Learn how to apply constraints to different resources when planning a Menu Cycle or Menu Plans.
To effectively work with constraints, it is crucial to define and understand this concept so you can maximize its benefits.
What is a Constraint?
Constraints are resources used to limit the selection of available items for a given Cycle or Plan. You can restrict item choices based on various criteria such as category values or dietary flags.
If you input a total or per-head budget, the system will ensure that the total food cost does not exceed the budget. If the cost exceeds the budget, the user will receive a notification in the summary section, prompting them to make adjustments to specific products in order to stay within the budgetary constraints.
When to Use Constraints?
You can utilize constraints whenever you need more control and want to ensure quality throughout your planning cycle.
It is best practice to create constraints before populating your cycle or plans with products.
Creating a Constraint
For Cycles and Plans:
- To create restrictions or include only specific items within a Cycle or Plan, click on the Constraint engine located in the top-right corner.
- After accessing the constraint engine, you will be able to add category and dietary flags constraints.
Category value: Choose the category and its corresponding values to create your constraint. You can also modify the wording and create constraints based on including specific category values instead of excluding them. Add one or multiple category values to create a constraint. These will be evaluated using an "AND" condition. For example, a constraint for recipes with category value "grab and go/yes" AND "cuisine/Italian".
Dietary Flag: Choose the dietary flags that you would like to exclude from your Cycle or Plan. Add one or multiple to create a constraint. These will be evaluated using an "OR" condition. Therefore any product that contains one or more dietary flags will be excluded from the Cycle. For example, exclude all products with dietary flag "peanuts" AND "sesame". - Save your changes.
- Now, when adding items to this Cycle or Plan, the available items will be filtered based on the defined constraint.
Add an event item group constraint
Galley offers the ability to add constraints at the event item group level (for example, sauce, entree, and healthy option).
In the real world, the event item group commonly represents the concept of stations.
For the health option example, it might be mandatory to include only recipes with the category/tag healthy option/yes.
For those use cases, we recommend creating an event item group constraint. Follow the steps below to add an event item group constraint.
- Click the 3 dots right beside the event item group to which you desire to add a constraint.
- Click to add a constraint.
- Pick the category values. Note the scenarios below.
- Click to save.
Note the following scenarios
- When creating an event item group constraint using a Category value, if the user chooses to use the same category value at the cycle/plan level, the cycle/plan constraint will take precedence over the event item category value constraint.
- When creating a cycle or plan using a Category value, this category value is no longer available to be used at the event item group level because it has already been applied to the whole cycle/plan.
Checking for Overruled Constraints
In the summary section, located on the left side of a Cycle or Plan, you can tap to view any overruled constraints. A tooltip provides context on the overruled constraint, allowing you to understand and adjust it if necessary.
