1、中文 2535 字 出处： International Conference of Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition, 2009. 外文原文二： Real-time process management syetem in a restaurant by shareing food order information Shimmura, T.Takenaka, T.Akamatsu, M. Abstract-In a full-service restaurant, it is crucial to share order information a
2、mong staff in the dining room and kitchen. This paper introduces a real-time process management system for restaurants using an advanced point-of-sale (POS) system by which staff can share order information in real time. In this system, kitchen staff can check all customer orders by the dish that wa
3、s ordered and the elapsed time of each order. Moreover, dining hall workers can grasp their customer situation with a monitor. By introducing this system to a restaurant, we confirmed that it can make preparation processes more efficient and reduce customers claims. Keywordscomponent-restaurant serv
4、ice； point-of-sale system； processmanagement； information sharing； service engineering I. INTRODUCTION The recent worldwide economic depression has necessitated further streamlining of restaurant businesses to with stand severe price competition. Expanding restaurant chain stores is one means to inc
5、rease sales and reduce business costs by providing similar dishes produced in a central kitchen. Japan has some restaurant chains of family restaurants, pub-style restaurants and sushi restaurants.However, unlike fast-food chains, expansion of full-service restaurants (dinner restaurants) is difficu
6、lt because they require many human skills such as highly skilled cooks, complicated process management of customer orders, and good communication with customers. Hospitality is important in restaurant businesses for customer satisfaction. Although restaurant businesses face some intrinsic problems t
7、hat differ from those of manufacturing industries, science and technology are expected to raise service productivity further and to enhance customer satisfaction by supporting actual businesses. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2007, for instance, started a national project to
8、 promote service engineering to improve service sector productivity . Supported by the project, the authors initiated studies of problems in retail and restaurant businesses. We specifically elucidated service process management in actual restaurants based on objective data gathered by information s
9、ystems and measuring apparatus. Information technologies have played important roles in restaurant businesses in some aspects such as in inventory control and supply chain management . These motivations coincide with those of retail or manufacturing businesses. In Japan, point-of-sale (POS) systems
10、originally developed for retail and CVS (or Convenience store) businesses were introduced into restaurant businesses in the 1980s. Unlike the usage of POS system in CVS, that of restaurants is usually for management of customer orders.Although this system was innovative for restaurants, other proble
11、ms remained. In such a POS system, orders are recorded by table and not by dish. When the restaurant is busy, many orders are accepted one after another. In such circumstances, kitchen staff make decisions about sequencing of preparing considering the type of dish. It is difficult for cooking staff
12、to grasp the table number and to know how long each table has waited for service. Moreover, service staff must monitor the situation of their customers and the kitchen. Delayed delivery lowers customer satisfaction and sometimes elicits complaints. Because restaurant situations vary from time to tim
13、e, process management heavily depends on staff skills and memory. To resolve those problems, we propose a novel system by expanding conventional POS systems in which staff can share order information in real-time using an information system. Information sharing is a crucial factor of process managem
14、ent in a restaurant. The next section overviews existing methods for process management inrestaurants and elucidates problems underlying conventional methods. II. PROBLEMS OF PROCESS MANAGEMENT IN RESTAURANTS In simple terms, restaurant service processes comprise order receiving, preparing, and serv
15、ing. An important task is to serve customers at the right place at the right time. However, that task is not easy when the restaurant becomes busy: many orders come from different tables at different times. Restaurant work is demanding, requiring a good memory and fast judgment. In general, in resta
16、urants, three methods for process management have been used: verbal confirmation, order sheet, and a POS system. III. PROCESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PMS) FOR RESTAURANTS This section introduces functions of a new system (PMS) developed for full-service restaurants in Japan.Of course, an important functi
17、on of POS in restaurants is registration of orders to avoid accounting mistakes. As Stain 4 pointed out, POS in restaurants is intended to improve checkout functions to avoid mistakes.In addition to those basic functions, PMS especially targets the temporal aspects of process management and informat
18、ion sharing among staff. Those functions are summarized as follows. 1. Order checking function by dish at each kitchen 2. Elapsed time display and delay warning functions 3. Checking functions of all kitchen positions status 4. Search function and reissue for lost order sheet V CONCLUSION This paper
19、 introduces a new process management system (PMS) which augments POS systems for restaurants. In restaurant businesses, real-time management of customer orders is crucial. To that end, PMS provides an order checking function by dish and a display function of elapsed time. Moreover, the checking func
20、tion of other positionsstatus helps managers to optimize staff assignments. By introducing this system to an actual restaurant, we confirmed that the average serving time was improved and that complaints decreased markedly. In fact, PMS contributed to both efficiency and customer satisfaction；they do not conflict but
