Kitchen Station

Stations and roles

A kitchen station is either a display station displayed on a kitchen screen or a kitchen printer that prints the kitchen order tickets.

The stations can have different roles that define the station's functionality. You select a role in the Kitchen Station Card, the General FastTab, the Station Role field. The roles are:

Preparation Station
- Shows items to be prepared in a chronological list.
- Should be of type Line.
Expeditor
- Shows orders that are being prepared in the kitchen.
- Should be of type Chit.
Customer Facing Display
- Shows information about the order status to the customer.
- Should be of type Card.
Upcoming Orders
- Shows a list of orders that are not due to be started yet.
- Can be of type List or Chit.
Ghost Station
- Shows all items or orders of another station or a station group.
- Should be of the same type as the station(s) it is ghosting.

When designing your kitchen stations note the following:

Preparation stations form the production stations and production lines.
It is mandatory to have an expeditor as the end of a production line.
You can add a customer facing display as a next station for the expeditor.

Next station

There is a production flow in the kitchen between the stations, and you control this flow by selecting the next station or station group for each of the stations. The Web KDS always does routing on groups of stations, but in a simple setup a group can include only one station.

Example:

A hamburger is grilled on the Grill station, assembled on the Assembly, and when done, the order appears as done on the Expeditor. When the Expeditor has all items for the order ready, the order appears on the Customer Facing Display (CFD). The flow is like this:

Grill ® Assembly ® Expeditor ® CFD

When you create a new station, you must first specify to which group of stations the new station belongs or create a new station group.

Then you must decide which station group is the next one in the production line. The next station ID is only required to be set when routing to a particular station within a group.

Profiles

The behavior, content, and look and feel of the kitchen station is defined in profiles. Here is a list of all the profiles you must create for your station:

Functional Profile
- Contains settings that affect the station's functionality.
Visual Profile
- Configures the structure of the station, such as placement of header, content, and buttons, organized in a grid, columns, and rows.
Station Header Profile
- Configures the content of the station's header. Determines what information is displayed in the header.
Operation Profile
- Contains the buttons that are available for the station.
Content Profile
- There are different content profiles depending on whether the station is of type Line, Chit, or Card.
- The content profile defines what information about the items or orders is displayed on the station.
Queue Profile
- Only needed if queues are used. The queues can show a count of items or group of items on the station.
Style Profile
- Contains the fonts and color styling for all different components in the Web KDS stations.

Field descriptions

The tables below list and describe all fields in the Kitchen Station Card FastTabs.

General FastTab

Field	Description
ID	The unique identifier of the station.
Description	The description of the station
Active	A station can be turned on or off. A station that is not active will not be part of the routing. For more information on routing see Station Flow.
Station Rrole	See the Stations and roles section above.
Station Type	The type of stations are: Line Chit Card Printer For more details see Stations and roles above.
Display Letter	Enter a display letter for this station. The letter is a single character that identifies this station in the display letter field that you can add to your chits or line columns. The letter is displayed for each station that the item(s) have been routed to and becomes bold when the stations have bumped the items.
Station Group ID	Select or create a station group that this station is in. Each station must be a part of a group as all routing is configured between groups. If there is only one station of each type, for an example one grill, one drink station and so on you must create groups of each type with one station in each.
Station Group Description	Displays the description of the selected group
Next Station Group ID	Specify the group this station will send its items or orders to when bumped.
Next Station Group Description	Displays the description of the selected next station group
Next Station ID	If routing is done between groups that contain multiple stations but you want to specify which station within the group the order should go to select that station here. For more information check Station Flow
Next Station Description	Displays the description of the selected next station.
Printer	This field is only enabled for stations of type Printer. Select which printer the KOTs are printed on. Read more about printer setup here: Kitchen Printing
Bump Printer Station	Preparation stations and the expeditor can include operation buttons to print or print and bump the items and orders on their station. Select which printer these operations should be printed on. Read more about printer setup here: Kitchen Printing
Use Bump Bar	Turn on the use of bump bars or key input devices to run some operations on the station. The keys are configured on the Kitchen Screen Card. Read more about the configurations of bump bars here: Bump Bar Setup
Bump Mode	Select the bump mode of the station. This affects when the production of an item starts counting down. Bump - Production time does not start automatically. It must either be started or it starts when bumped from the first station. Bump and start time - Production time starts counting down as soon as the item is on the first production screen.

Bump Bar FastTab

This section is only visible when the Bump Bar field is enabled.

The bump bar operation list is populated when the Operation profile is selected for the station.

Field	Description
Operation	The operation list is updated when you select an operation profile for the station. All the operations from the profile are displayed in this list.
Key Code	In this field you select which keyboard input should trigger the Display Station button. This applies to bump-bar devices as well. Enter the number which the key returns when pressed. The Keyboard Letter field will be updated accordingly. If the key code cannot be mapped to one of the options in the Keyboard Letter field, the key code itself is displayed. The Web KDS uses the value in this field for mapping the key to the button operation. To find out the codes, which each key returns, search the Web for example for 'JavaScript Key Code' and run that page. Or you could use this PowerShell command: while(1) {$key = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey(); echo $key} (Ctrl-C quits) - This command does not run in the PowerShell ISE environment -
Keyboard letter	In this field you can choose the key by either pressing it or selecting from the drop-down list. The field Key Code will be updated accordingly.

Field

Description

Operation

The operation list is updated when you select an operation profile for the station. All the operations from the profile are displayed in this list.

Key Code

In this field you select which keyboard input should trigger the Display Station button. This applies to bump-bar devices as well.

Enter the number which the key returns when pressed. The Keyboard Letter field will be updated accordingly.
If the key code cannot be mapped to one of the options in the Keyboard Letter field, the key code itself is displayed.
The Web KDS uses the value in this field for mapping the key to the button operation.
To find out the codes, which each key returns, search the Web for example for 'JavaScript Key Code' and run that page.
Or you could use this PowerShell command:
while(1) {$key = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey(); echo $key} (Ctrl-C quits)
- This command does not run in the PowerShell ISE environment -

Keyboard letter

In this field you can choose the key by either pressing it or selecting from the drop-down list. The field Key Code will be updated accordingly.

Profiles FastTab

Other configurations for the Kitchen Station are organized in different profiles:

Field	Description
Functional Profile ID	Select the functional profile for the station. The functional profile contains settings for the stations. For more information see Functional Profile.
Visual Profile ID	Select the visual profile for the station. The visual profile contains the layout of the station. For more information see Visual Profile.
Station Header Profile ID	Select the header profile for the station. The header profile defines what information is displayed in the header component of the station. For more information see Station Header Profile.
Operation Profile ID	Select the operation profile for the station. The operation profile defines which buttons are available on the station. For more information see Operation Profile.
Content Profile ID	Select the content profile for the station. The content profile defines what information is displayed on the station. It depends on the Station Type setting what the profile looks like, it is different for Line, Chit, and Card. For more information see Content Profiles.
Queue Profile ID	Select the queue profile for the station. This field is optional. The queue profile configures if queues are in use and what items are counted in each of the queues. For more information see Queue Profile.
Style Profile ID	Select the style profile for the station. The style profile defines the fonts and colors of all components and information shown on the display station. One style profile can be used to style all the different station types. For more information see Style Profile.