June 2005

Foxwoods sees the wonder of a strong back office thanks to EatecNetX

By Diane Snyder

“The wonder of it all” is the tag line that Foxwoods Resort and Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (MPTN), uses to entice more than 40,000 visitors each day to the sprawling, 4.7 million-square-foot facility located in the Connecticut woods (www.foxwoods.com). That wonder extends to the property’s 29 food and beverage outlets, which serve an abundant variety of sumptuous cuisines, as well as 11 casino service outlets, 5 restaurant service bars, five casino lounges, and five production kitchens.

Previously, the foodservice operation’s back office processes were largely manual, which hindered productivity, speed and accuracy. Inventory transfers were manually executed and tracked by a full-time accounting staff. Without standardized recipes and close tracking of its 3,700 inventory items, it was difficult to get a handle on food costs and to ensure consistency in the preparation of dishes.

All that’s changing with the deployment of Eatec Corp.’s EatecNetX across the vast Foxwoods food and beverage organization. The application suite is delivering much-needed automation of inventory and recipe processes, helping the resort casino gain better control of its myriad foodservice operations. Ultimately, as a result of the Eatec back office suite, “We’ll be able to provide better product for the customer, maintaining high quality” and enhancing the guest experience, says Phil Minichino, food and beverage accounting manager.

Reaping early benefits

Foxwoods’ Eatec project was delayed by implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite. So by the time Foxwood’s first production kitchen, which makes soups and sauces, went live in January, 2005, food and beverage operations users were raring to get started tapping its benefits.

That enthusiasm will be a big factor in the project’s ultimate success, and came about because Minichino and his colleagues approached this undertaking differently than past projects.

“We had one executive sous-chef, Accounting, and IT involved in this project; Previous attempts to get the project approved were done only by the IT,” Minichino recalls. Operations’ preferences were built into selection criteria for the software developer, which also included experience and credibility in the industry, attractive cost, ability to handle high volume, and interfaces to the ERP solution. That buy-in helped win the approval of senior management.

“Senior management has seen other companies buy a great system and nobody uses it, so they were wary at first,” Minichino says. “We went through a whole process to show how we will use the system to control costs, labor, and find out where the issues are as soon as possible so we can address them.”

When fully deployed, Eatec will be the glue that binds the resort casino’s point-of-sale (POS) system and the ERP together, collecting data from the POS that ultimately feeds the ERP for purchase orders, warehouse accounting and other financial applications. Eatec will be used to create orders, maintain outlet inventory, execute requisitions and transfers, manage production, maintain recipes, and aid in food costing analysis.

Already, the resort casino’s numerous recipe files are loaded into the Eatec system, enabling Foxwoods to ensure consistency in food preparation and gain a better handle on food costs. Before, “we might have had seven different recipes for the same product,” Minichino says. “Now we’re able to standardize that. The biggest thing is to get the chefs to be consistent. With Eatec we can see if they’re using too much or not enough. We’re able to provide better quality and a more consistent product.”

A close-up view of costs

As the remainder of the system is implemented, Foxwoods will begin to reap even more benefits. The food and beverage operation will manage buffet service via Eatec to facilitate just-in-time production and ensure profit margins. They will also generate a daily profit analysis for each outlet.

“We will have real time costing for each outlet based on the interface with the POS system,” Minichino says. “We will be able to track variances and know whether they’re due to improper recipes, production or theft. Chefs will be held more accountable for outlet performance, and will be able to quickly react to trends in costing.”

Foxwoods will also conduct trend and menu analysis. Through the interface to the ERP, for example, they will be able to project the impact of the change of one ingredient on all pertinent recipes.

Eventually, Foxwoods’ production kitchens, which include soup and baked goods production, a butcher shop, garde manger and lounge kitchen, may use Eatec to charge back to other MPTN properties.

Foxwoods predicts a return on investment within two years, based largely on labor savings reaped from eliminating manual labor in counting and processing inventory and transactions, but the payoff extends to the enhanced control of food, labor and quality as well.

Though the ERP implementation delays have been frustrating, Minichino has been pleased with the remainder of the project. “During this whole process Eatec has worked well with us and our problems,” he says.

Now that implementation is underway, he’s excited about the effect EatecNetX will continue to have on the business. “This has really helped us on the finance end, gaining more controls and interfaces to food and beverage. Now we’re working as a team toward one goal, to produce a quality product for the customer and maintain profitability for the company.”

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