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Kitchen design and technology: 5 ways to improve foodservice operations

A successful foodservice operation must incorporate three elements: food, people and equipment.

Rick Caron, senior vice president of Innovation for Manitowoc Foodservice.

April 14, 2016 by Travis Wagoner — Editor, Networld Media Group

When it comes to running a successful food-service operation, it's about asking the right questions to visualize an improved system, select the right elements and then bring it all together, Rick Caron, senior vice president of Innovation for Manitowoc Foodservice, said during a lunch session at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit at the Highlands Dallas Hotel in Dallas.

According to Caron, Manitowoc's customers are telling it that: 

• Labor costs are too high.
• Training employees takes too long.
• There's not enough space for new equipment.
• But their customers want new offerings.
   

They're also asking questions, including:

• How do I grow sales?
• How can I expand?
• and "How can I keep my menu fresh?" 

"Menu expansion has driven the need for more equipment," Caron said. "However, solutions are often developed on 'islands' or in 'silos.' Improvement teams tend to focus on specific areas, but how do these integrate into the entire kitchen?"

Integration of food, people and equipment

Improving a restaurant's foodservice starts with the integration of food, people and equipment, and extends to a cloud-based kitchen operation system.

"This operating system includes service providers, food suppliers, the restaurant and its headquarters, and customers' food preferences," Caron said.

He recommended five ways to improve operations:

1. Use the latest tools in kitchen design.
2. Run a simulation model on your kitchen and optimize for future scenarios.
3. Use the best appliance technologies and plan for connectivity.
4. Fully engage millennials.
5. Develop and execute a cloud strategy.

1. Use the latest tools in kitchen design

"What is your organization's stage of knowledge?" Caron asked. "You can only improve what you can measure. Understand every aspect of your speed of service and determine targets for improvement and the related metrics to measure them."

Caron added that restaurant operators need to move from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. He also recommended the use of 360-degree cameras in the kitchen and visualization software to map employees' travel paths and process steps through the kitchen."

2. Run a simulation model on your kitchen and optimize for future scenarios

"Run your own kitchen simulation and optimize for future scenarios," Caron said. "Consider things like labor, menu, aisle space, revenue, key demand, technology, capacity, quantity, and productivity in your kitchen operation."

He further explained a kitchen modeling simulator as having three parts:

• Input — Sales revenue, product mix, menu (items and ingredients), and equipment capacity and footprint.
• Output — Equipment requirements, footprint, storage, and labor.
• Scenarios — Appliance technology, levels of automation, trends (frying vs. grilling); delivery frequency, and inventory storage.

"Establish a data infrastructure for inputting these items into a simulation," Caron said. "For example, know the data on your peak lunch and dinner hours."

3. Use the best appliance technologies and plan for connectivity

Caron suggested that one way for operators to improve their kitchen efficiency is to invest in the best appliances and technology.

"High-speed ovens are great example," Caron said. "They're ideal for quick and limited service restaurants, convenience stores, hotels, and universities. They cook up to 15 times faster than conventional cooking methods. They can toast a sandwich in 50 seconds, for example. They're also ventless and have easy installation."

Caron also gave examples of the benefits of combination ovens.

"They do bulk cooking, whether it's by steam, convection or smoking. They also cook a variety of foods for all restaurant dayparts. Popular models have the Energy Star rating, which saves money on electricity."

Blended beverage systems were another recommendation.

"They dispense, blend and serve in the same container, and can serve hundreds of beverages per day," Caron said. "This reduces waste, saves labor and enables mass customization."

Nitrogen Fusion Coffee — or Nitro Coffee — has also become popular.

"Cold-brew coffee with nitrogen infusion is driving growth for leading coffee chains," Caron said. "It has a higher caffeine content, it's crafted and it resonates with millennials."

The future is now. Caron discussed three kitchen solutions he foresees as becoming more commonplace.

"There's a visual hot food-holding warmer with tray tracking," Caron said. "It utilizes WiFi communication, hands-free initialization and compliance, allows for hands-free food transfer, and tracks inventory and ordering.

Automated frying is another trend Caron sees coming.

"Automated fryers have rotary fry baskets, independent controllers for each frying vat, on-demand activation, auto-filtration and oil management, and the fried food is held in troughs where forced hot air keeps the food warm."

Sanitation and food preservation will also continue to be important for kitchen operations.

"Integrate the latest in sanitation and preservation technology into a variety of equipment, including holding equipment for refrigerated, ambient and hot items, ice machines, ovens, and beverage equipment."

4. Fully engage millennials

Millennials are digital natives. They grew up with a vast array of technology and are comfortable using it. Caron recommended using that to your kitchen's advantage.

"Millennials can understand and activate the Open Kitchen Cloud," Caron said.

He described that as connected people, smart equipment and smart logistics and inventory management.

"Connected people can optimize operations and provide better customer insights," Caron said. "Employees and customers can connect, triggering smart actions through things like beacons, 360-degree cameras and proximity readers."

5. Develop and execute a cloud strategy

Smart equipment is also of importance.

"Pans with sensors that track food all over the restaurant can help with efficiency," Caron said. "Smart containers that track temperature and freshness, smart fryer baskets that tell what they're cooking and smart pans telling the oven what's inside it can also be utilized."

Logistics and inventory are challenges for many restaurant operators. The future is now for improvement in those areas, too.

"Smart logistics and inventory management tell you what just came in the back door, what left the door into the kitchen and deduces inventory orders," Caron said.

The Open Cloud Kitchen contains this equipment but also a series of optimization and management systems.

"Migrate toward this kind of system," Caron said. "It involves optimization for back-of-the house systems, the drive-thru, and front-of-house systems. It also involves management for labor productivity enhancement, inventory, in-store analytics, equipment connectivity, and overall kitchen management and control."

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Caron concluded by sharing some building blocks toward all of these transformations — tools, simulation, appliances, millennials, and a Smart Cloud Kitchen System.

"Select a focused area of improvement, get your data into a digestible format, undertake a kitchen simulation, and consider a one-day 'jump start' workshop for your employees," he said.

About Travis Wagoner

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Travis Wagoner spent nearly 18 years in education as an alumni relations and communications director, coordinating numerous annual events and writing, editing and producing a quarterly, 72-plus-page magazine. Travis also was a ghostwriter for an insurance firm, writing about the Affordable Care Act. He holds a BA degree in communications/public relations from Xavier University.