474 PART III . The Extended Enterprise CASE STUDY Tasty, Healthy and \"Lean\" Fo

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474 PART III . The Extended Enterprise CASE STUDY Tasty, Healthy and "Lean" Food Service for Olympic Champions Laura for the scale of the Beijing 2008 Olympics food service operations; Laura and all the other new em- aura, a new graduate from Cornell Unversity's hool of Hotel Administration, could not believe her good luck. She was recently offered a new entry ployees had received a pre-event memo from their level position as an operations analyst at ARAMARK, new boss, which stated that the ARAMARK team one of the most admired U.S. companies, according would be responsible for serving 3.5 million meals to Fortune magazine (ARAMARK is a leader in profes- during the event (or 10,000 people per hour) that sional services, providing award-winning food ser vices, facilities management, and uniform and career but had to have the smells and tastes of home. The apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses 7,000-including some 230 chefs from 10 countries- around the world) would not only pack a punch for peak performance food service operations would have a staff of nearly to feed almost 65,000 athletes, coaches, officials, and The reason for Laura's excitement was also be cause of the unique opportunity she was getting in her first assignment: she was going to Beijing during the 2008 Olympics to work for ARAMARK food services members of the media throughout the Olympics. The memo further stated that ARAMARK's biggest chal lenge would be to ensure that the food arrived at the right time, at the right temperature, and in the right quantities. In addition, dining during the Olympics would also be a social experience. Therefore, ARA Over the years, ARAMARK has provided food services to many large-scale events, including the last MARK had to ensure that the athletes and visiting 13 Olympic Games. For example, during the 2004 Athens Olympics, ARAMARK worked with its partner, experience. The memo also included a table (see the Daskalantonakis Group (the leading Greek hospi- Table 12.4), which listed some of the key inventories tality and tourism group), to provide meals for the largest Olympic Village in history. The Olympic Vil-service operation was successful. lage in Athens hosted Summer Olympic and Paralym pic Games participants, coaches, officials and Games table, Laura wondered if she should still feel lucky or personnel. ARAMARK and the Daskalantonakis Group she should start panicking. Her job was to support the served more than two million meals to participants, assistant director in effectively managing inventory coaches, and officials throughout the 60-day duration for the food service operations. She wondered if she of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games dignitaries got the highest quality service for a great that needed to be managed to ensure that the food After going through the memo and the attached could apply the concepts she learned about lean en- Some of the other large-scale food service events terprise in her final semester operations management managed by ARAMARK included serving over 340,000 class to this first "real-world" job motor fans who attended one of the biggest events in Spain last year: the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix inQUESTIONS Barcelona. More than 1,100 ARAMARK employees served attendees more than 9,000 fruit dishes, 120,000 sandwiches, 40,000 hot dogs, and 40,000 cups of coffee during the three-day event. Some spe- cialty gourmet dishes were also served, such as bar bequed lamb steak, pumpkin and orange soup, and sole rolls with shrimp creamm 1. What are the unique aspects of inventory man- agement in large-scale food services such as ARAMARK's Olympic Games operations? 2. What lean production concepts can Laura apply in the above context? What challenges will she face? While preparing for her job interview, Laura had3. What are the limits to applying lean principles in become aware of the large scale of ARAMARK's food service engagements. However, nothing had prepared large food service operations such as ARAMARK's Olympic Games operations?

Explanation / Answer

The unique aspects of inventory management in large-scale food services such as the operations for Olympic games, stadiums, arenas is that the pace at which food is to be delivered is very high. For example, in Beijing it was estimated that 10,000 people had to be served meals every hour which is a very large number. Another aspect that is unique to such events is the scale of inventories that would be required to maintained so as to ensure that there’s no possibility of a stock-out occurring. The lean production concepts that Laura can apply in this context would be vendor managed inventory, just-in-time ordering and implementing the Toyota production system values in the context of food, hospitality services There are limits to applying lean principles in large food service operations like the one operated by ARAMARK such as the enforcement of quality across all vendors and the value chain for each product used in the preparation of food. Another challenge would be the ability to recreate the taste, experience of each food which is intangible in nature while the same is not the case while applying lean in manufacturing automobiles, consumer goods etc.

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