Table ordering changes the shape of a shift rather than the length of it. The walking that goes is the walking back: back to take the drinks order, back with the card machine, back to ask whether anyone wants dessert. What replaces it is not idleness, and being clear about what it is decides whether the room feels better or worse.
The trips that disappear
In a normal service a server visits a table four or five times before the plates arrive: menus, drinks, order, check back, and again to settle. Table ordering removes two or three of those and, importantly, removes the ones that happen at the busiest moments, because a guest orders when they are ready rather than when somebody is free. That is why the effect is largest in rooms with a compressed rush.
What the time becomes
The good version is that servers spend it running food and talking to tables, which is the part guests actually value and the part that sells another round. The bad version is that a room takes the saving as a reason to run one fewer person, at which point service quality falls and the guests notice something has changed without being able to say what. Both are common and the choice is entirely the operator's.
Where it does not fit
Fine dining, tasting menus and anywhere the ordering conversation is part of what is being sold. Also rooms where the average table is two people who have already decided, since the server was never the bottleneck there. Table ordering suits busy, casual rooms with large groups and multiple rounds, and it is neutral to negative everywhere else.
Questions people ask about table ordering system
Do guests order more when they order themselves?
Rounds tend to increase, because a second drink no longer requires catching an eye. Food orders are roughly flat. Operators consistently report the drinks effect and it is the clearest part of the case.
Does the kitchen see anything different?
It should not. The order has to arrive in the same queue, on the same printer or screen, in the order things are due. If it lands somewhere else, you have added a system rather than removed a trip.
Can I run table ordering and normal service together?
Yes, and most rooms do. The guests who want to order from a person still can, and the servers still take orders at tables that prefer it. Making it compulsory is what makes it unpopular.