OPTIMISATION OF MANPOWER UTILISATION IN A PROFESSIONAL FOOD SERVICE BY MEANS OF DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION MODELS

In recent years, collective catering has had to overcome various problems, rewarding in most cases the most capable companies, but leading them to lower the cost of their offer to the minimum terms. In this sector, where the manpower represents 40-50% of the cost of the meal, it is essential to optimise the operational organisation through the efficiency of the processing flows and of the processing times of the recipes. The objective of this study was to investigate possible reduction in staff available. To do so, the Authors used the discrete event simulation modelling as a decision support tool for the analysis of the variations of resources and processes within the organisation of the work of an industrial kitchen, in order to identify possible economies in labor force. Thanks to the collaboration of a large company in the collective catering sector, it was possible to detect the kitchen processes on a company canteen that process 800 meals a day on site and 150 meals prepared for delocalized facilities. Currently, the staff is composed by 4 persons and the kitchen is equipped with two ovens. Both these two resources are the limiting factors in the system, because are required in many preparations. A typical menu was followed, consisting of dishes according to the usual service of the canteen. After dividing the operations required to complete the recipes into individual actions, the data collection phase began. Once the timing data was collected, the discrete event simulation model was created using ExtendSim9® software. In the model, the number of operators and ovens used could be varied. The staff change study has yielded interesting results. The minimum number of operators needed is 3, to complete the preparation in the established time, with a reduction of 25% of the staff available. Proceeding with up to seven operators was the quickest way to finish the preparation in just over 200 minutes, but with less than 35% of staff use, which is consequently not convenient. In conclusion, this first trial demonstrates that the use of a simulation model is realistic and feasible in the optimisation of the chitchen processes for large company restaurants. Is the intention of the authors to expand this research to other sizes of both commercial and collective catering services.