Prep Question

[bigbenpizza4]

I often wonder if i’m prepping my pizzeria efficiently. Is there a better way ? we make/cut our dough at night 25 min a batch 2 to 3 batches a night 32lbs each… we shred cheese , make pizza sauce , make and fill salad dressings at night. each day we start at 9am I the owner make 40 sub rolls from scratch i have one prep person who comes in at 9 he/she slices all veggies , makes marinara, meat sauce , pasta noodles… wife comes in at 10 am she preps salad stocks sets up sub table checks face book the prep list varies each day based on volume. Does anyone use a grave yard shift/prep person? do you do all prep at night/ or all during the day?

day shift 3 people 9am to 4pm Mon - Sun
night shift 6 people Mon - thur 4 pm to 10 pm or so
night shift fri - sat 8 employees 4 pm to 10 or so

We make 120 pizzas average per day 30 to 40 subs a day plus all sides salads etc…
no delivery pick up or dine in only 65% of sales are to go / pick up.

 

[knightwing1995]

We have one guy that comes in usually from 10 till 2. He cuts and balls the dough,does the slicing for veggies and cold cuts,shreds the cheese,does the breading and shelves the delivery orders when the come in.

 

[RobT]

Our prep is done during slow times throughout the day.

We do 2 batches of dough between 10 and 11am. Sometimes a dough after 1pm.

You can outsource everything and that would solve your problem. (get cheese shredded, sub rolls, dough balls)

 

[bodegahwy]

We do all prep during slow times of the day. Except during our biggest weeks this includes everything. During our bigger weeks we have a dough guy come in and make dough in the early mornings. He has a key and comes in around 5AM which suits him and keeps that out of the way of regular operations. He makes dough 7 days a week. Generally about 8-10 40lb batches a day. Takes him around 3 hours to do it including cleanup. We pay piece rate rather than hourly for that work.

Prep after hours is a mess in my experience. People are tired, the work is sloppy. Productivity is low. Nobody wants to clean up. Regular end of day clean up is poor since other areas are still being worked on. Tried it. Will not go back.

 

[Pizza_of_the_Month]

We do our prep work 11-4 every day. I have one person come in 5 hrs before opening to do dough and prep work. We make 5 batches of dough per day. Usually 300lbs total each weekday and Sunday. 400lbs to 450lbs on the weekend days. We make all of our sub buns (350-400 per week). We slice all of our meats and cheese. We dice our pizza cheese (23 blocks per day). Make our own sauce, wing sauce, and dressings. Bake chicken. And we have a weekly cleaning list with 40+ items on it. And a monthly cleaning list with 10 items on it.
Our shifts are:
1 person 6am to 2pm
2 staff 11am to 9pm
3 staff 4pm to close(10 or 11)
1 Manager 11am to close
On Friday and Saturday we add 1 staff 4pm to 10pm

Average sales:
11am to 4pm is 1,100
4pm to close is 2,000

If you bus tables and wash dishes I would say you might be a little overstaffed or have a slow staff. If you don’t then I would say you are overstaffed for sure.

Do you know what your cost of labor percentage is? (Sales divided by Payroll)
It should be around 25%.

 

[bigbenpizza4]

bodegahwy:

We do all prep during slow times of the day. Except during our biggest weeks this includes everything. During our bigger weeks we have a dough guy come in and make dough in the early mornings. He has a key and comes in around 5AM which suits him and keeps that out of the way of regular operations. He makes dough 7 days a week. Generally about 8-10 40lb batches a day. Takes him around 3 hours to do it including cleanup. We pay piece rate rather than hourly for that work.

Prep after hours is a mess in my experience. People are tired, the work is sloppy. Productivity is low. Nobody wants to clean up. Regular end of day clean up is poor since other areas are still being worked on. Tried it. Will not go back.

wow 3hrs does that include mix time? 15 min per batch to mix doesnt leave much time to cut and roll?

 

[bodegahwy]

Yes it includes mix time. The Stefan VCM mixes a 40lb batch in 150 seconds. A really fast dough maker can do four batches per hour by staging the ingredients. Most of them can hit 3 batches. They are motivated to be fast because we patch piece rate rather than hourly for this job. Amazing how much faster that makes them.

 

[pizza2007]

I’m going to make a comment, that may or may not add to the thread…

I find it a challenging to develop my skills within the business, not so much that it takes away, but from the point that it betters my understanding of skill assessment and performance.

In 3 years, not full time practice, I can make and ball a 50# flour batch of dough in roughly 40-50 mins. Almost always I’m doing other things at the same time. My top cook can do the same task in an average of 25 mins, while cooking pizzas. I’ll never match his speed in this, or making pizzas. But it really helps me understand the training and performance expectations for new cooks. After 1 1/2 years, I made a decision to never hire anyone who stated prior experience @ the big 3 chains. Those guys/gals are horrible, not so much in performance, but attitude. I find more value in training someone from the start, than managing someone who considers themselves already trained and experienced.

How many other owners employ similar tactics, excluding Nick & Dave?

 

[Daddio]

pizza2007:

I made a decision to never hire anyone who stated prior experience @ the big 3 chains. Those guys/gals are horrible, not so much in performance, but attitude. I find more value in training someone from the start, than managing someone who considers themselves already trained and experienced.

How many other owners employ similar tactics, excluding Nick & Dave?

I am glad you didn’t exclude me on this one.

When I get a resume that show former pizza making experience I automatically put it in the pile of resumes that are NOT the first choice candidates. I find that training them takes much longer because there are so many things they assume they know that are not my way of doing things.