QSRs need to improve how to present and highlight their menu and services to stand out from the competition as well as create an enriching customer experience. Digital displays can meet these requirements with vivid imagery and accurate information.

• Increase speed and accuracy
• Maximize profits
• Develop premium brand image

A perfect duo does exist — at least in the foodservice industry. No matter your restaurant concept, equipping your back-of-house (BOH) with a kitchen display system (KDS) is a huge factor in improving your kitchen efficiency and operational quality.

A far cry from the very basic paper ticketing systems, a KDS integrates directly with the Restaurant POS Systems, capturing order information in real-time and displaying it digitally for kitchen staff to execute. The digital process is simply a better optimized and highly efficient way to manage and increase workflow within your restaurant.

Let’s take a closer look at the top benefits restaurateurs see when they implement a touchscreen display system into their operations. We’ll focus on the time and costs saved, increased performance visibility, and simplified communications. These are value points you’re not going to want to pass up.

Going Green and Saving $$

At about $50 per case, printer paper costs add up quickly. In fact, restaurants average one to two cases of paper per week depending on the number of printers in use. There are some obvious benefits to going digital and eliminating the need for paper tickets. Not only will you eliminate your need for paper rolls, but you’ll also make a positive impact on the environment, all while lessening the burden on your wallet.

Knocking out your dependency on paper tickets will significantly lower your operational costs per year. Although replacing your printer altogether may be a bit more difficult for table service restaurants, implementing a KDS and having it work in tandem with a printer is still beneficial from a kitchen efficiency standpoint.

“You factor in the cost of a kitchen display and it’s a no-brainer as far as saving the money,” says Jay Gillespie, Revel’s senior product owner. In addition to being intimately familiar with Revel’s product offerings, Gillespie can speak to his years of experience in restaurant management. He knows well the challenges and costs associated with kitchen operations.

Improving Kitchen Efficiency

With a KDS, you have full visibility of your orders from placement to fulfillment. Color coding tickets and food items optimizes the turn-time for each order. Colors indicate how long an order has been out, alerting your staff instantly when an item needs immediate attention. Utilizing this in conjunction with the prep times feature on your KDS can seriously up your BOH game. As a bonus, analytics from your KDS will show you exactly how much time to allow for cooking on your various menu items.

“See food, make food, sell food” is the motto Gillespie describes for a highly efficient kitchen. “Your kitchen staff and the people behind the line should be focusing on simple things: seeing it, making it, and getting it out of the window.”

For example, seeing 60 chicken wings on a screen is going to be easier to digest and faster to execute than referencing 6 separate tickets for 10 wing orders. Let’s say you also have a side of fries for each order. A KDS allows you to set notifications 10 minutes after your wings go up, saving your line cooks from having to time that out themselves. Now that’s an improvement in kitchen efficiency!

Juan Jimenez, at Cajun Kitchen Cafe, describes the strains and difficulties he experienced before acquiring a KDS. “With the KDS, Santa Barbara Cash Register has allowed us to remove the paper trail. The receipts would get dropped or get wet, leading to lost orders and overall disorganization, and service suffered as a result.” Forgotten or late orders are inevitable when running a restaurant. But adopting a system that can notably cut down on human errors means better quality food and customer satisfaction.

Gleaning Data Insights

With your KDS, you’ll be able to access an array of metrics and reports. These will give you tremendous insight into your kitchen operations. You can access data points for the speed of your kitchen operations. These include order fulfillment time by day, hour, or staff.

These data points illuminate the areas of operation that need further improvement. They also offer insights on how to better streamline workflow processes. Leverage these insights to improve how you plan for your waitlist or reservations. Pinpoint which staff members may need additional training. You can also use this data to identify the hours when you need to staff more employees.

Integrating Seamlessly

With full integration into your operations, a KDS knocks out the need for additional manual effort. If your restaurant utilizes online ordering, gone are the days of re-ringing every incoming order into your point of sale (POS) system. You can configure catering and delivery orders to appear on the displays 30 minutes before they are due for drop-off. This reduces unnecessary clutter and confusion for your cooks.

Likewise, if you operate a large restaurant with different stations, you can route your orders to the appropriate location (i.e salad bar, grill, to-go, etc.) cutting down on time between food preparation and delivery.

Ready to elevate your kitchen game? Request a demo today to connect with one of our product experts. A kitchen display system could be the right fit for your business.