Why use Kitchen Display Systems? 6 Reasons to choose KDS

If you are running a restaurant every decision you make is going to affect customers and staff directly. Hence, most of the time, restaurant owners play it the old way while knowingly or unknowingly compromising the growth.

The same confusion can be faced by the restaurant owner in case of a ‘back of the house’ decision.

Should one go for a traditional or modern system? If one already runs a traditional solution, does it go for a modern system? These decisions are crucial and hence one must be aware of every possible detail while making such decisions.

What is Kitchen Display System?

KDS is connected to the POS of your restaurant. When a customer places an order, the POS records it and sends a ticket to the kitchen (back of the house) to work ahead. It is a digital order viewer that replaces the traditional paper-ticket and kitchen printer system. KDS is much faster and eco-friendly. The risk of losing the printed order or displaying it is eliminated in KDS.

What can you expect from installing KDS?

A kitchen display has been in use for years now as compared to the kitchen display system. Restaurants are used to it and find it more cost-effective too. Many restaurants find it easy to use and comfortable.

However, though the Kitchen printers are popular and widely used by restaurants, out of habit or by choice, they have their drawbacks. One of the first issues with kitchen printers is it demands someone to be present in an expo position.  This means, in spite of taking the help of technology, your staff is still working under a burden.

Additionally, kitchen printers can also add to the kitchen inefficiencies.  Tickets can get lost in the hustle-bustle of the kitchen, this means the order might take longer than expected. This means the customer might leave the restaurant unsatisfied. Plus, kitchen printers might lead to disrupted communication, affecting productivity and efficiency at both the front and back of the house.

On the other hand, KDS is more modern, sophisticated, and reliable. With a Kitchen Display System, you can streamline the restaurant workflow so that your business can run without any disturbance.  It is a digital way of organizing the back of the house tasks. Right from the meal course, cooking time, and recipes, everything can be managed by the KDS.

Why should you use a Kitchen Display System?

In simple or one word, restaurants should use it because it is efficient hands down. Let us explore how many ways KDS can help you:

No errors

Restaurants that use KDS swear by its accuracy.  KDS eliminates guesswork from the restaurant work-flow.KDs can be easily integrated with the POS, and when it is done, kitchen staff gets the orders in real-time. This means they can streamline their work and schedule & deliver each order in time. Suppose A staff has received the order on his/her screen, then A can complete his/her part of the work and forward it to the B’s screen. The process takes place in real-time and is monitored making sure that the order must be visible and tracked at every stage, so even during the busiest hours, the order does not get lost.

Bottlenecks are reduced and work can be done calmly

KDS brings automation to the process. Automation decreases the clutter and clamor from the process. No screaming orders to each other, no miscommunication, no losing order ticket, no delays, no clashes, no bad impression on the customers. With KDS, each staff member can keep cognizance of other’s work. The order is never lost, and communicating is always positive.

No or reduced waste

In the restaurant, food wastage is a big issue. Every restaurant tries to reduce waste as much as possible. KDS helps substantially in reducing waste by streamlining every possible kitchen and front house activity. The restaurant POS system records every order and milestones in each order.

Suppose a table places an order for chicken and Salad at the same time. Then, the KDS will suggest starting cooking the chicken first and the side menu later. This way, not the items will be ready to serve at the same time, the table will receive a fresh order and there will be no food waste as no dish sits idle for a long time.

Boost in revenue

KDS not only streamlines the end to end process but speeds it up too. KDS lets you take more orders by delivering each order in time efficiently. As manual interference is reduced, lesser time is needed to complete the order. All of this means, satisfied customers, better productivity, and more revenue.

Quality and Standards

Whether you have one restaurant site or multiple, a KDS helps in standardizing your business. You can train all the staff across the restaurant, in the same way, maintaining uniform standards and quality.  All of this can be done through intuitive and interactive software and media files. This saves you time and effort while onboarding new staff and training the existing staff. 

Restaurant Analytics

When you deploy KDS and other professional technologies at the restaurant, you are able to track every single process that is taking place in the restaurant. A reliable Restaurant POS Software will allow you to access every restaurant’s data and reporting features that will enable the manager and owner of the restaurant to understand business patterns. Data such as an average speed of service, average cooking time, and other performance data, etc.

With such data, restaurants can determine the area of improvements in the business and take corrective measures.