Data and Analytics Challenge

The Challenge

Data driven problems on food waste reduction

Use data and analytics to solve problems revolving food waste reduction. These are hypothetical scenarios where you should apply your intellectual curiosity to search for insights and solutions.

Overview

This challenge is split into 3 questions and asks you to investigate food waste within the UK, help Newcastle’s biggest chain bakery, Greggs, further reduce their own food waste and support one of our clients in a potential new venture to minimize food waste within their company.

The questions are weighted and act as an indicator on how long we expect you to spend on each. Weightings are displayed next to each question.

Question 1 | Weighting 30%

Food waste production in the UK

The UK is one of the biggest food waste contributors in Europe, producing 9.5 million tones of food waste per year. One of the leading causes is from shops, bakeries and supermarkets producing too many products that don’t end up being sold. Complete the next two steps to solve this question:

Step 1: Estimate the amount of food waste produced by the UK in the year 2030. We have listed some key statistics and data that may be useful below but you may use any other sources that is relevant.

Step 2: Present a short proposal on ways to reduce food waste in the UK. Remember to back your findings with evidence, list down any sources you may have used and clearly explain any assumptions made.

Question 2 | Weighting 50%

Reduction of food waste by Newcastle’s largest chain bakery

As part of Greggs’ Pledge commitments, they have promised to create 25% less food waste in 2025 compared to 2018 and vowed to donate 100% of surplus food to the needy.

They have been making great progress by reducing manufacturing waste by 31% in proportion to sales in 2021 and redistributing 28% of their unsold food.

One of the ways they have done this is by selling nearly expired products at a cheaper price at their outlet stores. Nearly expired baked goods from normal Greggs stores are transported to these outlet stores and sold at discounted prices.

We need your help in solving the following problems:

Problem 1

There are 5 outlet stores and 64 regular stores within the Tyneside area. Coordinates of the stores have been provided in the dataset excel below. The outlets stores are Howdon, Old Durham Road, Frederick St., Wellbeck Road and Arthur’s Hill

For each of the 5 outlet stores, identify the stores that are closest out of the other 64 (e.g. each outlet store should have a list of regular stores that are closer to it than any of the other outlet stores)
Provide descriptive statistics for each outlet store (e.g. for these stores what is the nearest and furthest store for each outlet)

Problem 2

In an illustrative example, a truck from the Greggs outlet store on Frederick St. does daily routes to all the nearest Greggs stores around it to collect the baked goods that did not get sold that day.

Find the shortest route and distance to travel to all the Greggs stores where the nearest outlet store is Frederick St. (Hint: there should be 7 stores excluding the outlet store)

Assume that the truck would start and end at the outlet store
Hint: It may be helpful to visualize the location of the selected Greggs stores. There is also an Excel solver function that can be useful.
Feel free to use any method (e.g. Python, Excel) to solve the problem. Make sure to document the steps and any other assumptions used in your solution

Problem 3

Greggs also donates some of their end of day unsold baked goods to charities. Provide 3 ideas on how Greggs can further reduce their food waste

Question 3 | Weighting 20%

Client case study on food waste reduction

One of our clients, Sweet Bakery wants to open an outlet store to minimize their food waste. They need help calculating the estimated profit of the store to determine whether this would be a viable option for their business, given the figures provided in the dataset below.

To collect nearly expired goods from 4 of their bakeries and deliver them to the outlet store, a van has to travel a distance of 37.8km. To complete this question you must answer the following questions below:

Calculate the net profit made by the outlet in a day, given the following assumptions:

The outlet sells 100% of the baked goods that are delivered
The route the van takes is the shortest distance between the outlet store and the other bakeries
The van makes 2 trips around the route per day to collect all the baked goods from the other stores
Clearly explain any other assumptions you make throughout

2. Is opening an outlet store a viable option for the client?

3. What is the minimum amount of baked goods that the outlet store needs to sell to make a profit?

4. Taking into account clean air tax (£12.50 per day), how much do your answers change?

5. Are there any other factors that could change the final answer/should be considered in the calculations?

Resources

These are just a starting point, you may use any sources that are relevant

ENV23 - UK statistics on waste

UK statistics on waste

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Household behaviour in relation to food waste, recycling, energy use and air travel

This analysis looks at what the available statistics tell us about how UK household approaches to food waste, recycling, energy use and travel have changed over time

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Quantification of food surplus, waste and related materials in the supply chain

The report quantifies for the first time avoidable food waste by manufacturing sub-sector and examines the reasons why food surplus and waste arise, and how this can be addressed.

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Newcastle Waste Strategy

Waste Strategy City of Newcastle Upon Tyne 2019

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Unsold Food Donations

Greggs Foundation Unsold Food Donations

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Food Waste Reduction Datasets

Contains all the datasets provided in the questions including Greggs’ store coordinates & Sweet Bakery data

Download .xls (40 kb)

About

We created The Data and Analytics Scholarship, sponsored by the Newcastle DNA Oliver Wyman office as an effort to help and encourage students like you to expand their limits, raise their ambitions and enable further education by facilitating continuity of university studies and provide access to high quality education as well as the opportunity to start developing your professional journey at an impact driven management consulting firm.

Oliver Wyman and NE Youth join forces to bring this competition to you, hoping that you can put your skills to the test and prove that you have what it takes to thrive in the world of data analytics.