Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Magazine: The Ideal Fast-Casual Pizza Makeline

In a recent article with Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Magazine, Mici Italian senior vice president of operations Joe Melton discusses how the brand’s pizza makeline plays a starring role in the business. In this area, staff directly interact with customers, while making pizzas and providing some low-level entertainment. The pizza remains in the spotlight from start to finish, and for that reason, a well-designed makeline plays an essential role in any show-stopping performances.

Mici uses a sandwich prep station with a larger top, which enables employees to have all toppings within their reach. Before this equipment was introduced, employees had to open drawers and bend down a lot. They “were wasting motion,” says Joe Melton, senior vice president of operations. “But I love ease of execution and motion. We want to make it as simple as possible.”

Within the prep table, staff at Mici lay out toppings depending on which pizza they’re for, meaning all ingredients are in small groupings so employees can take the required amount of each with minimal movement. This design also includes two containers of commonly used items like sauce, cheese and pepperoni so two employees can work the line without leaning in front of each other, though usually one deals with sauce and cheese and another with toppings.

Mici’s Melton swears by his conveyor ovens, which can handle 124 pizzas an hour. The ovens feature stones heated from above and below so they never cool down. Pizzas cook in five minutes.

You can read the full article here.