Process Flow, productivity and capacity

Systems approach to food service organizations

the basis of understanding and integrating knowledge from a number of specialized fields

Closed system

physical and mechanical are closed in their environment

Open system

Biological and social are in constant interaction with their environment

System

collection of interrelated parts or subsystems unified by design to obtain one or more objectives

Subsystems have

established arrangement

Flow of resources is more important than…

than the basic elements

Organization objectives more important than

those of subsystems

What does the systems approach to management mean?

keeping the organization’s objectives in mind throughout the performance of all activities

• requires a communication network and coordination among all parts of the organization

What are the elements/ principles of the systems theory

• dependency

• Responsiveness

• Results

• Focus

Input

human, physical or operational resources required to accomplish system objectives

Input: Human Resources

Are skills, knowledge, and energies or people required for the system to function

Input: Physical Resources

facilities and materials

Input: Operational Resources

money, time, utilities, and information

Transformation

• involves any action or activity used in changing input into output

• Like activities involved in the procurement of food

output

The result form transforming the input

• Represents achievement of the system’s goal

What are the functional subsystems of traditional foodservice operations

1. Purchasing

2. Receiving

3. Storage and inventory control

4. Preparation and ingredient assembly

5. Production

6. Distribution and service

7. Sanitation and maintenance

types of food service systems

1. Conventional

2. Ready prepared

   • cook-chill

   • Cook- freeze

3. Commissary ( central kitchen production)

4. Assembly and serve

Conventional

menus prepared in kitchen in same facility where meals are served

• held for short period before being served

• Over the years the amount of production and labour required has decreased

Advantages to conventional

• quality control of menus, recipes, and ingredients

• Adaptable to regional, ethnic, and individual preferences

• Flexible, take advantage of market buys

Disadvantages to coventional

• workload varies from day to day, for skilled and unskilled labour

• More shifts for more wormers

• Scheduling is more difficult

Ready Prepared or (cook-chill/freeze)

• foods prepared on premises, then chilled or frozen and stored for later use

• Place of preparation is not always place of service

• Food is prepared and cooked conventionally

  • Temperature is brought down to 37C in 90 minutes or less and refrigerated or frozen

• Can be pre-plated or put into bulk containers and then stored

• Food can be reheated and served easily

Advantages to prepared or (cooked-chill/freeze)

• production can build up menu inventory

• Staff have normal work week and reasonable hours

  • Less employee turnover

• Reduction in production labour costs

• Improved nutrient retention by decreasing time food is held within temperature range

• Balanced use of equipment, spread over 8 hours instead of mealtime only

• Management has control over menu selection, ingredient quality and portion size

Disadvantages to prepared or (cooked-chill/freeze)

• need for large cold storage and/or freezer units; take up space and increase energy cost

• Control of food safety; freezing has to be continuous and free from bacteria

• Freezing system must freeze quickly, otherwise

• Need appropriate equipment to re-thermalize foods = costly

Commissary (Central Production Kitchen)

• large central production kitchen with centralized food purchasing

• Delivery of prepared foods to service/satellite locations for final preparation and service

• Uses large, sophisticated equipment for preparatio and cooking large quantities of food from a raw, unprocessed state

• Prepared foods can be stored frozen, chilled, or held hot prior to delivery

Advantage of Commissary

• large volume purchasing

• Reduced duplication of labour and equipment

• Quality Control may be more effective and consistent with only one supervisory unit

Disadvantage of Commissary

• Food safety and distribution may be concerns

• Many critical points in mass food production where contamination my occur

• Food has to be loaded, transported and maintained at proper temperature

• Requires specialized equipment and trucks for delivery

• High cost of purchasing, maintenance and repair of equipment

Assembly and Serve

• no on-site food production, kitchenless kitchen

• Fully prepared foods purchase, require only storage, final assembly, heating and serving

• Often makes use of disposable tableware = no dish washing

• They also sue sous-vide foods

  • Foods are boiled in packaging they are stored

Who are the primary users of assembly and serve

hospitals and fast food restaurants

advantages of assembly and serve

• labour savings

• Equipment, space and operating costs minimal

Disadvantages of assembly and serve

• higher cost of prepared foods may not be offset by the labour savings

• customer acceptability

• Are nutritional requirements met?

• Equipment is costly

• Recycling of packaging materials

• People do not like the food

Regional distribution facility (RDF)

provides patient meal service in Winnipeg regional health authority

Commissary production; then assembly/serve at satellite facilities (hospitals,etc.)

What are the 5 main management functions

1. Planing

2. Organizing

3. Staffing

4. Leading

5. Controlling

• a manager must organize, staff, lead, and control

Computers and Management

• job of management has been considerable assisted by computers

  • Able to give management accurate and reliable information in a short time

• Easier decisions, make fast action responses to changing conditions or unexpected developments

• Results in better plannng, improved organizational control, simplified tasks, more time to devote to planning and supervision

uses for computers

• menu planning

• Standardized recipes and ingredient files

• Forcasting

• Production planning

Uses for computers: Menu Planning

• used to produce menus to meet specific patron/ client and operational need within cost limitations

• Can include instructions to avoid repetition of foods

• Recipe sizes can be expanded or reduced

Uses for computers: Standardized recipes and Ingredient files

• known quality and quantity as well as cost

• Specify code number or code name

• Amount of food produced

• Number of portions

• All ingredients used for the recipe’s

Uses for computers: Forcasting

management must develop a projection of the number of menu items that will be sold

Uses for computers: Production Planning

need to know what menu items to prepare, quantity of food when foods are to ve produced, who is preparing it, where it will be needed

Process flow diagram

proces is a collection of tasks, connected by flow of gooods and information that transforms various inputs into more valuable outputs

inventories

are storage points where no value is being added. We should ty to minimize inventories to reduce costs

types of inventories

• raw material inventory (RMI)

• Work in process inventory (WPI)

• Finish product/goods inventory (FPI)

capacity

the maximum level of goods and services output that a given system can produce over a set period of time

Productivity

a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of input used to produce those goods and services

Bottleneck

a point of congestion in a production system (such as an assembly line or a computer network) that occurs when workloads arrive too quickly for the production process to handle

The maximum capacity of a system is limited by the capacity of the

bottle neck, and it is importat to identify and resolve long-term bottlenecks to increase the system’s capacity