It’s unclear how much this technology might catch on at White Castle and beyond — and how much it could upend restaurants jobs if it does.
Flippy represents one of many solutions pitched by companies to automate food production. Other food sellers are also experimenting with introducing similar concepts to their kitchens.
You won’t be able to find many of these futuristic items in commercial kitchens today. But restaurants have reason now more than ever to be interested in automated solutions, said Michael Schaefer, head of beverages and foodservice research at market research firm Euromonitor International.
That doesn’t mean that robots will replace labor right away, he noted. If automation becomes more commonplace, “I don’t think that necessarily portends mass unemployment in the restaurant industry,” Schaefer said. “But it might certainly mean a reshuffling of where people are working.”
In addition to labor shortages, restaurants are finding that many customers who shifted to takeout and delivery during the pandemic are still interested in that model. So “there’s a general interest in rethinking the layout of restaurants, rethinking the workflow in a restaurant,” Schaefer said. “Every restaurant to some degree has thrown out the rulebook. Everyone’s much more open to trying new approaches.”
Plus, there are more options available to restaurants right now, both because of more investment in the space and because robotics have improved to make more automated kitchens feasible, he said.
Still, there may be limits to what kitchen robots can do, he noted.
“General purpose cooking in a fine dining restaurant — to put together a succession of different dishes consistently every time, night after night — that seems exponentially more difficult,” than cooking french fries or chopping salads, he noted.
Flippy 2
Much like a new iteration of an iPhone, Flippy 2 is smaller and more efficient than version 1.0.
The first Flippy needed people to put frozen fries into a basket that the robot could then grab, explained Mike Bell, CEO of Miso Robotics. After that, Flippy — which looks like a huge robotic arm — would dunk the basket into a vat of oil for the correct amount of time, which is pre-programmed, lift it up and leave it for a human employee to empty out.
Flippy 2 can fill the empty fry basket itself by placing it under a dispenser that drops the right amount of fries for a small, medium or large order into the basket. After it’s done cooking, Flippy 2 can dump that basket of cooked fries onto a tray.
Flippy is still very much in a testing phase at White Castle.
A big part of its appeal is that the robot is immune to human stressors and distractions. It can cook about ten different items including fries and uses artificial intelligence to identify what they are, according to Bell. Flippy, which costs restaurants about $3,000 a month, “can work around the clock. It doesn’t require benefits or days off,” Bell said.
Both Bell and Richardson maintain that the robot is not supposed to replace workers.
With more automation in the kitchen, White Castle employees can take more time talking to customers and doing things robots can’t, according to the company. Flippy is “like any other investment we make in the kitchen that just makes the work easier, and allows us to hire more people over time to do other things,” Richardson said.
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