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38 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine Simulated dining offers tasty options Streamlining for a smaller footprint This fast casual restaurant chain needed to develop a more streamlined prototype that would facilitate growth in smaller locations. In addition, the group's managers wanted to develop a service system that would enable more throughput and better customer service while producing some key items to order. In other words, they wanted to increase the output (sales capac- ity) while decreasing the input (capital and operating costs). Several options were tested, including changes in the service sequence, employee deployment schemes and product cook- ing and holding times, among other variables. Figure 5 shows the results for some of the simulation runs done. A key design feature analyzed during the simulation was separating the order and pay activities, a move that helped pro- vide the kitchen time to assemble and cook the item to order while the guest was still in the line. The numbers shown in the (O+P) column are the results achieved when decoupling the order and pay function. The results in the (OP) columns are the results achieved when the order and pay function was done by the same crew, as is typical in most fast casual restau- rant concepts. The key metrics shown in Figure 5 included the different service components the customer experiences. These include "line time" before ordering the items as well as "finish order to receive food," a key metric that was used to understand an important (kitchen) bottleneck in the new design. The simulation measured and changed many other parameters not shown in this figure, including holding levels and deployment responsibilities. Target: Operating and capital costs Another fast casual restaurant chain wanted to develop a pro- totype that could significantly improve the "unit econom- ics" of the concept by reducing operating costs significantly. Managers also wanted to trim capital costs by more than 20 percent. To achieve this goal, both the front-of-house and back-of- house areas had to be streamlined, including the kitchen line production system. Simulation was applied to test many different kitchen line layouts in order to derive one that balanced all the key metrics of the design. These metrics included labor deployment, equip- ment placement and cost, production and assembly times, some product quality metrics and other variables. In this case study, the full sequence of customer service and production was tested. The simulation team measured the speed of service the guests received, including line time, order and pay, and time for the customers to receive the food, the key output metric that the team was trying to control. To meet a specific speed of service goal, the simulation team varied the design in the back production line, taking into account the location of the equipment, the type of equipment and cooking FIGURE 5 Separation in the preparation This chart tracks key metrics when the order and pay activities are decoupled (the O+P column) versus the same crew doing both activities (the OP columns). Option 1 (O+P) Option 2 (OP) Option 1 (O+P) Option 2 (OP) Option 1 (O+P) Option 2 (OP) Checks/Hr 120/hr 120/hr 140/hr 140/hr 160/hr 160/hr Order Line Time (sec) 7.6 12.6 11.7 23.9 18.8 44.3 Order Time (Order + Cash for Option2) 49.0 89.0 49.0 89.0 49.0 89.0 Finish Order Start Cash Time (sec) 17.5 NA 23.3 NA 33.9 NA Finish Cash Receive Food* 85.0 142.5 85.6 148.8 97.6 160.6 Finish Order Receive Food* 142.4 182.5 149.0 188.8 171.5 200.6 Total 199.0 244.1 209.7 261.6 239.3 294.0 Seeing helps belief In the dark old days, simulation outputs often were sets of numbers derived from spreadsheets. Video technology has advanced to the point that people can "see" the outputs of your simulation. This helps nonengineers, such as restaurant CEOs and managers, understand how changes will affect operations. Click the links for a couple of examples of restaurant simulation: • http://bit.ly/Martinezsimulation1 • http://bit.ly/Martinezsimulation2 And for a look at how simulation can boost ergonomics in the food service industry, check out "Doing it your way" from the March 2010 issue of this magazine, then known as Industrial Engineer. Here is the link: www.iise.org/ ISEmagazine/Mar2010/Martinez.