www.fesmag.com

APRIL 2010

20

Designing an EfficientKitchen

Designing an EfficientKitchen

16

FES1004Cover_ID 2FES1004Cover_ID 2 3/26/2010 1:23:23 PM3/26/2010 1:23:23 PM

E fficiency is a term buzzing through today’s foodservice industry a little more than usual. From reducing customer wait time to decreasing consumption of natu-ral resources to making the most of an

operation’s dollar, efficiency applies to almost every part of the business. Nonetheless it has only one definition: maximizing production with the fewest resources.

Efficiency is the basis of industrial engineering (IE) as we know it, and its theory, study and practice can be traced back to philosophers examining the idea of wasting time, or when wealthy aristocrats invented new ways to save money. Realizing that foodservice operations are similar to manufacturing facilities, many designers apply IE principles, also know as lean manu-facturing, when developing or remodeling kitchens.

Henry Ford was among the first in the U.S. to integrate IE principles into his auto manufacturing plants with the assembly line. Toyota saw success with its own lean system that identifies the top seven ele-ments of waste: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting for the production step, overproduction,overprocessing and defects.

In the commercial kitchen, waste certainly pertains to food but also to the operation’s use of energy, water, and labor. Expenditures of anything that does not support the servicing of the customer is wasteful under the lean theory.

“Designing a lean kitchen means creating a value stream with the target of ensuring that value gets to the customer, and the customer remains the focal point for the entire process and business,” says Tom Ligocki, an industrial engineer and president of Lean Kitchen Solutions, a Sheboygan, Wis.-based foodservice con-sulting firm. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a restaurant, an elder-care center or even a hot-dog stand on the street, lean concentrates always on delivering quality product to the customer.”

Crew-Centric DesignIt wasn’t until the 1970s U.S. fast-food boom that

designers found they could successfully apply lean principles to restaurant kitchens. Among the first projects for consultant Juan Martinez, a principal at Profitality, was helping to optimize efficiencies at a quick-service restaurant chain. Increasing the restau-

rants’ speed of service with the least effort was the goal.

“A major benefit of using the IE disci-pline is the ability to quantify the dynam-ics of an operation, which provides a great framework for mak-ing decisions based on business priorities, such as customer hospitality and focus,” says Marti-nez, who like Ligocki, is also an industrial engineer by training and degree.

Foodservice design-ers quantify the dyna-mocs of an operation through process-map-ping production bottle-necks, says Martinez, who accomplishes this by creating a flow chart

By applying industrial engineering principles, foodservice operators and designers can work together to design kitchens that work.

By Amelia Levin, Sr. Associate Editor

Designing anEfficient Kitchen

The First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Ga., proved a spatial challenge because church foodservice

operators sought to fit a retail, to-go and hot-beverage service station in one small area of the main dining room. The stations required

plenty of space where customers could linger needed to prevent crowding.

fes1004kitchen_ID 20fes1004kitchen_ID 20 3/24/2010 4:05:58 PM3/24/2010 4:05:58 PM

of the kitchen’s activity. Martinez looks for excessive parallel activi-ties, such as servers dropping dirty dishes close to other servers picking up fresh food, and then suggests ways to prevent bottle-necks. This focus on each staff member’s movements, behaviors and capabilities is what he calls crew-centric design.

Ligocki agrees. “You want to take each process and break it down,” he says. “For example, in a fast-food or casual-dining burger restaurant where you have 10 employees, you want to make sure there’s a value stream that flows from the cook making the fries to

the server serving the food to the customer enjoying the food. The fry person has to create value for the burger person who then creates value for the waitstaff who takes the food to the table.”

In lean design, this type of process-mapping is referred to as a Kaizen event; using an incremental time period to examine the work content of each staff member – ranging from cooks to wait-staff to dishwasher. The intent of such an exercise is to see how you can improve the productivity and effi-ciency of each workstation and role. “Is

At Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta designers from Camacho Associates created a double-sided cooking and serving line that curved and stretched along one end of the main cafeteria to prevent line congestion and ensure a smooth flow.

Photo Credit

1 Establish a good rapport, in person. It’s important to meet face-to-face with not only the owner/operator, project manager, contractor or archi-

tect, but also the the chef, line cooks, wait staff and dishwashers—anyone working in the kitchen on a daily basis--to understand their tasks, movements and responsibilities.

2 Take a Gemba Walk. This is alean term for observing the kitchen at its busiest moment. Here’s where you’ll locate bottlenecks, delaying

elements, poor equipment placements, mis-aligned plumbing and mechanical systems, and other hazards.

Tom Ligocki’sSteps for Designing a Lean Kitchen

3 Determine the value stream. Find out everything that’s involved with getting the best-quality product to the customer, from where and how deliv-

eries are received to each cooking station and beyond, and then improve each step by reducing the amount of effort involved in each.

www.fesmag.com . April 2010 . Foodservice equipment & supplies . 21

4 Create a preliminary design. This drawing should also include lists of reasons why the kitchen has been drawn out the way it has.

It’s important that the owner/operator understands why the kitchen has the type of design it does so that its significance can be communicated back to the staff.

5 Educate the crew. Make sure staff members understand the reasons behind the new design

so they know where they fit in, feel valued and participate in the overall mission: to serve the cus-tomer in the best way possible.

Tom Ligocki,president, Lean Kitchen

Solutions, Sheboygan, Wis.

fes1004kitchen_ID 21fes1004kitchen_ID 21 3/24/2010 4:06:04 PM3/24/2010 4:06:04 PM

22 . Foodservice equipment & supplies . April 2010 . www.fesmag.com

the uniform comfortable; can the person move quickly in it? Are the shoes right? How many steps are they taking? Are they reaching somewhere? These are the little details that all add up to efficient design,” Ligocki says.

Cognitive Ergonomics Ergonomics is the science of designing a job, equipment or

workstation to reduce effort, strain and injuries. This typically applies to physical design applications such as making sure the grill or prep table isn’t too low to cause back strain, or positioning a broiler overhead so it’s not high enough to cause visual impairment or burn accidents.

Ergonomics can also apply to the mind. According to principles of cognitive ergonomics, assessing the learning and mental processing capabilities of kitchen staff is just as important as preventing injury. “The brain can only handle so much,” Martinez says. “It’s all about how you communicate information.”

Ticket management affects the equip-ment, labor, service, workstations, design and layout of a kitchen. “Orders usually flow through one location in a kitchen, often called the wheel or the expediter,” Martinez says. “When the order comes in, that person calls to the cookline to tell them what to do. There’s a potential for a bottleneck right there, when orders get backed up.” One way to address the problem is to install computers or print-ers throughout the line rather than in one place, giving more people access to order information, or have more than one per-son direct orders.

“In restaurants, turnover is so high that new staff members have to learn encrypted orders all the time. There’s always a signifi-cant learning process that has to happen when you get new cooks on the line.”

Linear vs. Non-Linear While the linear cooklines found

in most commercial kitchens are representative of Ford’s assembly line, a partially linear setup or U-shape design may better suit his principles, Ligocki says.

“I think a big mistake that people make is just assuming kitchens should be laid out in a straight line,” Ligocki says. “Many forget about U-shape designs, something you see in office settings where cubicle desks are rounded, not straight across.”

U-shape kitchens or workstations work best in multi-station operations such as university food courts or similar scatter systems where one cook preps, prepares and serves the food. In such a setup, everything should be within reach: The cook will have a prep area to one side, perhaps some refrigeration below, an induction burner or other cooking element directly in front of him, and maybe a sink off to the other side. Food is served by placing it on an elevated counter within customers’ reach.

While you don’t often see perfect enclosure stations like these in traditional kitchens, foodservice workstations should still employ a similar setup. Doing so places the necessary items within the workers’ reach, requiring them to take as few steps as possible when assembling menu items preparing food or serving customers.

When specifying equipment make sure the individual items support the needs of the operation and the section. For example, an undercounter refrigerator should not require an employee

Life University in Marietta, Ga., looked to Cama-cho Associates to design and help build a teaching kitchen with multi-use equipment and flexible setups so instructors could use the space for vari-ous types of cooking and demonstrations.

Photo Credit

Designing an Efficient Kitchen

An overview of some industrial-engineering and lean-manufacturing terms.

IE and Lean Vocabulary

Cognitive Ergonomics: Studying the impact of how an operationsends out information and how staff members process this information (e.g., ticket orderingand firing dishes on a line)

Crew-Centric: The act of focusing on each staff’s movements, tasks and responsibilities to create efficiencies at integrated workstations

Production Bottleneck: An area in a production system or assembly line where poor design has led to a physical buildup of staff that slows down productionoutput (e.g. putting the dishroom too closeto the food pick-up line)

Maximizing Output: Prioritizingcustomer service and product quality while maintaining good sales and profits

!

!

!

!

Right-Sizing: Keeping the investment as low as possible while maxi-mizing output (e.g. multi-use equipment in smaller-footprint operations)

Just-in-Time: A business strategy designed to improve return on investment by reducing inventory and using a produc-tion system in which one production workstation tells another one when tobegin (e.g. cooking to order)

KISS Principle: “Keep it Simple, Stupid” puts priority on simplicity and common sense in designing

Process Mapping: A workflow diagram outlining parallel processes of an operation (e.g. flow chart showing activity at kitchen workstations)

!

!

!

!

fes1004kitchen_ID 22fes1004kitchen_ID 22 3/24/2010 4:06:07 PM3/24/2010 4:06:07 PM

to take extra steps when opening it. In some cases, sliding doors would be more appropriate.

Attention to DetailPaying attention to every single detail of every single action in

the kitchen is tedious, but it pays off, say Ligocki and Martinez. On one project, Ligocki installed stainless-steel corners near the receiv-ing door so the operator wouldn’t have to repeatedly repair a wall. Seemingly irrelevant facts such as which way the door opens can have a big impact on productivity and safety. “Sounds minute, but in Wisconsin we get a lot of strong southwest winds,” Ligocki says. “You wouldn’t want them blowing in and causing the door to smack someone as they drop off a delivery.”

Installing covers on three-compartment sinks can provide table space for storage or a flat surface to feed dishes into a dishwasher.

In another kitchen, Ligocki’s helped design a central stand under a ventless hood, enabling staff to use multiple pieces equipment in that space. “With the one stand, if something happens to the vent, the stand will immediately shut down all the appliances at once to prevent burning or fires,” he says.

In an elder-care facility, staff had to maneuver four pitchers under an ice dispenser, angling every which way to fill them when preparing for table service. Ligocki had a pull-out shelf installed underneath the dispenser where staff members could set their pitch-ers and properly fill each one without wasting ice or spilling water.

Reducing Food Waste Managing food waste represents another fundamental aspect

to driving efficiency in a foodservice operation. One key step in reducing food waste is inventory control. In the past, kitchens

sought to produce a large amount of food at one time in preparation for a rush of customers. Large-batch processing isn’t appropriate for all operations.

Ligocki points to a pizza buffet restaurant he helped redesign as a good example of how large-batch processing can lead to waste anda poor-quality product. “The buffet was setup in a straight line with different types of pizzas, and underneath the hot line there was a row of plastic buckets for discarding pizzas that had been sitting too long and had dried out,” he says. “Because most pizza pans come in a certain size, it created an excess when not enough people would take enough slices from any one type.”

Ligocki helped the restaurant track itsmost-discarded product and what types of pizza the operation’s customers preferred. Popular pizzas were then prepared on larger pans, while smaller pans were reserved for slower-moving varieties.

In many instances, Ligocki subscribes to a push and pull scenario, where the cook doesn’t prepare anything until the order is in, and the waiting customer is kept happy with good service and/or self-serve options. An example of this is a bakery-café, where customers place their orders with cashiers and have the option to fill drinks and grab condiments while waiting for their food. This setup distinguishes made-to-order, quick-casual restaurants from traditional fast-food outlets, where customers get their premade food immediately after ordering, an example of batch cooking.

Inventory control begins during menu plan-ning and can translate into savings by requiring less space in storage areas. “I encourage foodservice operators to use the same ingredient in as many dishes as they can,” Ligocki says.

Efficient kitchen design is both art and science. Number crunching, analyses and atten-tion to detail make the difference between a chaotic, wasteful kitchen and one that operates swiftly and cleanly. FE&S

W hen a new tapas-style restaurant decided to break ground in down-

town Atlanta, it faced several physical obstacles. The building that would house the restaurant, a former resi-dential two-story brownstone, was a small space for a restaurant. To complicate matters, the building had attained historical status.

The owners completely gutted the the dilapidated interior and it was important to preserve the building’s historic façad. Gutting complete, the design team from Camacho Associ-ates Inc., an Atlanta-based foodser-vice consulting firm, set to figuring out where they were going to put an efficiently designed kitchen in a space where owners requested 55 seats.

“We had to make the kitchen as small as possible but able to produce enough food for the number of tables and bar seats,” says Kip Serfozo of Camacho Associates.

The team connected the open kitchen with the front bar to create a long, centralized line that allows servers to flow through the space to pick up dishes and drinks without running into each other. The tiny kitchen, which uses one cook each at the hot and cold stations, had to be somewhat flexible because the two cooks were also asked to plate and serve food.

To the right of one work station is a small sink and to the left is a refrig-erator for storage. The team also installed under-counter refrigeration, allowing cooks easy access to the

ingredients and preventing unneces-sary trips to the back cooler. “We made sure all the work triangles were set up tightly,” Serfozo says.

The restaurant features a bar on each floor but only one kitchen. Cooks use a dumbwaiter to send food to the upper level. The cooks’ work-stations flank the dumbwaiter.

“We also had to tell the owner to keep the menu really simple,” Serfozo says. “The size of the menu really drives the size of the kitchen and the storage too. With such limited space we gave the owner the option of hav-ing more-frequent deliveries or install-ing a walk-in cooler on the outside of the building, which he decided he wanted.”

The team attached the door of the walk-in directly to the building so staff wouldn’t have to go outside, despite the mild temperatures in Atlanta.

“We also tried to use as much vertical space as possible,” Serfozo says. That meant selecting a shelving system for drawer storage and fitted with ‘S” hooks for hanging pots and pans. The team also selected as much multi-use equipment as possible. One key piece was a refrigerator-freezer-blast chiller combination unit for the restaurant’s delicate canapé-style tapas and fruit dishes.

Ergonomics also proved important in this case. “We made sure to lower a portion of the counter at the bar to arm’s length for the espresso maker instead of throwing the unit on the top of the bar and risking a lot of spilled hot drinks,” Serfozo says.

Tapas in a Tight Setting

24 . Foodservice equipment & supplies . April 2010 . www.fesmag.com

Designing an Efficient Kitchen

fes1004kitchen_ID 24fes1004kitchen_ID 24 3/24/2010 4:06:14 PM3/24/2010 4:06:14 PM