Software Tutorial

Operations

The Business Need:

Ensure all franchise operators keep their ovens up to date with the latest software and cooking programs. The programs are updated on a regular basis to account for seasonal and geographic specific menu items and depend on configuration from operators, in order to deploy correctly.

Challenge:

This is a new task for operators who have a range of technical proficiency and infrastructure to support this new requirement. Each franchisee also launches the equipment on a different timeline, often times months or even years after the initial training.

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Approach

I was included in this project after the launch of the project and after initial training had been conducted, so my first step, was to request access to any existing documentation and training materials.

Consulted with the executive chef, who requested my assistance, to better understand the training gap he was trying to address and how it presented.

I identified that the core issue stemmed from the wide range of learners that needed to be able to implement the information at varying time periods post training with inconsistent levels of support due to the franchise nature of the business, the rolling launch of the smart ovens, and the personal learning gap that comes with a new piece of equipment.

I consulted with the chef to identify which groups were having problems, the nature of the obstacles, and identified resources that they all had available.

The Solution

A video series demonstrating step-by-step instructions within the smart oven platform for the most common issues the operators encounter on a regular basis.

The videos were uploaded to vimeo and linked to an internal learning repository so the relevant content could be easily found among other resources or bookmarked by the operators.

Because the operators were technically employed by the different franchise groups their roles and responsibilities were inconsistent and could not be expected to be uniform, so it made the most sense to ensure the content was mobile friendly and available in various different formats, and fully modular so they could pick and choose whichever videos fit their needs best.

Results

The percentage of units correctly connected to Wi-Fi jumped from 10%- 92% after the supplemental videos launched.

An estimated $10, 000 in travel costs saved by the franchisor over a period of 3 months.

Increased adoption and confidence in the smart oven product launch.

Untold savings per operator due to improved maintenance on each unit since proper connection to the internet ensured timely software updates and remote access monitoring which allowed large operating groups to validate proper maintence, such as daily cleaning, which is the number one cause of damage to the unit.

The company reputation was protected beacuse each restaurant depended on their individual oven being properly set up to ensure they received the appropriate cooking programs which were updated reguarly to accomodate seasonal and geographically specific offerings.

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