A KDS (Kitchen Display System) is an interactive display system that allows you to automate communication and cooperation among the employees who cook, assemble and serve orders. It can also be used to notify customers that their orders are ready.

The system is comprised of POS terminals (one terminal per workstation) and a queue management screen. On the POS terminal, employees can view all the order tickets that need their attention. After completing each operation, employees touch the order ticket on the POS terminal screen. This informs other employees about completed operations and notifies customers about the readiness statuses of their orders.

Immediately after a customer's order is taken, an order ticket displaying its items appears on the workstation screens of the cook, assembly operator and counter staff. The cooks confirms the beginning of order prep by pressing the order ticket on the screen. The assembler marks the beginning of assembly on the POS terminal screen and assembles items prepared in the kitchen. Counter staff wait for the order to be assembled; they monitor the order readiness status on the POS terminal. After the order has been assembled, counter staff press the order ticket. The order number appears on the queue management screen in the list of ready orders. After an employee has finished working with an order, he/she presses the order ticket for the second time, and the order ticket disappears from the screen.

The customer receives a receipt with an order number. This number is displayed on the electronic queue screen. The customer waits for his/her order ticket to appear in the list of ready orders and then picks it up.

Assembly and order pickup can be carried at one workstation.

Kitchen Display System mode can be used in any venue, e.g. in fast food restaurants, traditional cafes, or restaurants. The communication between workstations operating in Kitchen Display System mode can be set up in different ways. For example, you can configure order tickets to appear at both the kitchen and assembly workstations as soon as the order has been paid for. Alternatively, you can set up the order ticket to appear at the assembly workstation only after the order has been prepared in the kitchen.

To do so, you need to create a copy of the system query type in the KDS query types directory. Then change the SQL query in the new KDS query type on the Query panel.

If you need to change the appearance of order tickets, edit the print layout of your KDS query type.

To change the appearance of the electronic queue screen, edit the print layout of the Queue report copy.

We will now describe how the Kitchen Display System, using the system query types, operates at the following workstations: