MONEY MATTERS
Interoperability: A Tech Conundrum for the Future of Fast Food Consumers now expect greater convenience from their fast food experiences, from more ways to order and collect their food to how and what they eat. This reinvention of the consumer journey is bringing a new world of thinking for Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and fast food operators.
A
ny QSR or fast casual restaurant must now juggle
providing valuable and real-time data for management.
orders placed via multiple channels - from in-
Sadly, this is not yet happening as many of these technologies,
store dining, drive thru’ touch screens, counter
built by different companies, can’t ‘talk’ to each other.
service, click and collect and delivery orders from multiple
The key to successful modern kitchens is going to be
providers such as Postmates, GrubHub and DoorDash.
interoperability between these independent systems.
Greater ordering channel options continue to drive even higher consumer expectations. This is forcing
Harmonious Kitchen Operations
restaurant operators to rethink how their kitchens, front
At Karakuri we believe that interoperability is key to
of house spaces and overall restaurant operations. Many
a wider ecosystem of change in the modern fast food
restaurants are investing in newer, smarter technologies,
restaurant and kitchen and we are working to make that
including integrated EPOS, KMS and channel aggregation
interoperability part of our systems from day one.
software to help them ensure they continue to deliver the
The most recent EPOS and ordering systems are now
experience that their customers want and are able to run
starting to offer the capability to collaborate with other
the operation smoothly and efficiently.
third party systems - but it’s early days and this still isn’t
Kitchens are Getting Smarter
typically easy or efficient. As automation enters the mainstream it represents an
Walk into a kitchen today and it is very different to the
even bigger issue than the EPOS/KMS and stock control
analogue environments of yesteryear. You’ll see smarter
management we’ve seen thus far.
kitchen devices, from ovens with programmable cooking
Many individual robotics systems are likely to operate
cycles and combination cooking modes, to fryers that
within a kitchen - from the makeline to the fryline to off
automatically filter the oil or adjust their cooking temperature
premises packing – each needs to be able to seamlessly
to match the thermal impact of the food being cooked, to
communicate with each other and the other system in the
machine vision systems that are helping to predict quality
restaurant, to ensure that the kitchen delivers high-quality
and working patterns.
food, consistently and at maximum efficiency.
In time automation and robotics will become a more
In the emerging world of kitchen automation, a few
common sight in kitchens
companies have attempted
as well. AI-enabled robotics
to build bespoke, robotic
will work alongside people,
solutions with their own
relieving them from some of
proprietary
the boring and mundane jobs
control solutions.. However,
they hate.
these one time, bespoke
interfaces
or
But it’s not just kitchen
solutions
equipment
option for the wider mass
channels
and
sales
that are getting
aren’t
a
viable
market..
more intelligent. Smart inventory management and
For new kitchen solutions to be widely adopted they must fit
capacity projection use data to help to satisfy demand
into already established, multi-channel food environments
while at the same time generating less waste.
and pre-existing technologies.
In an ideal world, a modern restaurant would have all these systems working harmoniously together, helping to manage
This is why interoperability is key.
operations, easing the work pressures on employees and
We’ve seen interoperability drive success in other
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Fastfood Professional • August and September 2022
August and September 2022 • Fastfood Professional
54
