The first Zaxbys restaurant opened in 1990 with a simple but bold concept: The versatile chicken finger shouldn’t be relegated to a supporting role on appetizer menus; it deserves to be the star of the show. Today Zaxbys is serving up crispy, hand-breaded chicken fingers paired with its signature sauces at more than 950 locations across the U.S.
One key to cooking menu items like chicken fingers, fries, wings, and fried pickles is properly maintaining cooking oil. However, ensuring oil is properly filtered and routinely changed every day across many restaurants is no simple task. Recently, one Zaxbys franchisee decided to switch to automated oil management. The new system has simplified oil changeouts, while also saving the franchisee money and taking a literal load off employees’ hands.
1788 Chicken owns and operates 60 Zaxbys locations across eight states. Historically, it had been difficult to know if employees across all restaurants were filtering and changing oil properly. Even when J. Cody Neal, Vice President of Operations, was onsite, he had little way of knowing if oil was being maintained beyond what he could see and smell.
“Having good quality oil in our fryers at all times is imperative,” said Neal, “Otherwise, the chicken fingers that we put out just don’t taste like our chicken fingers.”
Previously, changing cooking oil was an arduous, manual process. Restaurant employees first needed to empty still-hot oil into caddies. They would haul those caddies through the back of the house and through the parking lot to a dumpster, where they would pour the oil into a grease trap. Finally, they would refill the fryers with fresh cooking oil from large jugs. The process was ripe with safety risks for employees and liabilities for the franchisee.
So, it came as no surprise that employees and HR alike had zero pushback when Neal announced he was rolling out a new, automated process to manage all aspects of cooking oil.
“The system has also helped 1788 Chicken reduce oil costs by about 0.3%. That may not sound like a lot. But once the system is deployed at all 60 restaurants, it will help the franchisee save more than $500,000 in oil costs annually.”
“Having good quality oil in our fryers at all times is imperative. Otherwise, the chicken fingers that we put out just don’t taste like our chicken fingers.”
Neal had discovered that automated oil management technology from Restaurant Technologies was an end-to-end solution that would allow employees to empty oil from fryers with the push of a button and refill oil using a wand. Cooking oil would be bulk delivered to external holding tanks as part of the solution.
“Being able to simplify operations for the back of house was the biggest reason I wanted to make the switch,” Neal said. “It would be a relief to no longer worry about our people hauling oil across our kitchens or the risk of a caddy spilling and creating an unsafe and unsanitary mess.
Bulk oil delivery and improved oil maintenance allowed 1788 Chicken to rein in its oil costs. And with the visibility that the online Total Oil Management (TOM) portal provided into each system, the solution presented an opportunity to keep a better eye on oil filtering and changing activities.
With each deployment of Total Oil Management, a new team discovers how much better life in the kitchen is with one of the hardest jobs now being eliminated. Neal intends to deploy the solution at new Zaxbys restaurants that his business opens or acquires, ensuring he creates an optimal working environment for employees.
“I check in with the cooks every time I visit a location and they always have positive feedback,” Neal said. “Everybody loves having a wand to pour oil into the fryer and how simple it is to extract the oil. The operation is so incredibly easy for our teams.”
The system has also helped 1788 Chicken reduce oil costs by about 0.3%. At all 60 restaurants, it helps the franchisee save more than $500,000 annually.
Using the online TOM portal, Neal can identify when employees are not filtering oil properly or often enough. He can then work with the restaurant team and provide training to ensure employees follow the right procedures.
“Sometimes I’ll see filtering is being done in the morning versus afternoon, which means someone didn’t get that task done at nighttime,” Neal said. “That’s a quality issue. And it’s not an ideal situation for employees who arrive the next day to see if they need to change yesterday’s oil. Now, we can make sure we close our restaurants properly. That’s been a big impact for us.”
Neal is now an advocate for other Zaxbys franchises to adopt the technology.
“I talk about it all the time,” Neal said. “It just makes sense and I think all Zaxbys should have the same opportunity to improve their oil management, processes, and safety.”
Restaurant Technologies, Inc.
2250 Pilot Knob Road
Mendota Heights, MN 55120
