Operatopolis 2.

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Sky Air Food Wastage

Overview
Sky Air is an Indian passenger airline flying on multiple sectors every day. Starting with its
maiden flight, an Airbus A320, between Chennai and Hyderabad, it has been in operation for
the last 15 years and witnessed significant growth in business during this period. The operating
model is very similar to that of most of the low-cost airlines across the globe. The passengers
can opt for inflight food and beverages on a payment basis. They get to choose from a menu
that is standard across different sectors.
Sky Air has outsourced the supply of food and beverages to Fresh Café, a popular brand that
has multiple retail outlets in all major Indian cities, serving a variety of coffee and ready-to-eat
food. Fresh sandwiches and pre-cooked snacks are loaded onto the aircraft early in the morning
at multiple locations across India. While an aircraft can serve multiple sectors on a given day,
the food and beverages loaded onto it in the morning are expected to last through the day. Any
food left over at the end of the day is distributed to different NGOs at no cost. On the other
hand, the crew serving a certain aircraft over a sector may have to cut a sorry figure if the stock
of a certain food item gets over due to excess demand throughout the day.
Ordering
Sky Air placed orders on Fresh Café on a daily basis late each night. Orders were relayed across
different Fresh Café locations serving the airline and were fulfilled early every morning when
the ordered food was delivered to the respective airports. Sky Air followed a policy of ordering
the maximum of the last seven days’ sales for each SKU in various sectors. For example, if a
certain item had a maximum sale of 100 units within the last seven days, then the order for it
would be 100 for the eighth day, placed on the night of the seventh day.

The Problem
The operations team at Sky Air was concerned over the wastage of food that was left over at
the end of the day. They estimated this to be between 30 and 40 percent of the quantity ordered.
Yet, on a number of occasions, passengers complained that their choice of food was not
available.
The Task
Sky Air has reached out to you to help them decide on an appropriate ordering policy for their
inflight food items. To help you decide, they have also provided 30 days’ sales data of their
popular Veg Sandwich for a certain flying sector. The item, which costs them Rs.50 per unit,
has a menu price of Rs.120. Whatever you recommend, they do not want the waste to exceed
15 percent. Can you suggest an ordering policy for the Veg Sandwich?

Instructions:
1. Please submit your entries as an Excel file showing your work and a PPT summarizing
your recommendation. Entries will be evaluated based on the rigor of analysis.
2. There are no limits to the number of slides
3. Submission of the analysis in an Excel sheet is mandatory.
4. Make sure the recommendation is based on your analysis in the Excel
5. Using any AI will result in direct disqualification.

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