The Transavia Inhouse Day immediately drew my attention because of the comprehensive issue at hand: reducing food waste while ensuring customers satisfaction.
- Katherin Schuppener, Msc student Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics, TU Delft.
Wednesday December 14, students from TU Delft and Erasmus University bundled forces at Tranasvia’s Headquarters at Schiphol Airport during the Transavia Food Waste Challenge.
A moment with CEO Mattijs ten Brink
Transavia’s CEO Mattijs ten Brink held an impressive kick-off speech for this first collaboration between LDE Centre for Sustainability and Transavia, emphasizing the importance of today’s challenge and explaining what Transavia stands for.
“Initially I wanted to participate to learn more about airline companies, not knowing I would meet so many diverse, enthusiastic people (participants and Transavia employees) that were able to create so many different ideas for such a complicated issue in just one day.” - Yani Scheuer, Bsc Business Administration, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.
Interdisciplinary teams
After an explanation of the challenge at hand, students formed teams. Teams consisted of an interesting mix of students from different backgrounds.
“Moreover, the fact that our groups were randomly formed between students from TU Delft and Erasmus University, added the difficulty of "getting to know each other" and to effectively try to work without having a previous experience among us in a time constraint challenge.” - Juan Pablo Nieto Stabile, MSc student Engineering & Policy Analysis, TU Delft.
Although collaborating with so many different interests seemed difficult at first, the combination of technology, business and sustainability interest delivered interesting results in the end. All at the interface of these aspects of society.
“As an engineer, I believe the solution is always in the data but this case thought me that including the vision of the company and the perception of the stakeholders is key in solving any issue. Having groups mixed from different universities and the constant help of the representatives of Transavia, allowed us to provide a set of solutions, that when implemented together have a real chance at reducing food waste without compromising profits or customer satisfaction.” - Katherin Schuppener, Msc student Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics, TU Delft.
Winning Team
After a day filled with co-creation between students and Transavia's experts, the five groups pitched their ideas to Transavia’s managers and the CEO. The group of Yani Scheuer, Juan Pablo Nieto Stabile and Katherin Schuppener finally won the case with their idea, congratulations!
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