Management of quality assurance in the Irish contract catering industry with specific reference to select business organisations
Ó Cearbhaill, Aodán
(1991)
Management of quality assurance in the Irish contract catering industry with specific reference to select business organisations.
Master of Business Studies thesis, Dublin City University.
Reference is repeatedly made in the media to consumer dissatisfaction with the Catering Industry. Consumer awareness
and exposure to new and varied foods via foreign travel has
raised expectations in relation to product quality and value
for money. This has created a demand for standards to be
raised and has caused Management to re-exaraine its strategy
in relation to consumer satisfaction. Loss of customer
confidence caused by a poor quality product has serious
consequences fo r any enterprise. Industry today is finding
that it costs fiv e times more to create a new customer than
to provide a system that relia b ly assures that each customer
Is satisfied. LX).
The trend towards contracting out non-core business activities
Is widespread in the U.S.A. and appears to be growing in Europe.
It may be that Ireland as a small open Economy cannot afford
to ignore this development.
The principal objectives of this dissertation are fir s t ly , to
examine the concepts of Quality and the Catering Product and
secondly, to analyse the growth In contracting out non-core
business a ctivities with specific reference to Catering.
Finally, the Quality o f the Catering Services in selected
organisations w ill be evaluated and compared. Organisations
were selected on the basis that while their core activities
are similar, the Catering is managed "In-house" in one firm
and by Contract Caterers in the ether. The results of this
research should yield valuable information on how Quality is
managed in the Contract Catering Industry and on the future
of that Industry as a business option.
The Catering function was selected for the study as it Is
the area on which to date, very l i t t l e has been written
about in terms of Quality or Contracting out in an Irish
context*
Item Type:
Thesis (Master of Business Studies)
Date of Award:
1991
Refereed:
No
Supervisor(s):
Chisnall, Peter M.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Quality assurance Standards Ireland.; Caterers and catering Ireland.