Foodservice by Design

Team members from Profitality-Labor Guru discuss how industrial engineering can be applied to the foodservice industry.

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AI is coming! AI is coming!

Or is artificial intelligence already here and has been for a while?

A new term continues to dominate the restaurant industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI). It was all the buzz during the National Restaurant Association’s show in Chicago and it continues to come up in countless conversations.

One Industrial Engineering in Foodservice technique that we use to optimize design is process mapping.  Another name that you may have heard for this same analytical process is Spaghetti Diagrams. The latter comes from the fact that many processes that are not designed optimally, often look like spaghetti in a bowl, as in the before picture seen here.

An Industrial Engineering in Foodservice Perspective

Earlier this year as part of my company’s 10th anniversary, I took some time to reflect on how the foodservice industry and its technology has evolved over the past decade. That served as the perfect backdrop for my visit to the 2019 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.

It’s no secret, labor represents a major issue facing the restaurant industry. Not only is it a significant issue all foodservice operators must address that is impacting "unit economics," it is getting more complex to deal with every day.

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