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Published on March 13, 2008

Forget meal coupons for buffets. From now on, expect to be handed a small plastic tag as soon you enter a lunch or dinner buffet. Welcome to the world of radio frequency identification (RFID).

Buffet restaurants are adopting RFID to turn a traditional spread into an intelligent buffet.

RFID can help identify items and thus can be used to keep track of customer behaviour while they are enjoying a buffet. Such information is vital for the restaurant to analyse and develop the buffet to surpass the customer expectations at all times.

To help a traditional buffet restaurant change, three senior computer science students from Kasetsart University have developed a system called Intelligent Buffet Restaurant to collect customer and buffet information for analysis and subsequent planning.

The system uses RFID technology in two ways - to collect customer information and to monitor the menu, Pisuth Nitinon, one of the developers, said.

Pisuth and his two colleagues, Yosdaroon Hokjaroon and Anusith Lertthanawong, spent four months developing the system. He said the two aspects of RFID would work together to analyse the relationship between the customers' behaviour and the buffet service to determine the best mix of service.

This is how it works. Once the customer walks into the restaurant, the staff gives him a RFID tag which records customer information as well as the service charge. With the tag, the customer can ask for a special menu or a beverage. The extra services are recorded in the tag and an accurate payment calculation is made at the end of the meal.

Working on the other side of the counter, RFID tags are attached to each buffet tray to monitor the status of the menu and record the time the tray was brought in to the buffet counter and taken back to the kitchen, Pisuth said.

This information is stored in the system to allow managers to monitor and analyse the data.

"If a menu item stays too long on the buffet counter, it indicates that the item is not popular. The manager can then factor this information into his menu planning," he said.

To help restaurant analyse the information better, a new Decision Support System has been developed to assess how customers react to the buffet.

Instead of offering a buffet based on the restaurant manager's instinct, the new system will help the manager examine dining behaviour systematically, helping the restaurant offer menus which sell well, reduce wastage and save money, Pisuth said.

In addition, the system includes a back-end system for restaurant management. This system was designed to manage the daily buffet menu and the restaurant's inventory, Pisuth said.

The project recently received the first runner-up award in the National RFID Innovation Challenge 2007.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation