ATLANTA —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Wendy’s International Inc. director of engineering special projects and strategic planning Carrie Maun-Smith said automation helps restaurants deal with the current “challenging and competitive environment.” —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Maun-Smith talked about some of her 6,700-unit, Dublin, Ohio-based chain’s technology during a panel presentation, “What’s New in the Automated Restaurant?” She was joined by Cyrus Mokhtari, franchise area director for Galardi Group of Newport Beach, Calif., parent to 355-unit Wiener-schnitzel, and Ed Layton, vice president of non-gaming operations at the Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport, Miss. Also a speaker: David Lehn, vice president of information technology for the 150-unit Noodles & Company chain of Broomfield, Colo. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Maun-Smith said Wendy’s is reducing costs and streamlining operations by using technology to help manage energy usage and maintenance chores. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
“Our facilities and maintenance expenditures and our utilities expenditures combined represent about 20 percent of our store operating costs,” she said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Wendy’s launched its energy management system, or EMS, by monitoring and controlling equipment and by putting alarms on it, she said. Also EMS components, she said, are “peak-demand management, utility-bill auditing and payment” and “rate evaluation and negotiation.” —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
The EMS supported by services provider LGI Energy Solutions Inc. is now live in more than 200 company units, will be added to others and, ultimately, will be offered to franchisees, Maun-Smith indicated. The Wago and Advantek hardware used works with broadband connections, she said, and it can be installed in one or two nights. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Maun-Smith said EMS benefits include store-level reductions in energy consumption of from 10 percent to 18 percent and early warning of compromises in food safety. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
On the maintenance front, Maun-Smith said, some Wendy’s employees are eschewing paper and relying more on NC35 Motorola hand-held devices to deal with work orders, parts and inventory issues and invoices. Wendy’s’ maintenance contractors, she said, “access the [online] vendor portal to do invoicing and receive their work order requests from us.” —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Known internally as “TechConnect,” the maintenance system is deployed fully in one market and partially in another, she said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Wendy’s anticipates a reduction in core maintenance costs of 10 percent by the fifth year of the TechConnect initiative, which is supported by service provider Facility Source, Maun-Smith said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Mokhtari said Galardi Group in 1996 launched a “back-to-basics” program that outlined no fewer than 963 items that needed to be tracked in stores daily. This past year, the company had to replace roofs on three restaurants at about $30,000 each, he said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
In response, Galardi developed a “Total Quality” system based on Very Smart Technology Inc.’s HACCP Professional II software that addresses everything from food safety to preventative maintenance. The system’s touch-screen display shows icons that change color depending on the status of assigned chores, such as checking restroom supplies and recording holding temperatures for foods. The status icons are visible to guests as well as staff. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
“Our management realized that information is most valuable if it’s in the right hands at the right time,” Mokhtari said. “We want to be able to get a message from the corporate office to any store, at any time, and not just by phone.” —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
The system sends messages to the stores’ touch screens as well as to managers’ personal digital assistants. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Island View Casino Resort’s Layton said radio frequency identification technology is “on the edge of a hospitality breakthrough.” RFID chips, which send information wirelessly, become more reliable and affordable daily, he said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
He said RFID-chip-embedded wristbands and key fobs linking individuals with prepaid or credit accounts support cashless transactions in some hospitality settings and help automatically alert service staff to the names of guests. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Island View has installed RFID technology from Capton Inc. in its bar operations to achieve better inventory control while freeing up bartenders to spend more time with guests, Layton said. Bottles in the bar are fitted with RFID pour spouts, which measure the volume, time and type of liquor poured and transmit the information to a computer. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Some operators like Noodles & Company are moving to Web-based back-office systems for easier deployment and maintenance and simplified database management. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
Referring to the back-office software from Altametrics now used by Noodles & Company, Lehn said, “A key thing for us was that it was hosted.” Letting Altametrics worry about keeping servers running and applications patched makes sense, as “we run a pretty lean [IT] shop,” he said. —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.
The browser-accessible software now used by Noodles & Company to help with inventory management and food costs was rolled out systemwide in less than a year, Lehn explained. He said the company is working with Altametrics to consolidate workforce and supply-chain management software into a similar “simple, easy and intuitive tool.” —Whether in bar or back-office operations, restaurateurs are finding savings with new technologies or new applications of existing hardware and software, several said during the recent FS/TEC 2007 conference here.