Executive Summary
Industry: Fast-Casual Mexican Cuisine
Challenge: Rapid growth exposed prep processes based on “tribal knowledge” and guesswork, leading to waste, inconsistent food quality, and managers spending excessive time on calculations
Solution: ClearCOGS AI-powered prep planning with bilingual support and white-glove implementation. Palenque Group’s transformation from guesswork-based prep to AI-powered precision succeeded through clear problem definition, the right tool, people-first implementation, realistic expectations, bilingual support, and true partnership.
The bottom line: “It just makes our life easier.”
For Palenque Group, the guessing game is over. The AI-powered future is here, and it’s working.
Key Results
1 hour saved per manager per day on prep planning
Food costs trending downward despite inflationary pressures
Significantly reduced waste at end of shifts
Improved food freshness with better prep timing
Successful scaling across growing restaurant portfolio
“In my 20+ year career, this has been the closest partnership I’ve ever had with a tech vendor. The responsiveness, customer engagement, partnership and innovation have been game-changing.” — Francisco Perez, Technical Advisor, Palenque Group
The Challenge: Growing Fast, But Guessing at the Basics
When Francisco Perez joined Palenque Group as Technical Advisor in 2024, he asked restaurant teams a simple question: “How do you know how much to prep?”
The response? Blank stares.
“Some of them will have experience, some of them will have tribal knowledge,” Francisco recalls. “But at the end of the day, they were basically guessing.”
This guesswork created cascading problems:
- Wasted Time: Managers spent approximately one hour every day figuring out prep calculations—time that should have been spent serving customers and running the restaurant.
- Food Waste: Without accurate forecasting, the default was over-prepping. Staff routinely threw away food and other prepared ingredients at shift end.
- Compromised Quality: For a brand built on offering “the best and freshest quality,” over-prepping meant food sat longer, compromising freshness by the time it reached customers.
- Rising Costs: Food costs were a concern, but without systematic data, isolating the drivers was nearly impossible.
- Bumpy Tech Implementations: Previous technology attempts didn’t gain traction because they didn’t engage the operators who would actually use them.
Why ClearCOGS
Palenque Group needed a solution that was focused, simple, and collaborative:
- Solved a Specific Problem: Unlike enterprise software trying to do everything, ClearCOGS had a clear mission—tell teams exactly how much to prep.
- AI Created Confidence: The shift from human guesswork to algorithmic forecasting based on actual sales patterns gave operators a reliable baseline.
- Simplicity Drove Adoption: Prep sheets were just a few words and several numbers. No complicated interfaces. Staff could follow the numbers and adjust based on experience.
- Nimble Integration: The system pulled data from existing POS systems and delivered actionable prep guidance—bridging data collection and operational execution.
Implementation: A People-First Approach
Tiered Rollout
Rather than a “big bang” rollout, Palenque Group and ClearCOGS took a methodical approach, implementation in chunks of stores each month with weekly progress reviews. This allowed proof of concept, manageable scale, and ambassador development.
One-to-One Operator Engagement
What separated this from past failures was the depth of engagement. Instead of large group training, the ClearCOGS team had direct phone conversations with individual operators.
“Making them part of the process of getting this rolled out gave us the right feeling that we were in the right direction,” Francisco recalls. “People want to have what they need rather than having somebody else telling them what to have.”
Overcoming Skepticism
Experienced managers had spent years developing prep planning intuition. ClearCOGS overcame their skepticism through:
- Transparency about imperfection: “We’re not going to get everything perfect. But when things were not coming as expected, there was always transparency, responsiveness, and clarity of how to move forward.”
- The 90% framework: Staff understood numbers were approximately 90% accurate, and they’d apply their judgment for the rest. This empowered operators rather than replacing them.
- Turning believers into ambassadors: Successful operators became evangelists for the next wave. Peer advocacy proved infinitely more credible than management mandates.
Bilingual Support
For a predominantly Spanish-speaking workforce, ClearCOGS’s bilingual support proved transformative.
“The bilingual communication was incredibly helpful and accelerated everything,” Francisco emphasizes. “We make sure we hear everybody; there are no limitations.”
Results
Time Savings
Managers save approximately one hour per day by not having to calculate prep quantities, time redirected to customer service, staff development, and floor operations.
Food Cost Reduction
Food costs are trending downward. “We’re seeing that we’re in a good trend,” Francisco states. “It’s very positive and gives us a lot of encouragement to move forward.”
Waste Reduction
Staff specifically noticed they were no longer throwing away tortillas at the end of shifts, a concrete daily indicator that prep quantities were more accurate. “They were not over-cooking or over-prepping something that they’re going to spend time throwing away.”
Food Quality & Freshness
With more accurate quantities, food was prepared in appropriate time windows rather than sitting for extended periods.
“What really gave us the confidence to move forward was hearing directly from the people on the grill, from the people in the kitchen. They were seeing that the numbers were giving them a better forecast and they were getting fresh food to the customers.”
Staff Engagement
“People get excited because they see that we’re giving them tools that are sophisticated right now in the market,” Francisco notes. “People are eager to get better tools to make the work easier.”
The Partnership Difference
When asked about vendor relationships across his 20+ year career spanning major corporations, Francisco was unequivocal:
“In my career, it’s probably one of the ones that we have been working closest with.”
He identified three pillars that made the difference:
- Responsiveness – Fast replies and real-time problem-solving
- Customer Engagement – One-to-one discussions, weekly troubleshooting, making operators part of the process
- Partnership Innovation – Collaborative approach, customization, joint problem-solving
“We see ClearCOGS as problem solvers, your support to get us on the right track for our digitalization. It just makes our life easier.”
Conclusion
Palenque Group’s transformation from guesswork-based prep to AI-powered precision succeeded through clear problem definition, the right tool, people-first implementation, realistic expectations, bilingual support, and true partnership.
The bottom line: “It just makes our life easier.”
For Palenque Group, the guessing game is over. The AI-powered future is here, and it’s working.
