Staff shortages are rampant everywhere, while robots are becoming increasingly efficient and cost-effective. This trend is not only evident in the industry but also gaining momentum in the gastronomy and food sectors. In the USA, the number of automated restaurants is therefore increasing. Will chefs soon be replaced by machines? A fast-food restaurant in California provides an astonishing answer.
Flippy is pretty good at it. As it lifts the frying basket from the hot oil, shakes the crispy chicken legs once, and then precisely tips them into the container – a lot of attention to detail requiring practice. Sure, many employees in fast-food restaurants around the world can do the same. But Flippy is no ordinary employee: it’s a robot. The restaurant is also no ordinary fast-food joint but the Cali Express in Pasadena, California. It’s the world’s first fully automated burger restaurant and has been making waves in the gastronomy world since early 2023.
And for good reason: Few industries lend themselves to automation as much as the gastronomy sector. The shortage of qualified workers, which is forcing more and more restaurants to close or at least shorten their opening hours, is a harsh reminder: in gastronomy, work still requires people made of flesh and blood. So, is it now the hour of the robot, thanks to technological advancements like Flippy? Are they the solution, these – well – metal, nuts, and bolts employees? What are the benefits for you? And what can’t they do?
AUTOMATION IN THE GASTRONOMY INDUSTRY: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT COOKING If you believe Anthony Lomelino, the answer is pretty clear: Yes, they are better! “They don’t take sick days, they don’t come to work hungover – and they’re also somewhat more reliable than humans,” said the Chief of Staff of the California-based company Pop ID recently on US television. Pop ID is a company that offers businesses – including restaurants – biometric identity verification processes.
What this means concretely is that thanks to Pop ID, you can pay with your face at Cali Express. No cash required, no card either. Instead, you stand in front of a box that scans your face in an instant – and completes the transaction. In other words, you pay via Face ID, as you might already know from unlocking your smartphone.
Of course, you already need a payment profile, such as PayPal. Once you have it set up, this payment system requires neither a card number nor passwords, let alone TAN codes for future payments. As for the burgers, they are prepared just as quickly and without human involvement in the ordering and payment process. At least almost. AUTOMATED RESTAURANTS AND THEIR ROBOTS: EFFICIENCY AND HIGHER QUALITY? To avoid giving the wrong impression: When we talk about robots, we don’t mean machines that look like humans. These are also referred to as “humanoid robots.” However, Flippy more closely resembles the scientific definition of a robot. In other words, a “device that can perform certain functions of a human.” After all, Flippy is actually just a long, wiry arm. But thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), it knows exactly when to take fries or chicken out of the connected freezer, at what temperature to fry them for how many minutes – and when to take them out again. In the automated kitchen, it can easily handle up to 150 orders per hour.
But Flippy is not alone. There’s another one. The robot that prepares the burger patty at Cali Express doesn’t even have an arm, yet it fries over 100 patties per hour. The machine called BurgerBot is a bit more from the 20th century. At first glance, it looks like a pizza oven with adjustable plates that fry the meat perfectly. The robot then places the patties in a container. And here comes a real – meaning human – employee into play and places the patty between two slices of bread. Needless to say, lettuce, tomato, and cheese (if it’s to be a cheeseburger) are also a must.
Flippy and BurgerBot thus provide a burger that’s a price-performance wonder even in the burger wonderland of California. Depending on the type, it costs no more than any other fast-food burger in the area – but what makes it special is that this patty is made from high-quality Wagyu beef. How is that possible? Well, the calculation seems simple: What robots save in money can be invested in the quality of the food. But does this calculation really hold up? And will we all be able to eat even better in the future, and at an even lower price – thanks to robots like Flippy and BurgerBot?
AUTOMATED RESTAURANT CONCEPTS COST MONEY – BUT IS IT WORTH IT? How much a robot like Flippy ultimately costs depends on the various design models. It makes a difference whether Flippy is only supposed to fry fries or also flip onion rings and chicken – and whether it needs to flip patties at the other station. Miso Robotics, the California-based technology company that has become a major provider of restaurant robots with Flippy, offers its customers various payment models: from monthly leasing rates to various optimization services and one-time payments – a Flippy is typically a very customized product.
It should take about six weeks to manufacture a Flippy for a restaurant customer. However, according to the American news channel CNBC, there’s already a ballpark figure: It costs around $20,000 to purchase a more or less ready-to-use Flippy that can fry multiple products. Plus, installation costs of up to $10,000 and monthly maintenance costs of up to $3,500.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2022, the average salary of an employee in a fast-food restaurant in the USA was around $26,000 per year, which is around $2,170 per month. With an investment of $30,000 and monthly costs of $3,500, some may wonder: Does Flippy really make sense? “In particular, frying is a very demanding task for employees,” says Mike Bell, CEO of Miso Robotics on CNBC. “It’s hot, it’s stressful, everything has to be done quickly.” A Flippy makes sense – not exclusively, but primarily – in 24-hour restaurants, where it provides reliable work around the clock without a schedule or night shift. This way, more than one full-time position is saved. “We will see an increasing number of automated solutions in professional kitchens and restaurants in the coming years,” Bell is convinced. “There’s no way around it.”
PART OF THE GASTRO REVOLUTION? And the forecasts align with Bell’s perspective: According to the consulting firm Aaron Allen & Associates, the cross-industry use of robots has tripled in just the last 13 years. Compared to the automotive industry, for example, their use in the gastronomy sector was below average for most other industries. However, the main reason for this is that profit margins in the hospitality industry are comparatively low, making investments less frequent.
But over the past 30 years, robotic systems have become increasingly affordable, by up to 50 percent, according to Aaron Allen & Associates. If robots like BurgerBot continue to become more affordable in the future, their place in the fast-food restaurants of the world is assured for the foreseeable future.
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