Digitizing menu management and meal tickets in a food factory

Project Overview

For the same client as the internal communication platform and the DX hub, BCT digitized menu management and day-to-day operations in a food factory that prepares meals for many facilities. The system went live after about six months and around 20 person-months of work.

The Challenge

Every meal has to match the menu, the diet form and the individual restrictions of the person who eats it.

• One dish has several versions by diet (regular, soft, therapeutic) and texture (minced, puréed).
• Errors in allergy and prohibited-food handling directly affect the safety of the people being served.
• Meal counts and diet forms change every day; updating paper and spreadsheets invites omissions.
• Menus, meal counts, meal tickets and production instructions were managed separately, making tracing difficult.

Our Solution

• Field analysis: Studied factory operations and the paper forms and spreadsheets in use.
• Unified data design: One data model for menus, diet forms, allergy information and meal counts.
• Phased release: Introduced one group of operations at a time and tested with factory users.
• Go-live: Moved operations onto the new system.

BCT’s scope

• Menu master management
• Menu planning and approval
• Meal-count intake, including late changes
• Diet-form and allergy checks before production
• Meal-ticket issue by person, tray and meal
• Production instructions and traceability

Results & Impact

• Live and in use at the factory.
• Menus are managed in one system instead of paper and spreadsheets.
• Diet forms and allergies are checked against the same data before production.
• Meal tickets are issued from the system, based on the confirmed menu and meal counts.