Meadowbrook Restaurants, operators of 4 Zaxby’s and 2 Dairy Queen franchise locations, needed a robust facility management platform to reduce admin time, manage the team, and communicate effortlessly within the team and other tools.
“I knew within a month into the trial that [FlowPath] was going to be great.” - Joe Sharp, Area Facilities Manager for Meadowbrook Restaurants
Key Challenges
- Using their previous facility management software, Meadowbrook was wasting time with click-heavy interfaces and customizing unintuitive workflows
- Needed inventory management capabilities to scale existing maintenance program
- Tracking costs across locations was manual and reporting on trends and expenditures over time was needed as Meadowbrook looks to expand 50% in 2021
- Used other needed technologies but could not connect them into a unified system
Background
A seasoned Maintenance and Facility Management professional, Joe Sharp is in his sixth year as the Area Facilities Manager at Meadowbrook. Data-driven and technology-forward, Joe has used numerous facilities management tools and softwares to help bring efficiencies to his operation, finding each of them lacking in their own way. Initially looking at FlowPath as an option for his stores early in 2020, he decided to trial a competitor based on perceived value. After a few unhappy months on that system, Joe approached FlowPath to make the switch.
Implementation and Return on Investment
“Spending a little bit of time on the front end with FlowPath eliminated end-of-month admin for spend reconciliation for accounting; multiple hours a month our old way” - Joe Sharp
When using FlowPath, Joe quickly realized the FlowPath Platform offered simple yet complete solutions with immediate return on investment (ROI). “It allowed me the flexibility of my previous system but without the complexity,” he mentions. This reduction in complexity quickly turned into ROI for him, stating “the reduced clicks and complexity turned roughly 20 hours of work per month into maybe 6,” a 70% savings on administrative tasks for him and his general managers.
“The stress levels of my GMs are down in restaurants because of FlowPath, which is a good surprise because that I wasn’t expecting.” - Joe Sharp
FlowPath purposefully built the work order to be the single point of truth, replacing many communication and tracking tools in the process. Designed for simple, intuitive interactions for end-users, FlowPath proved to be an excellent communication tool for Joe across his restaurants. “Your work order system allows the store to input a work order and communication is never in question like previous tools, now it’s seamless and captured all in one place,” says Joe.
With the centralized communication ability that is built in to the work order platform in FlowPath even more can be accomplished as a manager. “It now becomes a distributed staff management tool where FlowPath helps prioritize and schedule tasks and allows me to have transparent accountability with the staff as we progress through our work” mentions Joe.
Added Value with FlowPath
Joe continues to unveil value from FlowPath, both now and to be realized in the future. “As we open stores, I’m going to go back and look at, for example, our two types of fryers and see which one cost us more and put the other one in the new stores. I can track this information now and make smarter decisions with it,” he said.
For other technologies Joe employs, such as cloud-enabled freezer and refrigerator pressure sensors, FlowPath is a critical connector to create a holistic view of his operation and provide greater insurance against food loss. Joe explains these sensors “measure irregularities in pressures in my refrigerators and freezers and automatically generate an email when triggered. Marrying that system's email notification with the FlowPath email work order creation option, we directed the sensor email to flowpath. [FlowPath] automatically creates a work order, preassigned to a technician, who then goes immediately to fix the issue that was triggered.”
Takeaway
For Joe Sharp and Meadowbrook Restaurants, FlowPath has proven to beat out the competition and reduce maintenance admin time by 70%, become an effective staff management tool, increased and centralized communication, and provided additional benefits by connecting to existing technologies.
