OEE measures the efficiency of a production line or that of a whole manufacturing plant. OEE has a worthwhile improvement towards the productivity of a manufacturing unit.  Deployment of software systems frequently benefits the OEE score by up to 20% in as little as the first year.  It has been proven that making incremental changes to the Overall Equipment Effectiveness of only one percent results in a large variation in the production throughput and savings in the unit cost of the manufactured product.

The OEE score consists of 3 elements: Availability (A), Performance (P) and Quality (Q).

• Availability is the % of uptime of each manufacturing or plant asset
• Performance is the % throughput compared with the target set for it
• Quality is the % of scrap.

Multiplying A x P x Q gives the the OEE score.

OEE to drive Productivity in Practical Usage

OEE is valuable as a metric for all levels of management.  Whist the principles of the formula are simple, it can be {extremely, highly} complicated to calculate in practice.  Hence, sophisticated OEE software packages are required to record the data from each machine and make the OEE calculation in near real-time.  Typically this software is of a modular structure to give it maximum flexibility and allow it to fit with existing plant and data capture facilities and ERP system.

Once the data has been recorded and processed, it is only useful if it can be converted into reports that are accurate.  OEE software from the main vendors gives a selection of reports that can be configured and analyzed to enable the user to find what they are focused on.

OEE is becoming as the core tool of lean manufacturing. By continuous improvements a manufacturing plant can save fuel, improve efficiency and reduce management finger-pointing as well as uncover and control risk.  All production managers must be aware of the details of Overall Equipment Effectiveness and how it relates to the lean manufacturing framework as a vital force for productivity in the low carbon manufacturing environment.

Bar/Restaurant: Point of Sale software features

Bar and restaurant owners shouldn’t have to to worry too much about product shrinkage or lack of inventory. If you have the right bar POS software, then there’s no need for worries like these, instead you can focus more on running the business and growing profits.

It will be easy to handle any customer transaction using the right bar POS software. It can also display information like the average bar tab you get every night, the number of open tabs, returns or invalid tabs, as well as credit card processing details. Using this software allows you to easily manage inventory, determine which top-selling items to keep in stock, and track the performance of new products.

Useful Features of a bar POS software
The most important bar POS software feature is the liquor inventory control. This tracks all the liquor, wine, and beer you have in stock and lets you know when certain items are running low. It even tracks how much liquor goes into each glass, so you can have an idea how much money you can earn. With this feature, it helps keep your staff honest when serving liquor – since they know supplies are strictly monitored, they’ll be less likely to give their friends free booze.

The software also offers other cool features to help you streamline your operations and track overall sales performance (you may want to request for a free POS system quote where a bar POS expert can tailor the right POS solution to meet your needs):

• Secure log-in– Requires authorized staff each time the software is used.
• Liquor control devices (LCDs) – Track the exact amount of alcohol the bartender pour from bottles to reduce shrinkage.
• Recipe lookup – This provides bartenders a “cheat sheet” reference for looking up on indgredients when preparing mixed drinks.
• Data import and export – Downloads reports into your word processing or spreadsheet software for your personal bookkeeping efforts.
• Email list maintenance – Helps build your customer loyalty efforts by sending customers emails about limited offers, new product releases, and special events at your establishment.
• Gift card management – Supports your bar or restaurant with its gift card capabilities that can bring in repeat business.
• Schedule promotions – Automatically manages price changes for limited time promotions like “happy hour.”
• Barcode readers – Easily scan barcodes on beer and malt beverage bottles to save time.
• Employee scheduling – Can help you determine the right number of employees needed for certain shifts based on your sales history.
• Customer management tools – Help manage open bar tabs, check split requests, and gratuities.
• Food service integration – A very useful feature that lets your process food orders on the same screen as drink orders.
• Menu management – Toggles between different liquors so you can accurately track the amount of liquor that goes into certain drinks.

 

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Need more information or an online resource?

Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President on Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.

 

There are many things a point of sale (POS) system can do for your business other than automating sales transactions. Let our Point Of Sale experts teach you how you can take control of your business and increase your profits.

Having A Control Over Your Business

A right POS system can lift you up to a new level of control over your operations, it helps fine-tune your business model, boost your profits, as well as your efficiency. The wrong choice of system, however, can be a source of ongoing frustration, not to mention the amount of time and money you waste on it.

In other terms, a POS system is a glorified cash register. The basic POS system you’ll see in any establishment in the food industry, that consists of a computer, cash drawer, receipt printer, and an input device like a keyboard or scanner. However, in addition to being more efficient than cash registers, POS systems creates detailed reports which gives you all the information you will need to learn your weaknesses and make future plans for your business’ success.

POS systems can save you a great amount of money, increase your profits, and cut down the amount of time you spend on one business plan to the next.

Save more money, have more control over your business, and being more productive; sounds like a pretty neat combination, right? Well here are some of the best ways a modern POS system can help your business.

Getting rid of shrinkage

A computerized POS system can drastically cut down on shrinkage, due to theft, waste and misuse of your employees. And since your employees will know that inventory is carefully tracked, internal shrinkage will dwindle.

Accuracy

Whether you use barcode scanning or not, using a POS system can ensure that every item in your store or on your menu is sold for the correct price. Your staff will never have to guess prices again, and prices can easily be change with a single click of the mouse.

Getting margins

You can get better magins by having a detailed sales report, focusing on higher-margin items would be cinch. By moving items within a retail location, or promoting under-performing dishes in a restaurant, you can help boost sales of well performing items.

Know where you stand

Using a POS system, you can instantly know how much money you have in your cash drawer, how much of that money is profit, as well as how many of a particular item you have sold today, yesterday, last week or even last month.

Manage inventory better

Knowing what stocks you need to keep on hand can easily be tracked using a detailed sales report. Track your remaining inventory, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. Your POS software can be set to alert you when when stocks run low so you can reorder for them. There are many store owners who are caught by surprises when they have this data, because they think that they know exactly what trends affect them.

Build a customer list

Collect the names and addresses of your regular customers as part of standard transactions. Then use this list for targeted advertising or incentive programs.

Reducing paperwork

POS systems can dramatically reduce the time you have to spend doing inventory, sales figures, and other repetitive but important paperwork. The savings here: time and peace of mind.

More efficient transactions

For retail, checkouts can be made quicker if you use a barcode scanner and other POS features to aid you. And since POS systems greatly streamline ordering process, orders from the dining room is quick and accurately sent to the kitchen. Either with these two, you’ll be making your customers happier with a faster and more accurate service.

You have to keep in mind that these benefits requires a commitment to utilizing the POS system capabilities to their fullest. Without proper training and analysis, even the most sophisticated POS system is nothing more than a simple cash register.

Retail vs. Hospitality Needs

Since there are two segments in the POS market, they require different needs: retail operations and hospitality businesses like restaurants, bars, and hotels.

Retail

Of the two groups, retailers have simpler POS needs. Their transactions are completed all at once, and there is often less variation in the types of products they sell. Because there are some POS features retailers that specifically want to include the ability to support kits (e.g. 3 for deals), returns and exchanges, and support for digital scales. But if your business sells items in a variety of styles like clothes, then you might need a POS system that supports matrixes. As an example, matrixes ables yout to create one inventory and price entry for a particular sweater, but can still track sales according to size and color of the sweater.

Hospitality

Restaurants and other hospitality businesses differ in requirements.

Efficiency is the main focus for casual restaurants. For retail-style restaurants like sub shops, POS systems that relay inputted orders cut down on time-per-transaction and reduce the errors that can happen when hastily-scrawled orders are passed back to the kitchen. For quick-service restaurants, a POS system would be required to meet success: orders taken on terminals in the front are automatically displayed on monitors of the kitchen, ready to be quickly assembled and delivered to the customer.

For fine dining restaurants, point of sale requires a bit different. They need to know which staff is responsible for which table, and being able to create and store open checks. With better management, comes better gains from improved efficiency. If your restaurant has 20 tables and has an average check of , it can increase turnover by one party per table, that would be an extra 0 on one busy night.

Return on Investment Worth the Trouble

Switching from a traditional cash register to a computerized POS system can be difficult. There are several factors you need to consider and unexpected problems to avoid. However the return on investment and benefits to your business can really make it worth your time and effort.

 

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Need more information or an online resource?

Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com

The author of this article is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience serving restaurants of all types throughout the U.S.