Chipotle’s little-known second line
A case in point: Chipotle Mexican Grill. Behind the kitchen visible to dine-in customers is usually a more compact second prep line, installed to handle orders placed via fax, phone or desktop. Management says that second make-line is underused, and that only 6% of a store’s sales are currently placed remotely. So the chain plans to retrofit the prep area with new technology that fields digital orders directly, whether they’re placed by smartphone or via tablets Chipotle intends to install in the dining room.
The setup has the advantage of being secluded from the dining room and main prep line, so the employees stationed at it have fewer distractions, says Chipotle CEO Steve Ells.
“The benefits of these new lines will be enormous, including faster, more efficient assembly of orders, reduced errors and more consistent portion sizes for our customers,” he told financial analysts. “When the full system is realized, the second make-line has the potential to deliver as much as 50% of the sales from some locations.”
In addition to being retrofitted into stores, the new setup will presumably be standard in the next generation of Chipotle units, which cost about $40,000 less to build than the old models, or roughly $760,000.