Developing a Smarter Way to Grill

A nation-wide fast casual restaurant brand has recently partnered with Smartbridge in an effort to enable smarter grilling in its restaurants.

Customers that dine at one of our client’s popular chains expect their food fast, fresh and handled with care. However, it can be tough to predict exactly what to put on the grill and when, especially if the meal takes 20 minutes to prepare. Our client’s current process was using pen, paper and the judgment of the employee manning the grill, which is prone to error and difficult to train. This method can result in higher food costs and lower customer satisfaction.

Smartbridge was engaged to create a mobile application to automate the grill management in our client’s restaurants. The application uses an algorithm to predict customer demand based on a variety of parameters. From that prediction, the grill automation app directs the employee on what to grill and when, all while managing quality and hold times.

In an effort to reduce cost and increase customer satisfaction, our goal is to make the application smarter over time with machine learning, and further automation of grill process management. Smartbridge is currently testing the grill automation application in our clients restaurants.