QSR March 2023

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resource-aware. “So, it integrates the consumer journey, product journey and the logis tics journey all into one system. As a result, everything is timed to perfection, meaning that there’s no latency in the system,” she says. “There’s higher utili zation. As a result, it’s more profitable, it’s faster, the consumer gets a fresher, hotter product. No one’s ever waiting.” In pract ice, the software does what other KDS systems do: it tells the kitchen to fire a burger a few min utes before building items that take less time like sandwiches or salads. But it also keeps constant track of delivery driver availability. That means if no drivers are expected to be available soon, orders won’t appear in the queue. That reduces stress in kitchens—a les son first learned at ClusterTruck. Each day, the virtual brand’s downtown Indi anapolis kitchen pumps out more than 1,000 orders, including many large group orders. “You would think oh my gosh, it would be crazy, right? They’d be like shouting at each other and dropping things and wondering where stuff was all the time. And it’s not. It’s abso lutely silent, super calm. Everyone’s just jamming away doing their thing,” Sandland says. “And the reason is because they’re only being asked to do the immediate next thing that needs to get done and so there’s no stress of like a backup that they can’t do any thing about.” Over time, the software can also learn about variances across locations, which may have different staffing abil ities and physical layouts. If pizzas, for instance, take longer in some kitchens, the software can adjust accordingly. Sundland says the software was built with an eye toward a more automated future. “You can imagine that over time, while today that KDS is telling a worker what to do at a station, it becomes now much easier for the software system to tell a machine what to do at a sta tion,” she says.

Zach Goldstein views ever-advanc ing kitchen display systems as just part of the restaurant technology evolu tion. The CEO and founder of loyalty technology Thanx, Goldstein says the industry’s growing share of digital orders puts less importance on tradi tional point of sale systems. “I think what we’re seeing is a broader trend,” he says. “That is the declining criticality of the point of sale, and new ways for restaurants to oper ate. And if you stop treating the point of sale as the central operation hub of a restaurant and instead treat digital and, frankly, the customer as the cen ter, you start with a world that starts making other elements of the restaurant technology more and more important.” Smarter kitchen display systems even incorporate loyalty. They can notify line cooks of past diner prefer ences and food allergies. Or they can simply notify kitchens that they’re pre paring food for a top customer, not unlike a hotel loyalty program can notify a front desk clerk. “How would it change the experi ence in the kitchen if you know that this person is one of your top 1 percent customers?” Goldstein says. “Presum ably, you give it a little extra care, you make sure that the presentation was perfect, you ensure that you are f ir ing it at the exact right time, so that all the dishes are at the same readi ness. There are things you could do differently with that information and historically, that information does not make it to the kitchen.” These new technologies span the front and back of house, Goldestein says, and put the customer at the cen ter of a restaurant operation. “You’re real ly putt ing the cus tomer at the center of your restaurant as opposed to the point of sale at the center of your restaurant,” he says. “I think that’s why KDS [models] are kind of seeing more attention now.” 

KEVIN HARDY IS A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO QSR AND FSR AND IS BASED IN KANSAS CITY.

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MARCH 2023