Every kitchen knows the problem. A ticket comes in with a ribeye, fries and a Caesar salad. Everything fires at once. The salad is ready in 3 minutes, the fries in 4, the steak in 12. For eight or nine minutes the fast items sit under the lamp, and the plate goes out with lukewarm sides, or the expo holds the steak while the fries are remade.
Kitchen pacing fixes the timing instead of the symptoms.
How pacing works
- Start from the moment the order is due. For a dine-in ticket that is as soon as the slowest item can be ready; for a pickup or delivery it can be the promised time.
- Count back each item’s cook time. The ribeye needs 12 minutes, so it starts now. The fries need 4, so they start at minute 8. The salad needs 3, so it starts at minute 9.
- Send each item to its station at its minute. The grill sees the steak right away. The fry station sees the fries as HELD, then FIRE NOW at minute 8.
- Keep re-planning. If the steak goes on a minute late, the fries and salad move a minute too. If a station is full, the plan queues the item and moves everything that depends on it.
The result is a spread of close to zero at the pass: every item on the order finishes within seconds of the others.
Why a ticket queue is not enough
Most kitchen displays sort tickets by age or due time and color them as they get late. That tells a cook which ticket is next, but not when each item on it should start. Some displays can delay items by a fixed prep time, which helps on a quiet night. On a busy one, cooks start late, stations fill up and add-ons arrive, and a fixed delay cannot react.
Pacing treats the plan as live. Every tap of START or DONE is new information, and the plan updates on every screen at once.
What you need to pace a kitchen
- Stations and their dishes. Which station makes what, and how many items each station can cook at once.
- Cook times. A starting time for each dish. These do not need to be perfect: a good pacing system learns real times from your cooks’ taps and tightens them every week.
- The extra detail that changes timing. Doneness (medium rare and well done are different times), sides that cook at another station, and dishes that move from one station to another.
- Screens that show one clear action. Cooks should see HELD, FIRE NOW and COOKING, never a calculation.
PrepFlow does all of this on top of the POS you already have, on any phone, tablet or browser, with no limit on screens.
Questions
Is kitchen pacing the same as a kitchen display system?
No. A kitchen display system (KDS) shows tickets on screens. Pacing decides when each item on those tickets should start. Some displays sort tickets or delay items by fixed prep times; a pacing system plans every item from when the order is due and keeps re-planning as the kitchen runs.
Does pacing slow the kitchen down?
No. The slowest item on an order still starts immediately, so the order is ready just as soon as before. Only the fast items wait, and they would otherwise sit under the heat lamp.
What do cooks need to do differently?
Very little. Items appear as HELD until their minute comes, then show FIRE NOW. Cooks tap START and DONE as usual, and those taps keep the plan accurate.