Conduct
a similar inventory database for another cafeteria in the area. Analyze
the results. Discuss differences and similarities with the results of
the previous inventory.
The project may be viewed from various perspectives:
- Food preparation:
- Examine records of amounts of food prepared, by day.
What food there is in stock?
- Food purchase:
- Collect data at point of sale on kinds and amounts of
food purchased.
- Of the food that is prepared, how much is purchased?
- Profiles of data may be displayed (for example, using
bar graphs) III. The service performance of the employees
- The efficiency of the service provided in the cafeteria:
- How can the service to customers (e.g., time to serve
them) be improved?
- How can the data on food purchases be most efficiently
and effectively used to make decisions about kinds and amounts of food
to prepare.
An important part of this project will be to explore what kinds of data
are most useful to collect; how best to collect the data; how best to
make the information available to cafeteria personnel and what
questions arise in the cafeteria management process that can be
answered with the help of the kinds of data to be collected in this
project.
Another direction for the project might be to do simulation
runs of student consumption patterns based on previous food purchases.
Then one could do costs analyses such as:
- Food prepared vs. food consumed
- How can you improve the efficiency of the cafeteria
management?
- What are profit and loss implications ?
