Ideally the planning would be done automatically using recipes as a bill of material and then doing an MRP run for the de- mographics schedule to embark on a voyage. There are two prob- lems that currently prevent such a planning system, the first one being that there is no current data on specific consumption pattern for a given demographics, and the second is the guest experience: menu changes and people cannot be standardized into a rigid consumption pattern. Another part of the planning challenge is that as a senior supply chain manager explains: ‘‘We’re sourcing guests from other locations in the world, so we’re actually changing the onboard product as well’’. The example given is the current de- ployment of ships to China, where a big part of the passenger mix will be Asian and they won’t expect a total western experience. Changing from a North American guest to European required a slight change in the product as well, although not as extensive, given the European roots of a majority of North American and the common tastes, but the Chinese deployment needs to be a very different kind of product adapted to local tastes.