In today's rapidly changing world, traditional restaurant management by human labor may no longer be sufficient, especially for chain restaurants with multiple branches that require comprehensive monitoring.
The main reason for the high costs and insufficient incomes restaurants suffer is their inadequate management and inability to match customer needs. Let's introduce you to five AI-powered solutions from Sertis that can improve every aspect of your restaurant, increase accuracy and efficiency, and enhance agility.
Here are the five AI solutions that can help you overcome challenges and sustain profitability during this era of continuous changes:
1. Demand Forecasting
Customer needs are influenced by, for example, emerging trends, shifting weather patterns, store locations, and the time of day. Understanding these factors and forecasting customer needs can significantly enhance restaurant sales.
The demand forecasting solution utilizes machine learning models to automate real-time data collection and analysis to perform the following tasks:
Discover trends and patterns in the data that may be difficult for humans to identify.
Analyze historical sales data, weather forecasts, festivals, holidays, trends, and customer behaviors to forecast which menu items are likely to be in demand and predict the expected volume of customers during specific periods, enabling the restaurant to prepare an inventory and allocate staff accordingly.
Analyze and establish prices that align with demand levels to avoid price wars and allow the restaurant to manage costs efficiently.
The demand forecasting solution enables the restaurant to deliver quality food and services, meet customer needs, and improve customer satisfaction, ultimately resulting in an overall increase in profitability.
2. AI Assortment
Restaurant chains often face the challenge of selecting the product mixes of menus for their stores. Offering too many menu options when only a few are in demand among customers can lead to more wastage. It can also result in lower profits as the restaurant may not attract enough customers. Conversely, offering too few menu options can lead to missed sales opportunities and failing to meet customer demands.
The AI assortment solution can help solve many of these problems by recommending product mixes tailored to each branch, optimizing menus to meet the needs of various customers, and maximizing sales for each location.
By utilizing a data analytics process and a customized machine learning model, restaurant businesses can perform the following tasks:
Automate real-time data collection and analysis.
Analyze sales, customer demands, seasonal trends, and profits for each menu item to assess its effectiveness, determine whether it should be kept or removed, and identify the product mix for each branch.
Provide actionable insights that enable stores to make faster decisions and keep up with market changes.
All of which can increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce waste from non-performing items.
3. Inventory Management
Maintaining a sufficient stock level to meet customer demands is crucial for any restaurant. Therefore, restaurant owners should prioritize effective inventory management.
The inventory management solution utilizes AI to perform the following tasks:
Offer real-time inventory tracking to ensure sufficient stock available to meet demands and estimate replenishment time accurately, leading to more precise and cost-effective inventory allocation and replenishment.
Monitor and maintain the quality of ingredients to meet hygiene and safety standards.
Ensure that the inventory is flexible and adaptable to changes.
Implementing these capabilities can help reduce costs from overstocking and missed sales opportunities due to stockouts and free up the time and human resources required for manual inventory management. In addition, this solution can improve customer satisfaction by reducing wait times and providing faster and more flexible inventory management.
4. AI Ordering
AI Ordering solutions help ensure accurate and cost-effective replenishment decisions by performing various tasks, including:
Analyze all relevant data, including customer needs, behaviors, trends, supplier information, and lead time, to forecast demands accurately.
Track inventory levels and plan appropriate replenishment schedules to avoid overstocking or stockouts.
Analyze supplier information to identify the product sources with the best quality and most cost-effective prices.
Implementing these functions can help reduce the store's costs and increase the chance of maximizing sales.
(Read an in-depth article on AI Ordering solutions at https://www.sertiscorp.com/post/ai-ordering-ai-powered-solution-to-transform-restaurant-businesses-1)
5. Warehouse Management
Comprehensive warehouse management across all store branches enables restaurants to achieve a holistic view of their daily operations and long-term strategic planning, which are essential aspects of restaurant operations. We can implement AI solutions to improve it further.
The warehouse management solution provides a holistic view of the main warehouse that distributes stocks to all branches. It also ensures that the inventories in the headquarters and branches are aligned accordingly. Warehouse management utilizes AI to perform the following tasks:
Analyze sales, customer needs, freights, and weather conditions to forecast demands.
Plan the ordering of ingredients by calculating the optimal and most cost-effective amounts.
Design the layout of stocks in the warehouse to maximize storage and place products according to their priority to minimize product handling and order processing time.
Optimize route picking and plan distribution to each branch to meet customer needs as much as possible on time.
Implementing solutions with these capabilities increases efficiency, prevents stockouts, and enables restaurants to meet customer demands in a timely manner to improve customer satisfaction. It also reduces the cost of resources, time, and personnel involved in the process while increasing transparency in the holistic monitoring and management of inventory.
These five AI solutions maximize efficiency in every aspect of your restaurant's back offices. By implementing these solutions together, you can gain a competitive edge and generate sustainable profits in this fast-paced world.
Learn more about Sertis’ AI solutions for restaurant businesses: https://www.sertiscorp.com/retail-fmcg
Comments