Inventory blindness
Perishable ingredients expired unnoticed due to zero tracking between kitchen consumption and warehouse stock.
Fullstack SaaS / Operations & Food Service
LucenaOS — Surfacing the Hidden Costs in Restaurant Inventory
A B2B SaaS platform replacing an isolated POS with an intelligent inventory and real-time recipe costing (CMV) engine.
- Role
- Product Designer
- Timeline
- Feb – Jul 2025 (5 mos)
- Product
- LucenaOS (B2B SaaS)
- Stakeholders
- Product Owner & Devs
Context
Lucena Restaurant previously relied on MenuLegal, a legacy system limited strictly to the front register. Operating without integrated stock control meant frequent ingredient spoilage and zero knowledge of the actual cost of goods sold (CMV) per dish.
The goal was to replace the fragmented stack with a unified platform connecting rapid front-of-house table service directly to dense back-office inventory intelligence and BPO routines.
Problem
Hidden recipe costs (CMV)
Managers had no visibility into the true cost per dish, making margin calculations purely speculative.
Isolated point of sale
The legacy system (MenuLegal) functioned solely as a register, completely disconnected from back-office procurement and data.
Reactive promotion planning
Marketing created special deals and combos based on assumptions rather than actual surplus stock availability.
Service Architecture
Service Blueprint: From Intake to Profit
Mapped the entire "Receiving to Profit" journey connecting customer actions, front-stage touchpoints, digital systems, and backstage logistics to isolate failure points before designing UI.
Flow 01
Automated XML Invoice Intake
Automating raw material registration directly from supplier XML invoices to eliminate manual spreadsheets—the root cause of inventory blindness.
Flow 02
Combo Creation & Recipe Steppers
Structured technical sheets into guided steppers, connecting ingredients to true cost of goods sold (CMV) and ensuring dynamic margin calculations.
Flow 03
Mobile POS Floor Service & Live Web Tracking
Decoupled the agile mobile floor ordering experience from the dense back-office web dashboard to serve two simultaneous contexts with opposing ergonomic needs.
Results & Impact
Usability testing via Maze validated immediate operational gains in stock workflows, while financial models projected direct waste reduction and revenue uplift across restaurant operations:
Efficiency
-42%
Reduction in manual inventory logging time (Maze validated).
Cost Control
100%
Visibility over real recipe costs (CMV) and margin drift.
Waste Reduction
20%
Projected direct savings in food cost waste across operations.
Revenue Uplift
+15%
Projected average order value through stock-driven promotions.