🍽️ About Commissary Connect

In the bustling streets of British Columbia, if there's one name synonymous with culinary innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, it's Commissary Connect. Born from the vision of its founder, Sarb, who experienced firsthand the challenge of finding the right kitchen space for his beloved Soho Road Naan Kebab food truck, Commissary Connect stands as a beacon of change and collaboration for food entrepreneurs.

The brand's mission has been clear since its inception in 2012: to bridge the gap in the industry by providing a flexible, state-of-the-art shared kitchen space where costs are customized based on individual equipment usage. However, the ambition didn't stop at just offering a shared kitchen facility. Sarb envisaged Commissary Connect as a nurturing hub, a place where culinary artists could not only craft their delicacies but also forge connections, share ideas, and grow together.

But in a rapidly evolving culinary landscape, how does one stay ahead? With the Predictive Scheduling project by Beavr Labs.

📂 Project Overview

The objective was evident: harness the potential of AI to optimize kitchen equipment scheduling, thereby monetizing excess capacity and ensuring proactive management based on equipment usage insights. With a target utilization rate of 70%, the venture's stakes were high, but so was the determination to achieve it.

Phase 1 had its primary focus on infrastructure integration as the team aimed to build a foundational system designed for extensibility. This phase incorporated the solution into the existing infrastructure and piloted novel technologies to ensure compatibility and feasibility. Key technological choices made during this period included Zeplo, which was deployed to manage and craft recurring schedules; Prisma, adopted as an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tool that streamlined database interactions, enhancing efficiency and reducing errors – leading to developers spending 50% less time on data operations; and Serverless, which was utilized to autonomously manage servers and facilitate API requests, ensuring scalability and a worry-free infrastructure.

The goal was for equipment operators started receiving tentative scheduling emails derived from the past 8 weeks of usage patterns. Moreover, operators were provided with a portal, allowing them to confirm these tentative schedules. Tenants were simultaneously educated about the importance of the booking feature to ensure they had access to the equipment when needed.

Phase 2 of the project shifted to refining prediction accuracy by incorporating additional data points. The emphasis during this phase was on augmenting predictions with an expanded data palette. Advanced heuristics were employed to enhance prediction quality, and a system was developed to manage potential calendar conflicts, ensuring seamless scheduling. Addressing the user stories, tenants started receiving tentative scheduling emails. Predictions for these were shaped by several factors including past usage patterns and customer priority determined by contract size, imminent lease termination dates, preference for similar equipment types, and seasonal trends.

💡 Project Spotlight: Digitization and Automation

In today's digital era, the phrase "time is money" has never been more pertinent. This venture, far from just another project, marked a transformative shift in Commissary Connect's operations. The importance of translating operations online and automating them was understood as not just a matter of efficiency, but of paramount significance to the brand's mission. By embracing digitization, Commissary Connect ensured that their tenants, the lifeblood of their business, would experience unparalleled convenience. No longer hindered by manual schedules and ad-hoc bookings, tenants could now rely on an AI-driven, automated system that not only understood their needs but also anticipated them.

The beauty of automation, as Commissary Connect discovered, lies in its dual advantage: while business operations become streamlined and more profitable, the end-users, in this case, the tenants, reap the rewards of a system designed to make their day-to-day activities frictionless. With automated scheduling and predictive insights, tenants could now focus on what they do best: crafting culinary masterpieces, without being bogged down by operational intricacies.

📣 Call To Action

While tech-driven solutions are at the heart of this collaboration, Commissary Connect's legacy runs deeper. From the streets of East Vancouver to the monumental Laurel Street BC Regional Food Hub, their journey has been marked by milestones. Today, their patented shared-use technology, pop-up retail spaces, and a burgeoning community of over 300 entrepreneurs stand testament to their commitment to fostering a resilient food ecosystem in British Columbia.

As Sarb and his team march ahead with plans to connect food hubs nationwide, our partnership stands as a commitment to digitization and automation with the rapid development of our technological society. Together, we're reshaping the culinary landscape of tomorrow. And for those pondering their next culinary venture, Commissary Connect, with its blend of tradition, innovation, and community, awaits with open doors.