he world of automated food and bev-
erage services (vending, OCS, micro
markets and beyond) appears to be
getting more complicated every year.
Cashless, telemetry, Affordable Care
Act (ACA) compliance and a host of
hardware and software changes can
send an operator's head reeling. Our
industry progresses with technologi-
cal improvements, to be sure — but
how can we make the technology we
already possess actually produce better
results? Is the technology we currently
own making better procedures, hap-
pier customers and more loyal employ-
ees? Can technology actually produce a
smooth daily delivery cycle as product
fows from the warehouse to the feld?
The answers, I believe, can be found
in the simple act of counting. That
which we count, we measure. That
which can be measured can improve.
Improvement fosters accomplishment,
and accomplishment makes room for
growth. Creating a "culture of count-
ing" at your business will build better
operating procedures which will better
adapt your organization to whatever
lies ahead for our industry.
No. 1:
Count your money
Vending equipment
has been collecting accurate cash
information for over 20 years. Since
the dawn of the Digital Exchange
(more commonly known as DEX) in
the early 1990s, control boards have
been tirelessly counting the coins and
bills accepted for our food and bever-
ages — right down to the nickel. One
of the frst questions I ask potential
clients is, "Are you confdent that the
money collected from your machines
made it all the way to your bank
account?" I ask this because most
operators aren't 100 percent sure, and
in my opinion, industry technology
isn't helping much if it's not helping
the operator secure their income.
Every operator knows that count-
ing money can be a chore, but it's crit-
ical to success and requires diligent
consistency. Here are a few questions
that good processing room systems
and technology should be able to
answer every day:
• How many machines were short
more than $2 yesterday?
• Were the shortages caused by
machine failure, human data
entry error or are they short with-
out explanation?
• How many "mystery" shortages
are we seeing each day, and from
which routes?
• If faulty equipment is to blame for
a shortage, was it repaired?
T
Count on it: Four ways to
create a better business culture
By Ben White, Contributing Editor
Operators need to count their money,
product, problems and progress to create
a better business culture, which can be
achieved by integrating control boards,
VMS systems and other technologies.
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14 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com May 2014
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