A Q&A with Christian Koether, CEO, Kitchen Brains
Q: What are chain operators looking for with today’s commercial kitchen technology?
Christian Koether: Initiatives that reduce labor costs and add efficiencies are at the top of the list. There is also a focus on driving transactions by providing customers with more order points, both in-store and via mobile apps, while consistently delivering quality products. This places an increasing burden on kitchen operations and creates challenges for product availability. Kitchen Brains helps to solve this availability issue with KB360, a simple to implement, use and manage, production management solution that ensures consistent availability while reducing food waste.
Q: What are the latest technology innovations geared towards commercial kitchens?
CK: Technologies that have a positive ROI and help commercial kitchens run smarter and more efficiently. KB360, for example, enables foodservice operators to automate many discretionary and labor-intensive processes to assure quality standards and regulatory compliance measures are achieved. The result is reduced labor and training costs, increased food
safety and higher customer satisfaction.
Q: How has smart technology improved operations in the back of house?
CK: Smart technology has taken the variability out of operations by using real-time data to make better decisions and by automating processes to ensure consistency, quality and food safety. In an industry with high labor turnover, smart technology has also reduced training requirements and eliminated some of the more undesirable jobs that drove employee departures. Lastly, there is a growing effort to predict equipment maintenance failures to avoid downtime that would adversely affect businesses.
Q: Talk about KB360. What is it, how does it work and what benefits does it offer?
CK: KB360 is a cloud-based platform that provides unique insights and real-time guidance through a network of integrated controllers, timers and sensors. KB360 serves as the backbone for connecting all commercial kitchen back-of-house devices together to streamline operations by tracking performance, monitoring product availability, recording temperatures, and predicting food waste and loss.
Q: What types of kitchens can benefit from full kitchen solutions?
CK: All commercial kitchens, including restaurants, hospitality, K-12, universities, hospitals and supermarkets globally, have the same challenges and customer expectations. Producing quality products that are safe, tasty and fresh enable operators to please customers and grow their businesses. Full kitchen solutions, such as KB360, can fit current business models, while also providing data for continuous improvement and
future expansions.
Q: What should foodservice operators look for when implementing smart technology?
CK: Operators need an experienced technology partner with a deep history in the foodservice industry. The partner should truly understand the operator’s business and be able to successfully guide them through the decision-making process, implementation and ongoing enhancements. The solution needs to have open architecture, be scalable as business changes and adaptable as technology advances. With over 50 years in the industry, and over 10 years with successful KB360 installations globally, Kitchen Brains presents a compelling choice to foodservice operators looking to implement smart kitchen technology.
