Restaurants looking for labor and speed turn to robots
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The Flippy robot at Inspire Brand’s Innovation Center is in Atlanta taking on a new task. Miso Robotics created the robotic worker. It was originally designed to serve as a burger maker. The automated worker is now capable of frying wings.
Flippy 1 (and Flippy 2) have been around for five years. The bots can be piloted by White Castle or CaliBurger. Inspire’s Buffalo Wild Wings brand is testing the wings iteration to see if they can increase speed and production. It is hoped that it will be used more often in 2022, and possibly beyond.
Stephanie Sentell is the SVP for restaurant operations and innovation of Inspire. She stated, “Our strategy and vision for automation at Inspire are really not about labor shortage. It’s all about how to increase our capability.” We are currently looking at automation to help us unlock it and deliver faster food to our customers.
Stations with flippy robots
Courtesy: Miso Robotics
However, the problem of a labor shortage cannot be ignored. According to the National Restaurant Association, four out of five restaurant operators have a shortage of staff. This is 81% for full-service and 75% for limited-service restaurants. The robotics technology can speed up and reduce staffing problems.
Fix for the fryer station
Miso said its Flippy 2 can help fill a tough role in kitchens — the fry station.
Mike Bell (CEO of Miso Robotics) stated that “The fry station” is one such job, and it was difficult to perform. It’s repetitive, monotonous and dangerous at times. Automation robotics was the perfect tool to assist brands like Buffalo Wild Wings.
It can run up to $3,000 per month. Miso plans to take part in at least 12 pilots with the top restaurant chains over the next few months.
Flippy is next to a White Castle employee.
Courtesy: Miso Robotics
Flippy works in the back while Richtech’s Matradee busts tables. This bot can retail for upwards of $20,000 and was tested in restaurants such as California Pizza Kitchen.
Richtech chief operating officer Phil Zheng said that the company had been signing up pilots in large numbers every week in this difficult environment.
“Our food runner [robot]Servers can serve more people and food is delivered quicker. Servers can spend more time talking with customers and restaurants are better able increase revenue. … They can upsell drinks or specials and things like that as well drive more revenue for the business,” Zheng said.
A hospitality robot is also available from the company for cleaning. It can see opportunities in senior living and airports. labor shortage is expected to continue for years to come
Robotics is used in more than just food businesses. Robotics is also being used by virtual and ghost kitchen companies to deliver food to their customers.
Kitchen United has launched a pilot program for the Kiwibot over five days. The Kiwibot allows customers to place orders at its Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in the Bay Area and delivers them to their homes within a radius of half an hour. Reef Virtual Kitchens in Miami has an identical program.
Fast food companies Domino’s ChipotleThey are both also involved with SoftbankNuro is backed by the government. Domino’s was launched a pilot in Houston with Nuro’s autonomous carThe spring of the past. Chipotle revealed this March that they had made an investment in NuroAs part of the funding round that was completed in 2020.
Robotics: There are many challenges ahead
According to EMSI, the “Demographic Drought” report, automation is capable of alleviating labor pains but faces two obstacles. The first, robots are not able to replace human workers. Second, there is a labor shortage. This means that workers are needed to create robots, as well as other automated technology solutions.
The report states that companies looking to invest in AI development are already facing significant skills and worker shortages. The report stated that robotic automation market share analysis has revealed that those industries with the highest market shares (automotive electronics, metal, and metal) continue to drive the market. However, collaborative robots do not meet the requirements for market penetration.
Flippy is next to a White Castle employee.
Courtesy: Miso Robotics
Ron Hetrick is a labor economist from EMSI, and was one of the authors of this report. He stated that the industry has not yet reached a level where it can bring in robotics at a significant scale. As labor issues remain, future models for restaurant businesses will change. His belief is that business models will change to reduce the number of services customers require.
Hetrick stated that “you will likely lose out on how many restaurants you can go to sit in,”
Miso’s Bell, for its part, stated that although software engineers are highly in demand, the company faces “normal challenges” regarding worker availability. More immediate concerns are the current supply chain crisis.
We don’t anticipate any shortages in supply at the moment and don’t expect them to occur within six months. Long term however, we have a lot to do. “And hopefully, this global supply network will be straightened out in the future,” he stated.
—CNBC’s Whitney KsiazekContributed to the report.
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