Efficient management of kitchen operations is an integral part of any restaurant. Multiple activities happen in the kitchen simultaneously such as preparing dishes, using equipment and various ingredients, and serving and billing the customers. As there are several limitations, monitoring and managing the day-to-day activities in the kitchen using manual systems is the least recommended advice.
Hence, in this scenario, the best move that you could think of is the implementation of a restaurant Point of Sale system. It’s high time to explore the endless possibilities of using kitchen reports to run an efficient restaurant kitchen.
Using Kitchen Reports to Run an Efficient Restaurant
The major advantage of the leading restaurant management digital platforms such as inresto POS is that you can generate various reports to assess the performance of the restaurant kitchen. There are 5 techniques using which kitchen reports could prove highly beneficial for your restaurant operations.
6 Techniques of Using Kitchen Reports to Enhance Efficiency
If you have decided to implement the digital restaurant POS system, the next step is to understand the various features offered by these reports. Let’s go deep into the details of these reports and how you can make use of these features.
1. Employ Staff Members as per Requirement
One of the biggest challenges faced by any restaurant is to decide on the number of staff required at various times of the day. There are busy hours when you find it difficult to manage the rush of the customers with the limited number of staff. At the same time, there are lean times when the staff will be idle.
With inresto POS, it’s pretty easy to ascertain the volume of work handled during different times. Using the Kitchen Display System (KDS), you can easily figure out the number of tickets (Kitchen Order Ticket) fulfilled per hour in your kitchen. Based on these figures, you can decide on the ideal number of staff required across various shifts. This enhances the efficiency of your restaurant’s kitchen.
2. Ensure the Kitchen Keeps Up With the Demand
The main advantage of POS reports is that you can easily infer the average fulfilment time by hour of the day. It’s a metric that indicates the pace at which the orders are fulfilled. Even though you may have employed enough manpower across various shift timings, there are certain busy times when the kitchen is not able to match up to the huge number of orders.
So, go through the graph of average fulfillment time and check whether there is consistency in service across all shifts. If there’s a lag in average fulfillment time during any of the shifts, then it’s a clear indication that your kitchen is understaffed during that shift. To avoid the hungry customers waiting for their order, you can employ more staff during those busy times.
3. Get Insights on the Average Preparation Time
Always keep track of the average preparation time for each dish. This preparation helps you to prioritize the order in which the dishes are prepared in the kitchen.
Take the case of a customer who orders a plate of pizza and French fries. After waiting for a long time, the waiter serves the hot pizza on his table along with cold French fries. Obviously, you’ll have to deal with a disappointed customer due to bad timing and service. With insights on the average preparation time, you can direct the chef to prioritize the time and decide which dish to prepare first.
This is a typical example of how to use kitchen reports to run an efficient restaurant kitchen. Such small steps help to get rid of the unnecessary customer complaints which mar the reputation of your restaurant brand.
4. Inform the Customer about the Average Preparation Times
There are certain cases where the customer cannot afford to spend much time waiting to get the food served. Adding the average preparation time of the dishes in the menu can help to a great extent to resolve this issue.
Assume that a customer wants to order a plate of grilled chicken. He goes through the menu and finds that it will take 20 minutes to process the order. If he is in a hurry, he can order a chicken burger instead that takes only 10 minutes to serve. Hence, setting the right expectations for the customer helps to avoid unpleasant situations.
With the help of metrics such as average fulfillment time and average preparation time generated by POS systems, using kitchen reports to run an efficient restaurant is pretty easy now.
6. Identify the best managers
Using the detailed reports and insights offered by Inresto’s POS system, you can easily identify the top-performing managers. It will record the respective timings at which different shift managers log in. By taking a glance at the order fulfilment times, you will easily get to know the performance levels of different shift managers.
Managers with the fastest fulfilment times are the ones who are the most efficient in managing the kitchen. They definitely deserve an appreciation for their remarkable performance. It can be in the form of cash prizes or vouchers.
If the order fulfilment times are low in certain shift timings, it’s a clear sign that the performance is not up to the mark and there is scope for further improvement. So, provide the managers in charge of those shift timings refresher training. How to use kitchen reports to run an efficient restaurant kitchen purely depends on how you utilise the insights offered by POS systems.
Parting Words
Using manual efforts to increase the efficiency of your restaurant’s kitchen can help you only to a certain extent. In recent times, technology has led to a drastic change in the way restaurant kitchens are managed due to kitchen reports. Since it is not practical to keep an eye on all activities, making use of reports to the fullest would be the best approach to improve the efficiency of your restaurant kitchen.
