For the uninitiated, building a commercial kitchen often brings many problems related to local regulations as well as practical operational features that don’t quite work. Getting the kitchen infrastructure right first time allows the area to function properly straight away and to last under the demanding working conditions that a busy commercial kitchen faces.
In this post, I'll outline just a few of the design and quality considerations you'll need to make when procuring a commercial kitchen.
Regulatory Compliance
Wherever in the world your kitchen is being built, it must comply with local regulations. Not to do so can bring substantial, unexpected cost and delays to programme. Whilst regulations will vary from the European Union, to the United States, to Russia and the Middle East, there are common areas that they all cover. If you are aware of these areas, then you can ensure that your supply chain is paying the right level of attention to this detail.
- Electrical Safety: Is the overall design of the kitchen, the individual components and the catering equipment certified to meet any international or local standards?
- Gas Safety: Has the correct supply quantity been worked out? Are the pipes correctly sized? Are the component parts of the supply properly certified and installed by a competent engineer?
- Food safety of construction materials: Are walls, floors and surfaces made of foodsafe materials?
- Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide testing: Around 20 people a year in the UK are killed by being in badly ventilated facilities, which can also cause illness. How will the kitchen be properly ventilated?
- Montreal Protocol: Is the refrigeration and cooling plant compliant with this international protocol?
- Lighting Levels: Is the space adequately lit to meet the local standards for a kitchen?
- HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points): Does the design of the kitchen allow HACCP management, or is it fundamentally flawed from the outset?
- CE Marked or GOST Certified: Is the catering equipment compliant with local standards?
Design and Build Quality
Regulations aside, kitchens are put under pressure by the use of water, the frequent use of cleaning chemicals, the heat of cooking processes and sometimes by unskilled or temporary users. Kitchens that are not designed and built to withstand these pressures simply do not last and will require replacement, or at least the cost and severe disruption of refurbishment, far sooner than the user might hope.
The build quality of the structure that the kitchen is housed in is also critical. Key features are adequate load-bearing for floors, correct wind or snow loads, heating and ventilation that are suited to local climatic conditions such as extremes of heat or cold, and dust. Like any specialist space, the internal design of a kitchen has many features that require close attention. These include fire safety, fire suppression, sufficient space between equipment, anti-slip floors, water resistant floor construction, services and sockets designed for easy cleaning and access, and infestation-proof construction of walls and doors to name but a few. Getting these things right makes a huge difference to the financial and operational success of a kitchen building project.
PKL has 25 years of experience providing temporary and permanent infrastructure around the world. We sell and hire equipment, tented and modular kitchens that will meet local regulations and best practice in design and build quality. We get things right first time and aim to provide cost and programme certainty, giving peace of mind to clients who want to avoid unnecessary problems.
For more information on our international division, PKL Transworld, click here.
To find out more about UK kitchen hires, click here.
Firstly, thank you to all of our customers who have filled in customer feedback forms and sent them back to us. This has allowed us to monitor our performance over the last year, and will help us to improve our performance to you in the coming months.
During FYE13, we changed the way that we monitor and record our feedback results to incorporate the Net Promoter Score, an internationally recognised way of recording customer satisfaction levels that provides a figure which can be compared with other businesses and industries using the system. The change to our reporting method was undertaken in January 2013, and the analysis below covers those forms received between January and April 2013 using this new system. While it does not provide us with a full year’s results, it does give a useful snapshot on which to provide a comparison for next year’s scores and an assessment of how we've done so far this year.
Our customer feedback forms are split into five areas with a number of questions in each, and cover all aspects of our business and services.
Sales
Customers are asked to rate our performance over a number of areas, including how quickly we responded to their enquiries, how helpful and knowledgeable our staff were, whether we provided information in a clear and manageable way and whether our team continued to provide help throughout the sales process.
Quality and Preparation of Units and/or Catering Equipment
Customers were asked questions surrounding the condition of temporary kitchens and/or catering equipment they had hired from PKL when it arrived, whether it was as described in our sales process and whether it was reliable during the period of their hire.
Delivery and Installation
Respondents were asked to rate whether their delivery was on time, whether our drivers were helpful and knowledgeable and whether PKL complied with customers’ onsite health, safety and environmental protocol.
Operation and Training
Customers were asked to rate the quality of the operating hand books for catering equipment and temporary kitchens that were provided by PKL and how easy it was to follow the information contained within them.
Technical Support
If technical support was required during the hire period, our customers were asked to rate the level of service they received both within business operational hours, and from our 24 hours technical support service if they used the service out of normal working hours, the level of support and service received from our technical support team and whether we were able to fix their problem first time.
Net Promoter Score
In the analysis of NPS, a score of above zero is good and above 50 is excellent, while a score in minus figures would be of cause for concern. We are therefore delighted with an overall Net Promoter Score of 81 for the year, and in our overall feedback scores in each department which has given a satisfaction score of above 96% in each area of our business.
We will of course try to improve on these scores over the coming year and are continually looking at ways in which we are able to improve both our products and levels of service to you. We welcome your feedback at any time, either by emailing us at postbox@pkl.co.uk or phoning 0845 840 42 42.
Once again, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to fill out our customer feedback forms over the last year, and letting us know your thoughts and comments regarding the products and service that you have received from PKL. I will leave you finally with some of the comments that we have received from our customers over the last year.
Customer Quotes
"Have always used PKL as you provide exactly what I need when asked."
"A very helpful process for our client. Flexibility was a key part of this hire – Thank you."
"Excellent company in all aspects. Thank you for your support to our organisation."
"Particularly grateful for the professional and coordinated response from sales and finance together."
"Found PKL to be professional. They maintained contact throughout the agreement and were very helpful."
"Totally happy with service from start to finish. Machinery very reliable and customer services spot on. Many thanks for your service. Will not hesitate to use PKL again in the future if ever the situation arose."
"Consultant was Daniel Robinson – who was great."
"Great! Couldn’t believe how quick you were able to get it here."
Name: Karsten
