Team leader on a project working with the optimization of the take-out line for the Livington Campus Dining Commons (Piscataway, New Jersey) in which my team proposed a new method of student entry and product delivery which saw great increase in the efficiency of the dining hall.

1. Optimization of the Livingston Sub Line
By:
Salvatore Scrudato
Kenneth Haury
Haris Ackerman
Larry Kadriu
Alex Small

2. Unit Name
Livingston Dining Commons (Takeout)
Hours of Operation
(Dinner): 5:30pm – 12am
Located on Livingston
Campus, on the side of main
Dining Hall Entrance

3. Unit Name
Our Goals and Agenda
• Increase the productivity
• Optimize the flow
• Create consistent sub quality

4. Unit Name
Sub Knight at Livingston
Monday Nights
Meat Choices include:
Turkey, Roast Beef, Ham,
Tuna, Salami, Peperoni, and
Meat Balls
Condiments such as lettuce,
tomato, various cheeses,
mayo, salt, pepper, etc.
Aside from subs, students can
also elect to have a premade
pizza for dinner

5. Unit Name
Overview of Current Process
• Student enters line
• Waits in line
• Hands RUID card to employee who swipes card
• Student receives bag, cup, and snack from swipe employee
• Student waits in line
• Student waits for free sub making worker, verbally gives worker
sub order
• Student waits for sub completion
• Student obtains sub, gets drink, unwraps sub to apply salt,
pepper, oil, or oregano if desired
• Student exits dining hall building
Operations : 5 Delays : 3

6. Unit Name
Glaring Issues With Takeout
• Several Delays
– Creates bottlenecks and crowds
• Crowds create hectic work environment for workers
• Inefficient use of worker time (I.E. worker swiping IDs)
• Variability in sub quality
– Too much/little meat, cheese, etc
• Poor Location of salt, pepper, oil/vinegar, etc

7. Unit Name
Proposed Improvements
• New method of entering take out line and swiping for meal
• Layout Improvements
• Relocation of some items
• Elimination of non-value added worker tasks

8. Unit Name
Overview of Changes

9. Unit Name
Current Method of Entry and RUID Meal Swipe
1. Student hands RUID card to employee
2. Employee swipes card
3. Employee gives student bag, cup and napkins.

10. Unit Name
Current Method of Swiping (MOST Evaluation)
For Student
• Reach, give, wait, grab
• A1+G1+P1+(70TMU Wait)
= 100 TMU Total
For Card Swiper
• Current method includes:
2 Reaches, 3 grabs, and
a swipe for each cycle
• A1+G1+G1+P1+M1+X1+A1
= 70 TMU

11. Unit Name
New Entry Method
This new method will free up labor hours, maintain order in the
takeout area, and allow for a more organized calling system.

12. Unit Name
New Entry Method
• Student waits for “Please Wait”
light to turn off
• “Please wait” light is on when
there are at least 9 students
inside that have not yet received
their subs
• Once light is off, student swipes
RUID card and receives ticket
• Ticket has unique daily number,
and sub number.
• Sub number resets after 99

13. Unit Name
Proposed “Waiting” Area
Once the student gets their ticket, they
enter this waiting area. The students would
wait here until they hear their number
called.

14. Unit Name
Push Button to signal end of sub time
The button is there to signal that the worker has finished making the sub.
This tells us :
Worker is ready for another customer
Another customer has left the system
Time it took to make the sub

15. Unit Name
How the system works
• Student enters line
• Student swipes and gets ticket (assuming it is not full)
• Student waits for number to be called
• Student goes to assigned sub station
• When sub is finished, sub-maker hits button
• This allows for another student to go to that sub station
• This also allows for another student to get ticket

16. Unit Name
Proposed Method
• The Proposed method removes the card swiper, and leaves
the student to the self swiping entry method which includes:
Reach, Swipe, and Return
• A1+X1+A1 = 30 TMU

17. Unit Name
Benefits of a “Network”
• Everything will be hooked up to
a centralized network
• This reduces the need for labor
hours put towards: swiping
students in, collecting data, and
calling for the next customer.
• All the data can be analyzed on
a computer.
• Some examples of useful data
are: how long it takes to finish
making a sub, how many
students come for a sub, and
the rate at which students
come in for subs.

18. Unit Name
New location for cups and sub toppings

19. Unit Name
Cups and Toppings
• Putting the Oil, Vinegar, Salt, and Pepper at the end of the sub line will
optimize the process
• Students can tell the worker not to wrap the sub if they wish to put a
topping on it
• Having the cups at the end of the line will eliminate the need for a worker
to hand out cups

20. Unit Name
Arrivals in a given interval
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Number of Arrivals
Number of Students

21. Unit Name
Data of arrivals (in 15 minute intervals)
Time
Number of
Students
Students in that
interval
Time
Number of
Students
Students in that
interval
5:00 0 0 7:45 317 26
5:15 25 25 8:00 347 30
5:30 46 21 8:15 391 44
5:45 78 32 8:30 418 27
6:00 100 22 8:45 439 21
6:15 143 43 9:00 476 37
6:30 184 41 9:15 518 42
6:45 213 29 9:30 557 39
7:00 244 31 9:45 602 45
7:15 266 22 10:00 641 39
7:30 291 25 10:15 697 56
• Average of 33 different students in a given 15 minute interval
• With 3 stations that represents 11 students per station
• The average total time to make a sub is 1.36 minutes or 81.81
seconds

22. Unit Name
Current Vs. Proposed Entry Method and
RUID Swipe
• Simplifies calling the preceding students to get in line for
their sub
• Eliminates task of worker swiping cards manually
• Changes Layout of the assembly line
• Combines swiping the card, tallying number of students
served, and allowing students in the door.

23. Unit Name
Comparison
• Current Method: 100TMU = 3.6 Seconds/Cycle
• Proposed Method: 30 TMU = 1.08 Seconds/cycle
• And one less worker required
• Roughly 2.5 seconds saved per cycle

24. Unit Name
Comparison Continued
• We had observed approximately 700 subs made in 1.5 hours
• Current Method:
– (700 subs) (3.6 seconds per sub) = 2,520 Seconds for 700 sub swipes
• Proposed Method:
– (700 subs) (1.08 seconds per sub) = 756 Seconds for 700 sub swipes
• This new method saves about 1,764 seconds or 29.4
minutes over 700 swipes

25. Unit Name
Pre-Portioning of Meat/Cheese on Wax Paper
• 4 pieces of meat and/or
cheese takes 7.73 seconds
• Each sub will contain 12
pieces of meat and/or cheese
(3 wax papers)
• On average meat/cheese will
take 23.19 seconds to
assemble
• With 2 people preparing the
meats, they can make enough
meat for 77.6 subs in a 15
minute interval

26. Unit Name
Making a Sub: 1 or 2 man job?
• 2 workers - 1 sub
every 52.60 seconds
• 17.11 subs - 15
minutes
• 2 stations - 34.22
subs in a 15 minutes
• 1 workers - 1 sub
every 65.72 seconds
• 13.7 subs - 15
minutes
• 3 stations - 41.1 subs
in a 15 minutes

27. Unit Name
Reduction of time due to pre-portioned meat
• 30.72(avg) seconds
to place meat on the
sub
• Pre-portioned meat,
14.45(avg) seconds
to place meat
• Reduces the time to
make a sub by 16.27
seconds
• Time reduced from
65.72 to 49.45
seconds
•Now, with this reduced time, the 3
workers making subs can make 54.6
subs in a 15 minute interval.
•Interestingly, this is fast enough to meet
the demand at the peak hour.

28. Unit Name
Current vs. Proposed
Current
• 2 Stations
• 2 Workers per station
• 34.22 subs in a 15 minute
interval
Proposed
• 3 Stations
• 1 Worker per station
• 54.6 subs in a 15 minute
interval
• 159.5% increase from
present method

29. Unit Name
What we learned!
• Gaining permission to perform a study on union workers is
harder then expected
• How to implement relevant course work into daily life activities
such as the MOST Evaluation Method and Work Sampling
Techniques to obtain a higher efficiency throughout a
process
• Group communication and cooperation

30. Unit Name
Thank you!
Dr. Luxhoj
Livingston Dinning Hall Staff