Exercise 7
Self-service restaurant
Background
A self-service restaurant is under chaotic conditions. Guests place their order at the cashier and receive their meals on call from the kitchen. As the restaurant is very popular, the processes need to be adapted to the increasing demand. In the future, guests should only interact with one member of the staff when placing their order. The chef should purely be concentrating on preparing the meals. Buzzers will be introduced to signal to customers when their order is ready.
Create a model of the following optimized process
A guest enters the restaurant when feeling hungry. The guest chooses a dish from the changing menu and waits until it is their turn. The guest then places the order with an employee. The employee enters the order into the Point of Sale (POS) system and collects the money from the guest. After payment, the employee sets up a buzzer and passes it on to the guest saying "When the buzzer rings, your dinner is ready.”
Then the employee informs the chef of the order. The chef prepares the meal and places it on the serving shelf. The chef then informs the employee the meal is ready.
The employee then triggers the guest’s buzzer. The employee hands over the tray with the meal when the guest approaches the employee at the counter. If the guest does not respond in 5 minutes, the employee will call the guest over the PA system. And if the guest does not respond again, the employee will wait another 5 minutes before calling the guest’s name again and will repeat this cycle (potentially) indefinitely.a row.
Hints
Use 3 different pools for the model:
-
Guest (food consumption)
-
Employee (order processing)
-
Chef (meal preparation)