Metz Culinary Management has promised shorter lines at the Knorr Dining Hall thanks to new equipment. 

Alexis Kwon, senior marketing manager for Metz, said the company introduced additional card readers to speed up the process for workers and students.

“We implemented a new technology solution that allows for faster check-in and retail purchasing,” Kwon said.

At first, the machines did the opposite. 

“Metz really thought it was going to be faster but I don’t think they realized that both readers go in the same machine,” said Kelly Syllaba, a Metz employee who works the front desk at the dining hall. 

Because the two readers went into one machine, people in line had to wait for one of the two to process before swiping or scanning their ID. 

The swiping was another problem, according to Syllaba. 

“A lot of people have to swipe twice, and swiping does take a little bit longer,” Syllaba said. Almost half of students still swipe their IDs, sometimes slowing down the line when the machine struggles to read the card. 

As a result of these problems, on Aug. 30, 2022, 200 students waited in a line that lasted for 15-20 minutes, limiting their time to eat before a 1 p.m. class. Metz, too, was “feeling the frustration” about the wait times, Kwon said. 

After meeting to discuss some of the complaints and problems with the machines, Metz made two changes to the process. 

First, instead of using two reading machines connected to one processing machine, the front desk switched to one machine per processing machine. When either machine slows down, it no longer limits the other machine from processing. 

The second solution was technical. The machines took longer to process IDs because the machines store the student account information. 

“We figured out how to dump the account information,” Syllaba said. 

Now that the workers regularly reset the machines, the processing goes faster for swipes and scans. 

Thanks to these improvements, lines have sped up significantly. 

On Sept. 6, 2022, 200 students waited in line during the noon rush, but the line only lasted for 10 minutes, disappearing by 12:06 p.m.

For students looking to speed up lines even more, Kwon and Syllaba recommended switching to scanning their IDs on the mobile app instead of swiping it. While physical IDs can wear down and fail to read, virtual IDs scan as long as the barcode is visible. 

Sophomore Abby Richardson said these improvements have been the difference between eating lunch or skipping it.

“Before there were times I wasn’t able to get food,” Richardson said. “Now, I’m able to get into SAGA in a timely manner so I can actually get lunch and get to class.”