Article

Improving Kitchen Operations and Productivity with a Kitchen Display System

Independent restaurateurs have long-recognized the importance of technology in front-of-house operations. In today's business environment, very few owners can succeed without point-of-sale (POS) systems to track sales, control cash, manage promotions and gift cards, and manage finances.

In this article, we explore an overlooked technology that can play a role in improving kitchen operations consistency, productivity and profitability. When your kitchen is running smoothly, food quality is consistent, wait times are reduced, and the guest experience – whether dining on- or off-premises, is positive. The most useful technology tools to optimize back-of-the-house performance is a kitchen display system (KDS).

One of the most useful technology tools to measure and track performance is a Kitchen Display System (KDS). In this article, we look at how, when properly deployed, used and monitored, it can make your operations even better.

Divide and Conquer

As either a POS component out of the box or an after-market add-on, a KDS allows for the kitchen team to visually oversee the moment-to-moment orders as they are placed either in the restaurant, online or through other channels. The display screens are typically mounted throughout the kitchen where production happens, such as the fry line, the salad station, or other distinct locations where key items are prepared.

The optimal number of display screens for your location is normally driven by the number of prep areas in your kitchen. Along with these screens, which indicate to the chef what has been ordered, there is a display located where the expeditor can see all orders in their entirety; appropriately enough, this display screen is known as the "Expo Screen".

When an order is placed, the KDS breaks down the order into components and only sends the pertinent information to the appropriate screen. For example, if a guest check orders a steak (medium rare), an apple pecan salad, an onion bisque soup, and several cocktails, it is possible to route the parts of the order to four separate screens positioned where they are to be prepared.

While the system splits the order to various stations, the Expo Screen displays the entire order letting the person in charge of expediting know when each component has been completed. As each station completes or "bumps" items, the display shows the progress of the order.

Once all items in the order are "bumped", the expediter is alerted that the order is ready to be delivered to the table. The technology maximizes throughput as display screens can be configured to accommodate large numbers of orders at any one time. and allows the cooks to see all orders in one location rather than having to go off printed tickets. This ability to easily multi-task during busy times is just one of the many benefits of KDS.

Let's look at some of the other benefits.

Speed of service. Few systems provide the line-of- sight and absolute measurement of speed-of-service as well as a properly implemented KDS. The technology natively tracks the time the order is placed, the time it appears on the respective KDS screen, the time that the chef bumps the order marking it complete, and ultimately the time that the entire order is bumped from the Expo Screen.

This provides a myriad of benefits. At the very least, a KDS will allow you to measure how long it takes your kitchen to deliver an order from the time of order to the time it is either ready for pickup or delivered to the dining room. This helps you gauge the efficiency of your kitchen and if there are bottlenecks that need to be addressed.

Are you asking your grill chef to manage too many orders and slowing down service time? Since the expediter sees every item bumped from each station, the source of bottlenecks, whether menu items or stations, becomes clear in a short time.

Training. How do you train new kitchen staff? Many restaurants employ shadowing a fellow seasoned employee and other forms of on-the-job training. This approach is often ineffective, particularly if the menu changes regularly. Therefore, restaurants create recipe books, often a spiral binder with a one-pager for each item showing how the menu item is prepared, along with special plating instructions. A number of KDSs digitize this process with a "recipe viewer" that displays a recipe card and plating instructions right on the screen. It is less cumbersome than a recipe book and can be easily updated as needed. This is a feature about which operators should inquire when shopping for a KDS.

Food quality. Different menu items take different amounts of time to prepare. This can slow down delivery, require some items to hold longer than when they are optimal for service, and cause friction between the back and front of the house or delivery drivers. When not properly orchestrated, poor timing of food preparation ultimately gives rise to customer complaints about the food quality as it arrives at the table when it is no longer ideally palatable.

A KDS can be configured to orchestrate preparation times of various menu items to overcome this challenge. In other words, not only directing items to the proper station, but also at the proper time.

Menu optimization. Restaurant operators, particularly with labor shortages and supply-chain interruptions are trying to limit the number of menu items. And of course, operators want to offer items that are consistent with their concept and are popular and profitable. This is where menu engineering comes into play. But popularity and profitability are also matters of how easy it is to prepare an item well, consistently.

Over time, the KDS can generate reports on the average time to prepare specific menu items. This data can inform decisions on whether to continue offering certain items or pull them from the menu. Along with individual menu item sales and profitability data, operators can take menu engineering to a higher level of precision.

Staff optimization. The current labor shortage notwithstanding, staffing optimization is critical to restaurant profitability. Cost of labor as a percentage of sales is a critical component of your prime cost, which every successful operator reviews at least weekly.

As suggested above, the KDS improves staff optimization with the speed-of-service measured on every item coming out of the kitchen. A KDS can even provide more granular data, measuring the time it takes a specific employee to prepare a specific dish. If we can track over time that James takes more than four minutes to prepare a menu item and Tracy averages closer to three minutes, we can find that quite valuable. Does James need further training? Is Tracy taking shortcuts? Is James no longer interested in the job? Do you need more staff like Tracy? While this specific feature is not found in all KDS solutions, the ability to understand discrepancies among employees in terms of preparation times can uncover labor efficiencies or ar- eas of training opportunity.

Staff optimization requires language flexibility as you employ kitchen staff for whom English is a second language. Many KDSs allow you to configure the screens so that they display the order in the language of the individual who has logged in to that station. Now an order entered in English on the POS can display in a different language on the KDS, allowing the cook to better understand the order, thus avoiding mistakes.

The More You Know

You might have gathered from all the benefits listed above that a KDS is a wealth of knowledge from data collected by simply using the system. Sure, it is great for evaluating the average speed of service over a prescribed period of time; but as we've already discussed, it can break that down by what items take the longest, which employees are the most productive, and even what items hold up orders most often.

In conjunction with a POS sales report that shows voids, you can even see the items that are most commonly complained about and evaluate whether it is the item itself, the person preparing it, or maybe an inconsistency in following the recipe. A typical KDS will come complete with basic reporting, but as you move up to the higher end KDS, the reporting and analytics are truly impressive. Most users underleverage these key metrics that are designed to make their business even that much more efficient.

KDS COST CONSIDERATIONS

Printing orders in the kitchen and dispersing the order over a number of stations is not only prone to confusion and errors, but wasteful when you consider the amount of paper required. You also have to maintain mechanical printers, which wear out and can create a headache if they stop working mid-shift.

Upfront, a KDS is a more expensive approach. KDS vendors charge a per month usage fee for the system based on the number of screens. You will likely want to work with your vendor to determine the fewest screens you need to optimize kitchen operations. The good news is as you grow, so can your system. For example, if you create a new line specifically to fulfill off-premises orders you can expand your system to serve that part of your kitchen.