Client Overview: BAT
Industry: British American Tobacco Bangladesh
Client Profile
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Overview
British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BAT) is one of the largest multinational companies operating in Bangladesh. With a massive workforce working across multiple shifts, managing the canteen operations effectively was a growing challenge. Their employees rely on the canteen for their daily meals, with significant numbers consuming meals across different time slots.
The Challenges
Before the implementation of the office Automation System at British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BAT), the organization faced several critical challenges due to its massive workforce and decentralized operations across multiple locations. The traditional management approach, relying heavily on manual processes, presented the following key issues:
Lack of Real-Time Consumption Tracking
With thousands of employees consuming meals across multiple shifts and locations, BAT had no mechanism to track real-time meal consumption. This led to inefficiencies in food preparation, often resulting in overproduction, wastage, and increased catering costs. There was also no centralized dashboard for administrators to monitor daily meal usage or identify trends, leaving them with limited control over operations.
Inaccurate Costing Due to Unauthorized Consumption
One of the major concerns for BAT was the absence of a system to prevent unauthorized access. Employees or external individuals could access the canteen without proper identification, and there was no accurate way to differentiate between authorized employees, guests, and non-BAT personnel. This led to inflated catering costs, as the organization had to rely solely on the data provided by the catering vendor, often resulting in cost discrepancies.
Decentralized Meal Management
BAT’s operational management system was decentralized, with each location, such as Dhaka and Savar, operating independently. This lack of a unified approach made it challenging to track meal consumption in real time, plan inventory, and allocate resources efficiently. The decentralized structure led to inconsistencies, such as over-preparation in one facility and shortages in another, and hindered the ability to accurately forecast meal demand based on consumption trends across multiple sites.
No Financial Transparency for Employee Meal Allowances
The lack of a clear tracking system for employee meal allowances created transparency and accountability issues. Employees often exceeded their allocated meal quotas without proper monitoring. This complicated budgeting and financial planning for the canteen operations, leading to overspending and challenges in maintaining accurate financial records.
Inefficient Handling of Guest and Overtime Usage
BAT regularly hosts guests and has employees working overtime, requiring additional meal allocations. Without a digital tracking mechanism, guest and overtime usage was difficult to monitor, often leading to mismanagement and uncontrolled expenditure. It was essential to have a feature that allowed BAT to categorize meal expenses by department and ensure that only authorized personnel were consuming meals.
Inability to Accurately Forecast Demand
The manual processes used for meal preparation did not allow for accurate forecasting of future meal demand. The canteen often relied on historical estimates, leading to significant food wastage during low-demand periods and shortages during high-demand times. Without an automated forecasting tool based on real-time data, predicting usage trends remained a challenge, particularly for specific meal times and locations.
Lack of Controls to Detect Exceptions and Misuse
Unauthorized meal consumption, unrecognized employee IDs, or faulty card entries were not effectively tracked. There was no system in place to flag exceptions when employees exceeded their meal quotas or consumed meals without proper authorization. This lack of control created the potential for misuse of canteen resources and escalated meal-related costs.
The Solution
BAT’s canteen operations, managed by an external catering vendor, required a system to accurately track meal consumption, streamline reporting for monthly billing, and ensure proper meal authorization. To address these needs, we developed an advanced Office Automation System that integrated RFID technology, real-time monitoring, and detailed data tracking, allowing BAT to manage meal consumption efficiently across their Dhaka and Savar locations. The system also tackled issues of unauthorized meal consumption, including instances where employees exceeded their meal quotas or consumed meals without proper authorization, providing full transparency and control over meal usage.
RFID-Based Meal Tracking for Accurate Consumption Data
he system automatically records every access point interaction whenever an employee punches their RFID card in the reader. This eliminated the need for manual tracking, ensuring precise, real-time data on meal consumption for every employee. The system provided a transparent record of individual and overall meal usage, directly tied to the monthly billing process handled by the catering vendor.
Centralized Dashboard
The Dashboard offeres a real-time, centralized view of all meal consumption across BAT’s locations. It allowes administrators to monitor meal trends as they happened, with customizable filters to drill down by date, meal types such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and employee category. The dashboard’s customizable filters and graphical representations, such as pie charts and bar graphs made it easy to visualize this data, providing actionable insights for more informed decision-making.
Location-Specific Reporting for Streamlined Vendor Coordination
The system provided detailed Location-Specific Reporting, allowing BAT to track and compare meal consumption between Dhaka and Savar. This feature enabled managers to share accurate consumption reports with the catering vendor for each location, ensuring proper meal delivery coordination and preventing discrepancies in monthly billing. The system also supported daily, weekly, and custom reporting periods, giving BAT full control over how data was shared and analyzed.
Transparent Financial Management via Wallet Search
The Wallet Search feature allowed BAT to track meal allowances for every employee. By monitoring how much allowance each employee had used versus what was allocated, administrators ensure that employees stayed within their designated limits. This feature provided both BAT and the catering vendor with a transparent overview of individual meal consumption patterns, contributing to more accurate monthly billing and better financial management.
Tracking for Guest and Overtime Usage
Guest and overtime usage is a critical factor in management. The system’s Guest and Overtime Tracking ensured that every guest and overtime instance was accurately recorded and allocated. This data are categorized by department, making it easy to charge the correct departments for their respective meal expenses. For BAT, this feature streamlines billing coordination with the catering vendor, preventing overcharging and ensuring every meal was accounted for.
Data-Driven Insights for Service Demand
Although BAT doesn’t prepare meals in-house, the Forecasting feature provides valuable insights by predicting meal consumption trends based on historical data. This allows BAT to better communicate with the catering vendor about expected meal demand. The system helps avoid meal shortages or over-ordering, thus ensuring that the right number of meals are prepared and delivered each day, reducing waste and optimizing the vendor’s meal supply process.
Enhanced Accountability through Exception Logs
The Exception Log feature added an extra layer of accountability by tracking unauthorized or excessive meal consumption. This ensured that every meal outside of an employee’s authorized quota or consumed with unregistered RFID cards was flagged for review. The BAT could use this log to reconcile any discrepancies in meal consumption, ensuring accuracy in meal usage reports and monthly charges. This transparency in tracking created a system of checks and balances, improving overall trust between BAT and the vendor.
Impact and Results
The implementation of the Office Automation System at BAT brought significant improvements to their operations, particularly in terms of tracking, financial transparency, and vendor coordination.
Improved Accuracy in Data Tracking
The introduction of RFID-based tracking eliminated manual record-keeping errors, ensuring precise tracking of all interactions. This accurate, real-time data helped BAT generate transparent and reliable reports for the external vendor, streamlining the monthly billing process and minimizing disputes.
Organized Vendor Coordination and Billing
The Location-Specific Reporting feature allowed BAT to efficiently monitor and compare usage across their Dhaka and Savar locations. By providing detailed reports for each site, the system facilitated better coordination with the vendor, ensuring that deliveries were aligned with actual demand. This also reduced discrepancies in the vendor’s monthly invoices, improving trust and accountability between BAT and their service provider.
Enhanced Financial Management
The Wallet Search feature provided granular control over employee allowances, allowing administrators to monitor individual usage and ensure that employees stayed within their allocated limits. This improved transparency and helped BAT manage related expenses more effectively, leading to more accurate budgeting and reducing overruns.
Efficient Tracking of Guest and Overtime Usage
The system’s Guest and Overtime Tracking provided detailed insights into usage beyond regular employee quotas. By accurately categorizing these instances by department and purpose, BAT ensured that expenses were properly allocated and accounted for, preventing overcharging and improving overall financial management.
Optimized Demand and Reduced Wastage
Through the Forecasting feature, BAT gained valuable insights into demand patterns, allowing them to communicate better with their vendor. This resulted in more precise planning, reducing both shortages and over-preparation, and contributing to a significant reduction in waste.
Increased Accountability and Transparency
The Exception Log feature added a critical layer of accountability by flagging unauthorized or excessive access. By providing visibility into such instances, BAT was able to reconcile discrepancies and enforce adherence to policies. This ensured that all services were accounted for, leading to more accurate monthly billing and developing a higher level of trust between BAT and the vendor.
Key Results
- 98% accuracy in data tracking, reducing errors in manual recording.
- 20% reduction in billing discrepancies, improving coordination between BAT and the vendor.
- 23% reduction in waste due to better forecasting and planning.
- Enhanced financial control, with all expenses tracked transparently, resulting in more efficient budgeting.
- Increased accountability, with unauthorized usage significantly reduced, ensuring compliance with company policies.
Overall, the Office Automation System delivered measurable improvements in efficiency, cost savings, and operational transparency. BAT experienced a seamless, error-free management process that enhanced their coordination with the catering vendor, provided detailed insights, and ensured the smooth handling of financial transactions related to consumption.
