Chapter 1 : Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction To The Project

In the modern era of technology, people tend to do things in a faster pace lifestyle; they not only walk faster, but also eat faster than others. Thanks to the invention of fast-food, now people can enjoy their meal in just mere several minutes of waiting. But they are always not seems to be satisfied with the time spent on having a meal. Sushi restaurant as one of the favourite fast-food restaurant in Malaysia and Singapore serving thousands of working community and student daily during lunch time hour. Thus a system are require to help in reducing the time spent on ordering and paying the bills.

Consumers like working community and student always face problems and inconveniences when having lunch in a fast-food sushi restaurant. During rush hour time, it will be the busiest time for the sushi restaurant’s waiter, where they have to serve and take special orders from customer, calculate the colour coded plate one by one for the total bill for the consumed sushi and have to clean up the plates and tables. This causes some of the customer might not be able to find a seat and have to queue up for a long wait and some who wish to place any special order are neglected since the waiter are too busy to serve them for awhile.

Currently there are no existing methods in Malaysia and Singapore that solve the problems as stated above. Sushi restaurant are still using the most traditional way of calculating the final bill by counting the numbers and different type of plates of the consumed sushi and the special orders if there is any. But in Japan and United States, some of the sushi restaurants are using the RFID technology for the ease to calculate the consumed sushi that required a worker with RFID scanner to scan the stack of plates.

The problem stated above might eventually be solved or else improved by the implementation of RFID technology in sushi restaurant with “kaiten” system. This can be done by simply implant an RFID tag to the plate and attach an RFID scanner on the table, when consumer are about to remove the plate from the conveyor belt, it will scan the plate and price will be added to the customer’s account. An automated menu which is a touch screen menu that will only show the available special order, consumer can place any order and finally press confirm to send the special order directly to the chef which does not require the waiter to take the orders manually by using paper.

1.2 Problem Background

Nowadays, having meal in a fast-food sushi restaurant are wasting too much of consumer’s precious time, having or eating the food in the fast-food sushi restaurant can be fast and easy, but when comes to calculate the final bill, it waste a lot of time counting one by one plate of consumed sushi.

Situation become worse when hundreds of customer like working community and students flock to nearby sushi branch to have their lunch, the waiter will become very busy serving and taking any special orders from customer, calculate the colour coded plate one by one for the total bill and have to clean up the plates and tables. This causes inconvenience like customer require to queue up to wait for their turn and some of the customer that do not want to wait will eventually find another restaurant to have their lunch to avoid being late to get back to work after lunch. Plus customer who wishes to place special order will be neglected and or only being serve by the waiter after several calling.

Besides that, customer who wish to place an order for example “Tempura” and is only told by the waiter that it is not available on that day, they will be disappointed and wasting more time choosing another dishes.

It will be a great improvement to the traditional way if the technology of RFID is implemented. Reducing the time spent on ordering food or paying the bills. By doing so, be it the fast-food supplier or their customers, this will undoubtly be a win-win situation for both side. The supplier side can afford to generate more income by serving more customers and for the consumer’s side they can enjoy their meal at lesser time spent.

1.3 Project Aim

The aim of this project is to develop an automated system using RFID for the sushi restaurant that has “kaiten” system that helps in reducing the calculation time for the total bill and thus save consumer’s precious time.

1.4 Project Objectives

The objectives for this project are as below:

· To study the current and similar system, user requirement, the technology to be used as well as the suitable programming language that will be used to develop this system.

· To develop an automated menu and “kaiten” system using RFID.

· To test the developed system for error and usability.

1.5 Project Scopes

The scopes for this project are as below:

· This project research will only focus on Sushi Restaurant such as ‘Sushi King’, ‘Genki Sushi’ and other similar sushi restaurant.

· This system only total up the price of consumed sushi and special order and no transaction will be done.

· The touch screen menu will be displayed using computer and click using mouse due to lack of devices that has the similar function.

· This project assumes that all customers using this system are honest and will scan every sushi plates using the RFID reader on the table.

1.6 The Importance Of The Project

This system is important because it might solve or greatly improve many of the existing problems and inconveniences faced by most customers when having meal in a sushi restaurant. Some of the benefits of this project are customer no longer need to wait for the waiter to place an order and save precious time when comes to calculate the final bills. Plus the fast-food sushi supplier can generate more income by serving more customers, and the waiter need not to be too busy during lunch time.

Furthermore, this system is being developed with the purpose to convert the traditional system whereby taking an order using papers and calculating final bills by counting plate by plate to a brand new system using RFID technology. At which the sushi colour coded plate will be implanted an RFID tag and RFID reader and the touch screen menu on the table.

1.7 Report Organisation

Chapter 2

This chapter explains the research done by others regarding the subject matter of the project. It also involves current systems or applications similar to the system or application developed for the project. This chapter also explains about techniques, methods, equipment or technology that is used or will be used in the project.

Chapter 3

This chapter reports on the overall approach and framework chosen for research or system or application development. The content for this chapter can hold methods, techniques or approach that is used (PSM 2) or will be used (PSM 1) during design and implementation of the project. In addition, this chapter also justifies the choice of methods or approach, as well as hardware and software requirements.

Chapter 4

This chapter will outline a provisional design that may require review as the project gets on its way.