Technology: Prep Time

Historical data and smart cameras tell Zaxby’s chain restaurant staff when and how much to cook.

By Christine Zimmerman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 10/1/2006

Zaxby’s new manager Bob oversees the cooks in its corporate and selected franchised units. Bob doesn’t take sick days, require health-care insurance or complain about holiday hours. Bob just aims to take every ounce of guesswork out of the QSR’s back-of-the-house operations.

“Bob” is actually “HyperActive Bob,” a kitchen-production management system. It uses two cameras in the parking lot and established point-of-sale information to predict how much food cooks should start preparing as each car enters the lot. Bob delivers instructions in real time through touch screens in the kitchen.

And the results for Athens, Ga.-based Zaxby’s? Employee training time has been reduced by 40 percent, and product quality has improved by 60 percent. The company is also hoping data will back up what the restaurants have been reporting anecdotally: that customer wait times have been slashed, as well.

“If we have a great store manager, we may see little benefit from using Bob,” says Tripp Sessions, IT director for Zaxby’s Franchising Inc. “But not every store has a great manager. Bob makes up the difference. It gives an average-performing manager the ability to perform as one of the best managers.”

Bob’s in Charge

Zaxby’s has had HyperActive Bob technology in 25 corporate units and 11 franchised units since May. The corporate units have moved out of test and into full production, while the technology is in the second phase of testing for the licensees. The company plans to install HyperActive Bob in 40 existing and new corporate locations by October.

The system offers crews prompts, telling them what to cook and when, based on historical point-of-sale data showing the types of food sold at different points of the day. “Instead of waiting until customers place an order, we are now preparing food the minute cars hit the parking lot, based on a fairly sophisticated menu mix at each site,” Sessions explains.

“We know, for instance, that we typically sell 4.8 chicken fingers per car. And chicken fingers take 4 minutes to cook. So when the camera shows a car in the lot, we drop five chicken fingers,” he says. “The food is cooking however long it takes the customer to find a parking space, come in and order. It’s really not too far off to think that before the food is ordered, we have it out of the fryer.”

Prior to Bob, some Zaxby’s units had as many as 15 to 20 people in line at lunch. The manager would count the number of people in line and tell the cooks what they needed to prepare. Bob anticipates demand much earlier.

Managers can go online for customized reports and drill down into information on all products, by day, daypart, how much food has expired, how much was wasted, crew response times, how much product has run out and more.

John McDermot, director of consulting at Potomac, Md.-based Accuvia Consulting, a firm that specializes in foodservice technology, says restaurants have paired production forecasting and historical product mix for a couple of years. He notes that HyperActive Technologies adds a new dimension, though, with “current motion” or traffic-flow data tracked by the cameras.

“The flow of traffic information adds a real-time dimension to qualify the historical data…kind of an on-the-fly reality check,” McDermot says.

Checking the Payback

The typical HyperActive Bob set-up costs $3,500 for hardware, which includes two cameras, two touch-screen monitors and a computer to disseminate the data from the cameras to the touch screens. There is one touch screen at the broiler and one for the fryer in a Zaxby’s kitchen. Installation of the system by a HyperActive Technologies’ third-party partner costs an additional $1,500. The license fee per store is $250 per month.

Currently, Zaxby’s corporate is footing the bill for all stores. “We have taken on that burden of getting equipment for the 11 franchisees,” says Sessions.

Zaxby’s main objective was to improve speed of service at the drive-thru. As of press time, Sessions can’t provide data, but he says anecdotal feedback is positive.

The company found it improved product quality, too. For example, its main product, chicken fingers, previously had a maximum hold time of 15 minutes. Now with Bob, chicken fingers have a hold time of 5 minutes and 47 seconds, a 60 percent increase in product quality, Sessions says. “The really interesting benefit proposition is to be able to manage product quality,” he says. “In a cook-to-order environment, it is unique to be able to provide food when needed and only as much as needed.”

Sessions says that it turned around quality in one of its most problematic units within the first month of using HyperActive Bob, according to mystery-shopper data.

Another benefit has been in reducing the time it takes back-of-the-house crew to get up to speed. “We’ve seen a 40 percent reduction in time-to-competency, which is helpful in a high-turnover industry,” says Sessions. “And we have seen the ability to bring average managers up to the level of good. And a good manager is key to unit performance.”

According to Gregor Thompson, vice president of sales and marketing for Pittsburgh-based Hyperactive Technologies, the company that created HyperActive Bob, the technology lets operators choose how to run their kitchens. “They can always have bins full of product or cook to order,” he says. “Bob lets operators decide from a wide range on a sliding scale where they want to set parameters such as hold times.”

Basic Training

Zaxby’s trains franchisees on HyperActive Bob by first conducting a manager/shift leader meeting to talk about what the technology can do. The next day, there is a 30-minute tutorial for all team members. Says Thompson, “The key is to demystify the technology; to show that it is mathematically based and has real benefits for the individual and the store.”

McDermot still sees “cultural challenges” with HyperActive Bob. He notes that management may have a difficult time helping cooks understand that this will assist them, not take their jobs away. Zaxby’s has not encountered that problem, says Sessions, crediting the company’s training.