number machine and self-service ordering kiosk. Ultimately, the case challenges students to recommend operational, pricing, and demand-management strategies that improve efficiency, profitability, and customer experience.
Learning Objective:
1. Analyze process flow, bottlenecks, and capacity constraints
Students should learn how to map a service-production process, identify bottlenecks, calculate cycle time, and estimate maximum capacity under different labor and equipment conditions.
2. Evaluate operational improvement alternatives using data
Students should be able to compare process changes such as reallocating waffle irons, adding equipment, reducing defects, and changing labor division, while assessing their impact on throughput, quality, and profitability.
3. Connect operations decisions with customer experience and demand management
Students should understand how queues, waiting time, pricing, technology adoption, and fluctuating demand affect service quality, customer satisfaction, and the long-term sustainability of a small business.