Restaurant Automation

Technology getting more advanced day by day. in the case of the restaurant industry technology plays an important role. So many tasks that are more complex to do manually become more simple by automating. Technology revolutionized the restaurant industry. It causes the advent of restaurant automation.

Automation helps restaurants to reduce labor costs and enable an efficient workflow. In this blog, we are going to cover everything that you need to know about restaurant automation.

In this blog, we are going to discuss

What is restaurant automation?

Benefits of restaurant automation

Restaurant automation tools

Let’s discuss one by one

What is restaurant automation?

Restaurant automation is the process of automating manual business tasks with the help of technology. Enabling automation in your business will help you to save time and reduce labor costs. To survive in this highly competitive market and with labor costs, you have to rely on automation.

It is hard to run your business without the help of technology. Technology helps you to facilitate a smooth workflow in your restaurant. Let’s learn more about the benefits of implementing automation in business.

21 Benefits of restaurant automation

Automation makes your jobs easier. It is challenging to keep your business 100% efficient. Especially if you are the only person to manage the business. Automation can help you to manage your entire business.

1. Increased Efficiency

Automation helps you to speed up your service. It increases your restaurant’s efficiency. For example, by providing a self-ordering option in your restaurant, the order processing time can be reduced and the automated kitchen equipment helps you to speed up your food preparation processes.

2. Improved Accuracy

It helps you to reduce human errors. Especially if you are taking orders manually. Automation eliminates possible misunderstandings between customers and employees. and it keeps your order processing accurate.

3. Cost Savings

It helps you to reduce your cost. labor cost is one of the highest expenses in every business. by automating various business operations you can reduce labor costs. it also helps to reduce other expenses such as energy consumption, food waste, and more.

4. Enhanced Customer Experience

You can enhance customer experience by enabling automation in your business. By reducing customer wait time you can deliver food on time before customers expect.

Automation keeps order accuracy and gives more freedom to choose. Technology such as self-ordering kiosks is helpful to customers to order food themselves. It gives more freedom to choose their dishes and gives the option to prescribe if any special ingredients are needed.

5. Increased Data Collection

Data plays an important role in businesses. Automation helps restaurants to collect valuable customer data that can be used to take crucial business decisions. The software such as point of sale software track every customer by creating a profile. It stores customer purchase history data such as their spending, top buying items, and more.

The data can be used to plan a winning marketing strategy. It also stores customer contact details such as email, and mobile number, so you can use them for various promotional activities.

6. Reduced Labor Costs 

Automating various business operations such as order-taking, food preparing, and serving can reduce manpower and labor cost. Now customers can order and pay for themselves. So you can run a business with a limited amount of employees.

It is helping businesses that are struggling to get and retain labor in the market.

7. Improved Food Safety 

Automation helps you to eliminate the possibility of unhealthy food preparations. For example, an automated food preparation system helps you to always cook at the safest temperature, while automated dispensing systems can help to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

8. Increased Productivity

To increase productivity you can invest in automation. Automation helps you to get more productivity when compared to labor. humans need more time to do a task. By automating those tasks your employees can focus on various business operations such as customer experience, and menu management.

9. Better Inventory Management

Keeping inventory efficient is a crucial part of a restaurant business. By enabling restaurant automation you can streamline all your inventory operations.

Investing in an inventory management system can be beneficial for you. It keeps your inventory efficient. It notifies you when you run out of stock on a specific item and automatically generates stocks.

Simplify your inventory operations such as purchase order receiving, product variants and composites, transfer orders across your stores, stock adjustments, label printing, and purchase returns.

10. Competitive Advantage

Using automation and technologies in your restaurant gives your business a competitive edge. Customer is always looking for something to experience. Even if you are facing a high competition business then this will be the best way to win. Customers will more likely to choose your restaurant because you can provide a premium customer experience.

11. Remote Monitoring

You cannot always be in the restaurant to manage it. While even if you are outside of the restaurant you can manage by using cloud-based software. You can track the performance of your business and take appropriate business decisions. So you can manage your business without being available in a restaurant.

12. Reduced Physical Contact

Reduce physical contact with customers and employees. By offering contactless ordering and payment you can reduce the interaction between them. During the pandemic situations, it was really helpful to keep social distance in your restaurant.

13. Integration with Third-Party Apps 

It is really helpful to scale your business. POS system allows you to integrate with third-party app software such as accounting, CRM, loyalty software, inventory software, and other payment partners and online food aggregators.

It will help you to simplify all your business operations by automating them.

14. Real-Time Inventory Management 

Managing inventory and keeping them efficient and profitable can challenging. Restaurant automation can simplify this task for you. An inventory management system always keeps and makes sure your inventory is profitable.

It allows you to access the inventory data and manage it in real time. This can be a great advantage to identify business opportunities and make quick decisions in business.

15. Efficient Staff Management 

For efficient staff management, you can invest in automation. Restaurant automation helps you to identify the efficiency and inefficiencies of your employees.

Determine any cash shortages that occurred at the end of the shift and monitor for any inaccuracies or manipulations by employees. It protects your business from internal theft and enables efficient management, which can enhance your restaurant’s efficiency.

16. Improved Cash Flow 

Automated systems can help improve cash flow by reducing the time it takes for customers to pay and for the restaurant to process payments. This can help to improve liquidity and reduce the risk of cash flow issues

17. Scalability

Restaurant automation helps you to expand your business and manage it. When you expand your business you will have more things to manage. For example, If you are expanding the business online then you need to make sure your inventory, payment, customer management, loyalty, and more.

Restaurant automation helps you to automate most of your business operations. For example, when a purchase is done through your online business you need to deduct it from your inventory. You cannot change it manually if you receive too many orders.

So this process can be automated. an effective inventory management system can automate those operations. The system also helps to automate other business operations such as payments by integrated payments, loyalty, and other marketing, reports, and analytics for better business decisions.

Overall, restaurant automation gives you everything to grow and expand your business.

18. Consistency 

Automation helps you to keep your menu consistent. For example, you can keep a consistent flavor or temperature for a specific dish. It helps you to offer dishes same taste and flavors every time to customers.

19. Personalization 

When it comes to self-ordering kiosks the customer has more freedom to choose their food and its ingredients. So it makes them a more personalized experience.

You can also check the customer data and identify their favorite items and their ingredients. It will help you to give a premium customer experience

20. Enhanced Marketing 

As we mentioned above the POS system collects customer data. It can be used to market your restaurant. You can identify your most loyal customers and categorize them for promotional campaigns.

21. Improved Employee Satisfaction

Restaurant automation helps your employees to reduce workload and stress. This will give them more time to focus on other business functions such as customer experience.

It is also helpful in getting employees from the market. Because their work makes technology simple and you use it.

The best restaurant automation tool

Several restaurant automation tools can be categorized into two.

Front-of-house 

These tools help you to manage your restaurant’s front-of-house business operations.

1. Customer-facing displays 

Customer facing display is the display that can see the orders and payment detail that can be displayed to customers. Customers can scan the QR code and pay.

2. Self-ordering kiosk

The self-ordering kiosk is a stand-alone device that can be placed in your restaurant location. Customers can see the menu and place orders and make payments through it.

This restaurant automation tool helps you to manage your restaurant with a limited amount of employees. Self-ordering kiosks allow customers to order and pay themselves. So it will keep your orders accurate and enhance customer experience.

3. Qr code ordering

Customers can access the menu and place orders by scanning a QR code placed on the table. This is similar to the self-ordering kiosk and it allows the customer to place orders and pay without the help of your employees.

4. Cloud-based point of sale 

The point of sale system is a powerful tool to automate your restaurant business operations. It allows you to integrate various business operation and manage it.

Most point of sale systems provides the option to manage business operations such as inventory, accounting, CRM, payment, loyalty, and online ordering. The LithosPOS restaurant POS allows you to integrate your existing software such as Inventory management software, accounting software, CRMs, payments, loyalty software, and online ordering such as aggregator integration.

Overall, the POS system has a vital role in restaurant automation tools. It allows you to manage your entire business operations together.

Back of house

1. Kitchen displays 

The kitchen display is the screen that is placed in your kitchen. So the kitchen staff can see the order details such as order time, order special ingredients, delivery time, and more. So the kitchen staff can prepare food according to the order details.

It also eliminates the chances of inefficiencies in orders. It’s because the orders are directly transferred to the POS and kitchen.

2. Automated inventory management 

Inventory management is one of the necessary restaurant automation tools. Automating inventory makes sure your inventory is profitable and provides premium customer service.

You can identify your top selling items on your inventory and keep it available those stocks on your inventory. It will notify you when your stock goes down and you can also automatically generate stocks from your preset level.

3. Robotic kitchens

With the help of robotics, you can simplify so many kitchen operations such as cooking, food delivery, and dishwashing. It allows you to run a smooth business even if you are struggling to get enough labor.

As we discussed the benefits we mentioned consistency. So you can preset ingredients for specific dishes and you can make food with the same amount of ingredients and temperature consistently.

However, to survive in the modern business world, you need to invest in technologies like automation. Efficient facilitation of business operations, even in the absence of the owner, is essential.