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Over the last twenty years, the retail food service and hospitality industries have seen considerable investment in technology for automation, reducing costs, and improving operational execution. Areas including order and inventory management, equipment and energy management, point of sale, and more recently online ordering and customer loyalty programs have all contributed to long-term cost savings, improved visibility, and enhanced the customer experience.
But there are still a couple of “hold out areas” when it comes to operations. Namely <gasp> the “paper checklist”. Perhaps you’ve been considering a switch? If so, it’s likely the right move; one that will have a positive impact on employee engagement, customer experience, quality, food safety, and operational performance.
Interested in learning more about the reasons you should be ditching paper for a digital transformation of your operational routines? Keep reading to find out!
A growing number of retail food service brands are shifting to digital apps for “operational execution” of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines. Such technology allows employees, managers, and “above store” field managers to utilize web-based and native apps to perform everything from simple checklists to in-depth audits, self-assessments, and inspections. This digital automation software is intended to ensure consistent team execution and improve customer experience.
Leaders in retail food service are using digital tools for activities such as:
Of course, it can be a daunting prospect to install new technology in your restaurants, grocery, and convenience stores, but don’t let that hold you back! As QSR Magazine writes:
“Acquiring new [restaurant]-technology can be a tricky business. Because of ever-decreasing prices, an operator may not want to be the first to buy a new application or software system. Plus, no one wants to invest in untested equipment, regardless of its technological prowess. But, at the same time, if [restaurants] wait too long, there’s a real risk of getting left behind by both the competition and customers. Just as it has changed every other aspect of modern living, technology is constantly—and drastically—reshaping the quick-service and fast-casual businesses.”
To better see the advantages that come through digitalization, it’s helpful to review the issues with the archaic analog model.
It’s crucial to understand the primary issues and challenges faced by businesses that still use paper checklists for operational routines. These include:
Such routines and quality checks are supposed to promote safety, maintain quality standards, and ensure Operational Excellence, but that’s only when they’re actually completed and done so properly. So, the fact that the task can have little to no oversight results in employees frequently cutting corners. As you might imagine, neglecting these important duties can result in disastrous consequences for both your business and your customers.
Even when you have data on paper, it’s practically useless since it can’t be viewed by people who aren’t there. In addition, it’s costly in both labor and time to manually enter such information into a database. Poor visibility renders it difficult to identify trends, find areas for improvement or to help a specific store or restaurant make better decisions.
Although many brands attempt to rectify this via third-party audits, such oversight occurs too infrequently to matter and is often “gamed” by the fact that employees are cognizant of the audit. Such foresight allows both managers and employees to prepare in advance for the audit and adjust accordingly, which prevents auditors from seeing how the business actually runs on any given day. As a result, the audit often ends up providing little to no useful information. And even if it does, the infrequency makes it exceedingly difficult to decipher between normal behavior and outlying mistakes, especially in a business with high employee turnover.
These are but a few of the major problems a business faces when it relies upon paper-based programs to manage operational routines. Fortunately, technology automation has provided a new and better way to do things.
In a world of digitization, technological advancement has fundamentally shifted how processes can be executed in restaurants, grocery, and convenience stores. And, although consumer-facing tech is what’s often noticed, it’s the business-side tech that can have the greatest impact on Operational Excellence in the areas of food safety, quality, and customer experience. Bishnu Nayak of FixStream said to Forbes:
Technologies such as artificial intelligence, closed loop function and automation everywhere are becoming more reliable thanks to innovative big data technologies and statistical models. These increase productivity and reliability by reducing human intervention.
Key benefits include:
Validation – Obtaining evidence that the control measures managed by the HACCP plan and by the operational prerequisite programs (PRPs) are capable of being effective.
Verification – Confirmation, through the provision of objective evidence, that
specified requirements have been fulfilled.
Monitoring – Conducting a planned sequence of observations or measurements to assess whether control measures are operating as intended.
Increased visibility and communication through digitization makes it easier and more efficient to ensure that all three parts of a HACCP plan are functioning properly.
“The main reason so many companies fail to improve customer journeys is that understanding what customers value is not an easy task. Identifying what drives customer satisfaction and translating it into operational-performance improvements requires deep customer insights, solid analytics, and modeling the most important customer journeys, with cross functional ownership and multichannel, end-to-end management.”
By having information instantly and routinely entered in a company-wide technology solution, you’re able to measure and aggregate data. From small details to major processes, this increased visibility allows you to identify trends, issues, and ensure the resolution of issues through a closed-loop Corrective Action Preventative Action (CAPA) process. Armed with such valuable knowledge, you’re able to ensure that quality, safety, and customer experience are consistent from one location to the next.
At CMX, we’ve worked with dozens of retail food brands and chains to provide them with the digital tools and digital solutions they need to succeed in a competitive world. Using CMX1, we help businesses improve their operations and operational execution in order to achieve Operational Excellence.
Whether you have tens, hundreds, or thousands of locations, our cutting-edge platform ensures that both your brand standards and regulatory standards are followed, thus ensuring quality, food safety, and consistency—all of which impact customer satisfaction, growth, and profits.
In the name of optimization, we seek to enable Digital Transformation for every aspect of your operational routines including:
Where to next? Take a look at this article for advice about how to choose the right Policy Management Software for your specific needs and company.
And if you'd like to learn about Operational Excellence and its essential technology drivers? Visit our blog on the very topic here, or download this eBook about it.
Or if you're keen to chat, reach out and one of our experts will be happy to learn about your needs and share insights about how to achieve and sustain Operational Excellence.
Want more insights and articles like this? Join over 8,000 monthly subscribers who enjoy our carefully curated content relevant to Quality Heroes, just like you.