US-based restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory is using IBM Big Data analytics to quickly alert its restaurants to remove ingredients that do not meet safety standards.
The Cheesecake Factory manages a variety of data in bulk volumes generated by its complex, global food supply chain.
This information ranges right from transportation of food at appropriate temperature to supply of fresh food, withdrawals of products and shelf life of food items.
Given the bulk volume of data, also known as big data, it becomes difficult for large restaurant chains such as The Cheesecake Factory to get a quick insight and then manage.
With the use IBM Big Data analytics built on IBM Power Systems and IBM Business Partner, N2N Global's solution, The Cheesecake Factory can now quickly alert its restaurants to withdraw any ingredient that does not meet its high standards for quality and consistency.
If an ingredient does not meet the chain's specifications such as taste, color or consistency, or has been subjected to a recall, the company can communicate critical supply chain data immediately with a single point of view, without the need to manually enter or access the information.
In fact, tackling big data has become a daunting challenge for several food service operators world over - US alone has approximately one million restaurant locations.
However, this technology promises to bring new efficiencies to a chain's operations. For instance, managers can focus more time on enhancing the quality of operations rather than investing it on data entry.
The Cheesecake Factory Quality Assurance & Food Safety vice president Dr. Ata (Al) Baroudi said that advanced analytics technology helps the company better leverage big data to ensure freshness and quality for our guests.
"We collect and maintain large amounts of data. N2N Global and IBM are assisting us with utilizing this data to better maintain the highest standard of quality," Baroudi added.
The Cheesecake Factory offers 200 menu items, and serves more than 80 million guests each year. It has about 180 restaurants in the US and three in the Middle East.
