Part of the Kitchen Manager track. Lesson 6 of 10.
Where in the shift: the week before.
Prerequisites: Modules 42, 43, 50.
The sequence
Staff by interval, not by average.
Match the schedule to the set list.
Cover the constraint.
And build a reserve.
The decisions
How many and when. Demand is a schedule rather than a curve — spikes timed to a set list the room already has.
Which means staffing to a shift average produces long waits at the breaks and comfortable service between them, and it is a solvable problem that most rooms do not solve.
Where to put the additional person. At the constraint, per Module 43 — and if that is not known, it should be measured before anyone is added, because adding labor at a non-constrained station makes it slower.
And whether there is any reserve. A schedule with no slack propagates a single callout into a bad night, per Module 54 — and a callout is a foreseeable event with a known rough probability.
What you are reading
The set list.
And where the line binds during a real break.
What goes wrong here
Staffed to average.
Added at the wrong station.
And no reserve on the night with the least margin.
Verification
Record output by station per quarter hour during one break. That is the staffing evidence.
The boundary
Scheduling, wage and hour, and employment matters belong with a licensed attorney.