KANSAS CITY Mo. KRM Restaurant Group, parent of the 14-unit 54th Street Grill & Bar chain, based here, is rolling out QSR Automation¹s order-management technology supporting kitchen display screens after drastically slashing training times at a test site.
“Historically, it took 10 months to train a manager to run a Five-Four kitchen on a Friday night. After implementing QSR’s ConnectSmart solution in our second highest volume location, we were able to successfully run our kitchen with zero problems – under the supervision of a new team member who had been with us only six weeks,” explained Michael Norsworthy, KRM’s president and chief operating officer. KRM director of information services Al Stenner added that the new kitchen system has a “seamless interface” with the chain’s point-of-sale system and “has given us the advantage of gauging our kitchen talent through our ticket times, so we can keep our chefs in the stations where their strengths lie.”
KRM is deploying to its restaurants QSR Automation’s eXpert controllers, KP-4000 keypads and ConnectSmart Kitchen software, or CSK, representatives of the Louisville, Ky.-based vendor said. CSK is a graphically oriented program that, among other functions, delays the routing of order components based on cooking times so that all parts of a ticket are completed simultaneously. Vendor sources said the rollout of the system combining touchscreens and keypads should be completed by summer’s end and added that KRM soon will begin using virtual menu cards to maintain food quality while reducing clutter and printing costs.