Industry First: Improvement Mechanism and Management Assistant, AirMATE, Will Be Launched Sequentially Across Japan In Spring 2018

Recruit Lifestyle is pleased to announce that it will sequentially launch the restaurant management assistant AirMATE (patent pending) in the spring of 2018. The assistant will provide the restaurant industry's first* management improvement mechanism.

For more information about AirMATE, please visit https://airregi.jp/mate/

Background of the Development of AirMATE

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry's "2014 Economic Census for Business Activity" (February 2016 report), the number of restaurants that went out of business reached 124,834 in the two and a half years between February 2012 and July 2014. Closings occured, most likely, due to rising costs of goods as well as increased labor costs due to a worker shortage.

Over the years, Recruit Lifestyle has researched restaurants’ and users’ needs and has developed new services accordingly. However, in recent years, Recruit Lifestyle has received requests for more time-efficient and affordable ways to use data to analyze management issues and to effectively evaluate if new menus or price changes are successful.

In response to these requests, we developed an improvement mechanism for restaurant management. The mechanism uses AI and other technologies, along with Recruit's industry data and accumulated management knowledge.

About AirMATE

AirMATE is a management assistant that provides a mechanism for improvement. It allows you to quickly understand your store’s issues and improvement methods without requiring time-consuming tallying or troublesome analysis. In addition, you can easily visualize and reflect on your improvement efforts.

AirMATE is the first service in the industry to streamline various management tasks in store operations and maximize profits. AirMATE requires a free and easy-to-use POS register application AirREGI. Furthermore, by linking AirREGI with RestaurantBOARD, a reservation ledger application that attracts and serves customers, and with AirSHIFT, a shift management service that makes communication and creation easier, it facilitates detailed business condition analysis.

AirMATE Primary Functions

1) Summary of all stores: Lists business conditions of each store.

2) Store Summary: Detailed analysis of each stores’ business status.

3) Menu Analysis: Optimal menu price proposals, review of results before and after new menu introductions, and price changes.

4) Functions for store managers (smartphone only): Proposals for improving store management.

Price: To be determined

Start of provision: Sequentially from spring 2018

The latest information will be released on the following website.

URL: https://airregi.jp/mate/

Features of AirMATE

The store data accumulated by using AirREGI and RestaurantBOARD is automatically examined and analyzed in real-time in the cloud, which means, with AirMATE, you can immediately view the business status of the store and see current issues and suggestions for improvement. You can also view a history of improvement efforts.

1. Understand the business flow

It is easy to see what requires improvement in the store, such as customer attraction, purchasing, shifts, menus, and on-site operations.

2. Implementation of management improvement for each store

Suggestions offered by AirMATE enable store management to adjust shifts, develop menus, and improve customer service.

3. History

You can immediately look back on the initiatives you have implemented. There is no need for cumbersome data aggregation and analysis.

Functions of AirMATE

Function 1: Summary of all stores

View a list of each store’s business status (cumulative sales, cost ratio, labor cost ratio).

Function 2: Store Summary

Grasp the business status of each store in detail.

・Sales and Cost Management

You can check the total sales, labor cost ratio, and cost ratio of the store for the current month, as well as daily trends.

・Customer Attraction Analysis

See changes in the number of customers by route, weekday and weekend.

・Order Analysis:

You can check the number of customers per voucher and the cost to sales ratio.

・Operation analysis: 

See changes in the time it takes to serve food and the percentage of staff making recommendations.

Image of Store Summary

Image of Customer Analysis

Function 3: Menu Analysis

See suggestions for menu pricing. Also, after entering a new menu item or changing the price, the result will be displayed.

Function 4: Functions for store managers (smartphone only)

Review suggestions on improving store management, including alerts on labor costs and support for daily, weekly, and monthly reviews.

Click here to read the original press release.