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Overview

The Productivity Advantage was formed to be the ultimate resource for foodservice companies looking to significantly improve their unit-level operations performance. The professionals at The Productivity Advantage are expert in the design, execution and interpretation of industrial engineering methods including:

  • Analytical Modeling
  • Operations Research
  • Optimization
  • Lean
  • Statistics
  • Computer Simulation
  • Work Measurement
  • Ergonomics

Our experience is broad-based and extensive:

  • QSR
  • Fast Casual
  • Casual
  • Family Dining
  • Specialty Beverage
  • Amusement

The Productivity Advantage can create a customized scope of work to support a variety of initiatives:

Assessments

  • Opportunity identification
  • Platform comparison
  • Performance baselines

Facility Planning

  • Prototype design
  • Retrofit design
  • Capacity planning
  • Workstation design

Labor Management Solutions

  • Engineered labor guidelines
  • Labor standards
  • Software configuration
  • Deployment maps

Engineering Support

  • Analytical modeling
  • Process reengineering
  • Equipment/technology R&D
  • Ops engineering consulting

By leveraging our wide-ranging professional network, we can expand our capabilities to meet the needs of diverse project objectives. When appropriate, we can incorporate the following disciplines:

  • Operations Engineering
  • Equipment & Technology
  • Software
  • Culinary
  • Development
  • Architecture & Design

Our Philosophy


The one true means of achieving sustainable operations excellence is the implementation and realization of productivity gains. A commitment to continuous process improvement, coupled with a means for extracting the gains is necessary in order to leverage the power of productivity.


At The Productivity Advantage, we focus on delivering measurable impact. Change for the sake of change is antithetical to our core philosophy. Therefore, we subscribe to methods that ensure process improvement efforts are limited in scope, and prioritized, in order to achieve the maximum impact for the least amount of change.

The pathway to improvement is comprised of 4 primary elements:


The 4 elements for improvement
Rick Shoffstall

Rick Shoffstall

CEO and Founder

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As CEO and founder of The Productivity Advantage LLC, Rick is a well-established expert in the application of industrial engineering techniques in the foodservice industry. Rick has spent the past 15 years using his detailed and systematic problem-solving approach to provide significant impact to a large variety of nearly 100 foodservice concepts. Rick has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to combine his client relationship skills with his engineering expertise to deliver quantifiable results in the areas of labor management, process engineering, and facilities design.


Prior to establishing The Productivity Advantage, Rick was most recently a Principal and Vice President of Client Projects at Strategic Restaurant Engineering (SRE).


Rick leverages a detailed quantitative approach, broad industry experience, intense dedication, and quick common sense to effectively provide in-depth analysis and recommendations for his clients. Rick’s ability to determine the root cause of an issue, to leverage the current strengths of a concept, and to prioritize the most significant improvement opportunities allows him to consistently deliver immediate and lasting results.


Rick holds a B.S.-IE degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he graduated first in his class from the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering program. Rick currently resides in Mission Viejo, CA with his wife and two sons.

© 2010 The Productivity Advantage LLC