Name Your Poisson – a Case of Fishy Decision-Making

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Write-up

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Name your poisson – a case of fishy decision-making

1) What is the problem at Poisson’s?

Poisson’s is a chain of restaurants that is committed to serving fresh fish to its customers, that is each day the restaurants have to throw out any fish that has not been used.

The restaurants have a fixed number of fish they buy each day (the standing order) and because of the chain’s “fresh” promise, the managers have to guess the best standing order for their restaurant.

Lately the CEO has pointed out that there is a lot of fish wastage. As a study has found that the restaurant with the largest average wastage per day also had the lowest profit per day on fish, she is wondering whether she should take part in the decisions made by restaurants’ managers regarding fish standing orders.

2) What is (are) the cause of the problem(s)?

There are several contributing factors to the issue at Poisson.

First, the chain’s problem is largely a result of the “fresh” policy which (by their supplier’s rules) requires the restaurant to make purchase decisions at least 24 hours in advance. If the restaurant were able to make 2 purchases in a day – one for lunch and one for dinner – they may be able to reduce wastage. In fact, the restaurant manager’s currently select an amount for the standing order for the entire year – which limits a more real time ability to predict supply. This results in wastage.

Moreover, demand at the restaurants appears to be very irregular (e.g., there are no noticeable weekly, monthly, or seasonal patterns) making it even more difficult for the managers to predict the number of fish they have to buy. If patterns in demand can be identified, the supply may be predicted to match more closely (e.g., if weekend sales were generally higher than weekday sales).

Lastly, the managers currently have full autonomy to make the purchase orders....