Introduction
Proper organization of the Floor Management area guarantees its proper functioning, facilitates its management and is materialized through a high level of customer satisfaction, the performance of the department's activities with quality and the achievement of economic efficiency. The main focus is on redesigning your work organization based on your clients. The main objective of the research is to carry out work organization studies in the Villa “Rancho Hatuey” Floor Management area in accordance with the procedure proposed by Martínez, 2010, which guarantees efficiency and effectiveness in terms of quality of the services and customer satisfaction, achieving an organizational change from within the area,that allows to fully manage each of the elements involved in obtaining the success of the tasks assigned to this area.
Development
1.1 Procedure selected to carry out work organization studies at Villa "Rancho Hatuey"
I. Initial, basic and essential organizational stage for carrying out the work study.
I.1. Meeting with hotel managers and workers directly involved in the room cleaning service.
At this stage, the objectives pursued with the study must be made known, explaining the need for the active participation of workers, committing them to the activity.
I.2. Group training and staff training.
Support groups and / or internal work study technical committee should be formed
I.2.1 General characterization of the entity
At this stage you must:
• Know the corporate purpose of the hotel, its mission, vision and strategic objectives.
• Make a characterization of the Facility.
I.2.2 Characterization of the floor management area
Characterization of the area taking into account the following aspects:
Work objectives established for the period under analysis
This is necessary to prioritize the solutions that most contribute to achieving them.
Organization of the area. Opinion of the current situation.
Describe the current organization of the room cleaning process, that is, how activities are currently being developed, to assess possible improvements.
II. Initial stage of work studies in the area of floor management.
II.1. Accuracy of problems related to the organization of work.
The need for this stage of work is given by the fact that as a consequence of the previous steps, problems of a general nature are generally obtained and even some are not infrequently detected.
III.- Stage of application of the Work Study Techniques in the area
III.1 Analysis of the problem
At this stage, all the information regarding the room cleaning process must be collected, and all the activities carried out in it from the beginning of the working day and until it ends, using the techniques of registration and critical examination must be analyzed.
Description of the room cleaning process.
Refers to the identification of the procedure by which the work is currently being performed. The room cleaning process can be diagrammed.
Specifications, Restrictions or Limitations.
It is necessary to define the specific characteristics of the area that influence the organization of the current work since these can define the results that are obtained and the decision-making that is made later.
Establish criteria to compare alternative solutions.
The fundamental criterion that must be taken into account to compare current methods and those proposed to know the degree of improvement that is obtained in the cleaning process, has to be to reach a greater time to dedicate to cleaning rooms.
III.2 Search for solutions.
At this stage, possible solutions must be designed and developed. There are multiple limitations that can be found and the solutions that they may have. They could be related to:
• Measures to improve working conditions.
• Measures to reduce work times not related to the main task (cleaning rooms).
• Proposal of a new work method for cleaning rooms which should summarize the experience of a group of outstanding workers in the activity, and should be a method superior to the one usually used.
For the design of a new working method in room cleaning service, two steps must be taken into account: a) Analysis and projection and b) Evaluation of alternative solutions.
III.3. Work regulations. Determination of the number of waitresses needed.
To find the number of chambermaids needed, the first thing is to have carried out the study of the working methods and conditions, defining the problems and having eliminated or reduced the organizational deficiencies.
In the selection of the factors, the criteria of the waitresses and supervisors must fundamentally intervene. According to (Cuesta, s / f), in order to obtain satisfactory accuracy in the normative values, it is sufficient to take into account the main factors that affect work expenses
III.4. Determination of the number of chambermaids.
The number of housekeepers required will be determined using the expression:
N = Q / Ft
Where:
N = Number of chambermaids needed.
Q = Estimated daily workload for each waitress expressed in minutes.
Ft = Time Fund of a waitress in a day expressed in minutes.
III.5. Evaluation of the results obtained.
At this stage, the proposed changes are evaluated, the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of each of the variants are analyzed and the impact of the measures on the human, economic and technical-organizational variable is determined.
III.6. Implementation.
The evaluated solutions must be presented within the framework of the organization's Board of Directors, with the General Director being empowered to approve the most appropriate one, guiding its implementation in the experimental mode. During this period, its feasibility and true impact on the aforementioned criteria are verified.
III.7. Monitoring and control of studies.
This stage is of vital importance since with it the systematicity and development of the entire study carried out is achieved. Taking control and evaluation and making the necessary adjustments.
1.2 Application of the selected procedure
Stage I: Initial organizational stage
Stage I.1
At this stage of the procedure, a meeting was held with the managers of the Floor Management area, informing them of the objective of the study of the work to be carried out, which consists of a deep analysis of the organization of the area in order to improve the processes carried out. and optimizing work times, the means to be used, and the area procedures.
Stage I.2
At this stage, a group of experts was created, made up of specialists from the entity and the Center for Tourism Studies of the Central University Marta Abreu de las Villas
I.2.1 Mission: Provide services to International Tourism in all its modalities, including events, incentives, health, nature, and others, in groups or individually, through our own agencies or third parties. Provide accommodation, gastronomic, recreational and other services typical of the hotel activity, for national and international tourism, in national and freely convertible currency.
Vision: To turn our services of excellence into the choice of customers. To be the leader of the Hospitality Industry in the City of Sancti Spíritus, providing services to our clients that are at the height of our categorization and corporate image and increasing the contribution to Society.
Strategic objectives:
1. Satisfy more than 75% of customers with a good service rating.
2. Guarantee compliance with the installation categorization requirements.
3. Comply 100% with the Property and Systems Improvement Plan.
4. Carry out active work on ethical-moral values of tourism workers.
5. Master 2 foreign languages in 30% of service workers.
6. Coordinate with suppliers the start of the high and low seasons.
I.2.2 Characterization of the floor management area.
The work day in the Floor Management area begins at 8:00 am and ends at 4:00 pm, but as a result of the opening meeting that is held with the general manager at 8:00 am, the housekeeper of key gives the room report to the chambermaids after finishing said meeting at approximately 8:30 a.m., so their work day is affected since they start work at 8:50 a.m., the methods and procedures of work are those established by the procedure manual of the area, for the cleaning of the empty clean and dirty rooms and for the occupied ones. At the moment, there are only 4 chambermaids working in the hotel in 5 housing blocks with a total of 77 rooms, for an average of 19.25 rooms per chambermaids,The chambermaids do not clean that number of rooms due to the decline in tourism at this time, but they clean a range of 7 to 13 rooms daily, the Floor Management area currently has an approved staff of eight (8) waitresses and cover of four (4) waitresses, who have to exert themselves significantly to carry out the daily tasks. The quality of the cleaning of the rooms and common areas is controlled by the housekeeper since there is no cleaning supervisor, therefore the controls are not carried out as they should be done, the housekeeper carries out the control only at 45 % of the rooms that are cleaned per day, as his workload does not allow him more,On many occasions she also has to help with the cleaning of rooms and other areas of the hotel since it is a lot of work for such a small workforce.
II.- Beginning stage of work studies in the area of Floor Management.
II.1. Problems:
In order to search for the fundamental problems that are affecting the quality of services in the area, meetings were held with area personnel such as; the waitresses, the cleaners and the housekeeper, as well as the application of the surveys applied to the area waitresses, the main problems detected were:
• Poor distribution of the work areas because there are few waitresses.
• Loss of time during your work day due to activities such as: opening meeting, waiting for the office, delivery of lingerie and others.
• Your workload is currently beyond your physical capabilities.
• The quality of their work is affected by time and high workload.
• There is no cleaning supervisor in the area.
• The housekeeper does not supervise 100% of the work done by the waitresses.
• The maids do not have slip resistant shoes and gloves to clean the bathrooms.
• Waitresses complain of body aches and pains in recent years.
• The sidewalks between the rooms are discontinuous and uneven, making it difficult to use the cleaning cart.
• Due to the existing problems with transportation within the hotel, the lingerie is delivered and collected late.
• Waitresses have to move from one block of rooms to another to do their jobs.
• When one of the waitresses is free, the work that corresponds to her is distributed among the others, which increases her burden considerably.
II.-Stage of application of the Work Study Techniques in the Floor Management Area.
To carry out this cover, studies were carried out on the use of the working day and the times it took the waitress to carry out her work, depending on the state of the rooms, were collected (HVL: Clean Empty Room, HOS: Dirty Occupied Room, HVS: Dirty Empty Room)
To determine the real times that the waitresses take to make the rooms according to type in the Villa “Rancho Hatuey”, the data were processed in the SPSS 11.0 software, it was determined that they follow a distribution. Which are shown in table 4.
Table 4. Real times that waitresses take to make rooms according to type (Source: Own elaboration)
III.2 Plan of measures to solve existing problems:
a) Analysis and projection
Measures to improve working conditions.
- Increase the staff covered by the waitresses at least 2 more, one of them free covers, in order to reduce workloads and ensure that each has its own housing block. (Responsible: Department of HR Izlazul, SS, Executor: Department of HR Izlazul, SS)
- Approve the place by the Management and the Human Resources Department of the chain of a cleaning supervisor so that 100% of the cleaning carried out is controlled to relieve a little of the work of the housekeeper. (Responsible: Department of HR Izlazul, SS, Executor: Department of HR Izlazul, SS)
- Repair and condition all the accesses to the rooms and sidewalks to improve the movement of the cleaning trolleys of the maids and the passage of the clients through these areas. (Responsible: Maintenance Department, Executor: area workers)
- Request the purchase of work tools such as anti-slip shoes, gloves and others. (Responsible: General Director, Executor: Purchasing Department)
- Check by means of medical analyzes the health of the waitresses periodically to know if they are fit for work. (Responsible: Quality Department, Executor: Nurse)
Measures for the reduction of work times not related to the main task (cleaning of rooms).
- The housekeeper will collect and deliver the room report before joining the opening meeting with the general manager, to eliminate unnecessary loss of time. (Responsible: Housekeeper Department, Executor: Housekeeper)
- The supervisor should focus her work fundamentally on the quality of cleaning and hygiene that the rooms require for their disposal. (Responsible: Housekeeper, Executor: Supervisor)
- Prioritize hotel transport in early hours to deliver the lingerie in time for the work of the waitresses. (Responsible: General Director, Executor: Wardrobe)
Proposal for a new working method:
To properly take advantage of the reserves that may exist, the design phase of the work processes and methods is necessary, whose objective is to project more rational procedures, actions and work movements, and an optimal sequence in the fulfillment of the work process, with which that the elimination of unnecessary actions and movements will be achieved.
The method is the following:
1. Entrance of the waitresses to the hotel: 7:00 am.
2. The housekeeper will collect the room report at 7:30 am and will distribute it to the chambermaids so that they can join in their task at the established time at 8:00 am.
3. At 8:00 am, the waitresses will leave for their respective modules to carry out their tasks (which is fixed, after hiring the 2 waitresses).
4. It begins with the inspection of all the rooms that have departure that day.
5. After not detecting any problems in the rooms, they will receive the linen and they will begin to clean rooms with the required quality since they have the time necessary for the activity. In case of detecting a problem, notify the housekeeper at the time.
6. At 10:00 am, the waitresses will have a rest and snack time of 20 minutes, during which they can go to the bathroom and rest to resume the task.
7. At 10:20 am they begin their work again after a break, they move to their respective blocks and continue with their task.
8. From 12:00 to 12:40 they have a time for lunch and rest where they can talk with their classmates and relax in the way they want.
9. After lunch they will continue their work at 1:00 pm, where they will work continuously until 3:30 pm, at this time all the rooms must be ready for the reception of new clients.
10. At 3:30 pm they must have all the rooms clean and properly checked by the cleaning supervisor who is in charge of quality in the area.
11. From 3:40 to 3:50 the dirty linen will be delivered for removal from the waitress's office to the wardrobe where it will be packed and ready to be picked up for washing and preparation.
12. At 4:00 pm, the workers' transport leaves for Sancti Spíritus to take the workers of the facility to their homes.
13. In this way, the waitresses work day will end.
b) Evaluation of alternative solutions.
This new working method is similar to the existing one but presents three differences that in one way or another directly influence the quality of the tasks performed and the customer's satisfaction, which are:
• Appreciable reduction by the waitresses of the workload they had before proposing this new method.
• Considerable reduction in time lost due to easily solvable reasons such as the opening and reception meeting and the delivery of lingerie.
• Upward increase in quality and efficiency without increasing costs, the same services are properly organized.
To compare the solutions that have been obtained in the design period, the selected procedure proposes to calculate a productivity index. It refers to productivity when we talk about: Number of rooms that a chambermaid can clean in a working day, at a normal rate and with the required quality. In this case, the proposed index does not proceed to its calculation since what is proposed in the current method is to reduce the amount of work carried out by the waitresses, increase the quality of the cleaning carried out by them, improve the working conditions and eliminate radically the loss of time within the facility, in order to increase productivity focused on customer satisfaction and not on the number of rooms to be cleaned.
III.3. Work regulations. Determination of the number of waitresses needed.
To find the number of chambermaids needed, the first thing is to have carried out the study of the working methods and conditions, defining the problems and having eliminated or reduced the organizational deficiencies.
III.4. Determination of the number of chambermaids.
To search for the data necessary to perform the calculation, a sample of three (3) months was taken: March, April, May, to collect average data such as the Number of Rooms per Group (CHG), the Booking (B) and the cleaning time averages for each type of room, selected from the detailed photograph applied to the maids at the facility, as can be seen in table 2.
The groups selected to obtain the necessary data to calculate the workload in the area were: SAGA from England, senior citizens, MEIERS from Germany and The Best of Cuba from Holland, which are the ones that most visit the hotel during the year.
The number of housekeepers required will be determined using the expression:
N = Q / Ft
Where:
N = Number of chambermaids needed.
Q = Estimated daily workload for each waitress expressed in minutes
Ft = Time Fund of a waitress in a day expressed in minutes.
To determine the time background, the first thing is to apply the individual detailed photography technique and determine the duration of the activities carried out by the maid outside the cleaning of rooms, to set the time of regulated interruptions (TIR), the conclusive preparation time (TPC), service time (TS). The times invested in the activities classified as IRR, TPC, TS which can be found in Annex 6, these must be analyzed in order to project the method of execution of said activities that make the work more efficient, that is, the times used in these tasks are the minimum necessary.
With said time defined and also with the rest time and personal needs (TDNP) which was determined from the three (3) individual photographs taken in the facility, the amount of time available to dedicate to cleaning rooms will be determined by means of the following expression:
Ft = JL - (IRR + TPC + TS + TDNP)
JL = 480 min. (Working hours)
TDNP = 27.33 min
After the Time Fund of a waitress is determined, it is multiplied by the number of days worked (26 each month) by the waitress in the period of time selected by the regulator, which in this case is three (3) months, in total 77 days.
FT = 480 - (11.66 + 36.66 + 30 + 27.33) = 374.35 * 77 = 28824.95 min
N = Q / Ft
N = 161 146.24 min. / 28 824.95 min = 5.59 ≈ 6 Waitresses
III.5. Evaluation of the results obtained.
In this stage, the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of each of the variants will be deeply analyzed, to determine the impact of the measures on the human, economic and technical-organizational variable, this study will be carried out by the Hotel Management, the Department of Human Resources of the Islazul SS Company and the personnel of the Floor Management area, in order to evaluate the possible results of the proposed organization method.
III.6. Implementation
The solutions evaluated will be presented to the organization's Board of Directors, with the General Director being empowered to approve the implementation in the experimental mode of the new method for a specified time. In this period, its feasibility and true impact on the aforementioned variables will be verified.
If in this trial period it is shown that the new method of organizing work brings positive results for the entity and contributes to the satisfaction of the end customer, it is approved and it is put into practice.
III.7. Monitoring and control of studies.
This stage is of vital importance since with it the systematicity and development of the study carried out will be achieved. Taking control and evaluation of the measures adopted and making the necessary adjustments.
Compliance with the measures derived from work organization studies and their expression in economic, physical, financial and other indicators that allow their analysis, comparison and establishment of actions to rectify deviations and continue improvement should be systematically controlled.
3.3 Conclusions
1. The organization studies carried out in the Apartment Management area are of vital importance for the improvement of the work processes carried out in the area and become an effective tool for the management of the accommodation area.
2. Said studies were validated through the judgment of experts, who recognize the feasibility of their implementation in the context of the area, and the pertinent statistical analyzes, with the SPSS 11.0 software and the statistical expressions proposed by Marsán.
3. The degree of contribution of the organization studies in the area is evident, for the improvement of the indicators of labor productivity in the entity under study, based on evaluating the partial results of the research.
Bibliography
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