Production of airline meals is demand driven. The demand varies greatly over time, due to seasonal influences, flight schedules, weather or destination of the flight. To absorb the fluctuations in demand, KCS uses a large flexible workforce layer on top of their own staff. Generally speaking, the skill set of direct hires is bigger than the skill set of temporary staff. The planning of this flexible layer is directly controlled by KCS. This allows KCS to determine which temp workers to hire and which skillset is needed. The challenge is to plan the KCS staff as efficient as possible, so the available skills are maximized. The rest of the workforce is hired from temp agencies, preferable for positions that require limited skills.