FSSM PRODUCTIVITY/TIME STUDY WORKSHEET
Instructions:
- Discuss with your preceptor a food product or task study that would be useful for the facility.
- Select one food product or task to include in your study. Some common types of time/productivity studies include:
- Readymade vs. Made-from-scratch – Determine which is a more cost effective choice. (i.e. frozen rolls vs. homemade rolls)
- Comparing Two Employees – Determine which employee has a more effective method of doing the same recipe/task. (i.e. compare a cook in one school preparing enchiladas and a cook in another school preparing the same enchilada recipe- which makes more efficient use of time)
- New Product – Determine if it is reasonable to put the new product on the menu. Look at the cost of the new product item after adding in the labor cost of preparing it.
- Summarize your results and what you learned by completing the questions below.
- Provide your preceptor with a copy of your data. Although they do not need to evaluate or grade it, they may want to know what you found out that may be useful to their program.
- Submit the following as a PDF filevia Canvas:
- This worksheet
Productivity/Time StudyQuestions
- What type of productivity/time study did you do? Select one below:
- Readymade vs. Made-from-scratch
- Comparing two employees
- New product
- Other:
- What food item/recipe or task did you do your productivity/time study on? (Example: brownie recipe).
- How was the study done? Be sure to include: boundaries of the time study (start point and stop point) and what positions/employees were observed.
- What is the purpose of the study? How will the results be used?
- Were there any environmental factors that may have affected the results (i.e. broken down mixer)?
- What calculations did you do for labor costs (include the actual calculations used to determine the dollar amount of labor costs)?
- What calculations did you do for food costs (include the actual calculations used to determine the dollar amount of food costs)?
- What are the total costs for (labor + food + other costs if applicable) for this item or process (include the actual calculations used to determine the dollar amount of labor costs)?
- What do the results tell you?
- What other factors or aspects need to be considered when determining whether or not to make a change to this menu item or process? (e.g. labor involved, student acceptance, training required, nutrient quality, etc. There is almost always something besides just cost to think about!)
- What changes to staffing and procedures would you make as a result of this study? Your plan of action?
- What is one important skill you have learned from this assignment that you might use as a dietitian in a food service manager position?
CRDN 1.6, 3.9, 4.1, 4.5