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How many pizza's per labour hour?

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nzpizzeria

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Hello all, we are (finally) getting into the pizza business in NZ and have been reading through the plethora of helpful information on here and learning lots.

One thing I have been trying to work out is how many pizzas can we make per hour? So to help I am looking for anyone willing to share how many pizzas they make per hour and how many employees are working. I am trying to work out what will be our limiting factor, our oven capacity or our make line.

We will be doing NY style pizza.

So if you could list:
  1. How many pizzas (max) you can make per hour.
  2. How many staff you have on making these.
Thanks form New Zealand.
 
I can remember, while scheduling in store personnel in a delco atmosphere, the formula was 1 in-store person for every 15 products. Of course, that number can go higher or lower based on product mix, staff experience, and ratio of phone calls to online sales, but that’s a good start. It should get more efficient as you get busier. Good luck!
 
Thanks j_r0kk, appreciate the input 👍

We are going to start with web orders only, no phone orders, to help cut down on wasted time.
 
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Your limiting factor will be your ovens. It will not matter how much staff you have on if your ovens can’t cook the pizzas. Contact the oven manufacturer and ask them if they have any information. Then it will depend on employee count (don’t have enough you won’t be able to produce), employee experience (the more experience normally the more efficient and quicker), workflow (A nice flow will quicker than having to walk around obstacles), preparation (if you are not prepared and run out of something this will slow you down), organization (If team is not well informed of their tasks people will get confused, management (Needs to know where when to step in and help catch up or correct issues to keep it going)
 
daddio - Tell me more please 🙂

On my best night with 4 people putting them in and 2 taking them out I can do 60 an hour. Granted, we have 4 different sauces and some of our toppings get put on after they come out of the oven, but I’m certain we can improve that number. What more can you tell us about your set up?
 
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nzpizzeria - Deck or conveyor? How are you pushing out your dough? By hand? Sheeter? Do you weigh your cheese?
 
We can get about 250 pizzas per hour done in a triple stack. It takes about 12 Insiders to make this happen. Drivers will also help out while they are waiting for deliveries.
 
Thanks guys, very useful info.
A bit more about us: Hand stretching dough, twin deck oven. 16" and 11" pizzas. We are going to be operating out of a permanently parked food truck. We also have a commercial kitchen on the same premises that we run as a Brasserie. This kitchen will be where we do our prep and some of our storage.

We will only be taking online orders (to start with at least). Online orders come straight into our POS/printer. This is to reduce time spent taking orders and payments as well as miss communication. Also everywhere I read says people spend more on average through online orders.

We are still working out the best coarse of action for measuring toppings. I think due to space, we will have a container/scoop for each ingredient as the measurement rather than weight, not as accurate but better than not doing it.

Thanks again guys. Anyone got any stats with deck ovens?
 
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We have an assembly line of myself and my three daughters who have all been at it for 15 or more years. We have one on dough and sauce the next is on the meat side of the table then the veg and cheese person finishes and into the oven. Final position is cut and then pass to the front of house (usually my wife or one of the granddaughters in the front).
 
I remember when we had decks that although we had a 10minute cook time, that increased under load. Friday night we would average 15 minute cook times since the stones could not recover. My decks could hold 5 large pies so my old double stack decks would get me 40 large pies per hour. Now my double stack EdgeWB60’s could crank out almost triple with less labor and 100% consistency. Needless to say I do not miss those days!
 
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We can get 120 large (16 in) pies per hr using 4 marsal and sons deck ovens. Each oven can hold 6 16 inch pies. We sell smaller sizes too, so we can do a little bit more than 120 including those.

We do that with 4 people (2 makers, 1 tender, 1 cutter).

Oven capacity and experience are going to be two big factors for you. If you’re not making the pies fast enough to fill your ovens then it wont matter.

Wish we could find a conveyor oven that could bake our pies the same, but no luck so far. Hard to beat the nice bottom of a pizza baked on a stone.
 
I have edge ovens and I am waiting for Lloyds disks to arrive to test. I got one of each kind but I am assuming you recommend the hearth baked.
 
I actually use the hex discs. I’m not trying to replicate a deck oven bake though. I believe the hearth disc is the way to achieve that though
 
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we plan on switching from 1" rimmed pans to the disks if all goes well…this will be a game changer for us if it works…fingers crossed!
 
ha…the plan is to open pies to order to avoid all the space involved with the prep in advance. Building out a new store where everything would be in the same area. Current layout has dough production and prep in back which would not be practical.
 
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