Foodservice by Design
Juan Martinez is a licensed Professional Engineer with more than 25 years's experience in the areas of foodservice design and management, including 8years as an external consultant specializing in brand operating platforms design optimization. The founder of Profitality, Juan's professional background includes more than 17 years in the Burger King & Pillsbury Restaurant Group System, where he worked in such areas as menu, operations and equipment research and development, Industrial Engineering, Supply Management and Purchasing. He is a member of FCSI and several other professional societies. Juan is an Adjunct Faculty of Engineering at the University of Miami and a past speaker at various industry events.
What Are They Thinking: Cognitive Ergonomics for Foodservice Operations
Finishing my series of blog posts on the topic of ergonomics, I wanted to provide some thoughts on the area of cognitive ergonomics, which studies how humans process information. This is an important topic in foodservice because there a growing amount of information that is sent to the kitchen from the front of the house. With menus continuing to evolve, allowing customers healthier choices, the a ...... Read More
Comments (0)Ergonomics and Human Centric Foodservice Designs
It is time to go back to the topic of ergonomics. One of the first ergonomists was Leonardo DaVinci. I am sure most of us have seen the very famous picture of his Ergonomic Man, a modern version of which is attached to this post. One of DaVinci’s keen artistic talents was his ability to really focus on the details of the human body, studying with great care all of its physical aspect ...... Read More
Comments (2)Cruising Along in High Volume Foodservice Environments
Happy New Year! I realize I owe you a follow up to my previous blog on ergonomics [link original one here] and will get back to that subject in a subsequent post. But while it’s still fresh in my head, I want to share with you an experience I had at the end of last year. This experience provided me with an interesting view on best practices in foodservice. Toward the end of December, ...... Read More
Comments (0)Are You Really Green?
The green-ing of foodservice operations remains a hot topic. Restaurant chains such as Arby’s, Chipotle, McDonald’s and Moe’s Southwest Grill continue to take strides by achieving LEED certification for some of their restaurants as. And when it comes to foodservice equipment, many suppliers have invested time and funds so their products can achieve a “Star” ratin ...... Read More
Comments (3)Who Cares About The Drive-Thru Rankings?
So who which restaurant chain provides the best drive-thru service in the industry? Studies that rank performance of individual restaurant chains represent but another data point that these foodservice operators can use to benchmark their execution against the competition. The rankings these industry studies produce should not be the cause for celebration among those companies who come ...... Read More
Comments (3)Grocers Share Similar Foodservice Challenges
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the FMI Retail Store Development Conference in Austin, Texas. The conference covered a variety of topics that relate to more traditional foodservice operations. While it would have been easy to stay home and cite the challenging business climate as a suitable reason for doing so, all the attendees I spoke to felt attending such an event wa ...... Read More
Comments (0)Are you a Foodservice Efficiency Expert?
Remember the hay days of the stock market growth, when anyone could become a day trader and reap big pay-offs by simply turning on their computers? It seems as if we all had it figured out so long as we did not pick the wrong stock. We know how that phenomenon ended. Well, the foodservice industry may be encountering a similar phenomenon: the advent of efficiency experts. With customer doll ...... Read More
Comments (4)Increasing Profits through Wise Investments
Last month I had the opportunity to attend the joint MAFSI and FCSI meeting in Toronto, Canada. First of all, I would like to extend kudos to the leadership of both organizations for having a joint session, where independent manufacturers’ reps and consultants had an opportunity to get to know each other better and create a forum to discuss common issues. Clearly this was a win-win sc ...... Read More
Comments (1)Commercial Kitchens of the Future: Take 2!
When trying to conceptualize any kitchen of the future effort, a specific sense of purpose should drive our efforts. These goals should look to drive operational improvement for most any foodservice environment. This includes addressing: Customer service and speed with the intent of increasing sales Product quality and consistency with the intent of improving the food quality Labor efficiency with ...... Read More
Comments (5)Restaurants and Kitchens of the Future
What does the restaurant or kitchen of the future look like? This is a far reaching subject, one that is often discussed in many brand and supplier board rooms, as well as team meetings. I have had the pleasure of being part of many efforts to define the kitchen or restaurant of the future over the course of the last three decades and would agree that it is a subjective state and topic. Joe ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Restaurant Chameleon
One of my favorite menu trends is the continued proliferation of “sliders.” In fact, while dining at Morton’s just the other day I enjoyed an order of Kobe beef sliders. Doesn’t everybody know that sliders were created by White Castle in the 1920’s? I guess this is just another very common example of how the foodservice segment continues to function as a melting ...... Read More
Comments (0)Defining the Gold Standard for Foodservice
Lately I have been wondering how the foodservice industry would define its gold standard of service. It largely would depend on who you would ask. For example, a specific concept’s menu developers may see their gold standard based on what they are able to deliver and produce in a test kitchen using the platforms and processes available to the particular foodservice brand. Someo ...... Read More
Comments (1)
