Summary
Hot Production helps you plan the production of your hot food items using intelligent data from forecasts, sales history, and shelf life requirements.
Recipe Setup Requirements
Before using Hot Production, ensure your recipes are properly configured:
Essential Recipe Settings
Select Hot Chef in the recipe settings in the Hot Chef dropdown (Important: items must have Hot Chef set, not Bakery)
Set Shelf Life - determines how long products stay fresh and when they expire
Set Hot Chef Preparation Times - used for accurate production scheduling and time slot planning. Made visible once you have marked the recipe as being "Hot Chef"
💡 Tip: For Hot Chef products the Preparation time does not need to be set - only Hot Chef Production time, unless the product requires two stages of production. See further info on this below.
Forecasting Individual Ingredients
If you want to forecast just a single ingredient (rather than a complete product), you'll need to:
Create a sub-recipe containing only that ingredient
Use this sub-recipe within your main recipes
The sub-recipe can then be tracked and forecasted separately
Two Step Hot Production
If you have a product which is prepared in a Fixed Production and then finished off during Hot Production there are a couple of extra recipe settings required:
Set Preparation Time - this is the time to prepare the product during the Fixed Production
Production Visibility should be ticked for the Fixed Production during which the product is prepared
Setting Up Your Stations
Station Configuration
⚠️ Important: Changes to existing stations only take effect from the next day onwards.
Go to Production > Production Sites > Hot Production Settings
Scroll to the Station Settings section
Click + Add Station to create the stations you need
Set when hot food should be made using the Default Timeslot dropdown
Use Station Products dropdown to assign which hot products each station can make
💡 Tip: Only products with "Hot Chef" selected in the 'Bakery / Hot Chef' dropdown will be available to assign to stations.
Hot Production PCR Settings
At the bottom of the page, you can control whether products made in Hot Production need to go through the Product Control Review (PCR) process.
Use the toggle to switch PCR on or off for your site
This setting affects how products appear in your daily production workflow (see "How PCR Affects Your Batches" below)
Setting Full Selection Time
Full Selection Time ensures you have enough quantity of all hot products available during your peak times.
How to Set Full Selection Time
Go to Production > Production Sites > Hot Production Settings
Scroll to the Full Selection Time section
Choose the exact time of day full selection should be available
Assign which products the full selection time applies to
Define the extra quantity you want to add (on top of the forecast) to meet full selection requirements
⚠️ Only products with "Hot Chef" selected in the 'Bakery / Hot Chef' dropdown will be available to assign to full selection.
The system will automatically plan production into the schedule for a batch time that has products ready for full selection time, taking into account each product's shelf life.
Managing Production Numbers
Edify automatically calculates how much of each product should be made based on forecast data, but you can review and adjust these numbers for upcoming productions if required.
Reviewing and Adjusting Forecasts
Navigate to Production > Hot Production
Select your date - Choose the date you want to review or change
Choose your station - Use the dropdown to select which station to review
Set your time range - Define the time period you want to work with
View generated data - Tables will appear based on your station settings and default time slots
Access forecast tools - Click either Show Forecast or Edit Forecast
Refine your data - In the popup, remove any weeks you don't want included in the forecast calculation
Apply changes - Click Show to update the forecast
Review updated numbers - The Forecast column will refresh with new data
Make your adjustments - Update the quantities in the Production column as needed
Save your work - Click Save at the top to confirm your changes
💡 Tip: Day to day it's likely you won't need to edit your forecasted production numbers but Edify does allow edits to be made for occasions such as special events when you know you'll need to produce more.
Reminder: The Total Sales QTY shows the actual sales that have happened, so this will not be populated for batches in the future
Hot Production on Stepper Mode
On production day, use Stepper Mode to track and confirm the quantities you produce based on your forecast data.
Reminder: To exit Stepper Mode click the cog in the top right and click 'Exit Stepper Mode'
Getting Started
Go to Production > Production Planner
Click Switch to Stepper Mode
Select your production date
Choose Hot Chef from the first dropdown
Select your station
Using Hot Chef Mode
Once Hot Chef mode launches, you'll see a clear production dashboard:
Left Side - Current Production:
Shows your current production timeslot
Displays the quantities needed for this timeslot
If PCR mode is switch off - click Done when you've finished producing the required amount
Scroll down to view upcoming timeslots
If there are no planned quantities for a product within the current production timeslot this product will not be shown.
Right Side - Batches Overview:
Batches Produced: See all batches you've already made
Available Column: Shows current stock (produced items minus sales)
Shelf Life Column: Countdown timer showing how long each batch has before it expires and needs removing
💡 Tip: You can switch between Stations by clicking the cog symbol on the top right
Managing Expired Batches
When batches are approaching their shelf life expiry, the timer will turn red to alert you.
To Remove Expired Batches:
Click into the box in the Available column for the expired batch
A popup will appear asking how much of this batch should remain available
The system defaults to 0 (assuming you're removing the full batch)
Adjust the quantity if needed (e.g., enter 2 if you're keeping 2 items)
Click Accept
The available quantity updates immediately, and the batch will be removed from the Batch Overview when the page refreshes
How PCR Affects Your Batches
PCR Disabled:
When you click Done, products immediately appear in the Batches Overview on the right
You are able to adjust the planned quantities in stepper mode to reflect if you made more.
PCR Enabled:
Products must go through the standard PCR process first
Items only appear in Batches Overview after the PCR report is submitted
Hot Production Forecasting and Planning FAQs
How often do you receive Sales Data from a POS system to show the number of available products in the Batches Overview?
This will differ POS system to POS system.
For Revel we receive sales data every five minutes.