Integration of Management Information Systems to Support

Real Time Management Decisions and Compliance of standards.

Chapter-5: Proposed System

CHAPTER -5: PROPOSED SYSTEM

5.1 Introduction to proposed system

This project develops a computerized system to help restaurant personnel coordinate their
activities and improve their services, and for the management to track business growth and
create future plans. This project develops a computerized system to help restaurant
personnel coordinate their activities and improve their services, and for the management
to track business growth and create future plans. This project computerizes restaurant
operation so that all information pertaining to patron’s orders and staff activity will be
conveniently shared and stored over the restaurant’s intranet. Hosts will be able to view
table status with a click of a button. The wait staff will be able to enter the patron’s orders
quickly and efficiently and then have it electronically delivered to the kitchen. The kitchen
staff will be able to view the incoming orders and notify the proper wait staff when the food
is ready. Bus boys will be able to view real-time floor status allowing them to know which
tables are clean, dirty, or occupied. Most importantly, all of the restaurant information is
organized and saved in the system database for the management viewing and archival.

5.2 Glossary of Terms

Many of the terms you see here can be understood as you read the report. They are also
listed here for clarity and formality.

5.2.1 Technical Terms

Order Queue - The queue of menu items, ordered by customers that are ready to be
cooked by the chefs.
Ready Queue - The queue of menu items that are ready to be delivered to the customers.

Wait Queue - The queue of menu items that are currently being prepared by the chef.

Order - A concept that represents the list of items that the customer ordered.
Table - concept that represents the physical table that customers are seated at.

Table Order - concept that represents the actual composite order of all the customers
seated at a certain table.
Inventory System - an electronic book keeping of the current inventory in the restaurant.
This includes its raw ingredients, current menu items, etc.

Scheduling Policy - a predefined set of rules to determine where in the queue or line the
next item should go.

Terminal - a part of the restaurant where a respective user is working. E.g. The kitchen
where the chef is working can be called the “Chef Terminal”

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Module – Same thing as terminal described above but refers more to the Applications on
the hardware.

5.2.2 Non-Technical Terms

Chef - Cooks all the food in the restaurant.

Manager - Manages the inventory, orders more supplies, and deals with overall
management and finances of the restaurant.

Waiter - Handles delivering food and

Customer - the person who the service provided by the restaurant is being given too.

Ingredient - A food that is used to create a menu item. e.g lettuce, carrots, etc.
Menu Item - The food that that is listed on the menu given to customers to choose from. e.g
various burgers, pasta, etc.

Dish - Equivalent to the menu item, but used when describing queuing related to chefs and
waiters for simplicity and is more appropriate.

5.3 Requirement Systems Architecture

The Requirement System Architecture shows the physical arrangement of the various
devices used to operate the system which includes

Android Tab: To be operated by waiter/ hosts for order taking and serving.

Server Computer: To store all the records, will be operated by Administrator.

Manager’s PC: Manager will follow up all the activities.

Router/ Wireless Access Point: To connect all the devices in a single network.

Kitchen Display System (KDS): To be used by chef’s to view and manage menu against
order.

Cash Counter POS: This will be used to receiving the bill through waiter or hosts.

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Chapter-5: Proposed System

Figure-5.1: Proposed System Layout for Restaurant

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5.4 Requirements Analysis

5.4.1 Functional Requirements

1. The system should allow employees to login given a unique identification number
to access their respective interfaces.

2. The system should be able to modify (add, edit, remove) the employee personnel
list.

3. The system should allow orders requested from customer to be displayed on the
chef’s interface punctually.

4. The system should handle a customer’s request to reserve a table.

5. The system should display a real time floor plan of the entire restaurant by allowing
the hostess and waiters to update the table status.

6. The system should allow a customer to notify a waiter for assistance through the
android tablet instantly.

7. The system should store the working hours of all employee through a
clock-in/clock-out system which consists of a timestamp of when the employee
clocked in/out.

8. The system should allow the chef to update the estimated time of completion of
each order once he starts cooking it.

9. The system should store the menu items on a database with item name, price,
description, sides etc.

10. The system should have the facility of all the inventory management system.

11. The system should adjust the inventory ingredients automatically after a menu
prepared.

12. The system will have to automatically mail the current status of sales and stock to
the selected e-mail addresses in every 4 hours.

13. The system should provide the various reports such as profit & Loss, Inventory
stock in, out, closing stock, popular menu etc. and e-mail to management in every
weekend.

5.4.2 Nonfunctional Requirements

1. The cook’s user interface should notify the waiter on completion of an order with 1
screen touch of the root window.

2. The host’s screen should prompt for the reservation confirmation code when a
reserved table is selected.

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3. Managerial tasks should be limited to the manager’s user interface to prevent

potential security breaches.

4. The customer should be able to make a reservation within 6 screen touches through
their android interface.

5. The login interface should be consistent for all restaurant personnel to maintain
consistency in case an employee changes role.

6. The cook’s user interface should have reliability so not more than one order
fails on a given day due to system failure.

7. The menu (Android Interface) should contain text and graphics that describe each
item to an average customer.

8. The host’s interface should predict waiters for incoming customers so each waiter
has the same workload.

9. The reservation system should be compatible with any android phone provided it is
connected to the internet.

10. The waiter’s interface should be able to distinguish between alerts from chef,
customer and host clearly from a distance of 1 meter provided he/she has average
eyesight.

5.4.3 Appearance Requirements

1. The host’s screen should display the floor layout along with different colors to
represent if the table is free, occupied or needs cleaning.

2. The menu should have a brief description of the item when selected.

3. The chef’s screen should display two-three orders simultaneously so the chef
knows what to expect once the current order is closed.

4. The waiter’s screen should have the tables he/she is serving along with order
details and chef updates.

5. The tablets (menus) should run a slideshow of attractive ads to make it more
attractive.

5.5 Users Function Specification

Each of the user roles should meet the following functional requirements:

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Chapter-5: Proposed System

5.5.1 Function of Manager

● Create users which fill in each role. Manage users in each role (delete them, modify their
pay, add comments, etc.)

● Manage users (view the time sheet of each employee and determine based on their hours
their pay rate)

● Modify the menu of the restaurant. Add items, remove items, change their description, and
update prices.

● Run reports on the restaurant (these can be static or graphical as necessary):

○ Determine which items are the most popular

○ Determine the most popular time of day for sales

○ Determine how long it takes for food to be prepared.

● Leave notes on employees (payroll, behavioral, etc. for the employee record)

● Modify the table layout of the restaurant (floor plan). This change will be reflected on the
screens of all other restaurant users who have layout access abilities.

● Manage any administrative computerized aspects of the restaurant.

● Edit the advertisements displayed by the tablets during inactive periods.

● Has the authority to control customer’s bills in order to provide discounts due to
inconvenience.

● Login interface to prevent un-authorized access of restaurant management.

5.5.2 Function of Hostess

● View a layout of the restaurant

● Using a color coded system, red (occupied table OR being cleaned), yellow (reserved), green
(open), be able to quickly identify tables where guests may be seated at

● Change the status of a table to “occupied (red)” when a customer sits at a table.

● Ideally, show the customer the restaurant layout, thereby allowing the customer to sit at
his/her chosen table

● Ability to use ‘timecard’ functions for payroll purposes (e.g. clock-in and clock-out of shifts)

● Assign waiters to tables using their judgment based on waiter’s experience and party size.

5.5.3 Function of Chef

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● Queue of upcoming orders, organized by order most-recently submitted.

● Ability to determine the table number of the customer who ordered, as well as the waiter
who is assigned to the table.

● When an order is prepared, a feature to “Complete” the order. The appropriate waiter will
then be notified at their terminal.

● When an order is completed, the order will be removed from the queue. If there are
additional orders (not on screen), the order will be fetched from the system and added to the
screen.

● Chef’s screen will have a login in order for manager to track chef’s orders in case customers
complain about poorly cooked food. There will be several terminals which will depend on the
number of chefs working in the kitchen and feasibility of installing additional terminals in the
kitchen.

● Interface should include a ‘timecard’ function for payroll

5.5.4 Function of Waiter

● Ability to access the tab of a table they are assigned to. Within the tab the waiter should be
able to:

○ View the cost of specific items

○ Modify the tab of the table (e.g. provide complementary food in case the customer is not
satisfied), add specific extra charges, or reduce the bill

○ Close the tab of a customer. When a customer is ready to pay, the waiter should be able to
charge payment

●Provide support for entering a credit card number (stored in database for processing later)

● Open a cash drawer for cash

● Alerts when a table is seated, when a table ‘calls them over’ , and when a tab is requested to
be closed.

● Notification system when food for one of their tables is ready.

● Quick login system. There may be multiple waiters sharing the same terminal. A drop down
box of waiters, as well as a pin number for secure login (4 digits).

● Ability to use ‘timecard’ features, similar to other employees (payroll purposes).

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● In addition, busboy duties will be replaced by waiters in order to save money for restaurant
operation. The additional duties shouldn’t be too demanding for the waiters as their duties
will be reduced by the automation.

● Alerted when a table tab has been closed and a table needs to be cleaned.

● When a table is cleaned, change the status of a table. This in turn shall show on the floor
map that a table is ready for use by the next customer.

5.5.5 Function of Customer:

● Simple, easy to use, Android-based application on restaurant provided touch screen tablet.
Use the table to place order in the restaurant computing system.

● View the menu of the restaurant and add menu items to cart

○ As items are added to ‘cart’, see total price, add notes (e.g. “Steak rare”, or “no sauce”)

○ Apply coupons or promotions to purchases.

○ Order ‘cart’ of food when ready. This order is sent to the chef.

● Call over waiter for question / comment on food.

● Request to close the bill for purchase and pay.

● Using their android device, customer should be able to reserve a table for a party of upto
twenty people within a three-day time frame, atleast 24hrs prior to the period of reservation.

5.6 Required Solution

The required solution for various functional requirement are as follows:

5.6.1 Chef’s Interface and Menu Item Queuing

As we focused on efficiency and time saving in the automation process, one realization was
that chefs can prepare foods faster if they are given similar foods that can be cooked
together or in parallel. One example of this is having a chef cook two burgers and then a
cheesecake rather than have a chef cook a burger, then a cheesecake, and then back to a
burger. This essentially cuts the time by the length of one burger. When the chef gets the
ingredients for one burger, he may also get the ingredients for the other burger and cook
them in parallel.

Similar to operating system design, this problem becomes similar to that of scheduling and
prioritizing processes, however in this case the processes are menu items to be cooked, and
our cpu is the chef.

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Keeping this in mind, we designed an optimal scheduling algorithm based on a priority

queue where the new menu item will be given a priority based on what's currently cooking,
and what's currently on the queue. Of course, menu items cannot be preempted because no
chef would stop halfway in making a menu item as that would be wasteful and sometimes
ruin the menu item in certain cases. Thus we focused on non-preemptive scheduling of
menu items.

Our solution to the problem can be visualized as follows:

Menu Item

Average Time to Complete

Menu Item Type

Freshness Time

Table Order

Figure 5.2: These are the attributes of the Menu Item that pertain to queuing.

Average time to complete: The average total time that the chef takes to cook the menu
item in questions, this time must be calculated based on real data that the restaurant takes
when operating under normal conditions. In our system, we assume that this data is
available for us.

Menu item Type: The category of menu item that the menu item falls under.

Freshness Time: This is the time that the dish can be kept warm and still retain its
freshness

Table Order: This is a reference to the table order that this menu item belongs to. The
table order is described in detail in the section involving queuing with waiters. A table
order of zero means that the item does not belong to a table order. This is used later on in
queuing for waiters.

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5.6.2 Shared Ingredient Display

The chef’s interface will show the menu item queue. To further increase the efficiency of
the kitchen, our system will determine the total ingredient usage of each ingredient for all
menu items currently residing in the queue. By displaying this data directly to the chef and
sous-chefs, it will be possible for the kitchen to prepare ingredients and therefore dishes
more quickly.

Originally, we intended to show which ingredients were needed for every dish in the
queue; however, doing this quickly caused an unacceptable amount of UI clutter. The
current design only displays these relationships for the dish that is up next to be cooked.
This allows the chef to quickly understand what ingredients must be retrieved
immediately, while the aggregate ingredient usage list shows what ingredients will be
needed in the medium and long term. This enables the chef and kitchen staff to have a clear
view of what must be done now and what can be done later.

Figure- 5.3: Shared ingredients display for the current dishes in the order queue.

5.6.3 Queuing of Orders for Waiters

Similar in design to the chef’s menu item queue, this queue represents finished menu items
grouped by table and ready to be delivered to the diner. However, the items of this queue
are table orders instead of menu items; whenever an entire table order becomes finished in

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the kitchen, that table’s order is placed on the table queue. The waiter checks this queue
from the floor terminal and delivers the menu items in a first come first serve manner.
However, most restaurants won’t deliver items to tables if all the items in the table is ready.
We decided to provide the option to the customer whether to wait out till all the items are
ready, or just deliver them on a first come first serve basis.

Therefore, we designed the queuing for table order as two queues. One is the wait queue
and one is the ready queue. The ready queue will hold either tables that are ready, when
the customer chooses to deliver items when all of them are ready, or menu items that are
ready to be delivered to tables where the customer chooses to deliver items on a first come
first serve basis. The wait queue is a structure of tables and each table will hold the menu
items that belong to that table.

Table Order

Total Num Menu Items

Current Num Ready

Table

Menu Item List

Figure- 5.4: The Table Order structure that are used in queuing for waiters.

Total Num Menu Items: The total number of menu items associated with this order..

Current Num Ready: The category of menu item that the menu item falls under.

Table: This represents the table that the order is coming from. It will just be a number in
our case.

Menu Items List: This is the list of menu items that belong to this order.

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For the ease of waiter for seating arrangement, the floor status will be home screen of all
the tab operation which has been enumerated below:

Figure-5.5: Restaurant Floor Status

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5.6.4 Inventory System

To combat the problems involved with keeping inventory and determining when to
restock, we set out to design a system that takes as much of the burden as possible off of
the manager. With our smart inventory system and prediction algorithms, we can
effectively reduce the amount of times the manager has to physically check to stockroom
for ingredients and partially automate the restocking process.

When the manager issues an order for raw ingredients to the supplier, this table can be
automatically updated when the order is verified by the manager. As long as the supplier is
a trustworthy source, the inventory will be correctly updated without manager
intervention.

When chefs cook menu items from the menu, the inventory system can be automatically
updated to show the remaining inventory after cooking each dish. Of course, when making
each dish, there is going to be some error in measuring by the chefs and the total amount of
inventory usage will have a small percent error. We discuss this issue later. Since the
system is aware of each menu item in the menu, the amount of times the menu item is
ordered, and the contents of each menu item, the system can keep a real-time measure of
the amount of ingredients in the inventory.
Having the system keep track of inventory leads to a plethora of features that we elaborate
on later on such as future predictions of inventory requirements and knowing how much of
an item we can produce. One thing we must not forget is that the manager will always have
access to the inventory system in the event that he must manually change the stock.

5.6.5 Inventory Usage Prediction

To streamline the management process, our system has the ability to predict ingredient
usage rates. This feature solves the issue of the manager having to use historical data about
the restaurant in his decision of whether to restock. He we take usage data over a lengthy
period of time and develop predictions of how much inventory will be used and how much
should be ordered based on the season, holidays, weekday, etc.

As we lack experience in this area, we decided to start out with a relatively simple approach
to the problem. At the suggestion of our advisor, we also investigated more complex
autoregressive, moving-average, and autoregressive-moving-average or ARMA models, but
without the proper background in signal processing and statistics we found these models
too difficult to implement.

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5.6.6 Inventory Alerts System

Another feature of the inventory system that introduces novelty is alerts. This feature
alleviates the issue involved with managers having to determine when inventory falls
below a certain threshold. Alerts are triggered when inventory of items fall below certain
limits. These limits though obvious it may seem, are not just the bare minimum to cook a
menu item but rather is threshold set by the manager. The system not only automatically
determines when it is best to restock, but also send the appropriate demand to the supplier
himself. In the final system, we will most likely estimate usage extremely
conservatively to prevent any item from going out of stock.

5.6.7 Food Popularity Measurement

To solve the problem of determining what items are popular on the menu and what items
are not, we have designed a new way so that both the manager and the customer will be
able to know what the “hot items” on the menu are. Since, we are using an inventory
system; the task of providing popular items to the manager becomes trivial. By knowing
which menu items customer’s order, and the number that are ordered every day, the
manager can be provided a clear cut overview of the most popular items in the current day,
week, month, season, etc.

5.7 Central Warehouse Management System

Warehouse Management system is one of the most important parts for a restaurant. As
Food Chain Asia Limited got several franchise restaurants, so they have developed a central
warehouse management system which integrates Supply Chain, Warehouse management,
Purchase management, Materials transactions between warehouse and restaurants etc.

This system is integrated with restaurant inventory systems so that when restaurants raise
Materials Requisition in their inventory system, it will be hits on central warehouse
systems and the warehouse manager issue materials against this requisition. Similarly,
When warehouse issue the materials against the requisition, it will automatically updated
in the restaurants inventory systems.

Benefit of using Central Warehouse System:

Vendor Management – Get the best price with easy “apples-to-apples” vendor bid
comparisons, then track performance with vendor scorecards for fill ratios, quality of
service, product quality, and price compliance.

Automated Credit Recovery – Eliminate supplier overcharges through alerts and

automated credit recovery.

Recipe Management – Centrally manage all recipes and menus, production methods,
products, and allowed substitutes to ensure consistency across your restaurants.

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Centralized Order Guides – Eliminate “rogue” spending and ensure brand consistency by
controlling the vendors, products and prices available to your restaurants.

Sales Forecasts – Right-size your inventory and save, by forecasting sales, guest traffic,
order quantities and production based on historical patterns, seasonality, and promotions.

Figure-6.6: Central Warehouse Management System Operations

Menu Engineering – Understand the true plate costs of a new recipe, LTO or promotion
before rollout. Engineer more profitable menus by analyzing demand, item sales
contributions, and profit margins.

Suggested Order – Simplify ordering at the store-level with suggested ordering based on
pars, historical consumption patterns, sales forecasts, and on-hand inventory levels.

Commissary Management – We’re the experts. Slash costs by seeing real time restaurant
demand, consumption, and production requirements. Manage distribution and invoicing by
restaurant.

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Task Completion – Automatic task reminders on our dashboards help your employees
complete tasks on-time; including ordering, receiving, and inventory counts. Automated
monitoring of their performance keeps them accountable.

Perpetual Inventory Management – Cut costs by maintaining optimal inventory levels-

keep your cash in the bank, not the walk-in. Real-time tracking, from ordering to depletion
at the restaurants, avoids out of stock surprises.

Allergens and Nutritional Information – Comply with nutrition laws and protect your
guests by providing accurate allergen content and nutritional information labeling. Use the
USDA Database and/or your custom nutritionals for instant access to caloric, nutritional
and allergen information

Restaurant Food Safety Tools – Protect your restaurants from food safety hazards with
Manufacturer Lot Tracking, HACCP compliance, and vendor performance scorecards.
CrunchTime allows you to track every step of your supply chain – from procurement to the
customer meal.

Electronic Integration – Save time with end-to-end electronic integration to suppliers,

including ordering, electronic invoice processing, and vendor order guide imports.

Vendor Self-Service Tools – Increase procure-to-pay cycle and reduce administrative

overhead by driving all your vendors to a central collaboration portal to self-manage their
order guides, payments and credits.

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