Calculate the dish capacity of the following flight-type dish machine, and then in paragraph format, make a decision on whether or not you feel this machine will meet the operational needs of the inflight kitchen. Justify your rationale.
A new airline catering kitchen is being constructed just off the apron of an international airport. Before construction, the company through a bid process secured the business of a mid-size airline that operates 3 daily international flights, Monday – Saturday into the airport. All three flights land between 6:00 and 7:00 am and the flight kitchen only has 1 hour to wash all the dishes and send them to production so that they may be reloaded for the outbound flights. This was enough business to begin developing the flight kitchen for the airline.
To determine the equipment needs of the kitchen, a hired consultant decides that a dish machine that moves at 4.6 feet per minute, has 2 inches between pegs, and is 30 inches wide will service the peak hourly need of the facility. As they plan on leasing the machine, they can easily upgrade to a larger one once business increases.
Flight Variables