Thesis

“Computer make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done.” –Andy Rooney

This project develops computerized system to help restaurant personnel coordinate their activities and improve their services, and for the management to track business growth and create future plans.

The goal for this project is to induce automation in privately-owned restaurants, that is small-to-medium sized establishments. Typical problems restaurant personnel are facing include:

• Coordination of their work activities

• Anticipating and handling periods of low/high patron traffic

• Recognizing trends early enough to take advantage of bestsellers or abandon the flops

• Lowering operating costs, and increasing efficiency/productivity and profits

Many restaurant are still operated using pen and paper methods, with little or no

automation. Patrons enter the facility to be greeted by a host, who often times has a “dry erase” diagram of the tables, maintained on a blackboard. The host can see the status of the tables based on whether or not they or someone else physically updates the diagram. Once seated a waiter tends to the customers by jotting down the orders onto pieces of carbon paper and delivers it to the kitchen for proper food preparation. The waiter then has to periodically check back to find out when the meal is ready. When the food is done, the piece of carbon paper saved for proper record keeping by the management. This “old fashion” system works but yields a large amount of tab receipts, wastes a lot of time and simply out-of-date. In old fashion systems, waiters have to carry pads around to take orders, always have a working pen and be sure to keep each bill organized and “synchronized” with the proper table.

Another issue is record maintenance. In the old system, when everything is done by paper, the management is responsible to keep all information saved