Evaluating the Quality of Catering Foodservice at Malaysian 5th Infantry Division: Issues and Challenges during Operasi Penawar Covid-19

Catering services are support services to an organization as well as in military itself. In Malaysian Army especially at 5th Infantry Division (5 th Division) in Sabah, a contract catering service is provided by GAPMATA Sajian Sdn Bhd (GAPMATA). In line with the MCO enforcement on 19 th March 2020, Operasi Penawar COVID-19 has also started on 21 st March 2020 nationwide. Once the deployment begin, Army personnel will be stationed at designated SJR post and they are not free to go anywhere else. Military catering always has the objective to provide the Army personnel with food as similar as possible to what they have during normal days. GAPMA TA need to provide the 5th Division Army personnel the same service and quality as they get in camp during their deployment in Operasi Penawar COVID-19. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the quality of catering foodservice provided by GAPMATA during Operasi Penawar COVID-19, to assess the relationship between catering foodservice quality and Army front liner' s satisfaction and to identify measures to be taken to improve the catering foodservice quality in GAPMATA. A total of 108 Army personnel serve at SJR post was given ACHFPSQ (adapted) questionnaire via online Google Sheet Form. There are four foodservice quality dimensions have been measured which are food quality, meal service quality, staff/service issue and physical environment. The results for this study show that there are significantly positive relationship between food quality, meal service quality and staff/service issue with front liner' s satisfaction with correlation coefficient (r-0.693), (r-0.641) and (r-0603) respectively. Only physical environment (r--0.076) did not significantly related to front liner' s satisfaction. Beta coefficient for food quality has been analyzed to be highest (~=0.083) which is the most significant factor that influences the front liner' s satisfaction, followed by staff/service issue(~ =0.067) while meal service quality (~ =0.018) is not a significant predictor to front liner' s satisfaction.
Keywords: Customer satisfaction, food quality, military catering services, Malaysian Anned Forcesfoodservices,ji-ont liner, Op Penawar, COVID-19.

Perkhidrnatan katering adalah perkhidrnatan sokongan kepada organisasi danjuga tentera sendiri. Di Tentera Darat Malaysia terutamanya di Divisyen Ke-5 Infantri (5 Divisyen) di Sabah, perkhidmatan katering secara kontrak disediakan oleh GAPMATA Sajian Sdn Bhd (GAPMATA). Selaras dengan penguatkuasaan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) pada 19 Mac 2020, Operasi Penawar COVID-19 juga telah bermula pada 21 Mac 2020 di seluruh negara. Setelah atur gerak bermula, anggota tentera akan ditempatkan di pos-pos SJR yang ditentukan dan mereka tidak bebas untuk pergi ke tempat lain. Katering tentera selalu mempunyai objektif untuk memberi makanan kepada anggota Tentera Darat setara mungkin dengan apa yang mereka ada pada hari- hari biasa. GAPMAT A perlu memberikan perkhidrnatan dan kualiti yang sama kepada anggota Tentera Darat 5 Divisyen sama seperti berada di kem semasa penempatan mereka di Operasi Pena war COVID-19. Oleh itu, kajian telah dilakukan untuk menilai kualiti perkhidmatan makanan katering yang disediakan oleh GAPMATA semasa Operasi Penawar COVID-19, untuk menilai hubungan antara kualiti perkhidmatan makanan katering dan kepuasan barisan hadapan tentera dan untuk mengenal pasti langkah-langkah yang hams diambil untuk meningkatkan kualiti perkhidmatan makanan katering di GAPMAT A. Seramai 108 anggota tentera yang bertugas di pos SJR diberi borang soal selidik ACHFPSQ (adaptasi) melalui borang Google Sheet secara atas talian. Terdapat empat dimensi kualiti perkhidmatan makanan yang diukur iaitu kualiti makanan, kualiti perkhidrnatan makanan, masalah kakitangan/perkhidmatan dan persekitaran fizikal. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa terdapat hubungan positif yang signifikan antara kualiti makanan, kualiti perkhidmatan makanan dan masalah kakitangan/perkhidmatan dengan kepuasan barisan hadapan dengan pekali korelasi (r = 0.693), (r = 0.641) dan (r = 0603) masing-masing. Hanya persekitaran fizikal (r = -0.076) yang tidak berkaitan dengan kepuasan barisan hadapan. Pekali Beta untuk kualiti makanan telah dianalisis paling tinggi (P = 0,083) yang merupakan fak1or paling signifikan yang mempengaruhi kepuasan barisan hadapan, diikuti oleh masalah kakitangan/perkhidmatan (P = 0,067) sementara kualiti perkhidmatan makanan (P = 0,018) adalah bukan penentu yang signifikan terhadap kepuasan barisan hadapan.
Kata Kunci: Kepuasan pelanggan, kualiti makanan, perkhidmatan katering tentera, perkhidmatan makanan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia, barisan hadapan, Op Penawar, COVID-19