SecC Group02 AkshayaPatra
SecC Group02 AkshayaPatra
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1. What are the challenges faced by the Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF)
in its pursuits of Mission?
Ans. The main challenges faced by the
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d. Flexible standardised model: Trying to go for the customisation of the food
according to the local region along with the standardised and flexible model
g. Challenges in decentralised operations
a. Human Resource issues: Basic training should be given to the women in cooking,
nutrition and hygiene. They all are uneducated and other training related too
maintain the records, accounting, inventory, requisition slips and teaching then to
count is given to them. localized training of villages is extremely labor intensive
b. Difficulties in transportation: when it rained, they trucks get structed in the mud
and ruts and they are left there itself for up to 3 days.
c. Lack of electricity & refrigeration: This led to the spoilage of vegetables especially
those which are perishable and the storage of them is very challenging.
d. Necessary scale: the question was are they able to achieve the necessary scale in
those areas to make the difference.
e. Trusted supervisors: It is very difficult to get the trusted supervisors, as most of
them fall as a prey for the corruption schemes which are prevalent in the Indian
system.
f. Problem of quality assurance: Even after giving very intensive training to them and
even after strict control there still exists this problem
g. Theft: In the villages because of corruption and even after strict rules still there
exists theft.
h. Dependency on volunteers: The kitchen management was overseen by the religious
volunteers, that means here it is less than 2% of the expenses are from operations,
administration and marketing whereas in other NGOs it is more than 20%, it might be one of
the limitations for the growth.
i. Maintaining Cost efficiencies
a. Increased Transportation costs
b. Dispersed locations of Schools
c. Vendor Relationships
d. Administration
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2. What are the options that Akshaya Patra is pursuing to address these
challenges?
Akshaya Patra is pursuing the following options to address the challenges:
Akshaya Patra has been facing a number of problems in daily operations related t quality and
quantity of food, menu selection, delivery time etc. The management of Akshaya Patra has tried to
identify the root cause of the problem and act accordingly.
For expanding to new areas and for extending the meal service to new schools, Akshaya Patra has
adopted a decentralized model consisting of small kitchens instead of a centralized model. The
centralized model was becoming inefficient as the scale of operations was expanded.
As new schools were added, the capacity and number of kitchens also needed to be increased. So,
Akshaya Patra focussed on productive and process-oriented kitchen facilities that were hygienic and
replicable.
In order to ensure efficient and timely delivery of food to the schools, the time taken by the delivery
truck to move from one school to another was tracked and deviations were taken into account.
Security guard of the delivery truck had a mobile phone to communicate with the central kitchen
during any emergency situation.
Procurement of basic ingredients like rice was affected due to adulteration. In order to increase the
weight of rice bag, middlemen added foreign materials which comprised around 20% weight of each
bag. Akshaya Patra carried out thorough cleaning of rice to get rid of non-food materials.
f) Maintenance of hygiene:
The villages were Akshaya Patra operated village kitchens had very different hygiene standards from
urban areas. Akshaya Patra communicated the significance of hygiene to the local staff and the
practice of taking bath daily before food preparation and service.
Akshaya Patra provided basic training to women in cooking, nutrition and hygiene who were
employed as cooks. There were also provided additional knowledge about accounts, inventory and
requisition slips for handling day to day transactions.
Akshaya Patra is looking to build replicable kitchen models with added capacity to support future
growth. Continuous improvement and flexibility of operations are also taken into account to
customize to the local needs.
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3. What changes are required in its operating model to achieve its
mission?
With an aim to provide nutrition through mid-day meals while leveraging it to get the kids to
schools. With challenges increasing, while they also have to increase the coverage, certain changes
need to be made in its operating model:
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