HOT-SIDE TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION / AUTOMATION


HANDING OVER THE HOT SIDE: How kitchens yield to automation


With costs rising and customer expectations ever-harder to satisfy, restaurant operators are facing hard choices about how to improve efficiency, boost profitability, and maintain consistently high levels of quality. Automation is often the answer, but is the industry ready for the robot era? Jim Banks investigates


I


t is no secret that commercial foodservice operators are feeling the pinch. Look at


any industry survey and you will find that profitability has fallen sharply in recent years, not least because of the rising costs of energy, labor and other key resources. As so many industries have done before, the foodservice


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sector is turning toward automation and robotics. Tat shift happened long


ago in the automotive sector, for example, and no one would expect a car to be made by hand these days, but are consumers as comfortable with meals being prepared by smart software and robotic limbs? As the systems


become more sophisticated, the answer may well be yes. “We’re at a turning point,”


says Helge Pahlke FCSI, manager at Berlin-based consultancy KDREI. “Te first wave of kitchen robots was mostly for show – lots of flashy demos but not much substance. Now, everyone’s taking a much more strategic, step-by-step approach. Both manufacturers and operators learned from those early mistakes.” Automation has been a


part of commercial kitchens for some time now, with food processors becoming more autonomous, and even combi ovens becoming


more programmable, so the


trend is nothing new. Some ovens even have integrated sensors that work with AI systems to automate the selection of cooking programmes and perform quality-control checks. So far, the main driver has been to


reduce the need for human input and, therefore, eliminate human error as much as possible. “Labor is surely a big driver,


but I believe it isn’t the only one,” says Khaled Halabi, VP at global consultancy Cini- Little. “Another big driver is operational efficiency – the ability to reduce downtime, human error and waste is a huge factor in the race to automate some of the bulk operations in the kitchen, which in turn yield the greatest return on investment. Another big one is the ability to gather and analyze huge amounts of operational data in automated equipment, which can be used to optimize the operation as a whole.” “Tere is clearly a demand


for operators to reduce cost in most sectors and labor levels are constantly under the microscope,” adds Ed Bircham FCSI, director of Humble Arnold Associates. “Any developments that allow the operator to deskill or reduce labor requirements will always be enthusiastically adopted.”


RISE OF THE ROBOTS Te industry has moved on from the hype around Flippy, the burger-flipping robot that has found its place in the kitchens of White Castle, Jack in the Box, and other fast food brands. Robots are no longer just a technological novelty, but a source of significant financial and operational advantages to many kinds of foodservice operation. Beyond the novelty factor,


ISTOCK


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