Competitive Priorities

Competitive priorities are the critical dimensions that a process or supply chain must possess to satisfy its internal or external customers, both now and in the future.

Competitive capabilities are the costs, quality, time, and flexibility dimensions that a process or supply chain actually possesses and is able to deliver.

Cost

Low cost operations are delivering a service or a product at the lowest possible cost to satisfy the external or internal customers of the process or supply chain. Although Panera strives to produce the best quality foods they must also remember that food costs need to stay low in order to keep the customers happy and loyal to the Panera brand. In order to keep costs low for customers Panera must keep all of their costs low. They focus on using cheaper proteins such as chicken instead of a protein like shrimp which would drive up their prices. The staff must be efficient so that they avoid overproduction, waiting, defects, transportation, motion, and underutilization of employees. Since Panera is able to keep these types of waste low, they are able to keep their costs low.

Menu Displayed In-Store

Quality

Top quality is delivering an outstanding service or product. Panera prides themselves on serving great quality foods. Panera has grown into a highly profitable company that now serves 6 million customers each week. They were able to attract so many customers by realizing that the customer wanted fast food but wanted a higher quality experience. Panera offers real food that is not highly processed like other fast food chains. This chain also offers authentic bread. The freshly baked breads are made by bakers who work each and every day, hand-shaping and scoring the dough to bring freshly baked bread every morning and throughout the day. Panera advocates for clean food. They are committed to sourcing and serving high-quality ingredients without artificial additives including added MSG, artificial Trans fats, and ingredients. They believe artificial preservatives, coloring, sweeteners or flavors should never be in the food. The main advantage Panera has is the quality and variety of food that they offer. The menu offers choices such as salads, soups, sandwiches, and baked goods to name a few. Panera is devoted to raising, serving and eating food that is good and good for you. In conclusion, the main competitive priority that Panera has displayed are its position in the restaurant industry, its brand strength, the atmosphere of its restaurants, and the distinctive nature of its bakery products. The high quality food and fast casual style separates this chain from the rest.

Consistent quality is producing services or products that meet design specifications on a consistent basis. Panera maintains consistent food quality by properly training the salesforce so that all employees know to do everything the same way. Employees follow the same guidelines in order to make the same outstanding product every time. Panera is able to provide quality food by carefully selecting the distributors that make deliveries on a daily basis. The distributer provides dough, cream cheese, tuna, and other food items. The fresh dough has made a huge impact in Panera. Customers are happy with the fresh, high quality bread they can depend on at Panera.

Time

Delivery speed is quickly filling a customer’s order. Deliver speed time is very important to Panera and they are constantly striving to improve in this area. Advanced ordering to go is a new system that Panera has implemented to speed up delivery time. A customer may place an order up to five days in advance and then come pick it up without waiting in line and avoiding wait times. Order from your table is when a customer can come to the café and sit down anywhere and place the order from a laptop or mobile device and avoid waiting in line. Fast Lane Kiosks for Dine-In and To-Go Orders is a great new system that allows you to place your order on an iPad kiosk. This system is available along with cashiers to speed up the order process. These kiosks are also great for the customer to be able to customize their order to perfection.

Kiosk Placement

Development speed is quickly introducing a new service or product. In Panera’s case they are regularly trying to improve the menu and make changes that the customers will enjoy. They also offer different seasonal options such as pumpkin spice menu items during the fall season.

Seasonal Add-ons

Flexibility

Customization is satisfying the unique needs of each customer by changing service or product designs. With the new kiosk that Panera has implemented in the ordering process customers are able to customize their meals very precisely in a new, easy way. They can decide what extras they want on their menu item or what they would like to take off. Customization is a huge selling point for customers.

Variety is handling a wide assortment of services or products efficiently. Panera has a wide variety of menu items that they are able to efficiently keep up. Some of the different menu items are freshly baked breads, pastries, bagels, soups, and salads to name a few. Panera has been able to keep the classic menu items and also expand to new products.

New Kiosk

Volume flexibility is accelerating or decelerating the rate of production of services or products quickly to handle large fluctuations and demand. Panera has different times during the day were the demand is higher than other times. When the demand is high everyone on staff will pitch in to make sure the delivery speed does not decline. They are also able to use the new kiosks in order to speed things up. It is important to the customers to keep the delivery time consistent.

Front Office - Customer/Employee In-Store Interaction