During this project, I analyzed a Nikkei cuisine restaurant (a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese culinary styles), where I had access to the kitchens and firsthand experience of the intricate world of restaurant operations. It was there that I witnessed the significant importance of communication within the team (which I divided into kitchen, front-of-house staff, and management). Therefore, after consolidating all the information gathered during my research, I launched my challenge to work on:

How might we rethink the communication system between the kitchen staff and the waitstaff, for the chef and his team, in order to redesign the way they interact within the team to ensure smoother service and prevent issues that may affect diners due to communication failures?

From there, I began prototyping potential solutions to connect the kitchen with the front-of-house staff without adding a layer of complexity.

To understand the challenge, it's important to consider that when the kitchen receives an order, those dishes are divided into stations, each led by a chef specializing in a particular aspect. Each chef and dish has specific preparation times and styles, but ultimately, the order must be delivered all at once, in sequence. If someone falls behind schedule, it affects everyone else, as dishes may cool down, lose their presentation, etc.

With this in mind, I started brainstorming and eventually developed the Kanji system. This system utilizes color-coded indicators (based on the colors of the boards commonly used by chefs to identify dishes) to mark the times to follow and provide an overview of everyone's progress.

Click here to see the whole study.