resources Article Lean Management Approach to Reduce Waste in HoReCa Food Services Bartłomiej Gładysz 1,* , Aleksander Buczacki 1 and Cecilia Haskins 2 1 Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-524 Warszawa, Poland;
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[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +48-22-234-81-26 Received: 5 October 2020; Accepted: 1 December 2020; Published: 8 December 2020 Abstract: A significant share of food waste originates in the food services domain and HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, catering) sector. Organizational improvements leading to the decrease of food waste and costs in restaurants are needed. The literature reports on applications of lean management in service businesses, and while food services belong in this category, the literature contains few works on specific applications in this domain. Those studies are limited mainly to economic aspects. Nor was there evidence of the applicability of lean management to achieve food waste elimination. This article analyzes the applicability of lean management methods for food services in order to achieve efficient operations and eliminate food waste, based on a literature review and three case studies from Poland. Lean management was found to be useful in these cases to decrease food waste and reduce operational costs. The case studies suggest a set of activities for organizations delivering food services to streamline their processes by applying lean management practices. This study contributes to the theory and practice of sustainable restaurant management. Keywords: food waste; lean management; food services; HoReCa; sustainable restaurant management 1.