Technical report (Draft 1)

Introduction

Finding seats during lunch periods is always difficult due to the common schedule of consuming lunch at the same timing, even more so if a group of people are looking to seat with each other for their meal. Sometimes seats are taken up by those who have finished their food and are loitering around, or chatting away while occupying the seats that could be used by others.

In SIT@Dover, there are two canteens where students and staff commonly have their meals before their next lesson. However, the canteens are always packed during lunch break due to the increasing population of the student body in SIT. As a result, there are very few seats available during said periods. Some students might even opt to skip out on their lunch, which could lead to negative health effects. According to Hyatt (2017), skipping lunch can lead to individuals being distracted from their work and other effects such as “drowsiness, fuzziness, and fatigue”. As such, it is crucial for SIT to address the lack of seats at the canteen during lunchtime.

According to a survey conducted, 96% of the participants consume their lunch in the canteens within SIT campus, and 98% of them will be in groups of two or more. Furthermore, 78% usually have to wait for more than 5 minutes to get a seat during lunch break. As most people finish their meals within half an hour, the turnover rates for the tables should be high, yet the students and staff still have problems finding seats during peak period. It has been observed that the cause of this issue is patrons are hogging the seats after their meals.

There should be available seats in the two canteens of SIT@Dover for students and staff members during lunch time, removing the waiting time spent on finding a vacant seat.

Problem statement
There is a lack of seats at the canteens during lunch period due to patrons who do not leave after consuming their meals, resulting in students and staff members to be unable to find any available seats. An online reservation system at SIT@Dover could facilitate the turnover rate of seats in the canteens, helping students and staff members to cut unnecessary time waiting for unoccupied seats.

Purpose statement
The aim of this report is to propose to SIT department of state affairs the usage of an advanced booking system for the canteens. This system will allow students to reserve a seat without having to spend time waiting for a seat and manage the lunch crowd at SIT@dover.

Current Implementation

The process of finding a seat in the canteens of SIT@Dover is to find an available seat. If the number of seats does not accommodate the number of people within a group of patrons, then the patrons will have to wait for another seat to become vacant. Upon finding a seat, students tend to leave their belongings behind, while purchasing their food at the stalls, before heading back to the seat to consume their meal.

Limitations
The students are at the risk of having their belongings stolen when their bags are left unattended at the seats while they are purchasing their food. Another limitation is the patrons loitering after their meals, taking up the seats that could be used by others during lunch period. As there is no regulations for using the canteen facilities, people could use the seats for any purpose aside to consuming their meals.

Benefits
It is convenient as there is no system in place, people are able to head down to the canteens at any time without prior planning.

Proposed Solution

The proposed solution is for a system to allow students and staff members to reserve a seat in advance. The reservation of seats will be independent to the current system that is implemented in the canteens, making it an optional choice for patrons to use to obtain a seat.

Technical specifications
The system will be integrated with SIT’s website, to allow for better management of the system. As students and staff members are familiar with SIT’s website, it will be more convenient for them to use the system as opposed to using an external platform to reserve the seats.

A deposit will be required to use the reservation system, which will be refunded if the users do not abuse the system. A penalty will be incurred if people do not show up after booking a seat through the system. Students and staff members need to use their matriculation or staff ID to account for their usage of the system. Upon arriving at the seats at the canteen, the user is required to scan their ID card before going for lunch.


Benefits of proposed solution
The benefits of implementing an online booking system would be having little to no waiting time to find seats at the canteen during lunchtime. The turnover rate of seats would be at its optimal as patrons would have to adhere to their timeslot booked. With the online booking app, the reserved seats would be able to hold the maximum amount of patrons possible during lunchtime.


Limitations of proposed solution
The online booking system is limited to the tables that are reserved for the system. Thus, only 20% of the total seats in the canteen will be used for the system in its initial stage. In addition, there are still majority of seats which are not subjected to the regulations of the system. As a result, the issue of seats hogging will still be present in the regular seating plan. Scheduled maintenance and updates will be required for the reservation system, preventing users from accessing the system during such period.

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