LEARNING LAUNCH FOR THE CAFETERIA

Challenge

I am a third year engineering student in the stream of Industrial Engineering and Management.  We had a self study component in the second year to apply the Industrial engineering concepts  in improving an already existing system (E.g. The college cafeteria). The main challenge here  was that, the students were used to the way it was designed and maintained, and also  convincing the cafeteria owners and the college management was not a child’s play as they  didn’t want to invest anything on it due to a bigger construction that was going on.

So in brief, zero budget and no disturbance to the existing system unless the plan was approved  by the majority of the students.

Selection

Our project group had gone through several layouts and worked on the best floor plans using  the principles of Industrial Management. Our main aim was to have a continuous work flow in  the cafeteria. We had to make it like a process layout without any delay. We then decided to  create an anonymous survey to get the feedback of the students on our new layouts. Thus, the  design thinking tool ‘Learning Launch’ came into picture.

Application

We collected the college email address of all the students from the data centre and used  Google Forms to circulate the layout plans to all the students with accurate descriptions. The  form also contained our aim of the project and how it’d be effective for a better and faster  service. The students were requested to answer the question, ‘Do you think our college  cafeteria requires a makeover? If yes, please select one of the following three layouts provided  below.’ (These designs were approved by the college management).

Insight

To our surprise about 75% of the students preferred Layout B which made it very easy for us to  narrow down our project, and all the students who responded, were towards changing the  layout. This made it easier to convince the management of both the cafeteria as well as that of  the college, since the entire college was looking forward for a change.

Approach

Having everyone on our side and after the approval of the respective managements, the  cafeteria got a new makeover, it made the work flow much faster, there were no more hassles,  looking at our interest in improving the cafeteria, the director of architectural department of  our college told us that their students were willing to help us with the interior designing which  made the cafeteria stand out really well. We were appreciated for our self study project, and  moreover ‘Learning Launch’ won the entire game for us.


LEARNING LAUNCH FOR THE CAFETERIA Challenge I am a third year engineering student in the stream of Industrial Engineering and Management . We had a self study component in the second year to apply the Industrial engineering concepts in improving an already existing system ( E.g. The college cafeteria ) . The main challenge here was that , the students were used to the way it was designed and maintained , and also convincing the cafeteria owners and the college management was not a child ’s play as they did n’t want to invest anything on it due to a bigger construction that was going on . So in brief , zero budget and no disturbance to the existing system unless the plan was approved by the majority of the students . Selection Our project group had gone through several layouts and worked on the best floor plans using the principles of Industrial Management . Our main aim was to have a continuous work flow in the cafeteria . We had to make it like a process layout without any delay . We then decided to create an anonymous survey to get the feedback of the students on our new layouts . Thus , the design thinking tool ‘ Learning Launch ’ came into picture . Application We collected the college email address of all the students from the data centre and used Google Forms to circulate the layout plans to all the students with accurate descriptions . The form also contained our aim of the project and how it ’d be effective for a better and faster service . The students were requested to answer the question , ‘ Do you think our college cafeteria requires a makeover ? If yes , please select one of the following three layouts provided below . ’ ( These designs were approved by the college management ) . Insight To our surprise about 75 % of the students preferred Layout B which made it very easy for us to narrow down our project , and all the students who responded , were towards changing the layout . This made it easier to convince the management of both the cafeteria as well as that of the college , since the entire college was looking forward for a change . Approach Having everyone on our side and after the approval of the respective managements , the cafeteria got a new makeover , it made the work flow much faster , there were no more hassles , looking at our interest in improving the cafeteria , the director of architectural department of our college told us that their students were willing to help us with the interior designing which made the cafeteria stand out really well . We were appreciated for our self study project , and moreover ‘ Learning Launch ’ won the entire game for us .