Automation that increases production in a constrained environment. Designed to let a 2–3 person food truck operate like a 4–5 person staff — by automating ordering, menu management, and front-of-line friction so workers can stay focused on production.
This project explores how automation can increase production capacity in ultra-constrained environments — specifically, small food trucks where 2–3 people must cook, assemble orders, handle payments, and take orders all at once. In most trucks, one person becomes a permanent bottleneck at the ordering window, while the grill station waits — limiting throughput, revenue, and customer experience.
I designed a mobile ordering and menu system that moves the entire ordering workflow off the line and onto the customer’s phone. Guests scan a QR code, browse the menu, build their order, and submit — which frees staff to stay focused on cooking instead of managing input. On the operator side, the system runs on a single iPad inside the truck with large touch-targets and a compact UI designed specifically for glove-space constraints.
Payments (Apple Pay / Google Wallet / Tap-to-Pay) and optional receipt printing are in active development, but the core is already proven: shifting the friction and overhead away from staff and directly into an automated workflow. The goal is not “just mobile ordering” — the goal is to let a small crew produce like a larger one, and to turn human effort into the highest-value activity: making food.