How To Streamline Your Restaurant Operations

In the world of restaurant franchises, streamlined operations are an essential component in creating an attractive business model. The average restaurant team spends between eight and nine hours daily on operational and safety-related tasks such as labeling food, sanitizing surfaces, checking temperature inventory, filling communication logs and tracking food production. Those tasks already take up a lot of valuable time, and franchise operators shouldn’t have to worry about running out of ingredients, handling complicated payment procedures or paying for costly mistakes.

Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge restaurant operators with higher food costs, supply chain issues and labor shortages, it has never been more important to streamline operations TO keep everything running smoothly. 

Implement the Right Technology

As technology continues to evolve in the restaurant space, operators need to pay attention to how new tools can help them run their kitchens. Whether it be the right POS system, payment processor, kitchen robotics or inventory software, investing in the right technology can save franchisees valuable time and money. 

For example, especially now as the COVID-19 pandemic creates an increased demand for off-premise service, the right POS platform and online ordering system can make or break a restaurant’s operations. 

Toppers Pizza*, for example, offers a proprietary e-commerce platform that allows franchisees to leverage a first-party delivery system, available through each owner’s POS system. This means franchisees save a significant amount of money on the notoriously expensive fees associated with the usual third-party delivery providers. The direct delivery platform also ensures Toppers franchise owners can simplify their back-of-house operations and exhibit more quality control and communication with the customer. This allowed the brand to surpass a $1,010,000 AUV for stores open three years or more in 2020.

“The restaurant industry is a top-line environment with a sizable percentage of your costs fixed by third parties – rents, utilities – and increasing top line sales allows for more dollars to flow through to the bottom line,” said Kendall Richmond, Toppers’ chief financial officer. 

With the right POS technology, restaurant owners can also analyze profit margins, supply chain costs and customer buying trends to properly price future items and promotions. Many chains, including KFC and McDonald’s, have been substituting discounted "value" meals for more costly options to counterbalance increased food costs and boost sales as Americans return to pre-pandemic habits, for example.

Optimizing the Supply Chain

With supply chain issues expected to last well into 2022, restaurant franchisors need to ensure they have strong, established relationships with vendors and that supplies are being successfully delivered to franchisees. The more optimized the supply chain, the more streamlined the operations.

Oath Pizza, for example, utilizes an innovative hub-and-spoke distribution method introduced by the brand’s first franchise partner. The approach was designed to provide added oversight of all products to minimize costs and waste, create a reserve of products and develop tools for their corporate restaurants and franchisees to be successful.

“The ‘hub’ at the center is the distribution center and operating companies that are in or outside of most metropolitan areas nationwide,” said Pam McMorrow, Oath Pizza’s director of supply chain. “The ‘spokes’ are the distribution routes to the Oath Pizza location.”

Oath also helps franchise owners source domestically grown and produced products through three of the largest global suppliers. That chain is optimized through dedicated corporate oversight, allowing franchisees to simplify their day-to-day operations. With the unique distribution model, corporate and franchise Oath locations can benefit from the simple operation and cost-savings. “Our supply chain has been built to scale and to easily adapt to changing conditions in the distribution world,” McMorrow says. 

Simplified Menus

Cutting down on “menu bloat” can also be a great way to streamline restaurant operations, while also potentially avoiding supply chain issues. Chicken, beef, ketchup packets and even cups and straws are all in short supply, forcing many restaurants to increase their menu prices to make up for the shortage. Research shows that by eliminating superfluous menu items, restaurants improve their sales and cut down on food costs, especially since some customers have “menu-board anxiety” if there are too many options. 

To create the paired-down menu, brands can analyze POS data to determine not only which items are most popular, but also which items are most profitable and efficient to source. For example, Oath’s menu is designed to maximize easy-to-source products, unlike other foodservice concepts that rely heavily on primary menu items like beef and chicken. “Our menu is tailored to avoid some of the most common sourcing roadblocks while still delivering elevated offerings,” McMorrow says.

In addition to increasing sales, franchise brands can cut down on waste and streamline overall operations by scaling back on inventory and creating menu items that cross-utilize more ingredients. There are several other ways to cut down on menu costs without sacrificing quality or the customer experience – for example, by revamping the menu with less-complicated dishes that require fewer of the kitchen staff to be present in the preparation. These efficiencies allow franchise owners to create the best possible customer experience while simplifying operations in kitchens and easing the burden for overworked and limited crews during the pandemic.