Case Study: Improving Efficiency with Sidework
Improving The Efficiency of A High-Volume, High-Customization Beverage Concept
About the Partner: A rapidly-growing beverage brand known for its innovative, customizable drinks with over 130 locations across the western United States.
They’re using Sidework to dispense dirty soda, blended drinks, energy, and refreshers.
4.5
Seconds Saved Per Drink
+10%
Increased Throughput
THE CHALLENGE
The chain needed to increase throughput and reduce drive-thru service times while maintaining high levels of beverage customization. The partner featured a large menu of complex, multi-ingredient beverages, all of which were being measured and poured by hand.
KEY PROJECT DRIVERS
Increase speed of service and reduce long wait times at drive-thrus.
Enable and maintain product consistency across a large, complex menu and many locations.
Create scaleable, repeatable infrastructure and workflow to support franchisee success.
WHY SIDEWORK
Sidework dispensers are uniquely suited for extremely high throughput, crafting most complex drinks in around 10 seconds.
Sidework features 36 internal ingredient slots, plus up to 16 external bag-in-box ingredients.
Sidework handles hard-to-dispense ingredients like thick purees and particulate-heavy sauces.
Sidework is fully compatible with existing recipes, ingredients, and supply chains. This allows venues to continue to serve their own products in a more efficient way.
The dispenser not only allows for full customization of individual orders, but Sidework’s software automatically handles the all calculations, ratio adjustments, adds, removals, garnishes, and more.
Sidework’s software handles all liquid modifiers and customizations automatically. For example:
Menu Item Recipe:
Dr. Pepper, Coconut, Vanilla, Coconut Cream
Customer’s Modified Order:
As above recipe, except:
ADD extra ice
SUB Diet Dr. Pepper
SUB Sugar Free Vanilla
NO Sugar Free Coconut
The only modification that staff would manually perform for this order would be to add extra ice (and it would fit perfectly, because Sidework already adjusted all ingredient amounts to make room!).
THE SOLUTION
Sidework partnered with the chain and tested several workflows. Together, we discovered that running all syrups and purees through the dispenser was the optimal, most efficient solution. Stress testing demonstrated that it was possible to serve up to 550 complex drinks per hour using Sidework.
RESULTS
Sidework increased throughput and overall efficiency by ~10%.
On average, beverages prepared with Sidework’s assistance were prepared 4.5 seconds faster than drinks made by hand.
Staff reported experiencing less mental stress due to the dispenser handling individual modifications and customizations.
“It’s usually three or four months to fully get new people up to speed. This machine is reducing it to a single shift.”
- MEMBER OF CORPORATE TRAINING TEAM
DRINK SAMPLES FROM THE PARTNER’S BEVERAGE MENU:
Dirty Soda A (Sprite, Minute Maid Lemonade, Strawberry Syrup)
Dirty Soda B (Coke, Coconut Syrup, Coconut Cream, Lime Juice)
Refresher (Coconut Creme, Coconut Syrup, Strawberry Purée, Vanilla Syrup)
