Queue Estimation
Feature description
The Queue Estimation Service is a feature that collects timestamps from placed orders to calculate and make predictions regarding the required time to complete new orders. The predictions can be shown when a customer places a new order.
Some aspects can be controlled using the configuration UI in Leeroy Cloud on a per store level.
Calculation and prediction logic
The estimation of the preparation time for orders being placed is predictive, based on the previous orders of the same day. All valid preparation times are put into an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model used to forecast the next preparation time.
Configuration aspects
Clamped values
When using previous orders to calculate an estimation of new orders, the values can be lower or higher that what we wish to show the customer. The shown value can be clamped to consider a minimum an maximum value.
When the estimated queue time is lower than the minimum time, the minimum time will be shown instead. When the estimated queue time is higher than the maximum time, the maximum time will be shown instead.
Configuration UI
Use fixed values
To disable the automatic preparation time prediction using estimation, set this toggle to Yes. The service will now only use fixed values for preparation time estimates (Min service time and Max service time, or the Min and Max values defined by the weekday time spans.).
Service time ceiling
When considering all the previous orders of the current day up to the time of estimation, some orders may have had a preparation time that exceeds a certain threshold to be considered usable. In other words, some orders may have taken too long and are outliers that would offset the calculations.
The value set by Service time ceiling is a maximum threshold value. Any preparation times over this value will not be considered during the calculations made for the estimation.
Min service time
The returned estimated preparation time can be clamped to a minimum value. When the preparation time is calculated and the value is less than the minimum service time, the value of the minimum service time will be used instead. This value can be overridden by the weekday time span configuration described below.
For example, if the Min service time is set to 2 minutes, no estimate will ever be less than 2 minutes.
Max service time
The returned estimated preparation time can be clamped to a maximum value. When the preparation time is calculated and the value is greater than the maximum service time, the value of the maximum service time will be used instead. This value can be overridden by the weekday time span configuration described below.
For example, if the Max service time is set to 10 minutes, no estimate will ever be more than 10 minutes.
Use weekday configurations
To enable the sliders for each weekday below, set this toggle to Yes. Each weekday can have multiple sliders to control the preparation time estimates.
Weekday time slider
Every weekday can have multiple sliders that allow you to control the clamping of the preparation time estimates.
Each slider can be set to a unique time interval to control the minimum and maximum value returned for the estimated preparation times. This allows for more granular control during periods like breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Make sure not to overlap the individual time spans for each weekday. Each slider should have a unique time span.
Add a new time span by clicking the Add time button or remove a time span by clicking the trashcan icon next to the slider.
Service disclaimer
The accuracy increases during the day.
During the start of the day, none to very little data will be available and the results will be less accurate. The accuracy will continue to increase during the course of the day.Routines on the use of a KDS can affect the statistics used.
How a KDS (Kitchen Display System) is used can change how accurate and effective the statistics for the preparation time of orders is.
If you prepare several orders at the same time and then mark them all as done, the times become less accurate since the time it took to get the orders done is then shared for all the orders.
Marking each individual order as started and finished can take more time, but is also more accurate.
We recommend deciding on how to handle the orders and the tagging on the KDS to suit your needs for both speed and accuracy.