Automating supplier orders in a restaurant: the KitchenCrew case

Automate supplier orders in a restaurant: what KitchenCrew does

You can automate supplier orders in a restaurant without taking the decision away from the kitchen. KitchenCrew, a product we built, works like this: the team types the shopping list into a chat once, and one order draft per supplier arrives in their inbox, ready to check and send. It is built for Swiss gastro workflows, with a catalogue upload and email integration. A pilot is running with Swiss restaurants.

This page is for restaurant owners and kitchen leads, and for anyone in an SME who orders from several suppliers by hand. It covers the problem, the design choices behind KitchenCrew and where they stop. The pilot is still running; we will publish reliable figures and restaurant names once there are results.

Why ordering in gastro is so much manual work

One list goes to many suppliers, each on its own channel. A kitchen often buys from a wholesaler, a butcher, a vegetable supplier, a bakery and a drinks supplier. One takes orders through a webshop, one by email, one by phone or text message, one on its own form. Each has its own item names, units and order deadlines.

The list usually starts somewhere else: on a whiteboard, on a note by the pass, in a message from the sous-chef at the end of service. Then someone, often late in the evening, splits it by supplier, looks up item names, turns “two crates” into the supplier’s unit and types it all out again, once per supplier.

Typical mistakes: an item with the wrong supplier, kilos instead of pieces, something on the whiteboard that never reaches an order. That is copying under time pressure at the end of a long day, not carelessness.

Teams that type the list in private chats or free tools without a contract move order and supplier data into environments IT does not control. For the pilot, input stays in an agreed channel, and catalogues come only from suppliers you already trade with. That does not replace a privacy assessment, but it reminds you that order lists can hold prices and customer-related notes.

How KitchenCrew handles the list

KitchenCrew keeps the list in one place and takes over the splitting.

1. List

   The team types what is needed into a chat.

2. Catalogue

   Uploaded catalogues say which supplier carries which item.

3. Drafts

   One order draft per supplier arrives in the team’s inbox.

4. Check and send

   A person reads the drafts before anything goes out.

The kitchen still decides what to order. What it no longer does is sort the list by supplier and retype it several times.

Three design choices

Each follows from how restaurants already work.

Drafts instead of automatic sending

Orders commit money and goods. The kitchen knows about a private function on Saturday, a closed day, a supplier who was short last week. A draft keeps that judgement with the person who reads it. Reading is quicker than typing, and responsibility stays with the team.

Email, because it needs nothing new from suppliers

Drafts arrive by email. Nobody on the supplier side installs software or changes how they take orders. The butcher or the farm works as before. The restaurant changes its side of the process.

The catalogue as the source

The catalogue decides which supplier gets which item. Names, units and pack sizes come from the upload. Without a catalogue the system would have to guess. When a supplier changes its range, the new catalogue has to go in.

In practice the kitchen or operations lead updates catalogues when suppliers send PDFs or spreadsheets. That is work, but it replaces looking everything up in a folder each night. Once a quarter is often enough unless a supplier reshuffles its range.

Where the limits are

KitchenCrew prepares orders. It does not replace what happens after them.

Phone-only suppliers still need the call; the draft is then a list to read from. An outdated catalogue produces outdated drafts. A team that wants orders to go out unread is asking for a riskier tool.

KitchenCrew is not the right fit if almost everything goes through one wholesaler webshop, the list is the same every week (standing order), or nobody will read the drafts.

What transfers to other SMEs with ordering work

The pattern applies wherever one list turns into several orders: one input, one reference list, one draft per recipient in the channel they already use, checked before sending.

A made-up example: a trades business orders material for sites from several wholesalers. The foreman’s list becomes one draft per wholesaler, checked in the office before sending.

A made-up example: a practice collects consumables from several rooms. The list becomes one draft per supplier, checked by the practice manager.

The same idea, a draft instead of retyping, sits behind one of the examples on our Process Check page: service technicians fill in reports on the phone, and the office checks an invoice draft.

The reference list does not transfer by itself. In a trades business it might be a wholesaler price list, an export from your software, or a sheet someone maintains. Clarify what your systems can provide before anyone builds.

Before you automate your own ordering

• How many suppliers get an order in a normal week, and on which channel each?
• Is there a current reference list per supplier?
• Who checks an order before it goes out today, and would that person check a draft?

If one of the three is missing, sort that out first. Software does not supply a reference list or a checker.

If you are unsure whether ordering is the right first process, compare it with other recurring work in the business: reports, invoices, rota planning. The Process Check is deliberately limited to one workflow. Several chains, or a feature inside your own product, point towards AI Integration rather than another pilot without scope.

Product, custom build or Process Check

KitchenCrew is a product for restaurants. In another industry, the same pattern is a build that fits your suppliers and your reference data. That is what AI Integration is for. The KitchenCrew case with PDF study is on the portfolio page.

If the job is one recurring task in your business, the Process Check is the entry point: 30 minutes online, a written automation case and a recommended package size. Book the free Process Check at /prozess-check/buchen. What happens after that half hour is in after the Process Check. Another of our builds, booking only after payment, is in automating appointment booking with payment.