planning team to see what special needs are.
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.
One key element found to be crucial in new deployment situa- tion is the ability to have a bank of local resources that could be tapped. Reaction time has been the key element in avoiding shortage, which would impact the ships. Acquiring this local base is done through getting to know them personally and getting on the ground early in the season and actually getting face to face andplanning the upcoming year. This advance work in finding the right people and planning the year in detail, if done correctly, is what will ensure the success of a season and the deployment. The other aspect is to make sure there are contracts in place for the carriers ahead of time and that the transit times are well understood. As an example, transit times to Asia are up to 35 or 40 days, which implicates a really long planning phase for the ships especially if compared to the previous pattern of U.S. based ships that had a transit time of only a few hours from the suppliers and consoli- dation centers to the ports.