Operations Efficiency Initiative: Optimize Menu Mix by Kitchen Stations

Available in: Essentials and Professional Subscriptions

This is an operational analytics guide to evaluate your menu mix based on kitchen labor to improve efficiency, and can also be used to inform your kitchen line schedules. We'll take three main steps to evaluate and adjust performance:

1. Create Categories to track menu sales by kitchen station
2. View hourly item sales to see your menu mix in the context of kitchen demands
3. Adjust menu mix and labor schedules based on the findings

Step One: Map your kitchen stations to Custom Categories

First, grab a menu and write down which kitchen station produces each dish. This will vary based on your set up and staffing levels - but be focused on the staffable station that makes the dish. For example, Skirt Steak is produced on the Grill station and our Airline Chicken comes from Saute. Even if you might sometimes staff only 1 team member to work both stations, separate them in your categories to analyze the needs of each individual station. 

Log into Avero and create your Custom Categories based on kitchen stations. See our complete guide here: Custom Category

Step Two: View average hourly demands for each station

Navigate to the Item Sales by Hour / Hourly PMIX Report to review your demands. 

Top Tip: Don't have professional subscription? Use the Item Sales Report (available in all subscriptions) to get your averages by day instead of by hour. This can help balance the menu's demands on the kitchen and determine the number of kitchen staff required - even if you don't have access to the hourly report. 

Run your report for hourly averages:

Select a recent time period (without menu changes!) such as the last 8 weeks, and run the Hourly PMIX using the TREND date feature to get averages for each hour across many different work days. 

TIP: You can get even more specific, especially helpful for scheduling, by limiting this trend to a specific day-of-week, like Mondays. 

• Select the business/kitchen you want to analyze (if you have access to multiple)
• Set the date to Trend and select 2-3 months of recent data
• Keep the Revenue Center and other filters (such as Order Type) to ALL to see the total orders your kitchen receives
• Set the Time Interval to 30 minutes
• Set the Metric to Avg Item Qty (average item quantity) to see the number of orders for each dish the kitchen is receiving
• Under Category check the Custom Category box and select your Kitchen Station categories
  • 

Hit Go and your report will display below:

 

Step Three: Review your findings & take action!

Menu Mix

The report generates a visual and a table. The visual is a good way to see at a glance how busy the kitchen stations are throughout the day. Use this to see a visual representation of your menu mix, accounting for the popularity of individual items. This is a good result to pin to your dashboard and monitor as you go:

Visually it is obvious that our Saute Station is receiving the bulk of the orders! What might you do about that?

• Even if the menu has equal items for each station, some items are just more popular! Try to spread the most popular or signature items across different stations. 
• If you're happy with the menu mix, your solution may be to add equipment or staff to this station to improve efficiency. 
• Consider pricing adjustments to drive customer interest to other menu items and drive higher returns on these super-popular choices!

Kitchen/Station Scheduling

The table or graph will display how many orders can be expected for individual stations at different times of day. This won't take into account other work these same staffers do, such as prep work, cleaning, or work unrelated to menu sales, so keep that in mind! The longer the time frame you are viewing, the more accurate your averages will be.

• Notice the peaks and valleys of activity for each station to spot efficiencies and inefficiencies
  • Example: are the cooks coming in early enough to prep the station in time for the first wave? 
• Are there periods of intense activity on one station when other stations are slow? Consider cross-training employees to assist on other stations or adjusting your menu mix to even out your highest volume areas if the other stations are feeling the same push.
• Example: if all appetizers or desserts come off one station, for example, before the main courses or hot items are prepared you may consider adding more hot appetizers or cross-training the Grill Cook to assist on Garde Manger. 
• Do you need the full menu all the time? Staff is expensive - if you see demand naturally drops off around 10PM for items from the Grill Station, for example, perhaps you could have a late-night limited menu to focus your labor dollars on the natural interest of your clientele.

The sky is the limit! Keep tabs on how the kitchen is performing using data - it may feel busy because a station is slammed, but that might not be the most efficient way to accomplish your sales goals!