Part of the Honky-Tonk Food Director track. Lesson 5 of 10.
Prerequisites: Modules 4, 43, 48.
The sequence
Find the constraint.
Decide whether to relieve it.
Cost the relief.
And check what moves next.
The decisions
What to invest in. The constraint and nothing else, per Module 43 — because improving a non-constrained station produces nothing.
And in most of these kitchens the constraint is a single fryer or a menu that routes a third of its items through one piece of equipment.
Whether to relieve it with equipment or with the menu. The menu is cheaper and frequently better — moving two items off the fryer costs nothing and a second fryer costs a hood, power, and space in a building that may not have any.
And what becomes the constraint afterward. There is always a next one, and knowing where it will move changes whether the investment is worth it.
What you are reading
Output per station during a real break.
What goes wrong here
Invested at a non-constrained station.
And equipment bought where a menu change would have done it.
Verification
The count.
The boundary
Equipment installation, ventilation, and building modification are governed by building and fire authorities.