Facility Management Software: Ways to improve food services in remote workplaces

Food services and facility management systems are both types of high-end software designed specifically to streamline the functional and logistical processes of food services. These systems are particularly useful where projects are isolated and in hard-to-reach locations such as manufacturing, mining and large construction projects. Overall, they address the challenges of coordination, monitoring and optimisation and improve daily operations without significant expenditure.

Some examples and some statistics from the field of Food Services and Facility Management System

In today's world of industrial development, there are issues associated with companies having plants and employees in remote areas of the globe. Automated facilities management, expert food management and productivity tools define the importance of effective workplace management and spend visibility.

These examples illustrate how CaterTrak and eFacility solve the problems of organising and operating catering and facility management in remote industrial environments.

Example 1: Remote catering management with the CaterTrak system.

CaterTrak simplifies menu planning and inventory tracking at remote construction sites, leading to a 30% reduction in food wastage.

The use of CaterTrak has shown it to be perhaps the most effective tool for meal planning, ration control and waste minimisation in organisations that provide food in remote locations such as construction sites or industrial facilities. For example, a large construction site using CaterTrak was able to minimise waste by 30% where stock and demand were regularly measured and forecast.

How it works: CaterTrak also feeds consumption information to help kitchen staff prepare meals better and avoid over-preparation. Forecasting in supply chain management predicts the amount of food people will consume and supply is planned to match demand.

Case study: In a mining project in Australia, CaterTrak reduced both food waste and procurement costs by implementing successful inventory management. Managers said that by digitising the process, they were able to eliminate errors that tended to lead to overstocking or stock-outs.

Example 2: An embryo of eFacility, covering the assessment and improvement of facilities at mining sites for total facilities management.

In the extractive industry, solutions like eFacility manage food services and accommodation for staff at isolated mining sites.

eFacility is a comprehensive and complete facilities management software solution for the manufacturing and mining industries to manage the affairs of employees living in remote areas, including catering, accommodation and repair services. The Cafeteria Management Platform is illustrated through a case with the Adani Group to show how it improves cafeteria operations, along with flexibility and traceability.

How it works: Some of these include cafeteria bookings, real-time inventory control and subsidy management, and the entire process is done with the help of eFacility. For example, workers on a mining site can use their mobile phones to get meals instead of vouchers and eliminate a lot of paperwork.

Case study: At a mining site in India, far from any developed area, eFacility reduced the efficiency of manual meal planning by more than 25% within a year. In addition, to eliminate complaints, an efficiently developed preference feedback system was implemented in the platform, allowing employees to submit the necessary meal preferences to improve service quality.

Key Statistics:

• According to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), implementing digital systems can improve operational efficiency by 25-40%.
• Approximately 70% of U.S. manufacturing companies have adopted facility management systems.

Key challenges addressed by facility management software

Several challenges that are worked on by facility management software are as follow:

1. Shift management inefficiency

A very obvious problem faced by many organisations with branches in remote areas is shift management. There are major drawbacks to manual shift scheduling: Overlapping schedules, poor resource utilisation and shift conflicts that greatly reduce efficiency.

• Automated scheduling: They do not include services such as automated shift scheduling as a task that can be done away with. For example, a mining company using a shift management solution achieved up to 25% fewer scheduling conflicts and better allocation of labour.
• Improved resource allocation: A key benefit of implementing shift management is that it can be used to identify where resources should be most heavily deployed, so that no department is over- or understaffed.

Example: A cement manufacturing company has implemented shift management software in its organisation to assist in the distribution of work schedules to employees. By automating shift rotations and resources, the plant was able to minimise scheduling errors by 30% and reduce operating times.

2. Managing food services in complex facilities in developing regions

It is quite a task to provide quality and healthy meals to employees working in different regions within the same day. Food service management systems solve this problem by using technology to plan the meals, keep records of the various inventories and organise the food delivery schedules.

• Menu planning and stock control: Management systems make it easier for companies to plan food services in advance, while keeping an eye on stock levels of food being prepared. This helps to reduce food waste and ensure that food is always in stock.
• Customisable meal services: Such systems take into account personal food requirements and palettes, which boosts employee morale.

Example: An offshore oil rig selected a food service management system for the organisation's catering operations. By automating menu planning and optimising inventory and control, the rig is reducing food waste by 20% and improving the quality of food offered to employees.

3. Administrative staff stress

Many administrative staff in remote manufacturing and mining operations are under a heavy workload because almost every aspect of facility management, resource allocation or employee transportation is done manually.

• Centralised management: A facilities management system provides structure to all organisational work, allowing the manager to manage systems from one location. This also eliminates the time spent in performing certain activities manually, thus making the overall operations efficient.
• Employee self-service platforms: Employees can use self-service tools to enter and access their own schedules, request a service, and provide feedback, ultimately reducing the workload.

Example: An evaluation of an integrated facilities management system showed that a large mining company was able to reduce its administrative workload by 40%. By using self-service for scheduling and reporting, administrative staff were able to focus on more effective tasks rather than simply working their way through these processes.

4. Low employee engagement

Fostering low employee engagement is another key issue, particularly in remote locations where employees often feel exhausted and lack adequate connection with managers. The lack of feedback, reward and accountability tools for employees exacerbates this.

• Employees in large industrial organisations may not have a platform to voice their complaints and make suggestions on how to improve the meals, leading to dissatisfaction.
• Employees feel disconnected from their jobs because issues related to schedules, performance or feedback are not well defined in systems such as employee self-service platforms.

The use of productivity and other administrative applications in the workplace gives employees a voice in the process, which drives motivation.

5. Impact on accounting and control

Procuring and operating food services and facilities in various remote locations requires a rigorous, cohesive system of supply chain management, stock control and expenditure. Challenges include:

• Manual accounting errors: Organisations using paper-based systems have problems with inconsistencies in meal counts, stock levels and subsidies. For example, in a large mining camp, there may be some hidden wastage that negatively impacts the company's bottom line.
• Inefficient monitoring: In this work structure, without tracking, supervisors are unable to monitor inventory management and as a result, food stocks are depleted or the company spends more money than it should.

Integrated facilities management systems take on these roles to provide real-time information on stock usage and costs, thereby improving control and accountability.

6. Lack of feedback mechanisms

This means that there are no means by which employees and management can communicate to close the loop on service quality and employee satisfaction. Examples include:

• Substandard food and accommodation: Employment in offshore oil fields, where employers are far away from workers, workers may be provided with substandard food or accommodation and have no one to complain to.
• Lack of reporting systems: Some organisations fail to identify areas of inefficiency in service delivery because they do not have digital reporting systems.

The combination of capturing employee feedback will enable a company to respond to the issues raised and improve the quality of service delivery.

7. Productivity held back by logistics failures

The inability to organise and plan how to manage food and facilities in a remote or highly complex environment will cause massive disruption to operations. Key challenges include:

• Delays in meal delivery: Poor planning means that meals are delivered late, which does not help the energy levels or morale of staff during their shifts. Failure to adhere to shift schedules, for example due to overlaps, has a devastating impact on productivity.
• Inventory mismatches: Synchronisation errors can lead to overstocking or stockouts, resulting in delayed feeding times or meal deliveries.

Scheduling and management systems manage shifts and systems to handle food efficiently by avoiding complications with organisational complexity.

8. Lack of cost transparency

Lack of cost transparency is always an issue when managing remote stations. Problems include:

• Hidden costs: Manual reporting overlooks some of the indirect overheads such as waste, over-purchasing or administrative costs.
• Difficulty in tracking spend: Without automated tracking systems, it is difficult to know where in the supply chain resources could be better utilised or where they are scarce.

Software solutions provide aggregation in the form of dashboards and reports that can help managers analyse and achieve optimal levels of spend visibility.

Now that we have a little background on the subject, we can talk about who will benefit from such software.

Key features of the system

Let's look at the 4 main benefits of such systems:

1. Shift management automation. The management of a facility introduces shift planning automation to allow calibration and precise practice in the distribution of tasks. This eliminates the numerous and probable errors that occur when schedules are drawn up manually. For example, the hospitality industry has benefited from automated scheduling software, where systems take into account factors such as employee availability, skill sets and labour laws, ultimately reducing labour costs and improving workforce efficiency.

2. Food and resource tracking. Proper tracking of food and resources enables the provision of quality meals to a group of employees, regardless of their location. A clear example of software is that it can track the status of stock, manage the menu and further reduce food waste. For example, applications have been used to track the supply of food to isolated business areas to provide quality meals to employees while minimising wastage.

3. Cost monitoring and analysis. The use of facilities management software in today's world comes with total cost analysis and automated reporting. This helps organisations to monitor their expenditure and look for ways to improve efficiency.

4. Recommendations and stakeholder satisfaction. The feedback modules built into the facility management system make it easy to report concerns and track solutions within the employee-management relationship. This system improves the overall working environment for employees by addressing their concerns, especially in multi-million dollar industries such as food services and construction. Read more on the links below:

• Facility Management Automation
• How Digital Shift Scheduling Systems Transform Restaurant Workforce Management
• Elevating Facilities Management: Automation and Analytics in the Modern Era

Benefits of Food Service Management System implementation for the company

For example: The CateringPlus system reduced waiting times for meals by 50%, ensuring that employees received a faster and better meal service. But improving the quality of life for employees is not the only benefit of such systems. Obviously, uninterrupted access to quality food and efficient facilities services improves the quality of life for employees working in remote areas, but there are also more visible indicators of the benefits of using such systems.

• Increased operational efficiency. Facilities management software reduces administrative workload and speeds up task completion. Automated systems ensure that logistics, food services and resource planning are optimised for efficiency.
• Cost savings. Automated systems optimise resource allocation, meal planning and inventory management, resulting in significant cost savings.

Catering and operations management provides the necessary means for industries existent in harsh and difficult to access locations. These systems are designed to solve major problems like logistic problems, shift issues, and resource allocation problems among others as well as enhance the effectiveness of a business, and productivity of your workforce. By implementing such features like automatic shift scheduling, instant tracking and cost of food items, companies can save lots of cash and gain better visibility.

Manufacturing, construction, and resource industries can impact business improvement and growth only with the help of the advanced facilities management software and the management of food service. Implementing of these solutions will make the operations to be more effective, costs to be cut down and the employees will also gain from their improved health.