INNOVATION


designed by FCSI Associate Andrey Teleguz, principal at SCOPOS Hospitality Group, although using a very diff erent type of technology. “Right now, if you google the ‘Great Resignation’ you’ll see that people in the US are quitting their jobs, changing their careers,” he observes. “There is a major national labor crisis. That aff ects how you look at kitchens and dining areas. The bigger picture is about having enough staff and servers.”


The solution he has created, along with engineering and AI company Bear Robotics, has introduced robotic servers to reduce the number of human servers required to focus on the tasks of delivering food to the table and taking away used dishes.


“It was a big challenge for us, but


instead of having four servers in a dining room, now I can have two, along with two support robots,” says Teleguz. “Each server can handle a larger zone. The cook cooks, the robot parks in the kitchen and gets a table number, then drives around all obstacles and delivers the food. The server comes over to put it on the table.”


“It means that the servers


don’t leave the dining room,” he adds. “They are not going to the kitchen or bussing plates to the dishroom. They can call the robot to where it needs to be. Currently, we have at least 24 projects where these robots are used and customers love them. They are doing the jobs that servers don’t want to do. Customers are even naming them and putting name badges on them.” The success of the robots means that,


for Teleguz at least, the growing presence of robots in front-of-house settings, as well as in the kitchen, is a no-brainer. “They will be a supporting element rather than replacing humans entirely,” he says. “Not having this solution means having minimum wage runners. Someone might injure themselves or call in sick. Robots are diff erent. There is service


114


and support and programming. They cost $3.50 an hour and no workers’ compensation to pay, and they are always on time. That is better than paying a person $14 an hour.” Robotics will not be the only advanced technology to reshape the FOH experience. Innovation is always on-going. For example, McDonald’s has recently partnered with IBM to accelerate its voice-ordering capability, which will use artifi cial intelligence and natural language processing to make the ordering process even more intuitive and natural, as well as quicker and more cost-effi cient. Whether guests want quick, simple ordering for delivery, or an intimate and social experience in a restaurant, technology will increasingly be the backbone of how foodservice operators deliver their front-of-house service.


Robotic servers carry things to and from the kitchen so servers never have to leave the dining area


For more go to fcsi.org


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