Optimizing Your Trayline

Implementing this Simple Formula for Success Could Make a Huge Difference

Time. Staffing resources. Operational efficiency. Patient satisfaction.

What’s the measure of a truly effective trayline operation in healthcare food service? How to optimize the multiple factors that come into play when assessing whether you’re pursuing the right strategy to accomplish your goals?

A common metric to assess success is Tray Accuracy, the ability for your team to put together the correct elements on the tray. Fail to include items, however, and patient satisfaction suffers. Is this a viable assessment of operational efficiency? Not really.

Speed – that’s where some managers land. They look only at the rate of Trays Per Minute. In a window of time, how many completed trays can your operation put together and get out the door? It’s a simple formula to figure out: how many trays do you need to produce? How long does it take you to complete the tasks? Some simple division and you get a working number. Set a baseline, establish expectations and regularly check that your team is meeting that objective.

That approach sounds reasonable. It’s close, but there’s still a key factor that’s missing. One that has a direct impact on your costs, resources and efficiencies. And, yes, patient satisfaction.

In this short video, I explain why food managers need to start looking at a far more revealing metric: Staff Minutes Per Tray (SMT). Devoting a few minutes of understanding why Burlodge is a proponent of this strategy could save you thousands of dollars and significantly streamline your operation. That’s some math worth considering.