Key features of a Kitchen Management System
What is a kitchen management system?
A good kitchen management system will improve speed of service, minimise wastage and reduce errors. It will also allow you to track and manage stock within your venue.
In this is article we look at the key features you should look for in a kitchen management system.
Kitchen screen
An interactive kitchen screen, or Kitchen Display Screen (KDS) will display new orders instantly, keep track of the status of each order, and which course is being prepared. This can improve speed of service and reduce errors when compared to handling printed order tickets. Using a kitchen screen instead of printed tickets will not only reduce your print paper usage but avoids errors of tickets not printing when paper runs out or gets jammed.
When orders are processed using a kitchen screen, the full benefits of a kitchen management system can be realised as food service times are fully tracked, and messages can be sent to front of house teams when orders are ready.
Messaging between kitchen and front of house
In addition to notifying front of house when an order is ready, a good kitchen management system should offer a range of messaging between kitchen and front of house.
Mains away messages can alert the kitchen that the starters are finished, and the final preparation can be done on the main course.
Cancellation messages can inform the kitchen of cancelled orders as soon as possible and prevent wastage from dishes being made unnecessarily.
Custom messages can also be sent between kitchen and front of house to inform around anything from service times to low stock.
Flexible order routing
Whether you use a kitchen screen or printed tickets, it’s important you can route the right orders to the right places. At its most basic this may be drinks being routed to a bar and food to the kitchen. If you have multiple sections in your kitchen for preparing different dishes you will want more flexibility than this, for example cold starters to one section and hot starters to another. Whatever your specific requirements are, it's important to ensure your EPOS & kitchen management system can accommodate them.
Recording wastage
The kitchen should have the ability to record kitchen wastage so that it feeds into the same wastage reports as any voids put through the EPOS. In this way total wastage can be monitored effectively, pinpointing any issues and enabling these to be addressed.
Setting quick stock limits
Chefs should have a quick way of notifying front of house if any dishes on the menu are running low. This could be achieved through a message, but even better is being able to set the remaining number of dishes available so that this feeds through to the front of house EPOS and prevents any more dishes being sold. This is a great way to save time on staff checking orders with the kitchen or processing refunds, as well as avoiding disgruntled customers.
Monitoring & improving service times
If you use a kitchen screen a big benefit is being able to monitor service times from an order being received, acknowledged, prepared, and delivered to the table. Doing so can identify any issues with particular areas and allow these to be addressed, improving service times and customer satisfaction.
Takeout & delivery
A number of venues now offer in venue, click & collect or delivery of food either via their own systems or integrating with popular delivery apps. A good kitchen management system will allow you to manage all of your orders within a single platform, ideally your EPOS which will then feed into your sales and stock. Our Hospitality EPOS allows you to offer click & collect or delivery via our mobile ordering app, feeding back updates on the status of an order as it moves through the kitchen. We also integrate with popular delivery apps, bringing those orders into the system as well.
If you are interested in finding out more about our kitchen management system, and how it works with our easy to use, EPOS system get in touch with our team of hospitality experts.
