Duration: 15:13
PART 1 — Analytical Summary 🚀
Context 💼
This talk is a live demo led by Liselot, a Business Analyst at Odoo, introducing the new Courses capability in Odoo POS for Restaurants and its Kitchen Display companion. The feature addresses a familiar hospitality pain point: peak-time coordination between the dining room and the kitchen. By structuring orders into courses and orchestrating when each should be prepared, Odoo aims to streamline the “smart dispatch” of information from front-of-house to back-of-house—reducing service bottlenecks and improving guest experience.
Core ideas & innovations ⚙️
With Courses, waitstaff can capture a complete order in one go—drinks, starters, mains, and desserts—then sequence items into Course 1, Course 2, and beyond via a new “Course” control in the simplified cart. Once the initial order is placed, Course 1 is automatically “fired,” while subsequent courses remain pending. As the service unfolds, the waiter taps “Fire Course 2,” “Fire Course 3,” and so on, giving the kitchen precise signals on when to start each wave. The Kitchen Display mirrors this logic, showing items in “To Cook,” “Ready,” and “Completed” states, with timers indicating how long a fired course has been waiting. Cooks can claim items they’re working on, and the display helps synchronize plating.
A powerful detail is the filtering and batching on the Kitchen Display: staff can quickly see, for example, that five cheeseburgers are needed across multiple tables and prepare them together when operationally sensible. The workflow is forgiving, too—if the waiter forgets to assign items to the correct course, they can move them later; if a guest changes their mind, items can be edited or swapped as long as the course hasn’t been fired. Even after confirmation, additional items can be appended to an existing course and sent to the kitchen as an update. Complexities like split payments are supported mid-service, and guests can add desserts after settling part of the bill. On the sales side, configurable upsell suggestions (e.g., proposing a drink with an appetizer) can be defined in the backend so the POS prompts the waiter at the right moment.
Operational touches round out the flow: a floor plan and active order list, quick check-in of reservations with guest count, and the option for staff to authenticate with badges or PINs (hardware specifics—such as RFID/magnetic—depend on the reader’s compatibility). The POS and Kitchen Display can be used in tandem on mobile devices, allowing waiters to glance at “Ready” items without walking back to a wall screen.
Impact & takeaways 🧠
The net effect is tighter front-of-house/back-of-house synchronization and fewer timing mishaps. By decoupling “taking the order” from “firing the course,” kitchens get just-in-time signals, can pre-empt long-prep dishes, and leverage batching for higher throughput. Waiters avoid needless trips to the pass, respond faster to guest changes, and maintain smoother pacing across the meal. For managers, the approach translates to less friction at peak hours, clearer responsibilities, and a more consistent guest experience—exactly the gains operators seek from a modern, integrated POS and Kitchen Display System. 💬
PART 2 — Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
In restaurants, timing is the customer experience. We designed Courses to make timing simple—take the full order once, then release it in rhythm. When the POS and the Kitchen Display share the same language—courses, states, timers—teams act as one. That’s the kind of integration we love to build.
The win isn’t just speed; it’s clarity. A clear signal to fire, the ability to batch intelligently, and fewer interruptions between the room and the kitchen. If we reduce complexity for waiters and cooks, guests feel it in the quality of their evening. Simplicity at the surface, strong automation underneath—that’s Odoo.
PART 3 — Viewpoint: Competitors (SAP / Microsoft / Others)
Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
Odoo’s Courses and Kitchen Display pairing is well executed and user-friendly. The front/back-of-house alignment, real-time firing, and batching are strong levers for casual and mid-market dining. The UX is clean, and the integration with POS flows is coherent—this will resonate with operators looking for agility.
At scale, larger groups will probe areas like multi-venue orchestration, deep compliance (e.g., allergens, audit trails, role segregation), advanced prep-routing across multiple stations, and offline resilience under heavy loads. The building blocks are there; differentiation will hinge on enterprise-grade governance, analytics depth, and tight integrations with finance, workforce, and supply chains. It’s a credible step forward, and the competitive line will be drawn around how well the solution scales in complex, multi-kitchen environments.
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.