Case study 7. ABS Caterers ABS Caterers operate from the Green Park area of Hauz Khas in New Delhi. Green Park is a posh locality in South Delhi and has a large number of restaurants serving the needs of the people in the locality. Though ABS has its main operations at Green Park, its also deals with the catering needs of educational institutions. ABS bagged the contract for catering in a well-known educational institution in South Delhi a few years back. They are responsible for the catering of the students and staff at the campus. Campus Operations At present, ABS has two units operating in the campus: "Green View", which is on the seventh floor of the main academic building, and the second one, ABS Cafe, which is in the heart of the hostel zone. Green View operates between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. during weekdays (Mon-Fri). It caters to the needs of the entire office crowd, students, and teaching and non-teaching staff. ABS Cafe operates between 4 p.m. and midnight on a daily basis and is mostly visited by students. Page 2 of 4 Jan-2022 Though ABS has its main operation at Green Park, Mr Jain, the proprietor of ABS Caterers, considers the campus catering contract to be very important. There are quite a few educational institut ns around. Jawaharlal Nehru University is near the campus. If ABS can prove its worth in their current operations, it is only a matter of time, according to Mr Jain, before they get contracts at other nearby institutions. This would mean a lot in terms of his business volumes. At present, the volume of business at the campus is not substantial compared to the overall business of ABS, but the situation has certainly improved ever since ABS took over a few years back. ABS has registered a steady 20 per cent increase in sales and expects it to go up even further. This is primarily because ABS has been consistently maintaining a low price for its items. Though the campus operations started with a small variety of food, ABS introduces new items whenever there is a demand for them. For example, two new South Indian dishes-Mysore Masala Dosa and Onion Uthappam-were introduced recently. They are now available only between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The management expects to introduce new items in the coming months. Serving a typical meal request takes nearly 20 minutes of one worker's time. ABS has a group of service personnel and two managers who take care of the needs of the two centres. The service personnel can move from one restaurant to another (i.e. from Green View to ABS Cafe and vice versa), if the need arises. In any case, the restaurants are not too far and they will not object to this. At present, the timings of the two centres are overlapping only between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Hence, resources management has not been a serious problem. Future Plans The immediate plan of Mr Jain is to keep ABS Cafe open between 1 pm and midnight. This would mean an additional three hours of service timing and overlap with Green View. He believes that this new arrangement will not only facilitate the students, but also increase his volume of business. However, Mr Jain has to have a relook into the resource management problem. Mr Jain has vast experience in the catering industry and particularly in an academic set-up. He has observed some patterns in the arrival of customers at the restaurants. Table given below is a sample of his observation for the month of September 2007. Jan-2022 Thurs Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Number of Customers Served During September 2007 Mon Tues Wed Fri Sat 345 310 385 416 597 706 418 333 400 515 664 761 393 387 311 535 625 711 406 412 377 444 650 803 Sun 653 702 598 822 Questions For Discussion (6M+6M+8M) (a) What are the potential advantages of forecasting requirements for the campus operations of ABS Caterers? (b) If Mr Jain wishes to develop a forecasting model, develop an overall framework for the same. (c) How should Mr Jain plan his weekly plan for deploying resource requirements? Can you estimate the number of service personnel that he needs