How simple food labelling revolutionised kitchen efficiency: a Carl's Jr. case study

Find out how your brand can also thrive amidst a heightened food safety environment.

For some chains stuck to manually writing everything down and constantly referencing charts, food labelling is a money-wasting and time-consuming challenge.

In a manual labelling system, staff members need to handwrite around 150 to 200 labels per day. Each separate label takes 20 to 30 seconds to write, resulting in one hour per day wasted on this menial task.

Teaching proper labelling to staff takes much longer - about 80 hours of training annually - with the need to educate team members to properly chart, make the right calculations and ensure the labels themselves are not only accurate but also legible.

This becomes a recurring cost, considering it’s not uncommon for restaurants to experience 100% staff turnover every year.

Carl’s Jr. wanted to avoid this problem and have a standardised solution, hence they reached out to PREPsafe even before opening stores.

With the restaurateur and kitchen staff user experience top of mind, PREPsafe’s PREPPY App is a mobile software-based system using Apple IOS or Android with a cloud-based server and Bluetooth technology to print out the labels needed by restaurant kitchens. The dissolvable and food-safe labels contain vital pieces of information: the staff who printed the labels, the food type and the use-by dates.

This solution minimizes potential staff errors, as team members do not need to commit things to memory. In contrast with a manual labelling system, training staff about the PREPPY app takes just a minute as opposed to the 40 to 80 hours worth of training and retraining per year.

Carl’s Jr. VIC multi-site manager TK Nyamvura shared that he can walk around his stores and check exactly how long items were taken out from their storage rooms. They also use iPads for the latest version of the PREPPY app, which team members are used to using.

“It is honestly amazing. It’s changed how we operate in stores on another level,” he said.

Whenever there’s a new product, TK added that they can create a master format that can be sent to all stores, which can upload it to their respective PREPPY Apps.

“As a brand, this is key because we want to make sure that everything’s standard in every single restaurant. By doing this, they know everyone is using the same version that’s been approved by every leader across the different states,” he explained.

Having PREPsafe also helps Carl’s Jr. keep track of stocks, which is crucial when resolving issues on distribution and supply chain. This informs them in projecting products they need to purchase while monitoring their sales.

“Salads, for example, have a four-hour lifespan. You need to be on top of [them] because it’s really easy to fall out of range, which can cause a lot of issues,” Nyamvura said.

Through PREPsafe’s standardised solution, Carl’s Jr. is able to focus on delivering excellent customer service in a heightened food safety environment.

Find out how your brand can use PREPsafe to guarantee kitchen efficiency by clicking here.