Keeping Kitchens Humming

Keeping Kitchens Humming
Lisa Terry
The article I read for this weeks’ blog was called Keeping Kitchens Humming and was about a restaurants increase in sales because of the addition of Virtual Kitchen Systems’ Kitchen Operation System. Bone Daddy’s House of smoke is known to many restaurants as the restaurant that is able to make $10,000 in lunch sales over a time period of just 4 hours. This is made possible to the great things the newly implemented system has to offer. Getting rid of communication problems with the implementation of three display screens visible to cashiers, cooks and baggers helps keep the business ‘flowing’ especially during the busiest hours. The usage of pictures on screen is an element of the program which helps eliminates confusion of orders. Pictures also help because not everyone speaks English. Kitchen and wait staff is notified immediately if an item has run out so there is no confusion. This means less orders are made ‘on the fly’ so all guests are satisfied. The system calculates how long each item takes to prepare so the longest items can be started before the others.
The goal of this restaurant is to get the complete order out fast, and having a good kitchen management system to guide the preparation and cooking processes will help to make the aim a reality. According to the owner, "Satisfaction improved by at least 15 percent and sales increased by at least 10 percent to 15 percent" with the Virtual Kitchen Systems’ Kitchen Operation System. The array of technologies this program has to offer is a great way for a restaurant to increase its sales and improve customer service. The article says that this system is easy to use and not a lot of training has to be done to become comfortable using it. I feel having a kitchen operations system like this one is essential to the success in the restaurant business and the new technologies offered are intriguing. Although I have never eaten at Bone Daddy’s House of Smoke, the services they provide according to the article seems like a great place to eat.

Terry, Lisa: March 10, 2008; Keeping Kitchens Humming, Retrieved March 25, 2008 http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=321C62497A1848C8BC24CF5E65CD4BC6