LenovoPRO Community presents a series of success stories featuring real businesses who have overcome common business challenges using the products, services, and solutions offered through Lenovo.com.
In this post: Powering the restaurant of the future. How EGGS ‘N THINGS serves up a quicker, more convenient casual dining experience with a new customer tracking system, powered by Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 edge servers.
Background
Founded in Hawaii in 1974, EGGS 'N THINGS is a popular casual restaurant chain with locations across Japan. Based on an all-day-breakfast concept, the brand provides customers with a hearty dining experience in a cheerful atmosphere.
The brand’s first store in Japan was opened by Kouta Matsuda, president of EGGS 'N THINGS JAPAN. Known as the founder of Tully's Coffee Japan, Mr. Matsuda is also currently involved in various businesses as the CEO of Koozyu Co., the parent company of EGGS 'N THINGS JAPAN
Challenge
In recent years, the restaurant industry has faced rising labor, rent, and raw material costs, as well as higher consumption taxes. At the same time, profit margins have declined dramatically.
In order to overcome this situation, the restaurant looked to improve productivity through the use of digital technology. Specifically, EGGS ‘N THINGS wanted to provide a self-service experience with the same level of customer satisfaction as a traditional full-service restaurant.
Mr. Matsuda explains: “We have always aimed to create locations where customers can casually drop in and out. Ideally, customers should be free to choose where they sit in the restaurant. However, this makes it difficult for staff to keep track of where customers are seated and serve food smoothly. On the other hand, if customers are asked to pick up the food they have ordered in a self-service system, customer satisfaction would decrease.”
EGGS ‘N THINGS found the answer to this dilemma in the form of a new customer tracking system. The idea was to give each customer a small tag when they order and pay for food at the counter. Staff can then use the device’s location to determine where the customer is sitting in the restaurant and bring their order to them when it’s ready.
It was an elegant solution—but to make it feasible, the company needed a way to process the location data from the devices quickly and efficiently.
Why Lenovo? Compact computing at the edge.
Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 edge servers proved to be the ideal fit for the company’s requirements. Its lightweight, compact chassis, which is slightly larger than a notebook PC, can be easily installed at any location, even in tight spaces, and is highly resistant to high temperatures, vibration, and dust.
In addition to wired connectivity, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 servers are also equipped by default with Wi-Fi and LTE wireless connectivity for communication with IoT devices. The servers also feature Intel Xeon processors and NVIDIA T4 GPUs, and can even perform learning processing for the AI engine.
“We believe that the customer tracking system will play an important role in creating the ideal restaurant.”
- Mr. Kouta Matsuda, President, EGGS 'N THINGS JAPAN
A fresh approach to dining out
EGGS ‘N THINGS worked with partner Sato Corporation to deploy the customer tracking system at its newest location, the Eggs 'n Things Coffee Gotemba Premium Outlet Store.
Today, when a customer places an order at the cash register, they receive a tracking tag. The tag’s location is automatically detected by a central locator device installed in the store, and the location information is sent to a Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 server. The server identifies where the customer is seated based on the location information transmitted by the device, and displays their location on a central tablet terminal. Employees can then use the displayed information to bring the finished dish to the table where the customer is seated.
Results
The compact and rugged design of Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 edge server has proven to be an ideal fit for EGGS ‘N THINGS, where space is at a premium. It does not need a dedicated server room, and fits easily into the store’s small back room, where it operates stably.
In addition, since the Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 edge server is equipped with wireless communication functions by default, it was able to flexibly adapt to the system environment. Likewise, maintenance can be centrally managed, even if EGGS ‘N THINGS expands its customer tracking system to additional stores, as the operating status of the server and security measures can be performed remotely via the network.
The customer tracking system has continued to operate reliably and accurately without ever misplacing a customer's table. It has been well received by customers, who appreciate being able to pick their favorite table and have their food delivered without hesitation.
Mr. Matsuda is now considering expanding the customer tracking system to other restaurants in his company. He also hopes to actively offer the system to other food service companies, thereby driving customer service innovation across the restaurant industry as a whole. He has also announced the introduction of “AI avatar cash registers" to his stores, which are completely contactless and capable of independent interaction.
Mr. Matsuda concludes: “We want to increase the amount and variety of data we collect, not just to improve efficiency and cut costs, but to realize a more unique customer experience through the use of big data at a faster pace.
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