Nidhi D - Akshayapatra Report

Operations Management- II
Report on: The field visit
The Akshaya Patra Foundation
Prepared By
Nidhi D
Section: B
Roll no.: 2210117
Under the Guidance of

Dr. PRS Sarma (IIM Visakhapatnam)
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About: The Akshaya Patra Foundation
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based in Bangalore, India. Their
aim is to banish hunger by running Mid-Day Meal Programme in government and government-
aided schools. Furthermore, they work towards eradicating malnutrition and believe in education
for all, especially for socio-economically backward children.
Since 2000, they have been preparing nutritious meals and delivering fresh food to children
every day at school. The state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of study and have
attracted curious visitors worldwide.
With the help of technology, they are continuously working on increasing their reach. They have
partnered with the Government of India and various State Governments. They also get support
from corporates, individual donors, and well-wishers. This reach has helped them grow on a
larger scale. They started by serving 1500 children in 5 schools in 2000, now they serve up to 2
million children across India. They reach out to 22,367 schools in 15 states and 2 Union
territories of India.
Details of the visit day: Visit was scheduled on 11th March 2023, Morning 6am (when they start
preparing the food).
Since the organization has such a large reach and serving 2 million children every day requires
planned and efficient operations. Studying their operations would give us some insights on how
they make this happen every day. The objective of the visit was to walk through the processes
from start to end and to connect with the concepts taught in classroom. They have a very
technology- intensive kitchen. This helps them improve efficiency and ensure food quality and
safety. Technology is incorporated in all phases of the kitchen namely;
1. Designing cooking equipment

2. Selecting cooking medium
3. Deploying high speed vegetable cutting machines
4. Handling cooked food to reduce human intervention
5. Maintain high standards of quality
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6. Maintain high standards of cleanliness and hygiene
7. Custom vehicles for food delivery
The flow of Operations:
1. Quality testing:
Scientific methods are used to ensure the quality of all the processes by the Quality
Assurance Team. Quality measures are taken from the purchase of raw materials to the
delivery of cooked food. They apply HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) to
every process to identify and eliminate possible hazard to conform to the safety norms.
Raw material testing: They ensure the quality of the raw materials by running a supplier
quality management programme. Through this programme, they choose their raw
materials suppliers by conducting an audit at their manufacturing sites. Raw materials are
purchased from approved suppliers only. Specifications of raw materials are circulated to
the suppliers so that they send suitable quality materials. Moreover, the foundation’s
quality team also checks the quality of the materials received. If the raw materials do not
meet the FSSAI and AGMARK specifications, they will be rejected. They also have
laboratory facilities for testing the raw materials and the water used for cooking and
cleaning utensils. The labs are capable of performing Chemical and microbiological
analyses. Vegetables that are received are cleaned, sorted, and kept in cold storage with
temperatures less than 5 degrees Celsius.
2. Food manufacturing:
Food manufacturing plans are based on local taste. For example, rice based diet is made
in the south region while roti-based diet is made in the north region. Also, standardization
is taken into account to maintain the level of nutrition along with taste. They also have
different recipes for different food items to ensure that proper nutrition goes into
production of each food item. They also have a planning schedule to decide which food
items will be cooked on what days. Furthermore, all the equipment used in the cooking
area are good quality and are properly cleaned and sanitized before and after cooking.
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Good hygiene practices are followed in the kitchen by using PPE kits like, gloves, mask,
head cap, shoes.
3. Food delivery:
The preparation of the food starts early in the morning and the food reaches the school
during their food break time. They have customized delivery vehicles and containers to
carry food fresh and hot to the schools. The containers are so designed to keep the food
temperature at around 60 degree Celsius.
Conclusion:
The foundation has designed its entire operations so as to assure quality and provide good quality
food to the end users. They practically use many of the concepts that we learned in the classroom
such as, maintaining product quality according to the standards, planning production according
to the taste of the consumers, reducing waste, employing technology for process improvement.
The foundation is an example of the practicality of the concepts and what wonders it can create
when applied correctly. Moreover, the staff was very welcoming and provided us with all the
necessary information. I, thank my professor of Operation Management, Dr. PRS Sarma for
planning and coordinating such an informative field visit for our batch.

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Operations Management- II

Report on: The field visit

The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Under the Guidance of

1. Designing cooking equipment

The flow of Operations:

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