Dining_Hall

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Capacity Demand Matching Approaches-Dining Hall IIML Introduction Indian Institute Of Management Lucknow is one of the premier institutes of management studies in the country. It is located at a distance of 11Km from Lucknow on a sprawling 200 acre campus. It is a fully residential campus offering facilities for 500 students and 75 teaching staff.It has one of the finest libraries which is spread over 30000 square foot and is accessible 24 hours of the day. Amongst the other facilities are a computer centre with state of art computing facilities, departmental store, post office, bank, health centre and a kendriya vidyalaya..The dining hall located centrally is one of the busiest place with students arriving four times in a day for the meals. It is proposed to carry out a capacity demand analysis of the dining hall and make necessary recommendations Capacity The dining hall measures -----*------ and is divided into the dining hall proper, the kitchen area which is visible from dining hall, store rooms, wash rooms and a cleaning area. There is a central service point with two counters, a side service point for extra items and occasionally an additional service point for serving milk during night for dinner. The hall has a maximum seating capacity of 250 students at any one time with six rows of tables laid across the dining hall and three rows along the length of dining hall. The optimal capacity is for 150 students A TV is provided as a source of entertainment for the students while they are having their meals. There is a definite scope for improving the ambience of the dining hall. Backstage The kitchen measures ----*----- and has two gas based stoves. The entire area is visible from the dining hall and facilitates easy transfer of prepared food to the service counters. There are a few labor saving devices to include Atta kneading, grinder and a vegetable cutting machine. The kitchen has not yet been modernized and automated. The washing of plates and utensils is carried out manually and gives a untidy cluttered picture. Dry ration is supplied once in 15 days and fresh ration daily by the contractors. Staff The dining hall is managed by a student committee which is elected by the students. The day to day operations are overseen by two managers and a staff of 26 personnel. The staff works on a continuous period of 24 hrs from 3 PM to next day 3 PM.and then has a break of one day. During each shift a team of 3 cooks and twelve waiters manage the operations. The waiters are multi skilled and are involved in preparation of food along with the cooks. Demand The clientele of the dining hall is primarily made up of PGP students. There are a total of 400 students in the First year and 350 in the second year, thus making a total of 750 students. In addition there are students doing the GMP and the FPM course making it a total of 800 students. The timings are as follows:- * Breakfast-0730 to 0930 hrs * Lunch - 1230 to 1430 hrs * Tea - 1600hrs to 1800 hrs * Dinner 1930 hrs to 2130 hrs Strategies for managing demand Due to the nature of arrival and the timings laid down there is fluctuation in demand. This is especially noticed during lunch hours when the entire lot of PGP1/2 students arrive in a short span of time resulting in delay in providing services. However, the management has been able to smoothen the demand as also manage the capacity. The various methods are covered in succeeding paragraphs. Segmenting Demand On working days the demand is segmented by varying the timings of different batches. Usually PGP classes commence at 0830 hours and the GMP at 0845 hours. The PGP 2 students generally have classes distributed throughout the day. Thus it is ensured that all the students do not come at the same time for a major meal. On Sundays and holidays the students arrive at random intervals thus smoothening the demand. Developing Complementary Services In addition to the menu provided at the two central counters, there is an additional counter on one side of the dining hall catering for specialized menu on payment. A number of students make use of this service and thus the load at the main counters are reduced. Strategies For Managing Capacities Daily Work shift Scheduling To cater to the fluctuating demand the staff consisting of two supervisors,6 cooks and 24 waiters work on a shift basis. One team of 3 cooks and 12 waiters are scheduled to work from 3 PMto 3 PM .They are further assigned various duties to wash utensils, man the counters clean the tables, provide water on a rotational basis. Amongst them two are assigned to work during the entire night to provide snacks and tea for the student community. It is felt that there is scope for automation in various of aspects of preparation and service to include provision of automatic chapatti maker, dishwasher, potato peeling machine etc. Increasing Customer Participation The strategy of increasing customer participation has been fully implemented in the dining hall. All food items except controlled items are laid at the central serving stations and the students pick up the plates and serve themselves. Items like non vegetarian dishes and sweet dishes are served by a waiter to exercise control over the quantity. The students also clear the table, pick up their plates and glasses and deposit them at the counter for washing thus eliminating the requirement of waiters for serving and removing plates. Hence the capacity to serve varies more directly with the demand rather than being fixed. Sharing Capacity It is seen that the eating places in the adjoining shopping complex provide a variety of food to the students. On holidays and when the menu is repetitive in the dining hall some of the students have their meals at these facilities. This can be considered to sharing capacity since a cerain percentage of students are diverted from the dining hall thus reducing the demand. Cross Training Employees As there is a shortage of personnel for preparation of food, the waiters are trained to carry out a number of tasks including cutting of vegetables, preparation of chapattis, making of toast and tea, preparation of varieties of egg dishes and washing of cutlery and crockery. This has reduced the need for employing specialist personnel. The flexible use of the waiters also caters for meeting any sudden unforeseen rush of students DEMAND FOR SERVICE-DINING HALL. Managing Waiting Waiting is a part of everyone’s life and it can involve an incredible amount of time. As the students are hard pressed for time it has to be ensured that they do not wait in long queues for taking the food. This has been ensured by providing two counters from where they can simultaneously serve themselves. In addition by providing an extra messing counter some of the students are diverted from the main food counter. The arrival of students over a period for all the meals over half hour periods has been plotted on the graph. It is only during the lunch time that the rush reaches a peak of almost 500 students during a half hour interval. The waiting time is calculated as follows Arrival rate= 400/hr Service Rate=720/hr(Average service time=5sec) Queue time=[c2a+c2e]/2[u/1-u]te =.55/.45*5 =6.17 sec Recommendations Increase in Capacity It can be seen that the present capacity of the dining hall is to cater for 250 personnel to be seated at any one time. However, it can be seen that during periods of intense rush the demand is between 400-500 seats. Hence it is recommended that advance plans be made for fixed capacity increase to cater for the present demand and future demand. While doing so, it is recommended that an ante room /waiting room be made where students can have a soft drink, read magazines and watch TV. It is also strongly recommended that the ambience of the dining hall be improved with the help of an interior decorator to give the dining hall a much better look. At present a number of tasks especially in the kitchen are being carried out manually. This utilizes a large manpower which can be gainfully be employed elsewhere. There are a number of gadgets available in the market which reduces manual practices and increase the hygiene. These include dish washers, chapatti making machine mincers, gas tandoor, and potatoe peeling machine etc.It is felt that some of these can be identified and purchased on priority. It is also recommended that menu for lunch and dinner be varied to include Chinese, Continental Italian etc so as to provide better satisfaction to the students.