Project description
An internationally renowned Middle East based flight catering company continuously strives to provide excellence and efficient services. While mainly catering for more than 250 of its national carriers that flies throughout the world, the company also provide flight meals to more than 105 other airlines transiting in the city where the company is based. They produce an average of 225 000 Halal certified meals daily. In continuously maintaining their industry leader status, the company endeavors to provide freshly cooked warm meals to their clients in time before each respective scheduled flights. While this is possible for flights leaving the city where the company based, similar is impossible for long overhaul flights from across the globe. Currently, all warm meals are prepared from its catering facility at the most developed Middle East city. These meals frozen for the long overhaul flights. While long overhaul flights leaving the city will be served within 5-7 hours upon departure, returning flights may exceed more than 20 hours after the meals cooked, before being served. The food quality diminished for such returning flights. Strategically, such warm meals should be prepared and replenished from the departing country. However, due to Halal certification compliance, procuring fresh Halal ingredients from such countries for warm meals is very challenging. In addition, the certification also requires the catering facilities to strictly comply with Halal food preparation standard.
Through its sister company, the management wish to develop regional hub Halal certified catering facilities in several continents throughout the globe. While warm meals will be prepared within these regional facilities, the management set the benchmark to reduce 50% of the time the meal being frozen before being served. The target is to improve the food quality by 50% of the current standard achieved. The key challenge is to determine the most suitable location for such regional hub catering facilities. Management is also concerned on the availability and procurement of Halal ingredients within the “to-be proposed” regional facilities.
Keywords:
• Location strategy
• Logistics management achieving 7 R’s of logistics – customer satisfaction at lowest total cost
o Logistics functions: Transportations, Warehousing, 3rd & 4th logistics party arrangement
o Logisticsgoals&effectivestrategies:substitutinginformationforinventory
• Supplier alliance especially in procuring Halal ingredients
• Flight destinations adjacent to the location of the “to-be proposed” regional hubs
o Africa22destinations
o AsiaPacific48destinations o Europe43destinations
o Americas17destinations
o MiddleEast13destinations
• Evaluation on total costs from regional hubs to flight destinations
• Official import/export documentation including tariffs
• Feasibility studies on outsourcing catering facilities
• Transparency/visibility along the supply chain, especially in undeveloped countries
• Quality of meals / security as well as theft protection
You are to form a taskforce committee to analyze the company predicaments and propose a solution to achieve the set targets. You are to develop a presentation for the company management directors to explain the consideration in your location strategy. Emphasis must address the logistic management constraints especially in reducing 50% of the time the meal being frozen – see above keywords. With supporting justifications, your group is to showcase how and why your certain location is preferable for the regional hub catering facilities.
Sample Solution