Monday, 5:10am. The mill at the central kitchen is already on, because someone always wants dosa batter. Andheri is shut on Monday. Bandra’s real morning is Tuesday. At 6:40 the Bandra manager writes in the group: 18 kg, the wedding crowd from last week still in her head. The trader at the gate wants cash for a top-up. Juhu’s chutney, which arrives every ten days and on no weekday anyone can name, is not in the cold room. By 8 the counters that are open are short, the hub shelf rate has moved, and the van leaves with whatever was ground in a panic. The brand is one brand. The prep list is a feeling.
That feeling is the problem hub-and-spoke logistics still has after the supply book is in place. The central kitchen is the hub. Each franchise outlet is a spoke. The outlet can ask, and the hub can send, and the ledger can say who pays. None of that grinds the batter the night before. The screen that does is Prepare, on HQ supply.
The problem, in the order it hits the hub
- The ask arrives late. Bandra writes at 6:40. The first dosa is at 8. The mill needed the quantity at 5, when the grinder was free and the trader was still on yesterday’s rate.
- One loud week becomes the pile. Last Tuesday was a wedding. 18 kg went out the door. This Tuesday is an ordinary office crowd. A prep list that remembers the wedding grinds 18 kg and then throws the extra, or sells it to staff.
- A closed door still gets a pile. Andheri is dark on Monday. The hub grinds for Andheri because “they always take batter.” The cans sit. Tuesday’s Bandra run starts from a shelf that was already spent on a door that was shut.
- A gap is invisible. Juhu does not ask for chutney on a named weekday. The last can left ten days ago. Nobody’s Monday meeting has a line for it, so the cold room is empty when the message arrives.
- The hurry changes the cost. The top-up at the gate is not the shelf rate. The hub books a worse kilogram, the outlet still pays the supply price plus the tempo, and the margin on the counted quantity shrinks before a single dosa is sold.
The guest never sees this. The guest sees a wait, or a dosa that tastes like a different batter. Head office sees the cash at the gate.
What the earlier requests already know
Every ask on HQ supply is a day, an outlet, a material, and a quantity. Prepare reads the last eight weeks of those asks. Older seasons drop off, so a festival in July does not set October. Two request days for the same material at the same outlet are the start. One request day stays off the page.
- Weekday. Which day of the week the outlet asks.
- Frequency. The gap, in days, from one ask to the next, when no weekday repeats.
- Volume. The usual quantity: the middle of those days, not the loudest one.
The next seven days, including today, are the window. Head office gets two tables. To have on the hub shelf sums the likely asks by material, and counts each outlet once. By day lists the day, the outlet, the material, the quantity, and why. The sub outlet beside the title limits both tables to one door.
Step 1. A Tuesday that has happened before
Bandra has asked for batter on four Tuesdays in the last eight weeks: 10 kg, 12 kg, then a Tuesday with two messages of 6 kg and 4 kg, then 8 kg. The two messages are one day of 10 kg. The days are 10, 12, 10, and 8. The middle is 10 kg.
Tuesday has come up more than once, so next Tuesday is a likely ask. Prepare puts 10 kg of batter on Bandra’s line for that Tuesday, and the why says it was asked on Tuesdays. The wedding’s 18 kg is in someone’s memory. It is not the middle, so it does not set the mill. The grinder can run Monday night for 10 kg, at the shelf rate the hub already holds.
Step 2. A Monday that has not earned a pile
Andheri is shut on Monday, and Andheri has not asked for batter on a Monday twice. A weekday needs two earlier asks before it can book a day. Monday stays off Andheri’s lines. The cans that used to be ground “just in case” stay in the pile for the doors that have a pattern. A closed shutter is no longer a reason to start the mill.
Step 3. A gap, when the weekday will not repeat
Juhu asked for chutney on a Wednesday, 8 kg, and then on a Saturday, 12 kg. Ten days apart. No weekday has come up twice, so the weekday rule stays quiet. The usual gap is 10 days. That next day falls inside the seven days on the page. The quantity is the middle of 8 and 12, so 10 kg. The why names the gap and the date of the last ask.
If that tenth day had already passed, and Juhu had not asked again, the line would sit on today. Head office sees the miss while the cold room can still be filled, instead of reading it in a message at 6:40.
Step 4. An ask that is already on the desk
Bandra sends Tuesday’s request at 6:12, before anyone opens Prepare. Today is already on the request sheet. Prepare leaves today off for that material. The hub is not told to grind a second 10 kg for an ask that is already accepted, priced, and waiting on a dispatch. The forecast is for what has not been asked yet.
Step 5. What head office does with the page
On Monday night the house manager opens Prepare. To have on the hub shelf shows batter for Bandra’s Tuesday and chutney for Juhu’s gap, each with the outlets that need it. By day is the sequence: which morning, which door, which can, and whether the reason is a weekday or a gap. One sub outlet beside the title shows only that door, which is how a hub manager checks Bandra before calling the mill.
The buy, if the shelf is short of that total, goes to the usual trader on Monday, at the rate the hub already knows. The mill runs for the 10 kg, not the wedding. The tempo on Tuesday morning is the same supply the outlet will count and pay: goods at the supply price, shipment charges on that outlet’s ledger. The forecast does not send the van. It makes the van possible. Sending, the count, and the payment stay on the book described in hub-and-spoke logistics for restaurant chains and franchisees.
The franchise outlet keeps Request sheet, Ledger, and Logistics. Prepare is the head office page. An outlet that buys for itself keeps its own materials, purchases, recipes, and gross profit, and stays off this forecast.
Questions from a chain operator
Why should a central kitchen prepare before the franchise outlet asks?
The ask arrives when the mill should already be done. A forecast from earlier requests lets head office grind, buy, and load for the next seven days before the outlet opens.
How does the weekday decide the day?
Prepare reads the last eight weeks. When an outlet has asked for a material on the same weekday at least twice, that weekday in the next seven days is a likely ask. The quantity is the middle of those days, so one loud week does not set the pile.
What if the outlet does not ask on a repeated weekday?
The usual gap, in days, since the last ask places one day in the next seven days. The quantity is the middle of the earlier asks. If that day has already passed, the line sits on today.
When does an earlier request stay off the forecast?
One request day is not a pattern. A request already in today is left off today. Asks older than eight weeks stay out of the read.
The screens are in hub-and-spoke logistics. The page with each screen beside the step is hub-and-spoke logistics. Chains are on restaurant chains. The store room is inventory.
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