Crunchtime’s Ops Excellence Awards recognize those who have raised the bar in the industry. Each year, that bar of excellence keeps getting higher and higher, largely in part due to the amazing caliber of submissions we received from our incredible customer base.
With an impressive slate of nominations, narrowing the field was no easy task. Among all of the submissions, five brands stood out the most and earned their spot as finalists:
- Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
- Gong cha
- MSC Cruises
- Panini Kabob Grill
- P.F. Chang’s
In this series, we’ll take a closer look at each finalist’s story and achievements.
2026 Ops Excellence Award Finalist: P.F. Chang’s
With a plethora of phenomenal results that have continued to improve with time, P.F. Chang’s is the only returning finalist to the Ops Excellence Awards.
Brand Snapshot
P.F. Chang’s takes pride in creating a heart-filled, guest-led Pan Asian dining experience. Guided by a passion for its craft, respect for its people, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, the brand delivers memorable moments and long-term value for guests, team members, and shareholders, with a global presence in 22 countries and over 300 locations.
Commitment to Operational Excellence
At P.F. Chang’s, operational excellence isn’t just a goal; it’s a standard lived in every shift, in every location. It means delivering a consistently exceptional guest experience through disciplined systems, empowered teams, and real-time insights. It’s about executing the fundamentals flawlessly—food quality, speed, accuracy, cleanliness, and hospitality—while reducing friction for team members.
“Our mission is to remove the guesswork for our teams, transforming complex flows into simple, actionable steps that empower our people to focus on the guest,” said Edward Kulick, Food & Beverage Systems Manager.
Operational Challenges
P.F. Chang’s operates in a fast-moving, complex environment where quality, hospitality, operational consistency, and adaptability must coexist. The company’s brand promise centers on executing the fundamentals flawlessly, regardless of how busy restaurants become. After a year of shifting trends, climate impacts, and value-conscious guests, operations needed stability.
The brand needed operational systems that could simplify complexity, improve visibility, and create consistency across teams, concepts, and markets, including the ability to:
- Centralize operational information and decision-making
- Improve visibility across supply chain, finance, and restaurant operations
- Support rapid menu testing and operational pivots
- Deliver scalable training resources for diverse learning styles
- Reduce friction for operators working in high-pressure environments
- Maintain consistency during periods of change and growth
The Solution for Smarter Operations
For P.F. Chang’s, Crunchtime is the shared source of truth that keeps standards, execution, and decision-making aligned. “Crunchtime has become part of how we operate, how we adapt, and how we support our teams through change. By using Crunchtime’s suite of solutions, we’ve created a fully connected operation. We use Inventory and Labor to plan the shift, Operations Execution to verify the standards, and Kitchen to execute the kitchen flow. This ecosystem has turned digital data into our most powerful coaching tool,” explained Kulick.
- Crunchtime Kitchen and Crunchtime Ops Execution
P.F. Chang’s created a digital training ecosystem that gives teams real-time access to SOPs, recipes, operational resources, and learning materials directly within their workflow using Crunchtime Kitchen and Crunchtime Ops Execution. The brand expanded accessibility through:
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- Recipe instructions with photos, videos, and audio guidance
- Bilingual audio and closed captions
- Self-paced learning experiences for restaurant teams
- Real-time operational resources accessible across 200+ restaurants
- Crunchtime Inventory
P.F. Chang’s improved visibility across multiple business functions by using Crunchtime Inventory and its reporting capabilities, helping its leaders make faster, more informed decisions. Key outcomes included:
- Usage data proactively securing products before shortages
- Finance teams leveraging item-level recipe costing and COGS analysis
- Consolidated test data for menu pilots and operational experiments
- Labor modeling based on hourly, daily, and weekly sales trends
- Faster access to trusted operational information across teams
Operational agility became a major focus area throughout the year as P.F. Chang’s ran between 15 and 20 menu changes and operational tests across three restaurant concepts. Crunchtime helped centralize information, support execution consistency, and improve the brand’s ability to pivot quickly as conditions changed.
The centralized visibility also helped improve collaboration across departments while enabling smarter planning and faster operational adjustments. Kulick stated, “Using Crunchtime, processes are consistent. It means teams can breathe, even in high-pressure environments.”
Results Worth Celebrating
With Crunchtime, P.F. Chang’s achieved greater consistency, reduced operational friction, and stronger support for team members across multiple learning styles and experience levels. Using Crunchtime, P.F. Chang’s saw a meaningful improvement in actual vs. theoretical (AvT) food costs, resulting in massive annual savings for the brand.
P.F. Chang’s also highlighted the impact of its partnership with Crunchtime’s support team and the operational efficiencies gained through digitization. Kulick added, “Crunchtime’s support team has been incredible: present, responsive, and willing to help through every challenge, pivot, and every moment of pressure. The information Crunchtime provides is trusted, which means our leaders can focus on leading.”
Results included:
- Reduced printing and shipping costs using Crunchtime Ops Execution as a digital document library
- Faster correction of operational inconsistencies
- Improved access to accurate information across departments
- Restructuring the Crunchtime environment to support future growth and scalability
Consistent Excellence in a Fast-Moving World
P.F. Chang’s demonstrates how operational excellence is not just about efficiency; it’s about building systems that create clarity, support teams, and help organizations adapt confidently in moments of change.
“P.F. Chang’s and Crunchtime have the kind of partnership that builds trust, and that trust is what allows our teams to stay focused on what matters most: serving our guests, supporting our teams, and running great operations,” Kulick said.
As P.F. Chang’s continues adapting to changing guest expectations and operational demands, the brand remains focused on reducing friction for restaurant teams while improving visibility and consistency across the organization. The company also plans to continue expanding its use of Crunchtime to support training, operational agility, supply chain planning, and cross-functional collaboration at scale.
Ops Excellence Award winners are voted on live by all Ops Summit attendees. Click here to learn more.
