Case Questions

Era of Quality at the Akshaya Patra Foundation

1. Based on the services TAPF provides, what are the major processes that must be executed
by the organization in order to fulfill their mission?
o Procurement, Storage, Food Preparation (washing, cutting, cooking), Delivery,
Quality Control
 Create a high-level process map (1st level) showing the flow of those processes.
 (explain what mean by 1st level)
o What insight do you get by looking at the process map about TAPF’s operations?
 Quality control spans it all
o Who are TAPF’s “customers”? Describe their customer journey. How is this
different from the type of customer journey described in this week’s readings?
 The ultimate customer is the children. It is important to feed them for
nutritional sustenance, creating energy for education
 The customers are not purchasing the food so cost not a factor (primarily
taste)…focus on a need vs a want
 hunger and education twin challenges
 Balancing nutrition and tasted
 What are the key challenges for the Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF)?

o Growing and scaling, demand for their limited resources; reaching far away
locations; uneducated staff; hunger and education; locations, staff willing to live
in or near some of the villages; mix of centralized and de-centralized kitchens;
food storage, preparation, and delivery; balancing nutrition and tasted

o In what ways are their challenges related to their processes (within their control)?

o Quality controls, standardization, monitoring is w/in their control; balancing

nutrition and tasted

o In what ways are their challenges related to their environment (beyond their
control)?

o locations, staff willing to live in or near some of the villages

o uneducated staff

o How can TAPF further improve their processes?

 What strategies should TAPF use to orient and motivate the unskilled workers of the
kitchen on quality aspects?

o Measure them against it; video of do’s and don’t’s; videos of consequences on the
children; video of happy kids that are not hungry and are getting an education;
consequences for non-compliance; rewards for good examples; self-appreciation
awards

o Identify the KPI’s that you think will help Akshaya meet its performance goals,
keeping in mind their definition of quality.

o KPIs….temperature of food at time of delivery; delivery before noon;

o What processes are critical ensuring that these performance goals are met? Are there
process measures that might predict when their performance goals might not be met?