How a restaurant day moves
A waiter takes a table on his own phone. The manager passes that order. The kitchen cooks only what was passed. The bill, the stock, and the money for the day all come from the same records.
The first part is how the day moves. Further down, the screens are prototypes of what the manager, the waiter, and the kitchen open.
- The building
- One order, in motion
- Who holds a login
- One order
- How a record gets written
- What the owner can see
- The screens
- Still open
The same rooms, three kinds of work
Service, purchases, and money all end in one set of books. Step through a kind of work and the slip shows where that moment sits in the building.
Move the plan sideways to see the kitchen.
The waiter takes table 4
On his own phone he taps the table, two meals, one curd rice, and less spice. The kitchen does not see it yet.
Watch one order move
This is the walk the software takes off the paper. The waiter takes table 4 on his phone, the manager passes it, the kitchen screen receives it, and the dish comes back into the room with that table’s token.
The moving view needs a network connection.
The waiter takes table 4
On his phone he taps two meals, one curd rice, and less spice.
Who holds a login
The owner adds the manager and the waiters and gives each a login. They open the page on the phone they already carry. A phone left at the pass is enough for the kitchen.
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Owner
Creates the logins. Sees sales, cash and UPI, food used, what to buy, salaries still to pay, and the latest electricity, water, and rent. Can do the manager’s work.
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Manager
Sits at the desk, as he does now with the paper. Passes orders to the kitchen, handles the buy list, and closes the bills.
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Waiter
Sees his tables. Sends an order. Sees whether the manager has passed it, and whether the kitchen has marked it ready.
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Kitchen
Sees only orders the manager has passed, in large type, oldest first.
One order, never rewritten
Table 4 is taken once. Passing it, cooking it, billing it, and reducing stock are later states of that same order.
Table 4
- 2 meals
- 1 curd rice
- less spice
Table 4
- 2 meals
- 1 curd rice
- less spice
Table 4
- 2 meals
- 1 curd rice
- less spice
Table 4
- 2 meals
- 1 curd rice
- less spice
Table 4
- rice reduced
- vegetables reduced
- curd reduced
Two ways into the same record
During service the hall is crowded, so the waiter and the kitchen use the screen with their thumbs. The manager and the owner can also speak when the room is quiet, type the same sentence when it is loud, or photograph a bill.
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Tap the screen
Tables, dishes, a shift, a change to the buy list. This is the normal way, and it is the way the floor works at lunch.
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Speak a sentence
When it is quiet. “Raju, morning shift, five hundred advance.”
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Type that sentence
The same help, without the microphone, when the hall is loud.
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Photograph the bill
The vegetable vendor’s slip, or the electricity bill. Known lines are filled in. Unknown lines are asked.
A sentence or a photo is shown back as one line. It is saved when the manager or the owner agrees. A tap on the screen writes its own record directly.
20 litres of milk from Nandini, for tomorrow morning.
What the owner can see
One picture of the day, read from those records. The figures below are an example, so the shape is concrete.
| Sales | ₹18,400. Cash ₹6,200. UPI ₹12,200. |
|---|---|
| Food used | About ₹6,100, from the plates sold and their recipes. |
| Buy tomorrow | Milk, 20 litres. Onions, 2 kg. Tomatoes crossed off. Rice is not due today. |
| Wages | Raju worked the morning shift. Advance ₹500, already taken off what he is still owed. |
| Bills | Electricity ₹8,400. Last month ₹7,900. Water is unchanged. |
Purchases follow a rhythm. Milk and vegetables are proposed every morning from last night’s plates. Rice and oil come on their day. Spices and dry goods come on theirs. The manager confirms the list. When the bags arrive, the photograph of the bill increases the stock.
The screens
The manager’s desk checks revenue and stock for today, this week, this month, or the year. Under it, the waiter, the manager, and the kitchen each have the page they open on a phone. The rupees are an example.
The manager’s desk
Revenue today
₹18,400
Cash ₹6,200
UPI ₹12,200
₹1,200 more than yesterday.
Stock to look at
The floor, on three phones
Take the order, pass it, and mark it ready. This is the same walk as the moving view above.
Waiter
Table 4
Manager
Orders waiting for a pass.
Kitchen
Only what the manager has passed.
What this plan includes, and what it does not yet
Included
- Logins for the owner, the manager, and the waiters, on their own phones.
- An order that waits for the manager before the kitchen sees it.
- A bill in cash or UPI from that same order.
- Stock that moves from recipes, from the buy list, and from a photographed vendor bill.
- Daily, weekly, and monthly purchasing.
- Shifts, advances, and salaries, with electricity, water, and rent.
- Speaking, typing a sentence, or a photo, each confirmed as one line.
Not settled
- Whether Swiggy and Zomato orders join this flow.
- Which languages people will speak to it.
- How many tables and waiters the first room has.
- Whether guests need a printed bill, or the phone is enough.
Left until a restaurant asks
- Loyalty, a large pile of reports, several outlets, and a self-service kiosk.
- Billing that continues through a long internet cut. A phone hotspot covers a short one.