Just when it seemed as if the near-term promise of benefits for restaurateurs from radio frequency identification chips, or RFID tags, was beginning to smell like spoiling fish, Seattle-based Blue C Sushi has begun using the technology to assure product freshness, improve purchases and track customer habits.
RFID technology involves small, low-power chips that can wirelessly transmit data, such as a unique identifier code, across small spaces to specialized readers. Such systems usually work with software that knows what to do with the information relayed from tag to reader, such as link the identifier code to a credit card account or compare it to entries on a list of approved users.
To date, most RFID development or development talk has centered on security or supply chain applications. But Max & Erma's vice president of information technology Mary Hamill recently summed up the thoughts of many, saying, "RFID is getting a lot of press, but the industry is light years away from seeing it reach mainstream status."
Mainstream or not, Blue C Sushi's RFID application is functional to some extent today.
Blue C Sushi operates two Japanese kaiten-style restaurants in which menu items are made by a number of exhibition chefs and then circulated among guests by way of conveyor belt; diners are charged according to the color and number of plates they amass. When the first Blue C Sushi unit opened in 2003, it used barcode tags on the plates and scanners to track when a plate moved on and off the conveyor belt. This was done to monitor product holding times, or freshness, which is critical to the enjoyment of sushi by connoisseurs and a factor watched closely by the health department.
Earlier this month the restaurant company, as well as its technology development partners — Microsoft Corp., RFID hardware specialist Intermec and applications developer Kikata — unveiled the next generation Sushi Tracker 5000. (Just kidding, that's not really the name.) Beyond recording when a sushi plate moves on and off the conveyor belt, the new system tracks which chef built which plate, as well as what's on the plate, and presents on chef-station display terminals information such as current and recommended inventory levels by type of sushi.
Blue C Sushi co-founder James Allard was unavailable for comment as of press time. However he says in a case study published by Microsoft that the system "can send alerts to the chefs when inventories are running low," thereby helping them "focus more on making good food and less on keeping track of inventory."
Allard says the system soon will support automatic bill totaling by permitting employees to wave a handheld RFID reader over the stack of plates at each table.
"The solution will help us in our expansion, because it will be easier to bring new chefs into the company," the restaurateur maintains. "With the information we're able to gather through the system, we think there are many ways for us to accelerate the learning and training curves for new chefs."
Blue C Sushi's RFID tracking system features Kikata's Ebisu Live Inventory Management software, developed using Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2006 and BizTalk RFID. Also used is Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 database platform, as well as Window's Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The chefs' touchscreen workstations run Windows XP Professional.
Kikata's application has an inventory management function designed to help Blue C Sushi track product usage trends and streamline purchasing.
Intermec reportedly worked with 3M to create robust ultra high frequency RFID tags appropriate for a restaurant setting and dishwasher. The chefs' cutting boards were fitted by Intermec with custom RFID antennas that work in conjunction with the vendor's IF5 fixed-mount RFID readers.
Along with benefiting the purchasing department and reducing food waste, "this technology improves our understanding of what customers want and what items are popular at particular times or on specific days of the week," Allard reports in the case study.
Blue C Sushi is still "several months" away from using data captured by its RFID technology for business intelligence purposes, sources there indicate.
Though the Seattle company's project is ongoing, there's a chance it might inspire the imaginations of other restaurateurs who recently wrote off RFID as a long-term prospect and therefore no B.D. — or worse yet, as a technology ready to R.I.P.