PERSONAL SETUP • KITCHEN AND FOOD BUSINESS OPERATIONS
A system organised around your kitchen.
The service starts with understanding your kitchen: the space, equipment, people and way you work. Chris Howlett brings practical hospitality and cleaning-management experience to help shape the layout, routines and records around your operation, and help your team understand how to use them.
Cleaners Workmate is being developed to bring cleaning, staff guidance, stock control and management records together. The value of the setup is a system organised for your kitchen, with clear responsibilities and practical support as your needs change.
Explore the kitchen demo
Walk through a sample fridge, freezer and dry store, move racks and try guided stock examples. Fictional data only: no real records are changed and no orders are sent. Use Start again to reset your practice.
Illustrative oven-cleaning demonstration
A silent, captioned example covering the shelves, side supports, interior, hinged door and exterior. Follow your oven manufacturer’s manual and the cleaner label; this is not model-specific instruction.
Development overview: This overview describes the intended full system. Available features and the setup scope will be confirmed with each customer. Integrations, automatic ordering and AI-assisted administration require further development and testing.
Read the intended capabilities below, or download the four-page handout to print or share. The roadmap covers kitchen setup, daily routines, stock and replenishment, and management support.
Set up the kitchen
1. Choose the type of food business
Begin with a walkthrough of your café, restaurant, bakery, pizza shop, takeaway or food-production operation. Agree the priorities and record operating hours, work areas, layout constraints and responsible people so the setup reflects the way you work.
2. Build a visual layout
Map the cooking line, preparation benches, wash-up area, refrigeration, freezer and dry store. Give areas and equipment clear names and numbers. The planned interactive layout would allow items and shelves to be added, moved, rotated and removed. More realistic 3D views are part of the development direction.
3. Link equipment and storage to the map
Open an item to see its photos, equipment details, instructions and associated tasks. Identify shelves, ingredient locations and utensil or pot storage. Record a model or serial number to help find the correct manual; any photo-based identification needs confirmation.
4. Agree what a satisfactory result looks like
Attach a reference photo to each cleaning area and link before-and-after photos to the same numbered location. Managers set the expected result and cleaning method, using suitable product labels, safety data sheets and equipment instructions.
Run the daily cleaning and staff work
Staff should be able to open their shift, see the work due and follow a clear routine on a phone or tablet. Managers would see completion and exceptions across the kitchen.
5. Create recurring tasks and time allowances
Schedule daily, weekly, monthly and occasional deep-cleaning work. Assign a person or role, set an expected duration and include any access or shutdown requirements. Separate routine cleaning from work needing specialist help.
6. Guide staff through each task
Provide short steps, reference photographs, required equipment and relevant precautions. Link training to the actual oven, bench, sink, shelving or other item. Staff can record a problem when a task cannot be completed as planned.
7. Record the work and check the result
Capture completion time, the staff member, notes and photographs, with a signature where required. Keep training completion separate from the record of cleaning performed. Supervisor review can accept the result, request a correction or assign further guidance.
8. Make unfinished work visible
Use a colour-coded map and task list to show what is due, overdue or awaiting review. A proposed priority scale runs from 1 to 10, with 10 the highest priority. Compare planned and actual task time, flag repeated unfinished tasks and warn when the remaining work may exceed the shift.
An example shift
At opening, staff check the fridge, preparation area and tasks due. During service they record issues as they arise. At closing they follow the cleaning list, attach evidence where needed and sign off. The manager reviews exceptions and carries approved unfinished work into the next shift.
Useful day to day records
The intended record set includes temperature checks, equipment faults, maintenance actions and manager follow-up. Limits and procedures must be configured for the site. These records would support the business’s food-safety procedures; the software would not itself certify compliance or confirm a surface is safe from a photo.
Simple customer access: Customers would not need their own AI subscription for ordinary use. Buttons, forms, photos and checklists should handle the core work. Voice assistance would be an optional way to enter or prepare information.
Track stock and prepare replenishment
The stock system would combine deliveries, production, sales, wastage and stocktakes. The till supplies sales information; it cannot by itself account for every movement in a kitchen.
9. Record what arrives
Confirm the quantity actually received against the supplier order or delivery record. Store the supplier, pack size, units, storage location and relevant batch or expiry details. Stock still on order stays separate from stock available to use.
10. Record ingredients used in preparation
Link recipes to their ingredient quantities and expected yield. When a batch is made, deduct the ingredients and add the finished portions. Record substitutions and actual yield where they differ. For made-to-order food, recipe-based sales deductions can estimate use instead.
11. Bring in itemised sales
Import a compatible till report or use an authorised automatic connection where supported. Match sold items and relevant modifiers to the correct product or recipe. A sale of an already-recorded batch deducts finished portions, not the ingredients a second time. Till compatibility needs checking for each customer.
12. Reconcile waste and physical stock
Record spoilage, preparation losses, staff meals and other non-sale use. Move stock between locations without treating the move as consumption. Compare the calculated balance with physical counts and keep a record of approved adjustments. Show when a sales feed or count is out of date.
13. Calculate what needs replacing
Set target levels and reorder points for each item, considering expected demand, supplier lead times, delivery days, pack sizes, storage space and shelf life. Include quantities already on order so the same shortage does not generate duplicate orders.
Illustrative reorder: If the agreed target is 20 litres of milk, there are 8 litres available and 4 litres already due before they are needed, the suggested top-up is 8 litres. The target must cover the relevant demand period.
Prepare a supplier order for manager approval. A later option could send orders automatically within agreed suppliers and limits, where a supported ordering connection exists. Supplier comparisons could consider equivalent quantities, delivery charges and availability. Receipt of the delivery closes the loop.
Manage the operation and develop the system
14. Give managers a clear overview
Bring together overdue cleaning, outstanding checks, equipment issues, low stock, expected deliveries and orders awaiting approval. Keep staff views focused on their work and management views focused on decisions and follow-up.
15. Produce useful reports
Provide cleaning history, completion evidence, supervisor reviews, training progress, recorded temperatures, maintenance actions, stock usage, wastage and purchasing records. Compare expected recipe use with actual stock movement to investigate differences. Export suitable records for review and discussion.
16. Support authorised customer changes
A later authorised support function would let Chris prepare changes to your kitchen layout or schedules through text or voice. Show the affected site and proposed edits before approval. Keep each customer’s records separate, retain a change history and provide a controlled recovery process. This capability is planned for a later stage.
A staged rollout
First validate kitchen setup and daily cleaning with a pilot site. Then add reliable stock records and replenishment suggestions. Add automatic till and supplier connections after the data is proven. Introduce remote AI-assisted changes later, with customer permissions and approval controls.
Affordability is a design priority. Start with the routines and records your kitchen needs most, then add stock connections or advanced support when they provide value. Agree the setup work, ongoing costs, included features and support before proceeding. Site, user, storage and retention allowances would be stated clearly.
Talk through what your kitchen needs
Start with a conversation about your layout, staff routines and priorities. Chris will confirm the available features, suitable setup scope and support before you proceed.
Capability roadmap • 23 October 2026