Most of the corporate and professional colleges provide the canteen as an additional subsidized facility to their employees/students as a welfare measure. The use of the canteen by the employees depends on many factors like centralized food distribution centres with swift and simple operations. A college RKGIT based in Ghaziabad implemented our solution.
Challenge
The customer had a major challenge in terms of avoiding long Queues during peak hours and accountability in the manual process. With the manual token system, there is a possibility of fraudulent practices and accountability issues. The canteen facilities operate in multiple locations and need to be integrated and data consolidation became a very tedious and complex job. In some cases, food was provided at subsidized rates and this canteen information has to be integrated into their payroll system which is very difficult to accomplish by manual processing. With the available data, the data analysis is not possible through manual processing and it is difficult to forecast the demand.
Solution
An integrated POS terminal with RFID smart card reader are used as a front-end device to capture transactions in the canteen. Users are identified and verified using smart cards. The card can be used as a pre-paid card wherein a pre-defined value of cash is stored and the amount gets debited as and when the card is used at the canteen or can be post-paid wherein the transactions are recorded. POS terminals can also be used as a billing machine without smart cards in the canteen for cash transactions using an inbuilt printer. Data will transfer to the central server.
Results
RFID Software Installations resulted in the live and accurate management of the canteen. With the integration of an RFID reader, it has now become very easy to operate and manage customers, especially during peak times. The RFID reader helps maintain the accountability process of the canteen by accurately tracking customer transactions. At the end of each day, the canteen receives a detailed report, generated by the RFID reader, which enables the canteen staff to collect the cash from the accounts department efficiently. This streamlined system ensures smooth operations and enhances overall efficiency in managing the canteen.