Gordon Ramsay and Dr. Deming Working Together to Save a Failing Restaurant (or a hotel/motel)

I accidentally caught Gordon Ramsay on a rant one day on TV.  Ramsay was cussing (as in bleeped) out a business owner for being stupid and it caught my attention.  The more I watched the more I had deja vu that I have seen his systems approach to restaurant management before.  He, either knowingly or not, is like me, a follower of Dr. Deming's teachings on quality and management.  Here is a flow diagram of Dr. Deming's concept of a system.

Below is Dr. Deming's flow diagram still in black and blue colors.  What I have added in RED is the system flow diagram from Gordon Ramsay's show on the BBC channel "Kitchen Nightmares".

The beauty of the show is it is a perfect one hour example of Dr. Deming's systems approach.  I wish I had some inside knowledge of how the money flows to provide this level of business entertainment.  From a personal standpoint, I love the way it portrays the power of an outside consultant to implement change in a business.

Most shows start in the Deming flow diagram at the "test of processes, machines and methods".  This is where Gordon orders at least three things at lunch.  Typical comments, because these are failing restaurants, are "I wouldn't feed this to an alley cat."

While gathering information at every stage in the flow diagram Gordon moves to the "Production, Assembly, and Inspection" of the Deming flow diagram.  He does this by coming back and observing a dinner service (no changes in the business have been made at this point).  Again, as these are failing restaurants we can call this the "dinner disaster."  The owners and management can't see the forest for the trees.  The owners do not have anything near an appreciation of a system or any profound knowledge.

Gordon has on many occasions had to do creative consumer research.  He has filmed man-on-the-street interviews and rented theaters to show the businesses the error of their ways.  

Then, based on his findings he goes into "design and redesign" mode which causes changes in the entire system.

Fresh food (now we are at Deming's suppliers, materials and equipment), new menu, replacement of any equipment causing mechanical problems, updating of the decor.  Many times, based on Gordon's profound knowledge, a re-branding of the restaurant is based on his research of "what does this city need in the way of a restaurant."  

Next, after fights with the owners and tears by the owners Gordon sets a relaunch of the restaurant.  What a great show and lesson for all business owners.  To see how a relaunch goes watch the show...or wait for an update here. I can only have so much fun at a time.

I intend for this to be a work in progress, your comments might be included in future updates of this blog. 

Bob Rutherford is a management consultant/business coach in the area of quality, productivity, sales, marketing and social media. 

Among his current clients are Auburn University’s Office of Technology Transfer and theProgram for Advance Vehicle Evaluation (PAVE). 

He is also working to advance truck safety by helping the Australian/USA company AIR CTI to grow their system of central tire inflation worldwide.  As a fan of all things trucking he is helping Truck It Records to “keep trucking music alive.”  In addition, with his wife, he operates an Internet based mercantile site so that he always has first hand experience in the area of Internet commerce.

Links to Other Quality Management Articles by Bob Rutherford

 Why Should You Hire an Independent Quality and Productivity Consultant?

You Need Quality Management to Actually Have Quality Management

This is an Example of Dr. Deming's Idea of Continuous Improvement

Breaking the Rules of Quality—a Department Does a “Big Reveal”

A Business Act of Piracy as defined by Bob Rutherford

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