Few business models in the F&B sector reflect shifting consumer habits better than the dark kitchen. Originally conceived as low-cost, off-site solutions to support restaurants during peak delivery hours, their star rose considerably during the pandemic.
And despite a post-lockdown slump in online ordering, the digital food delivery is on the rise again. In fact, some estimates predict the market will reach up to 42 million consumers by 2029.
Setting up a dark kitchen is a highly lucrative proposition for many entrepreneurs, especially if you consider the relatively low overheads and operational costs involved. But the need for service efficiency and speed demands specific tech solutions in order to ensure success. Here’s what’s required.
Space limitations are one of the biggest operational challenges for food truck enterprises. In contrast to traditional restaurants, every square metre needs to be used efficiently to avoid workflow disruption and the service bottlenecks that often arise as a result. As is the case when setting up a stadium food service kiosk, storage space is also tight. Over-ordering is just not an option, here. Nor is running out of stock at critical moments.
The most obvious solution is to deploy a cloud-based restaurant management system. With customer data hosted remotely, there’s no need for large on-premises servers. All data is hosted off-site which helps to free up space in a big way.
The latest tech solutions also integrate POS, forecasting and inventory management processes, capturing events in real time. Thus, stock levels are adjusted automatically and alerts sent when you run low on ingredients. It’s also possible to configure many of the latest systems to make purchases automatically. When you’re rushed off your feet, this kind of feature can prove invaluable.
The forecasting accuracy of modern restaurant management systems, especially those that leverage machine-learning, can also ensure that you’re sufficiently stocked for demand spikes weeks in advance.
For a business in which speed and efficiency are paramount, organised order processing is obviously critical. But this can prove difficult when you’re making use of multiple delivery platforms such as UberEats and Deliveroo.
If you integrate these services directly, each one will send out its own order-taking tablet. Helpful if you use one delivery aggregator. Hellish if you’re using multiple providers. With orders flowing from each, your staff will have to use an assortment of devices to key in orders. Errors, confusion and delays invariably follow.
Dealing with high demand during peak hours is another major headache. While traditional restaurants can pacify guests if orders become delays, dark kitchen staff enjoy no such luxury. With no front-of-house buffer in place, there’s no way to compensate for late deliveries.
Avoiding these scenarios requires a centralised, fully-integrated POS system that allows your team to manage all orders from a single, easy-to-use dashboard. Next-gen platforms are especially useful in this regard.
Not only do they centralise order management, they inject each order into a single production pipeline. Once in the system, each order is displayed on a KDS together with prep times, priority levels and delivery deadline. Orders can also be routed to specific work stations to help with preparation and to ensure timely dispatch.
Delivery efficiency and punctuality can be a major hurdle for dark kitchens, with drivers often having to handle multiple orders at the same time. To ensure that food arrives before going cold, accurate drop-off sequences need to be created. This is complicated by external factors such as traffic and the fact that delivery aggregator platforms usually batch-assign orders to drivers according to assumed prep times.
Consequently, drivers turn up too early, too late or at the same time, which tends to result in kitchen bottlenecks and delays. And looming in the background is an expectant, impatient customer base that wants their food to be delivered on time.
Most of these complexities can actually be solved relatively easily with the aid of next-gen driver management tools. Most of the leading restaurant management platforms include them, although some are more effective than others.
The most powerful solutions leverage AI to match drivers with orders based on their actual real-time locations, while also using batching to group multiple orders for the same locales. Delivery speed is further enhanced with the use of automatic order routing that takes into account external factors such as traffic congestion.
The latest platforms also allow for transparent communication. Drivers can check prep times so that they can time their kitchen collections - customers can monitor the progress of their orders.
Reporting is another area in which many dark kitchens struggle. To begin with, the use of multiple tablets to place orders leads to data fragmentation. Often, delivery apps also rely on different data formats. So consolidating the numbers to gauge sales and delivery performance can be difficult. And as we’ve seen, a well-balanced inventory requires accurate forecasting – otherwise overstocking and understocking becomes far more likely, leading to needless expense and unhappy customers.
While the vast majority of restaurant management systems include solid analytical suites, not all of them are driven by next-gen technology. Those that are, provide advanced reports and predictive analytics.
Data is consolidated from all operational areas including point of sale, online ordering, delivery and inventory. If you’re a dark kitchen operator, this means that sales performance can be easily evaluated, stock levels monitored in real time, driver/delivery performance assessed and future demand predicted with ease.
In terms of operating a successful dark kitchen, the above problem areas represent the tip of the iceberg. But get them right and you'll create a solid foundation on which you can launch the kind of F&B service that will last the test of time. But in such a hostile economic climate, tech adoption is becoming critical.
Learn how Syrve can ensure the long-term success of your dark kitchen operation: