Kitchen display
The kitchen display (KDS) shows tickets on a screen on the line. It receives the same information a kitchen printer would, and replaces or supplements paper.
What reaches the display
A ticket appears when an order is sent, and a held course appears when it is fired — see Coursing and firing.
Which tickets reach which screen is decided by routing: an item goes to the prep station configured for it. A grill screen shows grill items; a cold station shows salads. See Routing to stations.
Bumping
Bumping marks a ticket done and clears it from the screen. Depending on your configuration, bumping can also mark the order ready, which is what notifies a waiting guest or a delivery courier.
Ticket contents
A ticket carries the item, its modifiers, its course, the order type, and a table or order identifier. Special requests print with the item.
Keep modifier names short. A KDS ticket is read at a glance by someone with their hands full.
If a ticket does not appear
- Is the item routed anywhere? An item with no prep station has no destination. This is the most common cause.
- Is the screen online? A KDS that has lost its connection shows stale tickets rather than an error.
- Was it a held course? Held courses do not appear until fired.
- Is the order type excluded? Some configurations route only certain order types to certain stations.