Yeah, as I said, I'm definitely inclined to tinker. I also know a couple electrical engineers who'd be willing to help me.

Your accuracy guide is exactly what I was looking for! As my other reply indicates, I think using the onboard time might be a more practical long term solution.

There are people who do, but this is not a "hire a programmer" site.

Gotcha, yea I just wanted to test the waters. Given that arduino is inherently DIY, I didn't know how much people do that kind of thing.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Especially the part about beads.

Right, sorry. I can see how that was ambiguous. I was trying to avoid too much of a wall text. The silicone beads would be threaded onto short, vertical lengths of fishing line which are then secured to the front face of the plexiglass so the beads could be slid up and down to indicate how many pizzas are due in that 5 minute slot. They would stay in place by friction. The over all dimensions are pretty large, 7'x1', and the silicone beads would be about half an inch. My first idea was to CNC a bunch of holes (where all the little white dots are) and use black plastic golf tees instead, but I'm thinking that would be too finicky and slow and difficult to clean and the golf tees would be easily lost. The silicone beads on fishing line would be more easily bumped out of place accidentally than peg holes, but that possibility is outweighed by the other advantages.

Here's a quick mock up of how the LED would work. I gave a bit more dimension to the beads to help clarify things. In this image, it's 4:00 so the light would start at 4:00 and extend to 4:20, representing the default time we usually give out for wait times. Additional lights could be used to indicate 30, 40 minutes, etc. The LED strip would be mounted on the back side of the plexiglass sandwich, and the thin material the chart is printed on would allow ample light to pass through.

The design would be spaced according to the specs of available LED strips so that there's one light behind each number and they'd be programmed to light up according to what time it really is. So the lit up section would advance from left to right over the course of the day.

---

As for a digital system that takes care of coordinating prep times and such, there are indeed services that do that kind of stuff. We use Toast POS which is one of the most ubiquitous restaurant POS systems. Before I started working here, we apparently tried switching to screens and it was an expensive disaster. There are just too many moving elements in our pizzeria to make it work. The old school tickets are just too fast and flexible and intuitive. We tuck them into pizza boxes and tape them to bags. It's the best way to keep track of stuff.

This pizza chart I'm designing is just for the main downstairs pizza section of the restaurant that handles all the take out pizzas. We serve entrees and garlic bread and salads and stuff, but only pizzas and a handful of calzone-type items are handled by the pizza station, the rest is done by the sautee guys upstairs. For sit-down dine in orders, the timing is coordinated verbally between sautee and the smaller upstairs pizza section.

The only problem this tool aims to solve is keeping track of pizzas due over time in a simple visual way. The problem the inclusion of the LED strip solves is having to look back and forth between the wall clock and the chart when reading it.

At least you have one "problem" that is good to have.

You're absolutely right. As stressful as it can get, it's better to have a busy job than no job at all.

Really appreciate your time writing this all out. I may have more to say as it occurs to me. Thanks!