Baby PanPan

 


INTRODUCTION:

Meet Baby PanPan and Sabrina! These two rascals are on quite the adventure together and I’d love to take a moment of your time to explain why these two are so important.

Actually, I thought it through and realized these two really aren’t important at all. In fact, these are fictional characters created as part of a software program I am currently developing.


PURPOSE:

To create a software solution for the Panera Bread bakery team which:

  • Provides task event notification,
  • Connects with Panera Bread training guides/materials,
  • Provides reference materials to assist bakers in their duties during the course of their shift,
  • Allows bakers to enter notes which may be logged/sent to team members as needed (ex. sends an email message for managers to order more chocolate chips).

PROJECTED FEATURES:

Version 1.0

  • Allows tasks, schedules, and reminders to be entered.
  • Provides alarm and/or notifications for timers and scheduled events (such as reminders to clean the deck oven, wash down shelves, or wash the focaccia rings).
  • Is connected with Panera Bread bakery training materials to include:
    • Bakery color charts
    • Instructions (or ‘how to’) for each item. These are in printed off manuals current, however, they are difficult to access and use with ease and again, are simply not green and/or up to modern standards.
    • Technical specifications for ovens and/or all equipment in the bakery
    • Other necessary materials as needed

Version 2.0

  • Voice recognition integration*. This would allow bakers to simply speak to Baby PanPan to:
    • Set a timer (ex: ask Baby PanPan to set a 15 minute timer and send a notification to your phone when it goes off. This allows you to leave the ovens and work in an area away from the sound of the oven alarms, such as the bakers walk-in cooler or the freezer).
    • Display a color chart of any item
  • Connect Pandora accounts of different staff members in order to shuffle or play playlists.
  • Sync Bluetooth wireless devices (such as speakers)

Version 3.0

  • Allow task completion events to be directly entered/appended to the Panera Bread employee training file. This will provide very specific documentation for managers which may be referred back to at any point. Here is an example of how this feature would work:

    Frank, the baker, is working over-night at Panera Bread. Frank’s district supervisor needs the deck ovens cleaned at each store on a weekly basis. So, the district supervisor enters a weekly cleaning assignment, into Baby PanPan, which is titled “Clean the deck ovens”. Baby PanPan will popup with that assignment reminder and Frank will have to acknowledge this reminder. Additionally, Frank will have to mark the task as completed or not completed. Whatever Frank’s response, Baby PanPan will append Franks response directly into Frank’s Panera Bread employee training folder where the district supervisor may refer to these responses for employee evaluation and development purposes.

  • furnish documentation for regular employee reviews.
  • Allow task completion emails to be sent to supervisors email address for documentation purposes.
  • Can send SMS notifications upon timer expiration (helpful in case you are in the freezer and cannot hear the oven alarm).
  • Allow task completion emails to be sent to supervisors email address for documentation purposes.

BRIEF:

Baby PanPan (sometimes referred to as simply BPP) was created as a fictional character. The story goes that BPP is a small (baby) pan who fell off of a Panera Bread delivery truck while en-route to Baby PanPan’s home store. Now, Baby PanPan is on an adventure to find his home store. Sabrina is a scoring knife who Baby PanPan encounters (at the Raintree store) on his adventure. The Raintree store, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is the pilot store for this application. BPP an Sabrina are the playful graphical characters which provide the backdrop for the real important things this software is to provide.

“When the cat is away, the mice will play.”1

There’s an old saying which goes something to the effect that when the cat is away, the mice will play and any manager can testify to the fact that this also happens to humans and is not exclusively applicable to mice. There are plenty of things for a manager and keeping daily logs of employee progress and task completion is almost too much to ask.

Not to worry though; Baby PanPan allows the employee to carry out tasks the manager needs completed and it appends the completion status directly to the employees folder. Almost like a black box for an airline, when something goes wrong, Baby PanPan’s logs can be pulled to reconstruct the event in question. Having documentation provides substantive evidence for all parties involved while also providing helpful features to assist the baker throughout the night (such as playing the employees favorite Pandora playlist to help provide productive motivation). Additionally, any communication (i.e. messages, emails, etc) that is sent through Baby PanPan will log automatically into each applicable employees folder that is associated with the communication.

It is believed that Baby PanPan is a much needed tool for the Panera Bread bakery operations department.


WORK SO FAR:

Currently, BPP is a Microsoft Access application on its way to be converted to a WordPress Plugin. The current Access version, opens to a main menu where you can generate a new pan-up or search for old pan-ups (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Screenshot of BPP main menu

The screens/forms for new/old pan-ups are the same (Figure 2), and they are limited in ability.

Figure 2. Screenshot of BPP pan-up form

Additionally, I have obtained the domain name www.BabyPanPan.com and am working on programming the website.


THE TEAM:

Team members Wanted! Right now I’m acting as the butcher, the baker (literally), and the candlestick maker on this project. I’m designing the characters, sketching, and programming, so, my progress is extremely limited. Completing this project in a timely manner would require the following team members:

  • Graphical Designer
  • Programmer
  • Project Manager

If you are interested in becoming a part of the Baby PanPan team, please feel free to contact me so we can work out the details. Please understand, this is not a paid endeavor; this is a pet project exclusively. Naturally, after the plug-in is published at WordPress.org, you will receive credit as being a part of the development team.


EXIT STRATEGY:

Clearly this application is exclusively useful to Panera Bread bakery employees, therefore, Panera Bread is the intended recipient of this software, for a price. Contact me to learn more!


CONCLUSION:

I’m working on this project slowly but surely. Fall semester is starting soon and so my speed will be slowed by that as well. Should I acquire a team to assist me on this I will start a Github and setup a project management tracking system for the team. For now, I’m a one man show… well, eh-hem, I mean it’s me, Baby PanPan, and Sabrina.


* For noise cancelling, current suggestions indicate use of Krisp API or similar technology for noise filtering/cancelling.


 

Footnotes

  1. When the cat’s away, the mice will play. (n.d.) In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/when-the-cat-s-away–the-mice-will-play

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