The solution built on Microsoft Power Platform significantly reduces manual work
Servica Oy provides catering, cleaning, equipment maintenance, building technology, facility management and logistics services for its owners. Servica Oy operates as an in-house company whose principal owners are the City of Kuopio and the Hospital District of Northern Savo. With approximately 1,250 employees, Servica provides services at over 100 locations and maintains more than 300 buildings and facilities.
Servica prepares some 21,000 lunches daily for schools, day-care centers, staff restaurants, hospitals and assisted living facilities. Monitoring food waste has been important for Servica due to the climate impacts and financial impacts involved. Previously, food waste monitoring was done using traditional Excel spreadsheets. Servica wanted to find a more efficient and user-friendly solution for monitoring the amount of food waste. While there were existing solutions available in the market, they did not suit Servica’s needs due to their inflexibility of reporting and the costs involved, among other things. Servica decided to start developing a food waste application in collaboration with Istekki Oy and Innofactor.
Data recording and reporting functionality was built into the food waste app with the help of Microsoft Power Platform. Built on the Power Apps platform, the application can be used to record the amounts of various types of waste. The application automatically calculates total waste, the associated carbon footprint and the cost of the waste.
Power BI reporting, in turn, enables the more comprehensive monitoring of changes in the amount of waste, the carbon footprint and the costs involved. The amounts of different types of waste – such as plate waste, kitchen waste and inventory waste – can be monitored over time and on a site-specific basis.
The reports can also be used to provide the clients with detailed information on how much waste is generated per person. The food waste application and reporting solution streamline the work of Servica's food service production personnel as well as the work of the management as a strategic planning tool. The solution will be deployed in stages starting from December 2021.
At the sites involved in Servica's pilot project, the new application was found to be easy to use, clear and logical. It was also found to reduce the workload of waste monitoring.
"The new application makes it easy to monitor daily data on waste, measured in euros and kilograms. This encourages the kitchen to monitor food quantities and order quantities. The application has been very well received here."
Merja Ahonen
Food Service Manager
Servica
The following technologies were a part of Seure's solution:
