Order Screens: 5 Advantages for Restaurants

Managing your orders well is the secret to offering agile, high-quality service to your customers.

But it's not always easy: a waiter getting mixed up when taking orders, forgotten or lost tabs, delivery orders mixed in with the dining-room ones, and disorganized production are common problems.

Fortunately, technology can help optimize these tasks. Restaurants that automate processes manage to increase operational efficiency and improve performance.

In this article, understand what an order screen is and discover the advantages of using this solution in your business. Follow along!

What is an order screen?

The order screen is a technology that displays customers' orders on monitors or tablets installed in the kitchen, replacing traditional paper tabs. It's also known as a production screen or KDS display. 

This solution lets cooks organize and track the preparation of dishes much more easily, increasing productivity and reducing errors.

This is possible thanks to the KDS (Kitchen Display System). It automates order management, automatically sending orders to the corresponding production area, such as the kitchen or bar.

How does the KDS system work?

The KDS system is integrated with the restaurant's POS system and automatically organizes all the orders entered by the waiter.

In other words: when the order is entered in the POS, it's sent immediately to the order screen in the kitchen. There, cooks can view all orders on a Kanban board, organized by order of arrival and production stage.

Additionally, a good KDS has several features that help boost productivity in the kitchen, including:

• Integration of dining-room, delivery, and takeaway orders;
• Production organized by stations, grouping similar items for faster order prep;
• A timer showing how long the order has been in production, with delay alerts;
• Production status, color-coded for easier tracking;
• Notifications for the waiter when the order is ready, with a course-firing feature for high-quality service;
• Integration with the order pickup screen for handing out orders by number or name.

EPOC offers its KDS solution with all these features, integrated directly into the EPOC POS. A seguir, conheça todas as vantagens de utilizar uma tela de pedidos na sua cozinha e saiba mais sobre nossa plataforma!

5 advantages of using an order screen in the kitchen

An order screen in the kitchen makes your team's work much more productive, and that has several benefits for your business, from reducing costs to greater customer satisfaction. Below, discover the main advantages:

1 – Makes team communication easier

By centralizing all orders in the same system, displaying them on the KDS monitor, your entire team can view the information and track the progress of each order much more easily.

This avoids mix-ups and errors caused by communication problems, both when taking orders and sending them to the kitchen and during production itself.

2 – Optimizes order management

Efficient order management is very important for making kitchen work more efficient. Especially during peak hours, when there's a large volume of orders coming in all the time.

The KDS automates this organization and your team doesn't need to worry about it. When the waiter enters the order in the POS (or the customer places a delivery order), it automatically goes to the production screen.

This way, orders are organized by order of arrival, changing color according to the production status. If there are delays, the system issues an alert. As a result, no order falls behind and production flows much better.

3 – Prevents errors and returns

With better order management, your kitchen team prepares dishes more precisely. All the order information stays organized and can be viewed easily on the screen.

That way, if a customer asks to leave out an ingredient, for example, there's no risk of your team not seeing or forgetting these order details.

Consequently, there are fewer errors and returns, reducing waste in your restaurant and ensuring your customers' satisfaction.

4 – Increases speed in production

Another great advantage of the order screen is organizing production by stations or workstations. This feature optimizes the production of different orders, since it groups together similar dishes or items.

For example: if two orders have bolognese sauce, the system directs them to the responsible station and both are prepared at the same time. This way, production is much faster.

5 – Improves service quality

The KDS also helps your restaurant achieve high-quality service. With it, you can track the production progress of each dish and notify waiters when they're ready.

Additionally, the system has a course-firing function, to serve each dish at the right moment and offer a distinctive dining experience.

Get to know EPOC and boost your operational efficiency

With all these advantages, the order screen helps increase your restaurant's operational efficiency, allowing you to provide excellent service and optimize your resources for better business performance.

Using EPOC, your operation becomes much more seamless from start to finish, from taking orders to payment.

Our platform has all the solutions your restaurant needs for maximum speed in service: a modern, fast POS that adapts to your needs, a complete KDS, self-service, digital menu, payments and much more!

To get to know EPOC, fale com nossos consultores and find out how we can help your restaurant.