A Japanese sushi restaurant had a huge success, taking advantage of Big Data technology!

Have you ever been to a traditional Sushi restaurant in Japan?
There are lots of people who love fresh raw fish all over the world, and who’d love to visit Japan and have a real sushi experience.

When you enter a sushi restaurant you might be little nervous because you may need to communicate with a sushi master over the counter to order your favourite sushi in Japanese.
Sometimes you don’t see any menu or price, so you have to ask for a menu or what the master’s recommendations are. You might start by having nibbles first, then go for the sushi.

For many years, it has been normal in sushi restaurants for the sushi master to take the orders by hand and using a note pad. Then, the sushi world was a long way from technology!
Although this culture would be a great experience for people today.

Sushi used to be the fast food of Japan during the Edo period, as you can eat both rice and fish at the same time.
As you know, nowadays, sushi is still very popular and we can see many sushi restaurants abroad as well as in Japan. You can eat even Sushi Pizza in London!

It is not just the growing number of restaurants, but also the different styles of how we can eat sushi, one of which is at a Kaiten sushi restaurant.
Kaiten sushi started in Osaka in 1958, and has a very unique style – all of plates with sushi on are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that runs in front of the customers.

Kaiten sushi has became very popular among Japanese people because it is more reasonable than a traditional sushi restaurant, and there is no difficult rules to contend with. It is an entertainment for families who have children, as children enjoy taking a plate from the conveyor belt by themselves.
We can see Kaiten sushi not only in Japan but also abroad.

Here in Japan, there is a very unique Kaiten sushi restaurant called “AKINDO SUSHIRO”. It is very successful and the biggest Kaiten sushi chain.
Why unique? Let us introduce AKINDO SUSHIRO, who brought technology into their business for analysis – this technology uses Big Data.

“There are more than 390 restaurants all over Japan, and the average number of customers for each restaurant is about 1,000 per day; customers average 10 plates at each sitting; and each plate costs 100 yen. So daily profits can be in the region of 1 million yen, it’s a simple calculation, isn’t it?” says Mr. Tanaka, director of the information system at SUSHIRO.

But actually it’s not that simple, as customers have differing tastes – what neta (ingredients) customers eat for lunch and dinner will not be the same, as even the weather will effect peoples choices.

There are many Kaiten sushi restaurants which have a sushi master that customers can order their requests directly, but SUSHIRO only serves sushi on the conveyor belt, that is why it is very important to know the customers needs, and therefore not wasting any sushi.
Can you imagine how 120 different types of sushi can be eaten? Ideally all the sushi should be finished. Also SUSHIRO has to think about the cost, as they spend more than half of their profit on ingredients.

So what is a secret of SUSHIRO’s huge success?
Well it is a comprehensive management system that can predict a customers needs that has been installed in all of their restaurants that is responsible for their success.

There are two points that SUSHIRO operates:

1) IC chip on all plates.

A special mention should be made of the IC chip system that allows analysis of SUSHIRO customer’s favourite neta.
This system can tell what neta was taken from the conveyor belt by each customer, by way of recognising every single item – it is the very first system of this kind in the world.
Additionally, the system is able to show which plates have not been taken from the conveyor belt, and those that are taken automatically; as the system determines that they are no longer fresh.

2) Efficiently analysing 4 billion Big Data from their customers appetite.

This is SUSHIRO’s original indexation.
The system collects data at the entrance, such as customer numbers and their demographic; the time they entered; staying time; type of group; then analyses and predicts what neta might be eaten “one minute later”, and then “15 minutes later”.
In general, more sushi can be ordered and prepared as soon as the customer sits down, then later, less orders are prepared, as customers are finishing and thinking about having desserts.
The technology enables SUSHIRO to serve the customer their favourite sushi, and with enough fresh neta when they are needed, as only fresh neta is good enough for their customers.

We should also not forget, and quite a remarkable point, is that SUSHIRO has successfully reduced waste by 25%.
How not to waste ingredients is a goal for all of the food industry’s, and SUSHIROs success is down to using Big Data
Therefore SUSHIRO is able to give the best price to customers, and even fresh medium toro (belly of tuna) costs for just 105 yen.

At last, you can imagine that SUSHIRO is a sushi restaurant with modern technology, but tradition plays a part as well. This is also considering the many experiences and suggestions that have come from their restaurant managers that have been input to the new system.

So that is why SUSHIRO is the most successful kaiten sushi company in Japan, and how it satisfies all of their customers.
Why don’t you visit one of SUSHIRO when you are next in Japan?

Hope you enjoyed reading!