It’s no secret that operational goals are intrinsically tied to the long-term success of a business. These shorter-term objectives are meant to drive the overall strategic plan and contribute to the achievement of the big picture. Operational goals help ensure that day-to-day business functions are running smoothly and provide concrete targets to work towards. While optimizing your operational goal-setting process is key, it’s also crucial for foodservice and retail establishments to employ the right asset and energy management solutions.
Connected equipment can help propel operational goals forward in a number of different ways, whether you own restaurants, c-stores, health clinics, retail stores or other commercial establishments. Using the power of IoT (Internet-of-Things) can reduce costs, enhance operational efficiencies, and make it possible to achieve operational objectives with increased ease. Here are six ways connected equipment can help a business meet its operational goals.
1. Make the business more sustainable
Sustainability is a big goal for most companies, and these days it’s more than just a buzzword. A recent study revealed that 85% of consumers had become ‘greener’ in their purchasing, and many expect businesses to be making the same effort. Using connected equipment supports sustainability goals and drastically reduces an operation’s carbon footprint. From reduced energy consumption and preservation of capital equipment to a reduction in food waste and water usage, solutions like Open Kitchen and SiteSage make it possible to become more sustainable as a business. Overall, it becomes easier to develop environmentally-conscious operational objectives that positively impact the Earth as well as customers.
2. Increase site health
Successfully navigating facility site health is more important today than ever. Keeping employees and patrons healthy in a world changed by the pandemic is top of mind for every business owner around the globe. Since many businesses were not prepared for a global pandemic, it is especially crucial to rethink current operations and prepare for the future.
Connected equipment can help with this in several ways:
- Ventilation
- Air-quality monitoring
- Automating high-touch control areas
- Air cleaning
- Surface purification
To make your facility a safer place, download our free whitepaper for an in-depth look at how to implement changes that keep both employees and customers safe and feeling confident in what has become the “new normal.”
3. Enhance customer experience
Employees and customers not only want but expect to be comfortable when they enter a food service or retail establishment. Connected equipment makes it possible to create consistent conditions for your customers with things like automated thermostat controls, proactive monitoring, maintenance of HVAC units, and fix lists, which prioritize the most urgent issues that contribute to comfort problems. This keeps everyone feeling comfortable, and may even entice customers to stay longer for that extra cup of coffee or stellar shopping experience. Connected equipment also enhances the customer experience outside the business establishment with its ability to control lighting and signage. For example, parking lot lighting will turn on when it should, providing a safe environment inside and out. Plus, employees won’t be able to shut off open signs or close down operations early.
4. Reduce energy consumption and cut expenses
Connected equipment is designed to optimize gas, electricity, and water consumption through efficient, automated control and accurate monitoring. The business gains the ability to identify detailed, individual drivers of energy costs, including HVAC systems, lighting, walk-in coolers, and refrigerators. From there, facility managers can identify unique benchmarks for each location to identify problem areas and make improvements. Higher energy spending can help uncover underperforming equipment needing repair or replacement, oversized equipment, or poor adherence to equipment schedules. This all leads to lower energy consumption and expenses, reduced maintenance costs, and less equipment downtime.
5. Increase food safety
For every business owner and facility manager, overall food safety and product quality are paramount. This protects profits by ensuring the quality and lifespan of products and can also inherently protect brand reputation. It only takes one account of food poisoning to change the way a brand is perceived. Connected equipment eliminates this worry by using wireless temp sensors and automated food safety processes. A solution like Open Kitchen goes a step beyond temperature monitoring by capturing and analyzing kitchen equipment data to deliver an end-to-end, on-premises food safety solution.
6. Mitigate repair and maintenance costs
Unexpected downtime can seriously derail almost any operational goal. Plus, it’s costly. And while scheduled maintenance is smart, it’s not designed to catch failure before it happens. Instead, it’s best to monitor equipment proactively to eliminate the unnecessary stress of unplanned downtime and reduce repair and maintenance costs. For example, a solution like SiteSage is designed to leverage text and email message alerts to your staff when there are equipment issues so you can make proactive repairs and identify catastrophic failures before they happen.
Conclusion
Operational goals are vital to running day-to-day business functions smoothly and achieving larger strategic goals. For foodservice and retail establishments, connected equipment takes the stress out of asset and energy management, and helps keep employees and customers happy. Business owners can use connected equipment to achieve many important objectives, from increased sustainability and site health to reduced maintenance costs, better customer experiences, and more.
Before planning, find out how connected equipment can help your business meet its operation goals. Our experts are waiting for your email to start the conversation.