Introduction

Before reading this article, please, get acquainted with the main one about installing and configuring the KDS system.

The KDS system can fully replace or be used alongside the print service. It is more convenient as the cook and waiters working on an order, as well as the prepared and delivered orders or separate dishes can be viewed in different modes.

Several cook's display forms — for orders being prepared — and several waiters display forms — for orders delivered — can be used.

All the orders made at the cash station are displayed on the cook's display after they are saved. A cook can supervise the preparation of the orders and dishes on their display, and delete them once they have been prepared. A water can view and analyze the order readiness on their display, f.ex., how many dishes from an order  are ready,  and manage the ready orders and dishes — remove them from the display once they are handed to the client. Instead of deleting the dish or the order it is possible to leave them displayed but against the different background.

To analyze the efficiency of the kitchen's work, it is possible to use the nominal, i.e. theoretical preparation time specified in the dish card. In this case, as soon as the order/dish is ready, the system will record the actual dish preparation time; and once the order is delivered the system will record the time period between its preparation and delivery. The difference between these two indicators will show how efficient the kitchen and waiters are in the Kitchen Operation report.
The software can operate in the Simultaneous Serving mode, i.e. when all the dishes from an order should be prepared simultaneously, and the standard Serve as Ready mode.

KDS System Features

• Since version 1.3, it is possible for several KDS servers to work with one database, with each KDS server working with its own r_keeper cash server
• Earlier versions allowed only one KDS database, one KDS server, and one r_keeper cash server
• RK6 and RK7 Support
• It is possible to install KDS client's win32 version or the WinCE version at the ARM controllers.

Client Settings

General Settings

The KDS client general settings are activated in the General Settings section and are backed up in the kdsclient.ini. configuration file.

The values of some general parameters can only be set in the kdsclient.ini configuration file:

• UseNewKBD = 0 — the used keyboard type: 0 — do not use, 1 — for a new 3-row USC/COM keyboard, 2 — a new 3-row USB-keyboard for Win32 clients
• StayOnTop=OFF — display the client overhead other windows (ON), or do not display (OFF)
• Left — the horizontal initial coordinate for the lower left-hand corner of the client's active window, in pixels
• Top — the vertical initial coordinate for the lower left-hand corner of the client's active window, in pixels
• Height — the height of the client's active window, in pixels
• Width — the width of the client's active window, in pixels
• LogLevel — the log level (0-9)
• LogSizeMB — the maximum size of the log file, in MB

Display Settings

During the first client launch the display settings are taken from the kdsclient.ini file. They are then entered into the database — if the StationName parameter is not empty and there is no StationName with such a name in the database yet — and the file is no longer used for reference.

In order to access display settings, launch the KDS client and press the F2 key on any of the displays:

Screens Settings Section

Each KDS client stores their settings in the database. If there are several KDS clients, you can copy the previously made settings from one client to another, using the button in the lower left-hand corner. A window with a choice of stations from which you can copy the settings will open at the time of copying:

The settings editing window consists of two tabs: Screens Settings and General Settings.

Creating New Display Form

On the first Screens Settings tab, it is necessary to create all the display forms or keep the default ones, and apply the settings.

To generate a new display form press the + key in the lower left-hand corner and specify the main parameters for it:

• Report settings field
• SQL settings field
• Operation settings field
• Prints Group settings field

Specify other parameters if necessary.

REPORT Field

Use the REPORT field to choose a form to display the dishes or the order on the KDS display:

A list of preset forms

• Form dishlist.fr3

The order is displayed in the form of a dynamic window each of which contains one order item — one per dish. It supports the simultaneous delivery mode. I.e. some of the dishes are displayed as inactive and with a timer for each dish as regard to the overall preparation time.

• Form dishlist_by_line.fr3

The order is displayed in the form of a dynamic window each of which contains one order item — one per dish. The simultaneous delivery mode cannot be applied in this case. I.e. the dishes from are displayed with a timer set for each dish individually.

• Form dline.fr3

The order is displayed in the form of lines spanning across the display with each KDS line containing one line from the order. It supports the simultaneous delivery mode. I.e. some of the dishes in the order are displayed as inactive and with a timer for each dish as regard to  the overall preparation time.

• Form dline_by_line.fr3

The order is displayed in the form of lines spanning across the display with each KDS line containing one line from the order. The simultaneous delivery mode cannot be applied in this case. I.e. the dishes from the order are displayed with a timer set for each dish individually.

• Form fullorder.fr3

The order is displayed in the form of a dynamic window which fully shows the order session with a timer set for a dish requiring the longest preparation time.

• Form NotExist.fr3

An auxiliary form. If the layout used in the display form gets deleted — a file is deleted by mistake from the installation package — the NO EXIST message will be displayed when viewing this display form.

• Form ReadyOrder.fr3

The Take Away waiter mode — the order is displayed in the form of a dynamic window showing the entire order session.

• Form wfullorder.fr3

The Being Prepared waiter mode — the order is displayed in the form of a dynamic window showing the entire order session.

SQL Field

In the SQL field, you need to choose the option for the information display rules.

• You can set the rules to display only the necessary information using the SQL request.

For example, to display only the ready dishes, dishes to be delivered, orders being prepared, etc. As the selection of a dish or an order changes their status, the KDS display will only show those meeting the request's conditions that will be highlighted in a color corresponding to their current status. Items not meeting the request's requirements will not be displayed. For this reason, when selecting the dish or order, they will either be removed from the display, or change their highlight color.

• Several standard options are offered but the user can generate their own request.

After the dish data is transferred from the cash station to KDS, the dish and the order get the Unprocessed status. It is possible to change the status when selecting the dish or order:

Status - Unprocessed --->

Status - Prepare ---> Status - Prepared

Status - Prepare ---> Status - Ready

Status - Deliver/Pick Up ---> Status - Taken out

Standard Scripts Table

Operation Field

In the Operation field, you need to specify the event that will happen when selecting the dish or the order.

• Dish and order management means changing their status during the work process.

The system uses four statuses. Once the dish is transferred from the cash station to KDS, the dish and the order are given the Not Processed status.

When selecting a dish, you can change the status to the following:

• Prepare
• Ready
• TakeOut

The status can only be changed in the following order:

Not Processed ---> Prepared ---> Ready ---> Taken Out

Therefore, it is impossible, for example, to change the status of a dish from Not Processed directly to Taken Out.

By defaultm the following colors are used for highlighting each status:

• Transferred from the cash station — white
• Prepared — yellow
• Ready — purple
• Taken Out — blue

Operations Table

The additional fields used for the opCustom operation are shown in the figure below:

Screen Name Field

In the Screen Name field, you should specify the name of the display form to be shown on the KDS display.

• The name and ordinal number of the newly created form are inserted by default.

Print Groups Field

In the Print Groups field, you need to select the service print groups to be shown in this display form. Dishes from other service print groups will not be shown in this display form.

• If none of the groups are selected, ALL groups will be shown.

Other settings in the Screen Settings Section

View and set other parameters in the Screen Settings section as required.

Table 1 — Other Screen Settings Parameters

An example of how windows can be numbered:

Fig. Window numbering options

• A unique value within the display (if #1 is cast off it can be assigned to the next order)
• By RK order number
• By RK7 package number

Note: Starting with the KDS version 1.3.0.4 a new Mark Whole Order by Order Caption Click option is available which can only be used with the activated Way of Marking: markByGenValues" or "MarkByOrderNumber". Allows you to perform a set operation dish by dish for the entire order by pressing the order header.

Table 2 — Other Screen Settings Parameters

A view of the dialog box:

Fig. An additional request for confirming the action and sending the message to the waiter.

• When using ARM, if this setting is on then the next setting should also be activated (Use ARM-compatible confirmation window).

Fig. ARM controller settings

Fig. Dialog box for confirmation

• There is a prompt under each button for what to press on the cook's keyboard, as ARM does not support sensory input (TS).
• Only a picture which is not a fully-fledged client is displayed.

Table 3 — Other Screen Settings Parameters

An example of using the Show Some Last Operation parameter:

Fig. Selecting the number of displayed last operations

Fig. Log Parameters

• Under these settings five log lines will be displayed. The next operation will be shown as the last in the list while the first line will be deleted from the list.

Fig. A view of the set operation log on the display.

Table 4 — Other Screen Settings Parameters

Table 5 — Other Screen Settings Parameters

Example: The service print group has a minimal cipher of 1 and is called Print. The dishes within the order have service print groups with ciphers 3 (Kitchen), 8 (Bar), and 10 (Hot Kitchen). For the dishes to be shown on KDS displays it is necessary to tick all four groups.

Fig. An example of KDS server settings

• When the KDS display is set using the F2 key only the actual service print groups that use the dishes (Bar, Kitchen, Hot Kitchen) need to be ticked. It is not essential to tick the Print group. You can either tick it or not. But if the Print group uses the dishes for this display you should tick it.

Fig. Selecting print groups for KDS client

• When using the Join By Order and OneKdsCheck=ON setting the order on the display will be the same as entered at the cash register (with the same dish sequence) (order 1) and with OneKdsCheck=OFF (order 2).

Fig. An example of the OneKDSCheck setting. Note how the dishes are placed in identical orders.

It is also obligatory to set the following in the FSVDU.ini settings file:

PackLines=OFF

• In this case the dishes will not be packed.

Fig. A view of the same order with PackLines=On

• When working with Ipod devices it is necessary to set KDSSolid=1 in tms2.ini in section [TMS] (starting with TMS version5.39) to rule out dishes being grouped by print service groups. This setting only operates jointly with the OneKdsCheck=ON server keeper setting (see first order). If the setting is OneKdsCheck=OFF the Ipod will send the orders classified by service print groups and in different windows.

Fig. An example of an order sent from an Ipod

General Settings Section

It is necessary to specify the main settings in the second tab of the General Settings.

Fig. The General Settings window

DataBase Settings Field – Database Settings

Fig. Connecting to the KDS database

Table 1 – General Settings Parameters

Example:

Fig. Setting the Alarm Time Color parameter

Table 2 – General Settings Parameters.

Example:

Fig. An example of the Use Scheduler parameter setting

Table 3 – General Settings Parameters.

Additional KDS client settings

Changing the field colors in the display form

There is a description of how to change from blue to another color in the example. Open the display form in the report designer (D key), find and change the following part of the set algorithm in the form code after ScreenNumberOnBeforePrint(Sender: TfrxComponent):

begin

if screenNumber.Color=clBlue then begin

ScreenNumber.Color:=$0000DDDD;

end;

with $0000DDDD - rgb as the color, you can specify a color other than blue.

Fig. An example of changing the field's color.

Additional KDS server settings

• Specifying the service print groups on the KDS server does not affect how they are displayed on the KDS stations and how orders are formed on KDS. They are required only for the process of selecting the formed orders
• At KDS for the server. I.e. if some of the orders are not required at the server they can be cast off this way (to reduce the load on the server).
• If the Preparation Control function is not activated in the RK6 Editor for the service print feed, the service print groups will still be visible in the KDS display settings (ScreenOptions) and at the KDS server (Options), but in this case no orders will be sent to KDS from the cash register!

Parameters of the FSVDU.INI configuration file

The following FSVDU.INI parameters have been added for RK7 in server settings starting from KDS version 1.3.1.2:

UseOrderNameAsTable – It should be switched on if new persons are welcome to join a party at a table. In this case the table's full number is transmitted as OrderName

AutoChangeMainWaiter – Updating the orders at the time of changing the main waiter.

The following FSVDU.INI parameters have been added to KDS sever settings starting version 1.3.2:

DelayTimeSec – The possibility of delaying sending a message on the readiness of a dish (in seconds)

DelayedPrintGroups - Listing print groups separated by a coma, similar to the PrintGroups client settings.