A new spreadsheet-based tool from Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) is intended both to illustrate and assist with the problem of how to schedule food-service preparation tasks. The tool and a report explaining the tool, “Instructions for the Food Preparation Scheduling Tool v2015,” by Gary Thompson, are available from CHR at no charge.
“In designing this tool, I take into account the many inputs needed for food preparation,” said Thompson, who is a professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. “This tool accounts for up to ten people and ten resources or pieces of equipment. In the instructions, however, I have just one person setting up a barbecue for a dinner party. The idea is to show the optimum time to start each process or to fire each piece of equipment.”
Thompson points out that the tool is relatively simple to use, although it is based on fairly complex algorithms that use an element of randomness to achieve a near-optimal result. In applying the algorithms, the tool responds to the user’s preference inputs, including information on the items being prepared. The tool displays the recommended plan in a variety of ways, including people-oriented, equipment-oriented, and recipe-oriented views.
