Stop Food Waste - Learning Launch

Challenge & Selection

I’m a business analyst and my job is to support managers and employees of the nine  departments that make the administrative and finance division to work with the new policies  and rules which the company has been facing throughout the past couple years.

At a given day, I was talking with the facilities group that told me that about seven months ago,  the food service vendor, who serves meals for the approx. 1600 employees at the workplace,  decided to start charging for the meals which were reserved and not eaten. Upfront  reservations are needed for the restaurant to estimate the amount of meals it needs to prepare  each day. However, the contractor noticed that too many reservations were done but  employees did not consume it, this way the food was prepared but not paid for. Consequently,  the contractor decided to no longer take this expense for themselves but charge the  employees. Since this is not legal under local laws, the contractor charged the company, which  then decided to charge the cost centers of each employee who reserved a meal and did not  eat it. This means that every time an employee created a food waste, the amount of it would be  booked at the employee´s manager cost center as an incentive to reduce food waste. This rule  change was communicated to all employees from the very beginning, seven months ago.

I personally thought that this change was only good to the food service provider (contractor),  and not so good to the company that I worked for as the food waste expenses were booked  among all of the sky high cost centers expenses such as payroll, consulting services, office  supplies. Then, this made me wondered whether the food waste charges were visible to  managers and whether they were able to control this expense on a monthly basis.

Thus, I had a hypothesis. Was any manager checking on the food waste expenses which their  employees were creating and expensed at their cost center? How big was this bill? Was this  change helping to lower the amount of food waste?

To test my hypothesis, I decided on applying the Learning Launch Tool. It was a way that I  found to reduce the use of resources – IT developing team, IT solutions or negotiating with the  Food Service Vendor- at the beginning of my project, when barely I knew if it was in fact a pain  that managers felt or whether it could be helping to reduce the company’s overall General &  Administrative expenses (food bill).

Application

I started by gathering some data concerning the number of meals which were reserved and  consumed as well as reserved and non-consumed in the period of one month. Then, I divided  the employees by their cost center. Then I prepared a very nice dashboard and scheduled  interviews with some managers from administrative areas as well as from production areas.

I questioned managers whether they were aware of this change in charging system, whether  they controlled the amount booked in their cost centers and whether they spoken to employees  about this problem, to overcome part of the waste.

During the interviews, I have found out that indeed, the communication has failed. Managers  from both, administrative and manufacturing were not aware of this change in expensing. Also,

they mentioned that they don’t control the charges concerning food in their cost center, but  they would like to do so, in a person to person basis.

Managers reported that they would like to know and see who from their team has reserved and  not eaten and then, they would follow the improvements of that person along the months.

Also, managers were astonished when they saw this simple 1-month report that I prepared and  found out how many meals their employees have literally thrown away. Thus, managers asked  me to send over this report and a year-to-date report immediately, even before any IT solution  is ready.

Insight

My assumption started from a disturbing reality of food being thrown away. This meant more  for me than just money being wasted, but it is also a civic duty. I also thought that perhaps  managers were the best way to reach out to the employees that were creating such a waste,  as the managers were paying for the bill, thus, they should be more than interested in reducing  their expenses. As I am not a manager, I did not know how the control of spending in cost  centers work so I really had to interview them and hear what they thought of this situation and  of my idea, of sending them monthly reports to control the spending of food waste.

From my launch, I have learned that they were not only happy to receive the control sheet, but  they had a sense of urgency in that. They would like to act on it as fast as they could. Thus, my  assumption was validated, and I moved to the next phase, developing the IT solution that  gathers this information altogether and automatically sends to managers in a monthly basis by  e-mail.

Approach

In my view, the learning launch tool was the best method as the managers were not aware of  the problem and seeing an example of the report which they would receive on a monthly basis,   made they excited about the room for improvement in their area, and specially in their budgets.


Stop Food Waste - Learning Launch Challenge & Selection I ’m a business analyst and my job is to support managers and employees of the nine departments that make the administrative and finance division to work with the new policies and rules which the company has been facing throughout the past couple years . At a given day , I was talking with the facilities group that told me that about seven months ago , the food service vendor , who serves meals for the approx . 1600 employees at the workplace , decided to start charging for the meals which were reserved and not eaten . Upfront reservations are needed for the restaurant to estimate the amount of meals it needs to prepare each day . However , the contractor noticed that too many reservations were done but employees did not consume it , this way the food was prepared but not paid for . Consequently , the contractor decided to no longer take this expense for themselves but charge the employees . Since this is not legal under local laws , the contractor charged the company , which then decided to charge the cost centers of each employee who reserved a meal and did not eat it . This means that every time an employee created a food waste , the amount of it would be booked at the employee´s manager cost center as an incentive to reduce food waste . This rule change was communicated to all employees from the very beginning , seven months ago . I personally thought that this change was only good to the food service provider ( contractor ) , and not so good to the company that I worked for as the food waste expenses were booked among all of the sky high cost centers expenses such as payroll , consulting services , office supplies . Then , this made me wondered whether the food waste charges were visible to managers and whether they were able to control this expense on a monthly basis . Thus , I had a hypothesis . Was any manager checking on the food waste expenses which their employees were creating and expensed at their cost center ? How big was this bill ? Was this change helping to lower the amount of food waste ? To test my hypothesis , I decided on applying the Learning Launch Tool . It was a way that I found to reduce the use of resources – IT developing team , IT solutions or negotiating with the Food Service Vendor- at the beginning of my project , when barely I knew if it was in fact a pain that managers felt or whether it could be helping to reduce the company ’s overall General & Administrative expenses ( food bill ) . Application I started by gathering some data concerning the number of meals which were reserved and consumed as well as reserved and non - consumed in the period of one month . Then , I divided the employees by their cost center . Then I prepared a very nice dashboard and scheduled interviews with some managers from administrative areas as well as from production areas . I questioned managers whether they were aware of this change in charging system , whether they controlled the amount booked in their cost centers and whether they spoken to employees about this problem , to overcome part of the waste . During the interviews , I have found out that indeed , the communication has failed . Managers from both , administrative and manufacturing were not aware of this change in expensing . Also , they mentioned that they do n’t control the charges concerning food in their cost center , but they would like to do so , in a person to person basis . Managers reported that they would like to know and see who from their team has reserved and not eaten and then , they would follow the improvements of that person along the months . Also , managers were astonished when they saw this simple 1 - month report that I prepared and found out how many meals their employees have literally thrown away . Thus , managers asked me to send over this report and a year - to - date report immediately , even before any IT solution is ready . Insight My assumption started from a disturbing reality of food being thrown away . This meant more for me than just money being wasted , but it is also a civic duty . I also thought that perhaps managers were the best way to reach out to the employees that were creating such a waste , as the managers were paying for the bill , thus , they should be more than interested in reducing their expenses . As I am not a manager , I did not know how the control of spending in cost centers work so I really had to interview them and hear what they thought of this situation and of my idea , of sending them monthly reports to control the spending of food waste . From my launch , I have learned that they were not only happy to receive the control sheet , but they had a sense of urgency in that . They would like to act on it as fast as they could . Thus , my assumption was validated , and I moved to the next phase , developing the IT solution that gathers this information altogether and automatically sends to managers in a monthly basis by e - mail . Approach In my view , the learning launch tool was the best method as the managers were not aware of the problem and seeing an example of the report which they would receive on a monthly basis , made they excited about the room for improvement in their area , and specially in their budgets .