Meet Marc-Antoine, our Group Performance & Menu Engineering Coordinator

Join Marc-Antoine, our Performance & Menu Engineering Coordinator behind the scenes at CIS Group. Immerse yourself in his captivating journey and explore his thoughts on the importance of these key aspects to the CIS Group.

Can you describe your evolution within CIS? As well as your role and missions as «Performance & Menu Engineering Coordinator»?

In 2012, I joined the CIS Group from the corporate catering sector in the UK. My first assignment was in Algeria as a chef.

The following year I was called to operate as Executive Chef on an project in New Caledonia. After the end of this project, I took the opportunity to join the CNA team in Mauritania, where I served as the catering manager. In 2019, I was assigned to coordinate the Menu Engineering (ME) project through the CIS Group.

Initially, I worked with the IT team to develop the tool and I am now responsible for its deployment and monitoring in the different subsidiaries. At the same time, I use the feedbacks gathered during these phases to guide the future evolutions of the tool.

Can you remind us in a few words the principle, the objectives and the added value of Menu Engineering ?

Menu Engineering is a module allowing the integration of recipes, menus and meal forecasts. This system is used to estimate with precision and in advance :

• The proposed menus
• The purchase forecasts linked to the menus
• Daily consumption.

It allows users to make measured choices at each validation stage to achieve their objectives.

This added control allows the teams on site to follow their costs at all levels of the supply chain and thus to optimize their PRJ through these 3 axes of control.

You have coordinated its deployment, what were the major challenges? And the organization of work with the local teams?

The major challenge encountered on the deployments is to establish a practical workflow between the different pilots that can be followed daily.

« Menu Engineering is effective when it is applied in an order that allows to estimate before consuming and not the opposite.»

What have been the main improvements since its implementation?

As long as the ME workflows are respected, we have observed reductions in PRJ of up to 35%.

It is the accumulation of good daily practices that allows us to make a positive difference in our monthly consumption. The same is true for purchasing. Thanks to the use of the ME purchase forecasting module, overstocking can be avoided on the sites and the risks of stock shortages are minimized. The use of ME therefore also contributes to maintaining the quality offered to our customers.

How is the impact of Menu Engineering on performance measured?

The method used to evaluate the impact of ME consists in comparing the PRJ realized after the implementation of the system with that of the previous three months. This comparison is crucial during the follow-up meetings, because it allows the pilots to focus on the product families that generate additional costs, to identify the reasons for these additional costs and to implement the necessary corrective actions.

An operational quality committee has been set up by the General Management to establish the Group’s culinary production standards ? Can you say more ?

We are currently developing a recipe manual that includes international dishes. These recipes have been chosen according to four criteria: their popularity with our clients, their accessibility in terms of ingredients and preparation methods, their attractive visual appearance that will enhance our service lines, and their appealing taste.

« This manual is intended to standardize our offering in all CIS-operated restaurants. »

It will also be a valuable tool for future kitchen training and for controlling our production costs.