My wisdom comes from experience teaching archery and rifle/shotgun shooting . . . and playing tennis. SO MANY people “miss with their feet”. By that I mean that in many, many sports, foot placement is the very first step, and foundation for successful execution of the sport . . .see Dan Marino, Brett Farve, etc.
The for me key to succeeding in the shift is spending as much labor time preparing/cooking the actual customers orders as possible. Slicing, stocking, filling, thawing, stacking, shredding, stocking, and mixing should be done prior to the first customer order if at all possible.
In pizzerias, that means prep work set and ready before the shift. Having a solid, predictable preparation and storage system cannot be overemphasized. That will give your staff the flexibility to restock and locate items on the fly. I found in an analysis of our Friday night chaos one time that we didn’t have enough reload items prepared, tubbed and in place to cover the shift. We would have to stop to slice something, or open and bin something, or tub cheese, or bag brownie bites, or FAR TOO OFTEN in the line of fire. When I got a cooler shelf dedicated, and used end of shift Thurs plus begin of shift Friday to set up the food . . . life got really efficient, and we began smoothing out the edges. Fewer footsteps, and fewer incidental tasks means more manpower to move food.
Go through ever item on the prep table and have enough back stock already labeled in 1/6 or 1/3 bins for the night so someone can grab and go. Stack and organize so everyone knows where it is. Fold enough boxes for every dough ball prepped for the shift PLUS 10%. Make sure, because boxes don’t go bad in 7 days
) Here is where par-cooking 100# of wings during the week gets us ready to succeed on Friday with limited staff.
Our Friday/Saturday has 3 in the kitchen: one (1) pizza guy (stretch, make, bake and cut) . . . one (1) fryer and sautée station guy (wings, sandwiches, fingers, gyros, etc.) . . . one (1) NICK to flow where the work is. I keep track of ticket times and move to where we need to push the food. I spend most of my time stretching, baking and cutting while pizza guy sauces and makes. When sandwiches surge, we get hosed most nights. Just labor intensive, but profitable.
FRONT OF HOUSE: 2 drivers, one server and one manager (my wife). The cover phones and walk-ins, making all salads, managing tickets when food is done, delivery routing and dine-in customers. We turn about 10 to 15 tables on some Friday nights . . . that part is growing.
All staff members are THANKFULLY able to do something else in the house. All three kitchen guys can work all the stations. One of the front people can manage wings/fryer if emergency arises. All front people are team players and keep boxes, stocking, prepping, dishes, whatever flowing through the night.
I predict that there are some preparation steps that can assist in setting your team up to succeed. Have your staff look intensely and honestly at the processes and what eats up time that is not actually directly making a tangible menu item at a station. If it can be done ahead of time, get it on a pre-shift preparation schedule.
