Client
The client is a well-known fast-food company with chains of restaurants in Texas, renowned for its welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere. Specializing in dine-in services, the company’s restaurants offer a diverse menu, including Mexican wraps, burgers, and a variety of wholesome meals that cater to a wide range of tastes. The exceptional taste of their food has earned them a well-deserved reputation and a dedicated customer base. However, in recent years, they have encountered some challenges.
The Challenge
Despite the positive reputation and popularity of the client’s restaurants, they encountered challenges with inventory management across their multiple chains. This issue had a ripple effect on their menu and food quality, leading to customer dissatisfaction and subsequent losses of both current and potential customers to competitors. The problems included difficulties in fulfilling orders due to ingredient unavailability, overstocking and understocking in some locations, tarnishing their restaurants’ reputation and affecting sales.
Attempts to address the issue, such as storing extra ingredients, proved ineffective as the additional ingredients do not stay fresh for long. This impacted the overall food taste and quality and increased both storage and transportation costs. Recognizing the urgency of resolving these operational challenges, the client sought assistance from Genesis NGN.
Research
To gain a deeper understanding of the issue, GenesisNGN assembled an expert team specializing in operations management. This team conducted an on-site research visit to the client’s various restaurants, observing their operations and technology usage while identifying the root causes of the inventory management problem. The research revealed that the client was relying on outdated technology with predominantly manual processes that were not interconnected, and communication between different restaurants was also lacking. As a result of all this, the client couldn’t predict demand correctly, faced challenges in maintaining the right amount of stock for required ingredients, and experienced issues with ordering inventory items, resulting in multiple operational problems.
Solution
To assist the client, the expert team provided by GenesisNGN created a cloud-based platform. This platform was primarily designed to address the unique operational issues the client was facing in their restaurants. It incorporates the latest technology, including cloud computing, advanced data analytics, and AI. One of the main underlying principles of the new platform is recognising each restaurant has different requirements, and they too vary based on time of the day, day of the week, seasonality, special days, etc.
The platform provided all the features, like, AI-based demand prediction for each individual restaurant, just-in-time ordering of ingredients to respective vendors to reduce capital lock-in, evaluating multiple vendors based on quality feedback from restaurants, delivery optimization to restaurants, and macro and micro insights for management.
After final testing, the platform was introduced to the client and their team. Given its cloud-based nature, the platform seamlessly integrates with existing computers in the restaurants, as well as with mobile devices and tablets, using credentials. This flexibility allows access from any location beyond the restaurants.
How it Worked:
- Multi-User Platform: Various restaurants can be added to this platform, and multiple users with different roles can be created for each establishment, including a superuser. The superuser can access data from different restaurants, compare it, and extract insights and trends. This information can be used to make informed decisions.
- Forecasting: Upon receiving a successful order, the team promptly records the data into the system. This practice yields valuable insights into the restaurant’s top-selling food items, peak selling times, and frequency of demand, providing a comprehensive view of sales patterns. By harnessing this data in conjunction with historical sales information, weather patterns, and holiday trends, the system forecasts demand for each day in the upcoming week, aiding the restaurant in strategic planning and resource management.
- Ingredients Requirement: The team can conveniently add food items from their menu, complete with detailed ingredient listings. Integrated with the demand forecasting feature, this functionality provides the team with valuable insights into the specific quantities of each ingredient needed, facilitating efficient inventory management and ensuring optimal stock levels for seamless operations.
- Inventory Management: The team can monitor the inventory, encompassing all food ingredients, along with their current stock levels. Automatic notifications are generated based on the anticipated stock required for future demand, empowering the team to efficiently order the necessary stock—all powered by data analysis and AI.
- Feedback: There is also a feature for collecting customer feedback on various food items. In this process, employees solicit feedback from customers, which is then added to the respective menu item. Based on this feedback, recipes or ingredients can be adjusted to align with customer preferences, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of the menu items.
- Comparison: Managers across different restaurants can leverage the platform to compare feedback, sales, demand, and the total number of orders, distinguishing between successfully fulfilled orders and those that were unfulfilled. This includes insights into inventory, best-selling products, and other trends. Armed with this information, managers can make informed adjustments in their respective restaurants, ensuring customer satisfaction and boosting sales.
Benefits
- Enhanced Operational Efficiency: The cloud-based platform streamlines operational processes, reducing manual efforts and enhancing overall efficiency.
- Accurate Demand Forecasting: The system’s forecasting feature, powered by data analysis, historical sales, and weather and holidays data, ensures precise demand predictions.
- Improved Inventory Management: The platform allows real-time monitoring of inventory, enabling the restaurants to maintain their optimal stock levels. This aids in strategic planning and resource management for optimal performance.
- Cost Savings: By efficiently managing inventory, avoiding excess storage costs, and optimizing ingredient usage, the restaurant experiences cost savings, contributing to improved financial performance.
- Enhanced Menu Planning: The integration of ingredient requirements with the demand forecasting feature provides valuable insights into the specific quantities of each ingredient needed. This facilitates informed menu planning and ensures that the restaurant can consistently offer customer-favorite food items.
- Quality Improvement Through Feedback: The feedback feature allows the restaurant to gather insights from customers. Adjusting recipes or ingredients based on this feedback enhances the overall quality of menu items.
- Customer Satisfaction and Retention: The ability to adapt recipes and ingredients based on customer feedback, making necessary changes to the restaurant’s menu and inventory with a comparison and other functions, contributes to improved customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are more likely to return, fostering customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.
- Boosted Sales Through Targeted Offerings: The system’s data-driven insights into top-selling food items, peak selling times, and customer preferences enable the restaurants to tailor their promotions and special offers strategically. This targeted approach enhances their effectiveness of marketing initiatives by attracting more customers and, ultimately, increasing sales.
