Amid an ongoing labor crunch and ingredient-cost inflation, restaurants are taking a closer look at equipment that can help them operate more efficiently, including robotics that automate some cooking processes, fryers that drain and fill themselves and dough-processing equipment that minimizes the prep work involved in pizza operations.
“We are exploring and testing all types of robotics and automation technology right now,” said Tim Brown, chief of operations at Toledo, Ohio-based Marco’s Pizza.
In the near term, the biggest opportunities will come from “simple, cost-effective innovations” that enable workers to perform tasks more quickly, or that automate some cumbersome tasks, or that make order accuracy and ingredient measurement more efficient, he said.
Brown said Marco’s has conducted “comprehensive work” around increasing its throughput capacity at the restaurant level, which has included testing dough rounders and dividers — machines that portion and shape batches of dough that can then be stretched out for individual pies. These machines significantly reduce prep time, he said, as Marco’s makes all of its dough fresh each day, which is a labor-intensive process in most pizza restaurants.
The dough rounders and dividers are being used in several stores, he said, and the company is preparing to begin testing dough-stretching equipment.
“The testing phase is critical for Marco’s to ensure these automations are cost effective without jeopardizing the quality of the product, but the brand aims to roll them out systemwide in the next 12-18 months,” the company said in a statement.
In addition, Marco’s has invested in labor-saving equipment and operational improvements that boost its hot holding and pizza-baking capacity, expand storage for dry goods and perishables within existing footprints and enhance curbside pickup. Those changes are in addition to ongoing improvements to the online ordering experience, which Brown said reduce the number of incoming phone calls to the store.
Marco’s has invested in labor-saving equipment and operational improvements.
The pizza segment has been a prime target for automation, and in fact several companies have tried to create pizza concepts that are almost completely robotic. Among the latest are Stellar Pizza, developed by former SpaceX engineers, and 800 Degrees, which offers a robotic pizza module for existing restaurants and recently unveiled a cook-to-order pizza vending machine. In a statement, the company estimated that its 800 Degrees Go hub-and-spoke system, with one kitchen and five vending “pods,” would operate with labor costs of 14% of sales, or about half that of traditional pizzerias.
Aaron Roberts, cofounder of Zaucer, which operates a science fiction-themed pizza restaurant in Redmond, Wash., said he is seeking to automate his restaurant as much as possible, although he has doubts about the viability of some of the restaurant robotics he has seen.
“From the moment we launched the restaurant, we have been focused on … reducing everything down to minimal pieces of work using equipment, machinery, technology, [artificial intelligence] — whatever we can,” he said.
Roberts, who had a technology background before launching his pizza restaurant, said he has been developing equipment that will streamline the entire pizza-making process, from beginning to end. The restaurant sourced dough-dividing machinery from Italy, which Roberts has modified, and he continues to work on equipment that will help streamline the dough-making and shaping processes.
The company had previously partnered with Picnic, which makes automated pizza-assembly equipment, but it has since decided to pursue equipment innovations in-house.
“Our theory is to use simple, off-the-shelf, production-ready equipment, and modify it to suit our needs, so that we effectively have helper bots in the kitchen,” said Roberts.
He said Zaucer is preparing within the next six months to install machinery that will place sauce and cheese on its pizzas. That would be followed by equipment that will place other toppings, including what Roberts described as the most challenging topping: pepperoni.
“We think we have it figured out,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to make it an end-to-end process, from dough production all the way through putting the toppings on and then running it through a conveyor oven.”
Perhaps the best known of the robotic kitchen equipment innovations are the Flippy bots from Miso Robotics, which help cook burgers and operate fryers in CaliBurger and other restaurants.
Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, parent of Arby’s, Sonic, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, Dunkin’ Brands and Rusty Taco, is among the latest to test robotic technology from Miso. The company last year began testing a Flippy bot — dubbed “Wingy” — to fry wings for the Buffalo Wild Wings brand at its Inspire Innovation Center testing laboratory. Inspire plans to test the equipment soon at Alliance Kitchen, its ghost kitchen prototype that features five of the company’s restaurant brands under one roof.
Inspire is also looking at equipment for Buffalo Wild Wings that sauces wings automatically, and at equipment that automates beverage dispensing. Those are both in the proof-of-concept stage, but are “quickly moving toward testing,” said Vans Nelson, VP of restaurant profitability, efficiency and innovation at Inspire Brands.
“We’ve made a significant amount of investments in technology, as well as innovation that enables us to seek out opportunities to make our restaurants more efficient and decrease the need for labor in some situations,” he said. “We’re continually looking at robotics as well as automation.”
Inspire’s Alliance Kitchen concept itself was designed to minimize labor through its use of shared equipment and through operating efficiencies. Labor costs at the ghost kitchen are down 54% compared with what would otherwise be required for the five brands as stand-alone restaurants, while equipment costs are down 45%, Nelson said.
Alliance Kitchen has implemented several other equipment innovations that have proven themselves, including an automatic ice transport system that completely eliminates the need for workers to carry ice across the floor, and an automated fryer replenishment system that removes old oil and replaces it with fresh oil with one push of a button.
Both the ice transport and oil-replenishment equipment have moved beyond the proof of concept phase, and Inspire is preparing to roll them out to its restaurant locations.
“We have achieved our metrics as it relates to our testing, and are now ready to deploy,” said Nelson.
Other labor-saving equipment that Inspire has begun rolling out include temperature-controlled pick-up lockers for off-premises orders, which are being installed at Buffalo Wild Wings and Jimmy John’s and are available for other brands to install.
Inspire also has been rolling out digital “learning boards,” which provide on-the-spot training for workers who may be new to particular work stations. These allow workers to get up to speed quickly on certain tasks as needed, without extensive training, and help the restaurants operate more efficiently.
The digital learning boards have been installed in several Arby’s locations, and Inspire has begun rolling them out to Jimmy John’s and Sonic restaurants.
“A team member can go into any workstation and quickly ramp up to be able to prepare the food without being offline, unproductive and going through a bunch of training materials,” Nelson said. “We find that to be not only more efficient, but also very engaging for our team.”
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