Patent ID: 8339248

Claim:
A system for supporting employees in a fast food restaurant work environment, the system comprising: a plurality of available portable interface units, each of the units adapted to be associated with a selected employee user in the work environment and including: a portable, body-mounted audio support device configured to be worn by a user and deliver audio from a speaker to a user's ear, a body-mounted signaling device configured to be worn by a user and to wirelessly transmit user information; and a computer programmed to: designate an assignment status to each of the available interface units, the assignment status being indicative of an in-use state of the interface unit and, for any interface unit designated to be in-use, task responsibilities and skill level of a user assigned to the interface unit, wirelessly interface with each of the audio support devices, including prompting the audio support device to play one or more pre-recorded audio statements, select a first pre-recorded audio statement and a second pre-recorded audio statement relating to a first task based upon a fast food restaurant operational requirement and information wirelessly received from at least one of the signaling devices, designate task completion requirements and minimum skill level for an employee performing the first task, identifying at least a first one of the available interface units to be prompted to play the first pre-recorded audio statement as a function of a comparison of the task completion requirements and minimum skill level with the task responsibilities and skill level, respectively, associated with the designated assignment status of each of the in-use interface units, identifying at least a second one of the available interface units to be prompted to play the second pre-recorded audio statement as a function of a comparison of the task completion requirements and minimum skill level with the task responsibilities and skill level, respectively, associated with the designated assignment status of each of the in-use interface units wherein the pre-recorded audio statements are generated by one of the computer and the corresponding audio support device.