LABOR SHORTAGES, FOODSERVICE AUTOMATION
T he robots have arrived. One quick service restaurant (QSR) chain turns to Google to help create better guest and employee experiences. Are labor shortages the new normal? Another week goes by and another robot reports to work in a restaurant, or so it seems.
restaurant in the Twin Cities now uses robots to run food items to tables where servers take over the last few steps. This helps the restaurant deal with labor shortages
in the area. The University of Illinois at Chicago is using robots this fall to deliver food to students on campus. A concept that’s making a go with robotics, albeit in a slightly different way, is Sushi Hana in the Pacific Northwest. At this restaurant, guests order food at their tables using a tablet and their sushi orders get delivered via a high-tech monorail system. The restaurant uses robotic equipment to make rice balls, too.
“ Guests order food at their tables using a tablet and their sushi orders get delivered via a high-tech monorail system. ”
In this instance, CaliBurger plans to open a Washington restaurant that uses an autonomous robot system to cook fries, per a release from the company. It can also cook chicken breasts and tenders, onion rings and other items. The restaurant will also feature an ordering and payment recognition system that leverages
But for all of this to work, robotics, and any other form of automation for that matter, has to provide the proper return on investment for operators. For years now, the foodservice industry has wondered when the use of robotics would become more widespread. Perhaps that time is now. n
opt-in facial recognition and cashless payments. If the CaliBurger name rings familiar, it should. The company has been working with this technology for a while. And this is just the latest in a string of instances where operators have turned to robotics to offset labor and other challenges in recent months. For example, a
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