Get every item ready at the same time

Most orders contain items that cook at very different speeds. A steak and a side salad. A fried item and a cold, assembled one. When every item fires the moment the order comes in, the fast items finish first and sit waiting, or the team rushes to make up the gap. Either way, timing falls on your staff, and food quality slips.

That is why we built Item Timing, so Fresh KDS can fire each item at the right moment and the whole order finishes together. Here is what it does today, and where it is headed.

What it does today

Items fire at the right moment

‍You assign a cook time to each menu item. When an order comes in, Fresh KDS holds the faster items and fires them at the right moment, so everything in the order finishes around the same time. Modifiers can add or subtract time, so the timing matches how a specific item actually cooks.

Expo sees the whole order

‍Your expo screen holds the full order from the start, including items that have not fired yet, each counting down to when it will appear at its station.

What it means for your team

Every item ready together

‍Less waiting at the pass and less rushing to catch up. Plates go out closer to how you intended them.

Less guesswork on the line

‍Items appear on the station screen when it is time to start them. Your cooks can trust the screen instead of watching the clock.

Timing that keeps improving

‍The longer it runs, the clearer the picture of your kitchen becomes, and the sharper the timing gets.

What's coming next

Today, Item Timing works from the cook times you set. Those are your best estimate, and they are a solid place to start. Two things are coming soon to build on that.

Reporting that shows how your kitchen actually runs

‍As Item Timing runs, it builds a real picture of your kitchen, so questions that used to take a manager's gut feel start to have real answers:

• How fast do stations actually pick up items? Know where work is sitting before anyone touches it.
• Which items really take longer than expected? See which items consistently run over their cook time, so your timing reflects reality instead of a guess.
• How well did the stations actually land together? Tell whether the kitchen came together on an order or drifted apart.
• Where did the pass become the bottleneck? Know when the hold-up was assembly at expo rather than the line.

Timing that adjusts on its own

‍Instead of relying on cook times you set once and never change, Item Timing will use what it learns about your kitchen to fine-tune firing automatically, so the timing keeps getting sharper the longer you run it.