SITUATION Creating a Specialized System to Manage Guest Flow
With their resounding success in other locations, the &pizza tribe (their term for crew members) expected their popularity to continue as they expanded to NYC. They sought to improve their planning and tracking within the shop, minimize the amount of time to make the pies, and be more precise with their communication to their guests.
To solve this, our development team built a custom hardware platform that pulls orders from their online ordering system. Based on a Raspberry Pi (a small single-board linux computer and microcontroller), and protected by a custom designed 3D-printed enclosure, this system includes a series of tailor-made iPad order flow apps (a custom Kitchen Display System, or KDS) that track each order throughout the process. Now, when an order comes in, the system auto-prioritizes it and flashes a light with sound to alert the tribe that there is a new pending order.
When the order is started, the guest is alerted by text message and given a specific time for pickup. The system then tracks the pie and tribe members have another iPad at the end of the production line that allows in-progress orders to be marked complete. When an order is marked as complete, a custom sticker is automatically printed with the guest’s name on it for clear recognition upon pickup.