As the restaurant industry emerges from the chaos caused by the pandemic, the numbers continue to trend upward. In-house sales are ticking up closer to pre-Covid levels in many areas of the country. The Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 101.8 in December 2022, up from 101.1 the month before.

Even more positive news can be found in the take-out and delivery business, which has retained its followers and now far surpassed pre-Covid levels.

But with every silver lining, there is always a cloud, one many industries are experiencing right now. Labor shortages in the restaurant industry are making it difficult to manage all this demand momentum and still create positive experiences for the customers.

So how do restaurants deal with limited capacity in the kitchen and still deliver timely orders to in-house dining customers and meet the expectations of the take-out customer?

Using Tech to Drive Accurate Times for Take Out Orders

Savvy restaurant owners know that purchasing the necessary hardware and software to support seamless integration between in-house and take-out orders gives them an edge over their competition. 

Conventional digital ordering platforms use a static algorithm to determine the promised pickup time. Basically, number of minutes times number of orders in the takeout queue. For example, if a restaurant has two orders in the queue with less than 10 items, the pickup time is 15 minutes.

Problem is, the projected promise time does not consider actual kitchen performance. 

At Kitchen Armor, we work with Curbit and QSR Automations solve this problem. Here’s how it works. The QSR Automations kitchen video system tracks kitchen station performance by display time, cook time and order bump time. Curbit then absorbs this data and compares it to data from prior days and sends the correct Promise time to the web ordering platform.

This Promise time is more accurate because it’s based on prior kitchen performance weighted with past performance to provide a very accurate quote time. Communication around the status of the order is then sent to the customer via SMS. Kitchen Armor has also worked with Curbit on injecting key fields into the QSR system around takeout and delivery fields that exist in the web ordering solution, but not sent to the kitchen system through the POS interface. Web ordering platforms contain rich customer data, including promise times, vehicle information, guest phone number and much more.

Using Video Training to Increase Efficiency

On top of bandwidth and production concerns, restaurants are faced with a reduction in number of qualified employees—especially in the kitchen. Kitchen Armor has seen a dramatic increases in kitchen recipe solution installs such as our ConnectSmart® Recipes Viewer along with kitchen video. These solutions help solve for reduced staff training hours and accelerate the learning curve for new hires.

With Kitchen Armor interactive display systems, recipes with pictures are just a touch away. Staff simply select the item on the screen and the recipe is displayed, helping new hires ramp up faster, as well as ensuring consistency of presentation, portioning and overall meal quality.

Tapping into the Benefits of Touchscreens

None of this is possible without the use of touchscreen technology. Kitchen Armor touchscreen systems are built to withstand the harsh environment of a restaurant kitchen. Designed with rugged stainless-steel enclosures, thick yet responsive touchscreen glass, and Power Over Ethernet capability, Kitchen Armor touchscreen appliances are built to dramatically improve sustainable kitchen operations.

Traditional retail touchscreen solutions have glass-to-edge designs. While this may be fine for office or home, glass-to-edge displays in a restaurant kitchen are subject to surface strikes. With staff using pans, plates, and other kitchen equipment within a few inches of the screens, a single slight touch on the corner of these devices will shatter conventional touchscreens.

Not only will shattered glass in the cooking area set the kitchen behind significantly during busy times, it’s also a major liability concern. From the potential of foreign objects in food served to customers, to cuts and abrasion and workman’s comp concerns, it’s imperative that touchscreens are protected.

Kitchen Armor’s trademark stainless-steel enclosure protects the corners, while thick glass touchscreens that work with gloved hands. Combined, Kitchen Armor touchscreen systems deliver a level of safety and longevity that should be a requirement in all food service restaurant kitchens. 

At Kitchen Armor, our mission is to deliver exceptional kitchen solutions that meet the unique needs of our customers. We recognize that providing accurate quote times and timely preparation of take-out orders is crucial to our customers’ satisfaction. With our commitment to using standardized recipes, we ensure consistent portion sizes, cooking processes, and quality of the final product. Our innovative approach to kitchen workflow is designed to meet today’s demands and exceed tomorrow’s expectations. Let us help you elevate your kitchen operations and deliver outstanding results.

To learn more about how Kitchen Armor can increase efficiency in your operations while helping to alleviate the restaurant staffing shortages that many restaurants across the nation are experiencing, talk to the Kitchen Armor team.