Press Kit

Large Quick-Service Restaurant Automates the Grilling Process with KitchIntel

Based in Florida, the company specializes in the operation of fast casual, Caribbean cuisine at a compelling value. The restaurant chain is owned by a parent company with over 10,000 employees. The brand has over 150 locations.

Background
The QSR predominantly features grilled chicken as a mainstay in their menu. Adhering to the grilling process is fundamental to the store’s success. However, many decisions along the process are left to the operator. The QSR has in the past used a paper-based grill PAR Counts Sheet for the grill operator to determine the number of chickens to put on the grill at specific time intervals. The manual process has led to multiple operational inefficiencies:

1. Almost impossible to have the right amount of chicken to serve while also monitoring the freshness of the food being served
2. No accountability for waste
3. Training nightmare for new or substitute workers

How KitchIntel Changed The Game of Grilling with Focused Innovation
The kitchen was transformed with the solution designed by Smartbridge to automate the grilling process.

Putting an end to the trial and error, KitchIntel advises on how many chickens to put down and provides alerts for key steps in the cooking process. The drop recommendations on the grill come from the forecast algorithm which uses the historical sales data for the store. At all times, the grill cook has the option to override recommendations, if necessary, based on the situation in the store with manager’s approval and by providing an explanation.

KitchIntel ensures that each store executes on the QSR’s standard operating procedures by holding them accountable to following the cooking process and reporting waste. In turn, reports and activity history provides corporate management with insight into the reasons for waste, and individual store operational trends by dayparts, and more.

Core Benefits of Deploying

• Reduce wastage of food items
• Improve speed of service and customer satisfaction
• Improve the freshness of food items
• Reduce employee training time

Keeping It Sizzling
The full roll out to over 130 locations was a resounding success and has been met with excitement. The excitement of the operations staff matches the enthusiastic reception by the cooks. KitchIntel is adding sizzle to the sales at the QSR with fresher food and less waste. With on-going data capture and app utilization, the heat will be turned up on the forecasting model which continues to improve, and capabilities will be added to incorporate catering into the cooking forecast.

• Food is cooked closer to the time of sale, providing a better customer satisfaction
• Waste from “guesswork cooking” has reduced and is being tracked
• Mystery of “missing food” is close to being solved
• Data-based forecasting can evolve to include a broader range of factors