Mimi’s Café had a need to use simulation modeling as a tool for enhancing and evaluating the existing design and decision-making process.  Bob Evans, the parent company of Mimi’s Café, is a publicly traded restaurant that retails food products organization with operations across the country. Historically, kitchen operations improvement efforts have been developed through the use of kitchen “mock-ups” at an existing restaurant which is labor intensive and slow to implement.

Reason for Project:

• Mimi’s wanted a simulation platform of base restaurant operations that could be used to investigate the use of simulation in evaluating different layouts, recipe/processes and menu mix scenarios.

 Project Deliverables:

• Development of an accurate computer simulation model of their back-of-house kitchen operations (two major layout variations).
• Completion of a base analysis to understand opportunities for improvement in the kitchen system design.
• Recommendations for improving the kitchen systems based upon the initial analyses.

 Project Results/Benefits:

• Ticket Time Reductions: The model demonstrated how food order delays could be reduced by up to 10 minutes during peak periods through the redesign of the order handling system.
• Layout Evaluation: The model identified the “best” kitchen layout configuration option (quantified benefits).
• Equipment Comparison: The model identified the impact of upgraded kitchen equipment on the ticket times, ticket backups and food quality.
• Labor Evaluation: The model quantified the potential benefits associated with adding a “floater” cook during peak periods of the day/week.