A WEB BASED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR A TAKE AWAY IN RESTAURANTS.

Case Study: Tick Flavor Restaurant & Takeaway

BY THEMBO JIMMY

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study A take out or take away restaurant is a restaurant where food is purchased for the purpose of being eaten elsewhere. The restaurant may or may not provide table service. Food ordered this way (especially in fast food) is ordered to go, and in the United Kingdom it is ordered to take away or sometimes to eat out, as opposed to eating in or dining in. In different markets different terminology is used for this: "to take out" or "to take away", and "to eat in", in the UK and Australia; "to go" and "for here", or "to stay" or "dine in" in the USA and Canada.

In some cases, there are facilities for customers to order food by telephone, fax, or over the Internet, to be collected or delivered. This trend of business is on the rise as many small businesses take to the Web to promote their take-outs. Some places give the option of dining in the restaurant or take the food away in packages. Take-out food is often fast food, but not always so. Whereas fast food carries the connotation of a standardized product from a globalized chain or franchise, take-away restaurants are often small businesses serving traditional food, which is sometimes but by no means always of high quality.

Examples of take away restaurant include Tick flavor take away and restaurant, Chesz Johnson take away and restaurant in Uganda, fish and chip shops in the UK, sandwiches sold by delis in the U.S.A; Kebabs sold in many countries; and the wide range of sausage-based snacks sold from stalls in German cities.

There is no clear line between street food and take-out. Crpe stands in France, for example, may be as permanently situated as a kiosk or newsstand, and some take-out windows (coffee, pizza, and ice cream for example) clearly expect that the food will be eaten out of its package on the street. Take-out proper may need to be unpacked and laid out, rather than eaten directly from its package.

Certain types of food that are normally served in sit-down restaurants are commonly available as take-out. Pizza is one example: some pizzerias and chains have no tables, and supply for take-out and delivery only. Some businesses have taken a cue from the ever increasing popularity in takeout, and have created franchises to deliver food from restaurants to customer premises 1.2 Case Study description

Tick flavor is a take way and restaurant located along old Port bell road about 7km off Jinja road. It started in 1998 as a breakfast joint which was mainly used by the Akamba Ngegge Company constructors to have their daily breakfast. In 2000, the management gained enough capital and transformed the joint into a restaurant where people come to have breakfast, lunch, evening tea and supper. Due to their quality services this led to the increase in the number of customers at the restaurant. In 2004, due to a continuous increase in the number of customers this restaurant opted to include take away as one of its services to its customers since not all customers had enough time to come and have meals from the restaurant. Currently, customers come and make orders at the restaurant and are given receipts after they have paid for the ordered meals while they wait to be served by the respective waitresses or waiters and this takes approximately 10 minutes for each customer to be served after the order is made. Currently the restaurant is using a manual system of data management where details of customers are kept in books and distant customers still have to come to the restaurant to order for food, this has resulted into long queues at the restaurant and other customer opting to dine from other restaurants to avoid waiting for hours to be served food. Its for this reason that this study took out to develop a web based management information system that will provide online ordering for food, efficient transaction management restaurant premises. and thus reduces on congestion at the

1.3 Problem Statement Due to an increase in the number of customers, as a result of the introduction of a take away service, the current system has become unable to meet customer needs in terms of consumption priority and time priority and this has resulted into long queues and customers waiting for long time to be served food. This has resulted into other customer opting to dine from other restaurants to avoid waiting for long hours to be served and this has had significant impact on the restaurants turnover. 1.4 Objectives of the Study 1.4.1 General Objective of the Study To develop a Wed Based Management Information System to keep track of customer details, handle transactions and support online ordering for food. 1.4.2 Specific Objectives

1. To study the current system identifying its inefficiencies and its strength 2. To design a web based management information system to keep track customer records as well enhancing online orders. 3. To implement the developed web based management information system 4. To test and validate the developed system by use of case study 1.5 Justification of the Study

Since the number of customers has almost tripled from the time the restaurant was started, it is likely that the trend will continue as time goes by. In future it is likely that the manual system will not be able to handle all the restaurant customers with minimum delay, the solutions to this problem therefore lie in web based management systems that require less human interactions and therefore this web based management information system is necessary 1.6 Scope of the study The developed system will among things facilitate online orders for food; provide an online menu, capture daily sales, print receipts and compute daily total sales made by the restaurant, compute employee salary based on hours worked per month and daily expenditures