Embracing Robotic Revolution in Food Service

Margins in the food service industry have always been challenging, but robotics in 2023 can reshape the landscape.

FREMONT, CA: As we approach the end of the year, reflecting on the challenges of 2022 and looking forward to 2023, the industry is set to experience an influx of innovation and challenges. Labor shortages and inflation have dominated headlines, hindering industry growth and dampening the positive effects of the economic recovery. Amidst these difficulties, industrialists must remember that challenging times provide fertile ground for creativity, innovation, and positive change. In particular, technology has often emerged as the solution to significant problems, and food technology has witnessed remarkable advancements that have transformed societies. These developments reshape the industry from lab-grown meat to robotic apple pickers and meal delivery robots.

In recent years, there have witnessed limited robotic applications in automating restaurant tasks, such as burger flipping, potato frying, and pizza making. These achievements mark significant milestones for the robotics and food service sectors. In the coming years, robotic automation will expand beyond single-task operations to encompass the cooking process. Restaurants can leverage the concept of commissary kitchens, where humans handle and prep food while robots with algorithms cook in separate autonomous kitchens. This innovative approach enables restaurants to offer various foods, ensuring timely delivery and consistent quality. This technology holds potential for delivery restaurants, quick-service restaurants (QSRs), catering services, and virtually any food service operator. The initial success of these concepts suggests that this model is on its way to becoming a global phenomenon.

The current labor shortage has highlighted the urgent need for the industry to improve working conditions, hours, and staff retention. Paradoxically, treating employees better may involve incorporating more robots into the workforce. The industry is at a crucial moment in food service history where it must accept that certain jobs will no longer exist in their current form. Just as it developed technologies to alleviate the physical strain on workers in car manufacturing, it can apply the same principle to food service jobs. Unsocial hours, stressful conditions during peak times, and repetitive tasks can be delegated to robots. Adopting a hub and spoke model centered around a commissary kitchen operating during regular hours, with robots cooking 24/7, can create better jobs that people are motivated to stay in.

Robots enable restaurants to minimize labor costs, eliminate waste, and standardize quality. Robotic solutions must be chosen carefully according to business requirements. Hardware-based solutions, such as pizza-in-a-box or salad-mixing machines, belong to the past. These limited solutions need more versatility when working with food. Adaptive and flexible software-based robotics solutions that can cook multiple dishes without requiring hardware changes are essential for profitability and scalability. Such solutions will become more prevalent, particularly in the delivery space.

The food service industry will continue to be impacted by virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens. These tech-driven environments will be hotbeds of innovation, especially as more people choose to eat at home due to the psychological impact of inflation on our dining-out habits.