News
Pizzerias making the switch to video
May 2, 2007
For years, pizzeria operators used point-of-sale systems that relied on ticket printers to send orders to the make line. The order-taker would enter the customer's order into the POS, the make-line printer would print out a ticket with that order and the cook would hang it on a spindle or a ticket rack.
Unfortunately, that system often led to problems. If a ticket fell off the rack and landed under the make table, the missing slip wouldn't be discovered until an angry customer asked about his order.
"There are so many possibilities of the order getting lost," said Keith Smith, owner of a Hungry Howie's Pizza restaurant in Douglas, Ga. "Most of these issue aren't even noticed in a low volume restaurant, but it can create mass confusion for a high volume operation."
While quick-service operations have used kitchen display systems for years, many pizzeria operators have just begun to make the switch from kitchen printers and ticket racks to video terminals.
Smith has display terminals near each station in his restaurant's kitchen. The system can transfer orders from a display at the make table to another display at the cut table to a third display by the pickup window, eliminating the need for employees to hand-carry a ticket from one station to the next.
"There's no confusion with this system at all," Smith said. "That's critical in a high-volume operation."
Smith uses a POS system from Lynden, Wash.-basedSpeedline Solutions Inc. in his restaurant. Speedline has integrated their POS with ePic kitchen display systems from Louisville, Ky.-based QSR Automations Inc.
"Restaurants depend on kitchen display systems for speed of service and proper timing of orders," said Jennifer Wiebe, marketing manager for Speedline Solutions. "It's essential they be fast and reliable."
Making the case
According to QSR Automations, there are five reasons operators should drop kitchen printers in favor of display systems:
- Printers are expensive to operate, especially when it comes to consumables such as paper and printer ribbons. Such items often need to be replaced in the middle of a busy shift. Kitchen display systems, on the other hand, require almost no maintenance.
- The use of kitchen monitors speeds order communication to the kitchen. Orders are transmitted instantly from the POS, eliminating the need to pass a ticket or shout an order back to the kitchen.
- Kitchen display systems can coordinate cooking times to ensure all items on an order are completed at the same time. In a pizzeria, late orders can be highlighted to alert the staff to take action. Systems also can be programmed to display when a driver has been gone from the store for an unusually long time.
- Printers can't be used to display speed of service or other reports, something easily achieved with a kitchen display system. Rather than having to print out a bulky report, managers have easy access to sales, labor and other data while in the kitchen.
- Kitchen display systems offer a real return on investment in terms of reduced ticket times, improved satisfaction and other benefits.
"Our customers report a significant reduction in average ticket times — some more than 20 percent — and also cite increased kitchen capacity and store sales as key benefits, along with high customer and employee satisfaction," said Lee Leet, president and chief executive of QSR Automations.
In the future, Smith envisions using kitchen display systems for training new employees by showing exploded views of menu items.
"I could definitely see that happening, if it's not already possible now," he said. "I'm still learning this system, but I'm going to look into that."
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