In the thin-margined restaurant industry, companies live or die by table turnover time. Yet the process by which most eateries serve their customers is anything but efficient. After initially greeting diners who probably aren’t yet ready to order, waiters and waitresses make numerous trips back and forth between the their assigned tables and the point-of-sale (POS) terminal — where, during a busy shift, their fellow servers will invariably be waiting in line to send orders to the kitchen. The to-and-fro takes place again when customers are ready to pay.

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