Abstract— Technology has entered
almost every field in our life, but still its effect is not yet that evident in
the food industry, especially the food serving outlets including restaurants,
hotels. Even today, most of the restaurants in India follow the traditional pen
and paper method to take orders from customers, which wastes a lot of time of
both, the customer and the restaurant. This work aims to substitute the
traditional pen and paper method by automating the food-ordering process in
restaurant and thus improving the dining experience of the customer.
This paper
proposes an automated system that uses wireless communication, a centralized
database, and an android application to place the order without even waiting
for a waiter.
The android application installed in the touch screen device,
fitted at the table, contains all the menu details with pictures of each item.
The ordered details are wirelessly sent to the chef and the cashier. The
manager has his own android application that is used to update the menu that
updates the central database, view and manage table wise customers’ orders, and
receive feedbacks from the customer. This system improves efficiency and
accuracy for restaurants by saving time, eliminating human errors, getting
customers feedback.
As the system is automated, it becomes economical even from
restaurants point of view, as it reduces manpower and it just requires one time
investment in installing the devices at tables. Keywords— Digital food-ordering
system, Wireless food-ordering system, Android application, Touch based
food-ordering system, On site Automated food-ordering system.
RELATEDWORK
A.Pen and paper based traditional system
This is the simplest
and the most widely used system even today. In this system, every time a
customer enters the restaurant and occupies his table, a waiter comes at his
table and presents him a menu card, with the record of food-items. Waiter then
waits with a notepad and a pen to take down the customer’s order. The waiter
then notes down the order of the customer in his notepad and the record is
stored in the paper.
Finally, the record is given to the chef in the kitchen. Although the food
ordering process in this system is very easy, there are many drawbacks in this
system. This system requires storage of lots of paper which does paper wastage.
Since, this is a complete manual process, there is a high chance of human errors
due to many reasons such as while taking the orders the waiter may miss some
items to add, the other human error is that the paper could get lost or could
get damaged by fire, or by water due to mishandling. The menu cards containing
the list of items are also in a hard paper. So, if the manager wants to update
the menu lists or the price of items, then it would require him to change the
menu details in each and every menu cards present in the restaurant.
It is
quite evidently cumbersome task to change details in every card. So, eventually
it leads to replacement of all the menu cards with the new one, which would
lead to a great wastage of papers. Many times menu cards might require very
minute changes for which it is not at all convenient to replace all the menu
cards with the new ones. In simple words, these paper based menu cards lacks
dynamicity. It even becomes a very difficult task for a restaurant manager to
analyze the order lists of customers to determine the best-selling food items
and the peak hour of restaurants to increase its market. There is also no
proper tracking system in this pen and paper based ordering process. Waiter has
to constantly check with the chefs to determine which orders are ready. They
also need to check frequently which tables are empty, which are reserved and
which tables need clearance. All these things require a large manpower that is
costly even from restaurants point of view. It comes up with wastage of time,
money and paper. So, there is a need among restaurants to change this system in
order to stand out in this competitive food industry.
B. Personal Digital
Assistant (PDAs)
There were many improvements done in the food-ordering
process, one among them was PDA based system. PDAs are small handheld devices
that make them easy to handle and portable. PDA based system is a wireless
system. Some examples of PDA based system are WOS, I-Menu, and FIWOS. These
wireless food-ordering systems enable customers or waiters to key in order
using mobile devices, called, Personal Digital Assistant. When a customer or
waiter completes the ordering process, the order details are sent to the server
from the PDA. The waiters collect the PDAs used by a customer so that other
customers can use it.These PDA based system may be a better approach towards
automated food-ordering system over traditional pen and paper based system but
it has many limitations too. PDA based system may increase the restaurant
expenditures during the peak hours, as during peak hours the restaurant require
large numbers of PDAs to serve every customer. There is not any way to get a
real time feedback from the customers, in PDA based system. Technical details
are required for the restaurant manager to update or modify the menu list. The
User Interface of the PDA based system is not so attractive. It consists of
only textual information. There are no images of the food items. So, it
contains unattractive and uninformative details about the menu list.
C.KIOSK
based system
KIOSK is a screen that contains the complete menu list. It is more
advanced than previous two systems. It not only contains the textual
information about the menu items but also contains images of every food-item
along with their prices. KIOSK screen in installed at the restaurants mostly
near cash counter. Whenever, a customer visits a restaurant he has to check the
menu list at the KIOSK screen. He browses through the list and selects his
items and completes the order. Payment is also done through the KIOSK screen by
a suitable payment option. He then receives his order number. His ordered list
along with the order number is sent to the chef in kitchen. After the order is
ready the order number is announced or displayed on the screen at the cash
counter. The customer has to come and receive his order. This system, although,
is more advanced than the previous two systems has limitations too. If the
restaurant is in its peak hours and is crowded with many customers then this
system ends up in forming a big queue for the KIOSK. It leads to frustrations
and inconvenience among the customers. Eventually, it becomes even a worse
option than other two systems in that case. This is the greatest disadvantage
of this system. However, this system proves to be good with restaurants having
moderate number customers or the restaurants that do quick orders such as, fast
food.
D.Computer based food ordering
This system is similar to KIOSK technology
system. In this system, when customer enters the restaurant, he has to orally
tell the orders to the cashier and make the payment. The cashier makes a bill
in his name with order number written in the bill. After placing the order the
customer has to wait in his table. The cashier sends the order to the chef in
the kitchen. When the order is completed, the waiter comes and serves the order
to the customer at his table. This system being almost similar to the KIOSK
based system has same limitations as that. If a large number of customers come
in the restaurant then it would become difficult for the cashier to take the
orders from each customer and send to the kitchen.
