Successful restaurants attract guests with impressive menus, great service and an inviting ambiance. But what goes on behind the scenes, like dishwashing, can also make or break a business. Today, technology is transforming the dishwashing process, making it important for restaurant managers to understand how cloud-powered monitoring systems can improve dishwashing performance, increase uptime and guest satisfaction, and protect their brand.
The Dishwashing Cycle
Washing dishes at the appropriate temperature, for the right length of time and with the proper amount of cleaning product and mechanical pressure helps maintain hygiene and control costs. Together, these factors are known as the “Sinner Circle.” If one element is increased, another must be decreased to make sure dishes emerge from the machine fully clean, prolong the life of the equipment and reduce dish breakage rates.
Technology at Work
Through the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s now possible to monitor dishwashing in real time. Cloud-based systems provide reports on the number of wash cycles, water, energy and cleaning product usage, hygiene compliance and more. Connected systems can send alerts for low levels of detergent and rinse aid, hard water causing scale deposits or issues with the Sinner Circle balance. Some systems can even provide corrective information to help managers fix these issues.
Cloud-based monitoring systems provide numerous benefits for restaurants, including:
Continuity of operations: These systems greatly improve visibility of the dishwashing process. The information available to managers allows them to correct issues as they arise or even before they manifest. By avoiding costly and serious issues, kitchens can dramatically increase uptime.
- Improved hygiene compliance: Low rinse temperatures may allow bacteria to remain on dishes. However, elevated pre-wash temperatures can further bake food residue onto dishes. A monitoring system ensures the proper temperatures are used to remove food and cleaning product residues.
- Optimized water, energy and product usage: If the rinse temperature is too high or runs too long, this wastes cleaning product, water and energy. By maintaining the Sinner Circle, restaurants can limit resource use and reduce costs.
- Enhanced labor efficiency: Labor accounts for a large percentage of costs in commercial kitchens. A system that provides real-time visibility of dishwashing allows management to proactively identify issues and train workers on the spot.
- Reduce Rewash: Dishes must be rewashed if they are unclean after the initial wash. Cloud-based systems balance the Sinner Circle elements to help dishes emerge clean.
- Less breakage: When a dishwasher is temporarily out of service or is not performing as it should, employees wash dishes manually, which increases the opportunity for breakage. A cloud-based system can identify when a machine needs to be descaled or serviced, allowing managers to keep machines running smoothly and reducing the need for manual washing.
With intelligent IoT solutions, foodservice managers can rest easy knowing that their dishwashing operations will run smoothly. Greater insight into back-of-house processes will not only improve efficiencies and reduce costs, but it will help restaurants maintain their brand image and keep guests returning time and time again.
For more information about Diversey’s IntelliDish™ system for commercial dishwashing visit our Intellidish page.