In the fast-paced and high-stakes world of restaurant operations, every second counts and efficiency is king. Amid the bustle of the kitchen and the pressure to deliver, how can you ensure seamless communication between FOH & BOH, accurate order processing, and timely service?
Enter the Kitchen Display System (KDS), a game-changer for your kitchen’s operations.
In this blog, we’ll unravel the magic behind the Kitchen Display Screen (KDS) and how it can resolve many kitchen operation issues.
What Is a KDS?
KDS stands for Kitchen Display System, and it will be the most vital tool in your kitchen! Perhaps more important than the pots and pans your chefs use.
A Kitchen Display System helps restaurants by holding down the fort of their kitchen operations. It displays incoming orders from the cashier or kiosk, thus, allowing kitchen staff to view their orders, process them effectively, and then notify waiters or customers when they are done. In return, a Kitchen Display System helps improve the communication between the front of house and back of house of any restaurant.
Now, let’s discuss how a KDS is a magical solution for many kitchen operations issues!
Reasons to Use a Kitchen Display System
1- Saving Time
The KDS (Kitchen Display System) sends orders to the kitchen after receiving them from the POS (Point of Sale), kiosk, or the Internet. That means there’s no longer time wasted between the waiter or cashier staff taking the order and the kitchen which receives and prepares them. The same applies to when the order is ready; the kitchen staff can use the KDS to notify the servers or clients waiting for their orders.
2- Boosting Your Kitchen Efficiency
Kitchens can be chaotic, especially during rush hours, from receiving messy handwritten or printed orders to the lack of ingredients sometimes to insufficient time to prepare orders, leading to missing orders and losing guests, and the list goes on and on.
That’s where KDS comes to the rescue! The KDS:
Captures all orders placed and displays them immediately in the kitchen
Distributes orders in a balanced manner over the different workstations to benefit all workers and utilize time in the best way
Establishes a reliable link between the FOH and BOH to reflect any updates or modifications to orders
This helps make preparing and serving meals more efficient and organized.
3- Discovering Problems and Overcoming Them
Every business holds potential for refinement, but the crux lies in identifying and capitalizing on unseen flaws and growth opportunities. The Kitchen Display System provides critical insights into the kitchen team’s performance in the form of reports and analytics, such as:
The time of receiving the request and the duration of preparation at each workstation
Productivity of each member of the preparation team
Percentage of delayed or canceled orders
This kind of data can help restaurant owners make improvements and effectively solve problems to enhance kitchen efficiency in the long term.
4- Cleaner Kitchen Environment
The immense significance of cleanliness in restaurant kitchens and the necessity of adhering to the highest safety standards to protect consumer health and prevent food poisoning incidents is universally recognized. In this context, the kitchen display system helps eliminate printed orders handed over from the cashier to the customer and passed to the kitchen staff who prepare these orders. This process inevitably involves person-to-person contact and the transmission of contaminants via papers and hands.
Moreover, utilizing specialized input tools at each station helps circumvent the need for the preparation team to directly touch the kitchen display screen and contaminate it with cooking oils and other ingredients. These substances can easily be transferred or cause damage to the screen over time.
5- No More Paper Waste
Handwritten or printed orders make things messy and can also be a source of unnecessary waste!
Which KDS Should You Be Using?
Meet Foodics Kitchen Display System Solution!
Foodics’ new KDS is an Android-based solution that offers all we discussed and is compatible with an OS version 8 and above. It is a cross-platform application that supports multiple types of hardware, like tablets, TVs, and controllers such as keyboards and bump bars.
Also, it is suitable for all types and sizes of restaurants. It provides a complete view of all orders, which enables the kitchen staff to easily scroll between their orders, filter them, and focus on what they do best, making food! It also views the time needed for each order and notifies the kitchen staff when orders are delayed.
Foodics Android KDS vs. iOS KDS
While the Android KDS and iOS KDS have many things in common, the Android KDS offers features and capabilities that the iOS KDS doesn’t. For example:
As mentioned above, Android supports multiple hardware options at different sizes and prices suitable for different budgets
Android runs on TVs without mirroring, but if you need it, it is still available.
You can connect your Android KDS to any controller, like bump bars, keyboards, etc, which can handle the demanding kitchen environment
Additionally, exclusive enhancements and features will be integrated into the forthcoming version.
So, ready to take your kitchen to the next level with Foodics’ new Android KDS?
Sign up for Foodics KDS today!
