A rethinking of large scale meal production
Special Symposium - Innovations in Food Technology (LMC Congress)
Flexible Production, PAT & Modelling (Food-3b)
Keywords: Systems, optimization, production
The study pertains to improvement of the quality of meals produced in large scale kitchens. Focus is on systematic shortening of production time and a customized application of convenience products when striving for improved product quality. As more and more meals are produced (and consumed) outside home and the production is concentrated at fewer production sites of increasing size. This is turning the preparation of meals into more traditional production-like scenarios and brings forward a need for process optimization according to these new conditions. Traditionally, upgrade of large scale meal production has been done by integrating new technologies into the existing systems leaving a need for a systematic rethinking of production flow unaddressed. Tools for rethinking of entire processes are offered in the production and management literature, but these theories seldom connects to optimization of meal production. In this work data obtained during case studies of several large-scale kitchens are analyzed using known production theories (lean management, agile production, mass customization). The outcome of this is base for a suggestion of methodologies for redesign of large scale meal production where quality and production planning is addressed concurrently.
Presented Wednesday 19, 17:20 to 17:25, in session Flexible Production, PAT & Modelling (Food-3b).
