Producton Capability

[Earl Weiss]

Just had lunch with a drive thru they set up to enhance production. Initialy fast food had a single window that took the order and $ and gave the food. Then they had a speaker system for the order and you paid at a window and got the food there. Next, they put in a seperate window for payment. Next we saw some puting in side by side stations to give your order. I see some witha single order station put a person out there and leapfrog every other car during busy times because they don't have room for 2 order stations. I have asked, and with the leapfrog system they handle 120 CPH. With the 2 order station system they handle 170 CPH.

We don't have pay stations . The same person is the Greeter, cashier and loaer. During busy times we ad a greeter / cashier who walks about 6 cars down the line, takes the order and $ and writes with soap on the Windshield if it's anything other than a basic wash. The person then proceeds to the loader.

this place is "Portillos" . they my have 20 or so restaurants in the Chicago area. They have the single remote order station, and 2 window setup. At lunch time they had 4 people standing outside the first was about 8 car lengths from the delivery window. All have wireless headsets. The first takes the order, writes it down on a slip and hands it to the driver. The second confirms the order and puts a small numbered slip under the wiper. The third takes the money, and the 4th stands next to the delivery window and takes the food from the person inside and hands it to the driver. Not sure what the production rate was but the line was moving at a pretty good clip.

Anyone else have production enhancement ideas?

 

[rph9168]

Going to Chicago this weekend and my first stop will be Portillos.

 

[Washmee]

Every single car I wash is already paid for before it ever gets to the conveyor. I use wireless handheld computers and pre-sell every car. I accept cash and credit cards and it has a barcode reader for the tags we use on our monthlys. One salesman can handle up to about 80 cph. We max out at about 120 cph..

 

[robert roman]

Initially, fast-food was “eat-in” and buildings wide to accommodate wide ordering counters, multiple servers and lots of parking spaces.

To make fast-food faster, drive-thru window added, single window, order and wait. Waiting line wraps around building. Adding second window, order first then pick-up, lengthens the waiting line increasing capacity.

Today, fast-food demand for drive-thru is greater than eat-in. So, buildings tend to be long and narrow to provide more drive-thru capacity. Adding two ordering stations which narrows down into a single line followed by two windows is similar to conveyor wash with two POS.

Checkers and Eat Mor Chikin take this further by dumping eat-in altogether and using two single server queues like double barrel shotgun.

"Portillos….single remote order station, and 2 window setup.” “….first takes…order…..second confirms….order ……third takes….money…..4th.hands to the driver (5th inside).

“Not sure what the production rate was but the line was moving at a pretty good clip.”

In other words, a one or two person system is temporarily transformed into a five person system.

Clever idea but does it actually improve productivity.

Productivity = throughput / operating expense

Throughput = selling price – cost of goods

Need to know average price and expenses to answer question.

“Anyone else have production enhancement ideas?”

With POS, greeter no longer has benefit cost unless you are full or flex service.

 

[parsonii]

i think what the fast food industry is showing us is that workers on the que that don't process the cars sequentially is what speeds it up and key to that is that the first person talking to customer takes their debit card not the last person. apple in fact does this in their store; every person is their own line and nothing is done sequentially. the POS systems are great for monthly passes but they're not the panacea that people think they are. all these new washes that are popping up have a worker leaning over the pos uncomfortably to help process the cars and not just to upsell. the wash im building is set up to have a greeter with a sliding door in a small lobby area adjacent to a single pos; as soon as the line backs up the greeter will walk down the line and start processing the cars with a portable debit card swipe. boom done, with a smile.

 

[Earl Weiss]

RPH . All the Portillos I have seen have people outside at meal times. I don't know if they all have 4. This location is on Dempster about a mile East of I294.

 

[rph9168]

The location I go to is in Homer Glen and I have seen people outside during peak hours. It is amazing how they can process so many orders. I would have to disagree with Bob. If they can increase the volume as it appears they do and keep customers happy by not having to wait a long time for an order I would say it is well worth the expense. I would also say that any additional expense would probably be covered by the increased capability to process orders.

 

[Washmee]

It's my opinion that no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise, customers prefer personal contact when doing business.

 

[parsonii]

I couldn't agree with you more. The express model has turned right hard and fast and are trying to save 10 dollars an hour to cut their workers from 3 to 2 per day; that's 33 percent of the customer service down the drain.dumb.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Went by the Skokie loaction today. Same system. The outside person at the delivery window is needed when the orders are produced in a different order that when the cars approach. He can have one car pull ahead and wait while the next approaches. When the order that is ready for the car that pulled ahead he can bring it to them.

20+ years ago I went to watch operations at a Delta Sonic in the NW Burbs. This was long before paystations. They had a 3 lane tollbooth setup for cashiers. The three merged into 1. They are EE in the tunnel and the cars come out to after care slots if needed and can continue to another building for more after care.

I went because I met a guy at a CCA meeting whom I had know for years working in many capacities in the industry. He was currently managing that location. He had mentioned that on a recent day when everyone was going gangbusters (Sunny day with plenty of salt on the cars) they had an hour when they washed over 200 cars. Thought he was full of it. So i went there on a similar day. He was not lying. Cars were rolling out the door every 15 seconds or so.

 

[dewey9876]

It is not just speed and efficiency that is increased. Since McDonalds has started with the dual terminals for taking orders they have increased sales during peak times by 20%. So the question is, are there more hungry people? Probably not. But people do not like to see lines and wait. Production may be faster, but even if the actual wait time is the same the perception is that there is less of a line (less of a wait) so people are more likely to pull in.

 

[robert roman]

Most washes I’m familiar with that have done 200 CPH with POS or CSA are express.

I’ve done almost 100 CPH full-service, vacuum pre-wash. This took two CSA, 12 persons on vacuums, two drive-on persons, one loader/prep person and one supervisor or 18 persons.

This is why express wash and fast-food queues are not comparable.

For example, express queue is customer enters system (random), sales transaction (variable), service (constant, 3 minutes) and exit system. Service rate is the total time it takes customer to enter and exit the system.

Hourly capacity is function of line operating speed of chain and number of cars that can fit within length of conveyor. Assume this is 180 CPH.

POS process takes between 10 and 60 seconds. If average is 45 seconds, most operators play safe with three POS, 3 * 60 = 180 CPH.

Portillos queue (fast-food) consists of enter system (random), order (variable), pay (variable), pick-up (variable) and exit system

After order, food must be prepared (drive thru and eat-in), order assembled, bagged, checked and delivered. Unlike express wash, there are many things to throw fast-food queue out of whack.

Why does it take a long time to get food at a McD’s at 2AM when there is dual ordering, two windows and the eat-in is closed. Usually, the reason is there are only three persons working inside.

On Saturday PM when eat-in gets slammed, Mc’D’s drive-thru backs up and customers have to queue past pick-up window and wait for food. If people call-off from work, it gets even worse. And so forth.

Portillos is probably very popular and has a good thing going. So, loading up the queue with people to help improve efficiency (speed) and customer service at busy times would be rational.

Whether the additional manpower improves productivity (profits) requires data to do the math.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I think one of the lessons here is that manpower, if available can help relieve bottlenecks. Auto paystations are great until a customer has an issue which will drop production drasticaly perhaps unless or until a human helps them out. At peak times a human at the stations for assistance could speed things along. If you have a greeter/ loader / cashier like me, then a human collecting down the line moves things along. At peak times there are other issues partly due to the less experienced customer frequenting the washes on busy days. a human at the exit end can help with the person who can't get the car started or shift into drive, or th car that skips rollers mid tunnel.

 

[Washmee]

On days where I know we are going to be really busy it makes sense to have enough manpower to alleviate any bottle necks. Every empty slot on the conveyor costs me about $14. All it takes is a couple of cars an hour to justify the extra expense of one employee.