Throttling Strategy: Orders-in-Progress Limits

Overview

Orders-in-Progress allows precise control over online order volume by allowing stores to limit the number of orders being prepared at the same time. In cases where a guest is placing an order when a restaurant's limit has been reached, the guest's order ready time estimate will include the minutes required to make their order plus the number of minutes until capacity is available to start preparing it. The order is fired to the kitchen when capacity is available, creating a more consistent flow of orders. This is the most precise throttling strategy option and has several advantages over traditional methods of Orders-per-window and make-time-minutes-per-period 

• In-progress capacity logic reserves capacity for the full period of time it will take to prepare an order
• Eliminates 15-minute throttling windows which frequently resulted in waves of orders fired
• Sets realistic expectations for guests by considering other orders hitting the kitchen

Example 1: Given that a restaurant has an in-progress order limit of 5, if the restaurant has not already reached that limit, then a guest placing an ASAP order with a make time of 15 minutes would be quoted a lead time of 15 minutes. Upon placing the order, it is fired immediately and the restaurant beings preparing the order. 

Example 2: Given that a restaurant has an in-progress order limit of 5, if the restaurant has reached that limit, then a guest placing an ASAP order with a make time of 15 minutes would be quoted a lead time of 15 minutes + the number of minutes until a currently in-progress order is expected to be completed. Upon placing the order, it is queued for firing, and is fired when capacity is available. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: What’s the customer experience like?

A: Order ready times for ASAP orders reflect current throughput conditions in the restaurant. If the restaurant is not currently operating at its in-progress limit, the guest will be quoted the make time determined by your brand’s lead time strategy. If the store has met its limit and is currently busy preparing other orders, quotes will be inflated to include the amount of time until a currently in-progress order is completed.

Quotes will be inflated up to a brand-defined Total Lead Time Limit for ASAP orders. For example, if guests should not see more than 60-minute quotes for ASAP orders and new orders would be quoted in excess of this number, then a message would appear when the customer attempts to proceed to checkout saying, "{StoreName} is experiencing high order volume and cannot immediately start your order." Once the customer sees the message, they can select a later time and attempt to checkout again. 

Future orders will be accepted assuming that capacity is available given the prep time of the order. If the desired time isn't available the customer will see a message that reads, "{StoreName} is experiencing high order volume and cannot prepare your order for {DesiredTimeSlot}."  Once the customer sees the message, they can then select a different time slot and attempt to proceed to checkout again. 

Q: What's the operator experience like? 

A: ASAP orders being placed when a store is at its in-progress order limit will be queued for firing until an order currently being prepared hits its prep end time. This results in a consistent flow of orders and more efficient use of the kitchen's capacity. 

Orders queued for firing can still be found in the Olo Dashboard, and order details will indicate the scheduled fire time. 

Q: What’s the difference between In-Progress Order Limits and Orders Per Window or Make Minutes Per Period Throttling? 

A: In-Progress Order Limits let restaurants place a cap on how many orders can be in progress at a time in the kitchen. Orders Per Window and Make Minutes Per Period throttling lets restaurants place a cap on how many orders or make time minutes can be completed in a 15 minute window. Since orders take different amounts of time to prepare, Orders Per Window and Make Minutes Per Period throttlers give less precise control over how many orders can flow through the kitchen at a time. In Progress Order Limits control capacity on more of a rolling basis.

Q: How do I enable this throttling strategy?  

A: If you're ready to move forward with In-Progress Order Limits, reach out to your CSM to enable it at the brand level. When reaching out to your CSM, also let them know what the Total Lead Time Limit for ASAP orders should be. 

First, order throttling needs to be enabled for an individual store through Dashboard, navigate to Settings --> Store Settings --> Select Store --> Order Throttling and click the "Turn On Order Throttling". Unlike other throttling strategies, this can be applied on a per-store basis so that you can test the change in one store before rolling it out to others. To enable for an individual store through Dashboard, navigate to Settings --> Store Settings --> Select Store --> Store Information and toggle the "Enable Orders In Progress Throttling" to Yes and set the Max Orders In Progress as desired. 

Q: How does Olo know if an order has been completed and is no longer in progress? 

A: For this initial version of the feature, Olo does not have visibility into whether an order has actually been completed. The algorithm follows an optimistic approach and assumes that the order has been completed by the ready time calculated during basket submission. In the future, we may be able to decrement our view of how many orders are in progress, but this is not currently supported by Olo. Despite lacking this ability, our early adopter customers have told us that this feature is a strong improvement over legacy throttling.

Q: How can I adjust the limit if I think it’s too low or too high? 

A: Limits can be adjusted in the Settings section of Dashboard. We plan to add support for adjusting limits into our Capacity Rules Engine in the near future.

Q: Can I change the capacity limits at different times of day? 

A: As of our first release, the capacity limit is a static field and cannot be adjusted throughout the day, but you can manually change the limit as needed. Just note that if you adjust the limit downward, you may experience scenarios in which more orders are in progress than you might expect, since advance orders may have already been placed for future periods.

Q: Does this strategy consider orders that did not originate from Olo? 

A: No, this solution is currently limited to tracking and impacting Olo orders.

Q: Does this work if I use Quote Time or Order Ready Time as my Lead Time Strategy? 

A: Both Lead Time Strategies are supported and have been used by brands participating in the beta test of this feature.