Method
Current Method
The current restaurant System is a very complicated system that demands a very intelligent and multi tasked manager to insure a successful running operation. We are going to break the entire system into three parts; the delivery process, the food preparation cycle, and the serving cycle. These three parts will only focus on the “back of the house” (these is what people in the industry call the restaurant operations in the restaurants) As these processes are explained please keep in mind that the entire system occurs on a daily cycle from the morning into the late hours of the night. The only difference in the restaurant industry is that some restaurants only order supplies two or three times a week, but most of them order on a daily ritual, depending on what is needed.
Current Delivery Process
The manager will check their walk-in (items that are stored below 40 degrees and above freezing), dry-storage (items stored at room temperature), and the freezer for items that are low total counts.
The manager will take their list of items to be ordered and calls their desired items form their supplier.
The supplier gathers the order and deliveries it to the restaurant’s location.
The manager next checks the invoice (document that states the items to be delivered) to insure that all the items are present. The manager will now inspect the items for any damaged or missing products and contact their supplier to let them know the errors in the delivery. The supplier will make the corrections and hopefully get the corrected items to the restaurant that same day. The delivery is written up into a report to show documentation about the delivery for that day. The items are now put into inventory by the employees
Current Food Preparation Cycle
The final phase in the “back of the house” is the actual cooking and serving of the menu items to the customers.
When cooks are ready to set up their stations (each cook is responsible for their supplies on hand and their area in which they will be cooking or plating menu items) they get all the prepared items they will need throughout the busy night.
When customer requests come in they cook or plate the menu items to order and the prepared items that were not used for the night are placed beck into inventory for the next night.
The manager and employees have to physical monitor items in inventory to insure that items have not expired.
When items have expired they are writing into reports as profit loss for the establishment and thrown into the trash.
Current Food Serving Cycle
Now that three areas of the industry have been explained and examined, now let’s see the entire system as a whole:
It should be very clear that this can be an extremely complicated system.
Managers are normally under a lot of press and stress when trying to keep the entire “back of the house” operations under control.
Since this is a daily process the pressures on a manager really never stop.
Current Method
Now that three areas of the industry have been explained and examined, now let’s see the entire system as a whole:
It should be very clear that this can be an extremely complicated system.
Managers are normally under a lot of press and stress when trying to keep the entire “back of the house” operations under control.
Since this is a daily process the pressures on a manager really never stop.
Restaurant Assistant Method
Restaurant Assistant Delivery Process
The RA (Restaurant Assistance) takes the current food preparation cycle system and eliminates the receptiveness and the time consuming aspects that exist in the industry.
The manager will only check their inventory on an occasion to insure the RA system is functioning properly.
On most days the manager will simply check his report documentation unsure inventory to find out which items are running low.
He will notify the supplier and the ordered supplies will be put into the delivery file for that day.
Barcode tags will be preprinted to be placed on the items when they are delivered.
When the delivery comes in, the manager can use a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to check for a correct delivery, instead of an invoice.
The PDA sends a wireless update to the RA system showing which items came in and which items were received.
The tags will be placed on the items as they are checked off as received in the PDA.
After the delivery has been checked in the employees place the items into inventory properly, FIFO.
Restaurant Assistant Food Preparation Cycle
The next cycle that the RA will simplify for the manager is the food preparation cycle.
After the employees have placed the delivery into inventory, the next step is to take the items out of inventory to be prepared.
Now the employees will have to scan all the tags coming out of inventory that will be used for the prepared menu items.
After the employee has completed a menu item they will use a POS (Point of Sales) touch screen to place the menu item into the RA system as prepared food item.
This is done by an employee typing in their employee number and selecting the menu item they created for a list and the amount created.
The information will be undated into the RA system to show which employee made it, when it was made and the expiration time dates for the prepared menu item.
The RA system will now eliminate managers and employees from having to write temperature reading reports.
This is accomplished by reading the wired temperature gauge in the separate inventories by Real-Time and place the mean values for each hour of the day into temperature reports.
Restaurant Assistant Serving Cycle
The final phase for the RA in the “back of the house” focuses on the more monitoring aspects and developing useful reports for forecasting.
When employees are ready to stock their line for the night, they will have to scan the items they will need.
This will update the system by taking out the items from the prepared menu inventory.
If menu items are not used for the night they will be scanned back into the inventory, and this will update the system again.
Another very impressive feature the RA will do, is monitor all the inventories in the restaurant for their shelf life.
Restaurant Assistant Method
By examining the overall cycle of the food preparation cycle for restaurants, one can easily see that a lot of time can be saved, as well as money saved.
In conclusion, the manager will have more time to forecast future business by using the reports created by the RA, and they will have a better grasp on their entire operation.