Configuring Production Lanes

KDS supports two production lanes. If your kitchen has dual order preparation lines, you need to configure order devices for each production lane. After the order devices have been configured, these same devices need to be associated with each other. When production lanes are in use, orders are fired to both lanes simultaneously. A user working on one lane must claim an order to work on it. Once an order is claimed, it is not visible in the other order lane. A Lane field is available in the Order Devices module on the KDS tab to designate an order device as one of two configurable lanes (1 or 2).

Production lanes can be configured and implemented to work as a separate feature (by assigning a lane to KDS order devices), or they can work in tandem using Workflow value settings defined for each KDS order device to determine where an order shows first, and when bumped or done from that display, where it shows next and so on, from highest to lowest values. See Configuring Workflow for more information about this feature.

Important:

Do not click Save until you have completed all of the configuration steps outlined here. This is contrary to most configuration practices. If you save any changes prior to completing the entire configuration, the feature setup remains incomplete.

1. Before starting to configure production lanes, ensure that your KDS order devices are configured for the revenue center running the KDS display. Select the revenue center, click Setup, and then click Order Devices.

   See Configuring a KDS Order Device for more information if order devices are not set up.

   Note:

   You can only associate Prep Stations with other Prep Stations and Expo Stations with other Expo Stations. To configure the Associations section, lane assignments and device associations must be completed for each KDS order device prior to saving. Associated KDS order devices require differing lane number assignments (1 or 2). You cannot associate an order device which has a zero lane assignment.
2. Double-click the KDS order device record to open it.
3. Click the KDS tab.
4. In the Lane field, assign a value of 1 or 2 (the default setting is 0). If you leave the Lane value at 0, the KDS order device is not in any lane. For example, if you select a KDS order device named Prep_1, you could assign it to Lane 1.
5. Open another Prep KDS order device record and assign it the previously unassigned Lane number. Since the Prep_1 KDS order device has already been assigned to Lane 1, assign Lane 2 to the KDS order device named Prep_2.
6. From the Associations section, click the Add link.
7. Click the drop-down list under the Associated Order Device column and select a similar device (Prep Stations with other Prep Stations and Expo Stations with other Expo Stations) to associate them together. For example, select the KDS order device named Prep_1 for association in KDS order device Prep_2's record, and then select KDS order device named Prep_2 for association in KDS order device Prep_1's record.
8. If you have other KDS order devices to associate with each other, repeat Steps 4 through 7 for each KDS order device.
9. After the entire Production Lanes configuration has been completed, click Save.

   Attention:

   When utilizing Production Lanes functionality, you must configure the menu items to use Print Classes (which are then assigned in the Menu Item Classes module) to output only to the KDS order devices desired in Lane 1. The system automatically displays them on the associated KDS order devices in Lane 2.

   See examples of production lanes and workflow settings on KDS order devices in Handling Orders Using Production Lanes and Workflow.