Flight Food (FF) FF is a large secondary sector business that supplies airlines with in-flight meals. Meals are manufactured using batch production. A different variety of meal is made each hour with a five minute changeover time between batches. FF makes use of Just in Time (JIT) to manage inventory wherever possible. Trucks arrive each hour and deliver the materials needed for production. The market for airline meals is very competitive. FF uses market segmentation when deciding which meals are most likely to appeal to different airlines. FF must adapt to changes in tastes and the demands of each airline. FF is a labour intensive business. The workers are employed with short-term (six month) employment contracts. They are only offered new contracts if they meet their production targets. Table 2.1 shows some production data for FF's two work teams. Table 2.1: Worker data for FF Team A Team B Number of workers 100 50 Productivity (per worker per day) 300 meals 240 meals The Board of Directors of FF is considering changing the manufacturing process to flow production. This would require purchasing Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) equipment and using a capital intensive production process. Production targets would no longer be used for employees because the machinery would be set at a specific production rate. Sabrina, the Operations Director, has put forward the following advantages for moving to flow production: • more products made each hour • lower employment costs • improved quality. Ben, the Human Resource Director, is worried about the change from a labour intensive process to a capital intensive process.