Blog Post
Workforce Scheduling for a Leading Fast-Food Chain
This multinational fast-food chain is a household favorite and one of the largest hamburger chains in the world. Their Hungarian division has more than 1,000 employees and over 40 restaurants throughout the country. They were looking to optimize workforce scheduling to deliver great customer service at retail locations while respecting employee preferences.
Problem
The company was planning employee shifts using Excel, but the spreadsheet became so large that it was hard to sustain. Creating a roster took too long. They decided to look for a more efficient tool that would enable them to speed up the planning process. They saw this as an opportunity to improve customer experience in their restaurants, lower costs and improve data integration. They wanted to oversee planning needs in a centralized way, while enabling managers at respective locations to adjust the schedule. The company worked with Optasoft, an AIMMS implementation partner, to perform a study of their requirements. They identified that they could gain much-needed speed and flexibility with an AIMMS-based workforce scheduling application.
Solution
Using AIMMS, Optasoft developed an application that provides a detailed overview of capacity requirements for each location, including opening and closing times as well as active periods – which are time slots required for preparatory activities like cleaning. The application also takes required processes, employee skill sets, holidays and leave, salary categories, labor regulations and the staff’s preferences into account. Considering employee preferences has been crucial to achieve the company’s goals. Employees are happier, and this improves both staff retention and customer experience.
Besides this, the app provides a forecast of expected daily sales, helping them optimize capacity requirements for each location. The fast-food chain’s planning team and location managers get an optimized roster and can make changes as needed. This was particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they had to adapt to a new style of working and focus on deliveries until the restaurants were allowed to re-open.
Results
The AIMMS-based workforce scheduling application saves the fast-food chain considerable time in shift creation. They can meet capacity requirements more easily and efficiently. Other benefits include:
- More employee satisfaction
- More planning flexibility and adaptability
- Lower costs
Solution implemented by:
