Article

RFID table tracking helping fast casuals get orders out quickly, accurately

Restaurants are using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to help orders land on guest tables quickly and accurately.

February 19, 2015 by Nicole Troxell — Associate Editor, Networld Media Group

It's a familiar scene.

The dining room is crowded, a sea of guests at tables awaiting the arrival of their food. Numbered cards pop up from tables, and crew members crane their necks, searching the the number that matches the order they are carrying. But the card is turned at an odd angle, or has fallen off the card holder, or is being gnawed on by the guest's baby. So the crew member circles the dining room frantically searching while the soup on her tray cools.

That scene may be fading in some fast casuals, thanks to new technology that leads the crew member directly to the guests table.

RFID technology leading the way to the table

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses tracking tags to help crew members hone in on the targeted table for delivery. The Vuze Table Location System by HME Wireless, used by QSRs and fast casuals like McDonald’s, McAlister’s and Lyfe Kitchen, employs RFID technology so that staff can track a guest’s table.  

HME Wireless VP of Sales Russ Ford explained the way it works. "Typically guests get a flag [from a host] to take to the table. The order is placed into the system and prepared. It’s placed in the window and a runner sees on the ticket that the order number is paired with the flag number. Then staff looks for the flag number, which can be confusing with multiple dining rooms and patios, and sometimes guests don’t place it where you can see it.

"The process is the same with Vuze, except it institutes technology instead of a manual process, taking the guess work out of finding the table. A guest walks up, orders a meal, gets a tag with a number — an active RFID device — and places it anywhere on table where it transmits the specific location of the guest back to kitchen. When the food comes up in the window, the runner knows the specific location of where the table is."

If a guest forgets to place the guest tag on the table or places it in their lap, or if a baby is playing with it, it will still pick up the exact location.

That’s the difference between active and passive RFID technology, Ford explained. With passive RFID you must have a sticker or tag placed on or under the table. Then the guest tag has to be placed in very close proximity to the passive tag — passive RFID won’t track the table’s location if it’s not placed in exact spot. Active RFID allows the guest tag to be placed in the vicinity of the table tag in order to track the location of a guest.

Competition driving use of technology for QSRs and fast casuals

Fast casual, that hybrid between casual dining and quick service, is structured so that individual restaurants have a need for something like Vuze, as many of them provide table service to some degree. But why would QSRs like McDonald’s have a use for table tracking systems? 

"Over the last ten years we’ve had distinct breaks in the industry," Ford said. "QSR works through drive thru and with casual dining like Outback and Texas Roadhouse, you go in and be seated by a host and your server puts your seat in the POS location. Then what happened, in an attempt to drive labor from operations, fast casual eliminated the server and with that and a smaller footprint, an enormous amount of cost. QSR and casual dining have seen an enormous amount of pressure from fast casual taking a lot of market share.

"Companies like Five Guys are stealing away guests from places like Wendy’s, McDonald’s and even Chick-fil-A, so QSRs are raising the bar and starting to imitate fast casuals by providing order customization, fresh food and table service to combat losing market shares. There’s a strong belief that moving in the fast casual direction will stem the tide of lost revenue and keep QSRs from losing in-store dollars."

Image courtesy of Hans on Pixaby.

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