Cedele by The Bakery Depot

Cedele by The Bakery Depot makes at least 2,000 loaves of freshly hand-crafted bread a day. To cope with the increasingly large volume and wide variety of food production, the company has set up an integrated IT system to manage resource planning, supply chain management and sales system better.

Home-grown food brand Cedele by The Bakery Depot has been successfully wooing the taste buds of gourmet lovers in Singapore with its wholesome food philosophy for the last 10 years. Today, the company has 14 outlets island-wide.

From freshly hand-crafted artisan breads to luscious cakes made with organic unrefined sugar to creative gluten-free soups, each appetizing item on Cedele's menu is created with customers' well being in mind. This involves sourcing for natural and fresh ingredients and experimenting with recipes to make tasty food more nutritious.

Yeap Cheng Guat (right), founder and Managing Director of The Bakery Depot, left her job in a multinational corporation and started the company in July 1997 to fulfil her passion for baking. Since day one, she has only one clear objective in mind - to create nutritious and quality food.

She said, "We want to make food in the traditional and time-tested ways where the very essence of making a decent loaf is time. We take pride in the food we create and we make them from scratch. "

The Bakery Depot had a humble beginning as a small bakery in Frankel Avenue housing a kitchen and retail space in a compact floor area of 1,200 square feet. Its wide variety of freshly-made breads soon won a strong following and even a contract with Singapore Airlines to supply breads for the airlines first- and business-class flights.

Ms Yeap says it was not easy coping with the large volume of orders with the limited resources of her kitchen then. "But the experience of supplying breads for Singapore Airlines has taught me more about production processes and helped me plan the expansion of my operations."

Managing growth with technology

Some 10 years later, The Bakery Depot has grown and now runs 14 outlets in downtown areas and shopping malls. Its outlets are grouped into three types - bakery cafes, caf-restaurants and bakeries. The company expects to open another five more outlets by the end of this year.

To cope with the large volume of orders at its outlets, The Bakery Depot recently moved its central cooking operations into a new kitchen at Kaki Bukit. The new kitchen now occupies 7,000 sq ft, including office and storage area.

Its daily production of bread has increased from fewer than 200 loaves a decade ago to more than 2,000 loaves now. To date, the bakery has also launched at least 250 types of bread. According to Ms Yeap, the tasks of handling large volumes of different ingredients and producing such wide variety of food items have reached a mind-boggling stage.

"We realised we needed a comprehensive IT system to help us plan and better manage our buying and production," she explained. "We wanted to track the exact amount of various ingredients used and minimise wastage as much as possible."

Last year, the company started shopping for an IT system that can match its needs and integrate all parts of the company's operations. The outcome was adopting an integrated IT system comprising resource planning, supply chain management, customer relations management and sales system. This integrated technology helps enhance The Bakery Depot's operational efficiency and prepares the company for larger scale expansion plans, including setting up outlets abroad.

The system has started running in phases, and the first phase included changing all cash registers to Point-Of-Sales (POS) systems at retail outlets.

This helps the company to monitor sales details and understand business trends such as identifying the popular food items at each outlet.

"Acquiring information to make informed decisions is critical to managing a business well," Ms Yeap said. "We can understand our customers' preferences in a more systematic way and can eliminate slow-moving food items. On the purchasing front, excessive buying can be minimized. I once found out that my staff was ordering supplies of straws and toothpicks that could last for at least two years. With the new IT system in place, our purchasing processes can certainly meet demand better."

In addition, the integrated IT system can also monitor ongoing activities at all outlets through installation of closed-circuit TVs. Ms Yeap believes that this will ensure better security for staff and customers.

The Bakery Depot now runs 14 outlets in downtown areas and shopping malls. The company expects to open another five more outlets by end of this year

She also recommends other SMEs to consider adopting integrated IT systems to facilitate their growth. "The system allows companies to add on extra modules to accommodate new needs," she added. "This flexibility works well for SMEs as we grow and expand."

Officers from SPRING first knocked on Ms Yeap's doors five years ago. But being the chief baker and chef that she was, holed up in her companys kitchen most of the time, Ms Yeap admits that she hadnt been putting much focus on other aspects of the business apart from its food offerings then.

"I'm glad that SPRING did not give up on engaging us," Ms Yeap said. "Their advice and support came in timely as we were planning to enhance our IT capabilities. I look forward to working with SPRING on more projects in the future - such as branding." ET

Muthu's Curry

Muthu's Curry, a top local South Indian restaurant, has integrated technology into its largely traditional business - with its superior information management system. The Little India eatery is equipped with technology which allows its service staff to record and transmit orders to and from the kitchen wirelessly. This eliminates errors from illegible scribbled orders, duplicate entries and miscommunications with the kitchen. The system also keeps track of reservations and helps automate payment status and other details for the convenience of guests.

Muthu's Curry first opened in 1969 as a curry stall in a Race Course Road coffee shop. Today almost four decades later, it has established itself as a premier restaurant serving fish head curry on fresh banana leaves. In fact, Muthu's has won the coveted Best Fish Head Curry Award several times at the Singapore Food Festival.

The main Muthu's Curry restaurant has a capacity of 350 seats and serves an average of 350 customers each day. With an impeccable 39-year record built on great food and service, Muthus Curry faced a big challenge - maintaining its sterling reputation in the light of an ever more frenetic kitchen and greater competition. Streamlining the ordering process was seen as a way for Muthus Curry to maintain its status.

Improving customer service through efficient and seamless sharing of information

Muthu's Curry wanted a system that allows its serving staff to take orders and transmit them to the kitchen wirelessly without having to return to the kitchen. By eliminating errors from hastily scribbled orders and duplicate entries, Muthu's Curry was able to increase productivity while cutting unnecessary traffic to and from its kitchen. This helped to create the ambience of a calmer and a more efficient restaurant.

"The time a customer waits can easily sway his or her opinion of a restaurant and its service," pointed out Muthu's Curry's CEO, Visvanaath A. 'Our business philosophy - "It's never enough" - has been driving us to find new ways to improve our customers' dining experience. Great food needs to be fresh and even the experience of tasting the best fish head curry in Singapore can be ruined by a 45 minute wait for an entre, or even longer for the bill."

Almost three-quarters of successful restaurant sales come from repeat customers. "Our earlier point-of-sale (POS) systems were not able to provide the reliability and consistency that we require," added Visvanaath.

Muthu's Curry also needed to monitor information from its other restaurants and consolidate data in one place to get a single view of all the operations.

Staff can now take orders using PDAs and transmit them wirelessly to any of the five kitchen or bar printers.

Real-time access to information and validation of orders

Muthu's Curry restaurants are now equipped with the very latest POS technology from Motorola. Staff can now take orders using PDAs and transmit them wirelessly to any of the five kitchen or bar printers.

This saves time by not having to write orders and return to a fixed terminal to key them in. It also increases efficiency as staff move from one table to another, continuing to take orders and transferring them seamlessly.

The Benefits: Real-time tracking, improved productivity and happier customers

The whole system can update the status of a table wirelessly and instantly. The data can include meal course served, bill printed, bill paid and more. This helps staff to have a bird's eye view of what is happening at each and every table, take reservations on waitlist and enable faster turnaround times.

Muthu's Curry has also integrated the system to keep track of reservations and help automate monitoring, payment status and all the details for guests. Muthu's Curry uses this to get better financial control and return on investment. ET