Increasing the turnover of Taste Manchester
05 Mar 2014
How the Change Management and Process Improvement (CMPI) team helped Taste Manchester to increase its deliveries and create happier customers and staff.
In 2011 the CMPI undertook its first case: a process review of Taste Manchester delivered catering operation. The aim of the review was to increase the number of deliveries made by the unit and to ensure that returnables were collected in a timelier manner.
At that time, delivered catering was provided by FoodOnCampus at the same time as running nearly 30 catering outlets across campus. Taste Manchester was pulling out all the stops to produce 30 deliveries each day and often failed to collect dirty crockery and cutlery and uneaten food in a timely manner.
Taste Manchester’s Operations Manager Ann Lymer-Cox explained: “The need to deliver supplies to outlets and catering orders to departments had left us working in a state of chaos for so long, that we had begun to regard it as normal.”
A three-day mapping and planning exercise resulted in a new process and a test plan. The test ran during the week commencing 12 September 2011 and went so smoothly, that Taste Manchester wondered why they hadn’t introduced a new process years ago.
Three specially designed vans bearing the Taste Manchester livery were bought to provide a dedicated delivery service, but no additional staff appointments were required.
After the process view, Taste Manchester was able to more than double its output, achieving a record 77 deliveries one Wednesday, the busiest day of their week. Returnables have also been collected on schedule since the review.
The improved service yielded positive feedback from customers (“They were absolutely blown away!” says Ann) and complaints plummeted from 10 a week to zero.
It also brought the further benefit of greater job satisfaction for frontline staff, who no longer had to bear the brunt of customers’ criticism.
An increase in sales of £40K during the first five months of the new operation provided financial confirmation of the review’s success.
Says Ann: “We couldn’t have survived without the review and I’d recommend CMPI to anyone.”
To find out more about the issues that CMPI faced with Taste Manchester, how they tackled them, the benefits that resulted and what the project sponsors thought, read:
About CMPI
The provision of lean and effective processes which meet the expectations of staff, students and partners is one of the University’s enabling strategies for achieving its key operational priorities and the 2020 Agenda.
Set up in 2012 to support that strategy, the Change Management and Process Improvement (CMPI) team has already worked with many units around the University to help them provide high quality services based on processes which are effective, efficient and more ‘customer’ focused. Process improvement can also help to reduce frustrations for staff and enhance their job satisfaction.
If you would like more detailed information about the services offered by CMPI and how to contact the team, visit: