SmartSusChef

Smarter Prep, Less Waste

SmartSusChef is a predictive analytics application designed for F&B operators who prepare food or dishes in advance—such as economical rice stalls, buffets, and canteen operators. These businesses often struggle with unpredictable daily demand, leading to over‑preparation and unnecessary food waste.

SmartSusChef helps operators answer the key question:

“How much should I prep for tomorrow?”

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What SmartSusChef Does

• 📊 Demand Forecasting
  Uses time‑series machine learning models enhanced with weather and calendar signals to predict next‑day demand.

• 🔁 Flexible Data Input
  Accepts sales and leftover data through manual entry or CSV import.

• 🌤️ Weather‑ & Event‑Aware Insights
  Incorporates external factors like weather and school holidays that affect demand.

• 🧾 Recipe & Ingredient Management
  Helps contextualize prep recommendations by linking them to actual recipes and ingredients.

• 📱 Mobile App for Employees
  Simple interface to input sales/wastage data and view short‑term insights (last 7 days).

• 🖥️ Web Dashboard for Managers
  View trends up to 30 days, manage data, edit entries, export reports, and monitor waste patterns.

• ♻️ Waste Tracking & Reduction
  Tracks surplus and leftover patterns to support more sustainable operations.

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Who We Designed This For

SmartSusChef is built specifically for F&B operators who:

• Prepare ingredients or dishes in advance
• Receive pre‑prepared food from central kitchens
• Need simple, affordable forecasting tools
• Want to reduce food waste without relying on complex POS systems

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Why It Matters

Food waste is a major sustainability issue. SmartSusChef empowers operators to:

• Prep more accurately
• Reduce avoidable wastage
• Improve profitability
• Contribute to Singapore’s Zero Waste goals

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Quick Start

1. Environment Configuration (.env)

The project uses a .env file in the project root to manage local development configuration. Before first use, create it from the provided template:

# Windows
Copy-Item .env.example .env

# Linux / macOS
cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env and fill in your database connection details:

# SmartSusChef Local Development Environment

DB_SERVER=localhost        # Database host address
DB_PORT=3306               # Database port (MySQL default: 3306)
DB_USER=root               # Database username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password  # Database password
DB_NAME=smartsuschef       # Database name

Note: The startup scripts (dev-start.ps1 / dev-start.sh) automatically load the .env file and inject variables into the runtime environment — no manual export required. Command-line parameters (e.g., -DbServer) take precedence over .env values.

The frontend also has its own environment files (usually no changes needed):

File	Purpose
frontend/.env.example	Frontend environment variable template
frontend/.env.production	Production config (API uses nginx-proxied relative path /api)

Frontend development environment variables (frontend/.env.example):

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5001/api   # Backend API URL
VITE_ENV=development                      # Environment identifier

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2. Database Setup

The database initialization SQL script is located at database/smartsuschef.sql.

Manual Import (Local MySQL)

# Make sure MySQL is running, then execute:
mysql -u root -p < database/smartsuschef.sql

Or from within a MySQL client:

SOURCE database/smartsuschef.sql;

Using Docker Compose (Auto-Initialization)

If you start the project via docker-compose.yml, the MySQL container will automatically run the initialization script on first launch — no manual import needed.

docker-compose up -d

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3. Run Dev Environment

Before running the dev environment for the first time, initialize the backend:

cd backend
.\setup.ps1

Then start all services with:

.\dev-start-mobile.ps1

This will launch three PowerShell windows running:

• ML Service on port 8000 (http://localhost:8000)
• Backend API on port 5001 (http://localhost:5001)
• Frontend on port 5173 (http://localhost:5173)

Custom Database Configuration

If you want to use a different database server:

.\dev-start-mobile.ps1 -DbServer localhost -DbPort 3306 -DbUser root -DbPassword password

Access Points

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• Backend API: http://localhost:5001
• API Documentation: http://localhost:5001/swagger
• ML Service: http://localhost:8000
• ML Documentation: http://localhost:8000/docs

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Weather API:

https://open-meteo.com/en/docs

Calendar API:

https://developers.google.com/workspace/calendar/api/guides/overview

Terraform Deployment:

cd infrastructure/terraform
terraform init
terraform apply -var-file="environments/uat.tfvars"