The Impact of Scientific Management Principles on Food hub by Dean Jose A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major: Industrial Engineering

Food hubs has seen substantial growth in past few decades but the overall operational efficiency and effectiveness is a concern for the managers of these facilities. The physical layout and infrastructure of the facility along with training to the operators is one of the critical part of improvements that will improve the efficiency of these facilities. Regional food hubs even though different from large-scale food hubs, effectively need both operational efficiency and effectiveness. Currently, the food hub is reliant on volunteer labor without any specific training materials to help them acclimatize to their respective job. The lack of training provided to the volunteers causes volunteer frustration and operational errors. The ad-hoc labeling system used in the food hubs to hold the material there is another area for concern. This thesis proposed a scientific management approach to management of operations as compared to the ad-hoc methods followed currently. This thesis analyzed the current workflow method, infrastructure layout of the facilities and the operating procedure followed by the workers and compared the efficiency with the addition of scientific management techniques like training and standard operating procedure for workers along with improved layout of the facility. In order to check for the current efficiency, Task Analysis and Time study techniques were used. A scaled down simulation of the regional food hub was set up in the lab and a control group performs the task as it is performed in the food hub currently. The experimental groups performed the task in the modified method using scientific management principles like training, standard work procedure and process improvement. The four-group experiment