If you’re running your food business from home, improving your kitchen working conditions can boost productivity and efficiency. Besides having the right equipment, what else can you do to ensure you and your staff are comfortable and safe while preparing meals in your home kitchen? Luckily, creating a safe and healthy working environment can be done with minimal changes.
Natural lighting provided by skylights Perth specialists offer their customers makes a dark and windowless kitchen brighter and safer to work in. The proper layout encourages a streamlined process that includes the safe disposal of waste. Energy-efficient cooling systems not only save you money but keep you and your workers sweat-free on hot summer days.
Here’s some smart advice to get you started.
6 Kitchen Changes for Better Productivity and Efficiency
Focus on Your Kitchen Layout and Space Management
Space management and layout of your kitchen are vital for you and your team to work efficiently, comfortably and safely. Organising workstations, maximising on space and providing accessible storage optimises workflow and better productivity.
Workstations should allow your workers to perform tasks with ease while having separate areas for raw and cooked food to prevent contamination. Proper storage not only keeps utensils, ingredients and appliances organised but allows for instant retrieval when pressed for time!
Provide Ample Lighting – Natural and Artificial
Food preparation can be hazardous especially if there’s more than one of you working in a small kitchen environment. Providing ample lighting is vital for the safe use of catering utensils and equipment while ensuring you’re using the right ingredients. Lighting should be emphasised in high-use areas and artificial light fixtures work well for this purpose.
However, you can install skylights to enjoy more natural lighting especially if your kitchen currently has small or no windows. These installations improve dark spaces and natural lighting can boost your workers’ moods too – a bonus that can only improve productivity and efficiency!
Keep Your Kitchen Cool – Use Energy-Efficient Solutions
Preparing food during the summer months can be sweaty and hot work! Keeping your home kitchen cool isn’t always that easy unless you run your air conditioning unit all the time. However, this is costly and unsustainable. Installing roof ventilation systems could be the cooling solution you need.
These ventilation systems help to drive heat AND moisture out of your home’s roof cavity. It is creating a cooler and more comfortable temperature in all your rooms including the kitchen. You can install a solar roof ventilation system that power the sun and is a cost-effective. Energy-efficient solution that’s reliable and dynamic for cooling your home kitchen.
Schedule Regular Maintenance to Prevent Downtime
Keeping equipment such as multiple ovens, commercial fridges and freezers, food mixers and other appliances in good working order prevents downtime and frustrations. Regular maintenance ensures your home kitchen equipment is functional at all times, reducing the need to perform costly repairs or purchase expensive replacement parts.
Hiring the services of a professional technician to carry out inspections and maintenance gives you peace of mind your equipment won’t let you down. Furthermore, training your staff to use the kitchen appliances properly prevents unnecessary damage that could reduce the lifespan of your gear and slow down productivity.
Have an Efficient Inventory System and Save Costs
A thriving home food business relies on having all the right ingredients all the time. Running out of something midway through a cooking session will hamper your delivery timeline. But, having an efficient inventory system ensures this never happens in your kitchen!
You can designate this responsibility to a staff member or handle it yourself. Your inventory should be tracked daily if you’ve got orders back-to-back or weekly for the normal day-to-day running of your business.
An efficient inventory system will also ensure there’s no wastage or unnecessary expenditure while keeping you organised with storage solutions and purchase orders.
Streamline Your Menu to Improve Your Services
Improving physical working conditions is vitally important for boosting productivity and efficiency. But, streamlining your menu also goes a long way to reducing stress, wastage and food quality. Deciding what kind of meals your business is going to produce makes it easier to buy stock, design the layout of your kitchen and have the right equipment.
Instead of agreeing to make just about anything people want to order, commit to certain types of food or certain dishes. Knowing what menu you’re offering your customers simplifies food preparation and cooking while delegating different tasks to your kitchen staff becomes easier. Finally, streamlining your menu allows you to become an expert in your niche.
Final Thoughts
Unless you’re converting your garage or adding another room to your house, improving your home food business kitchen can be done without major infrastructural changes. Better working conditions allow you and your kitchen team to work smoothly, safely and productively.
One last tip! Contact your local council for more advice to ensure you meet the food safety standards required for running a home-based business in Australia. This way you can rest assured you’re complying with local regulations and won’t run into any legal problems.
