Restaurant kitchen automation has advanced far beyond the original burger-flipping arm, Flippy. Robots can make fried rice, dice avocados, and more. But restaurants haven’t yet scaled up their use of AI-powered robotics in the kitchen. Why?
In a word: Value. Even as restaurant robotics become more technically advanced, and even as restaurants seek ways to reduce their labor costs, AI-powered kitchen automation remains expensive to install and maintain, particularly at scale.
Also, it’s difficult to add a robotic element to an existing system. Restaurant kitchens are designed to maximize available space and improve human efficiency. Installing a robotic arm at the deep fryer may speed up French fry production but hinder workers from doing their other tasks.
What restaurant robots can and can’t do
Commercial kitchen robots are built for simple, repetitive, and unchanging tasks. For example:
Flipping burgers or pancakes
Deep-frying certain foods
Prep work
Measuring uniform ingredient portions
Foodservice robots don’t perform well when tasks require troubleshooting or judgment calls. Currently, robots aren’t able to detect when food is blemished, bruised, expired, or discolored.
Another challenge is articulation. Robots aren’t yet capable of imitating the precise motor skills of the human hand. Add in the challenges presented by hot, humid, and sometimes messy restaurant environments, and it may be a while before robots are baking cakes or crafting beautifully rolled burritos.
Affordable beverage automation that boosts your bottom line
Some restaurant operators are investing in kitchen automation only because they fear their competition will do it first, notes Mike Haddon of Capgemini Invent. He suggests a more common-sense approach: “Can a new solution help you sustainably reduce labor & food costs, increase sales, or improve CX in meaningful enough ways to offset the cost of change?”
With Hamilton Beach Commercial’s beverage automation products, the answer is yes.
Hamilton Beach Commercial takes a common-sense approach to restaurant automation. Every piece of commercial kitchen equipment we make is a cost-effective solution to operators’ real-world problems. When you empower team members to do more in less time, your labor costs go down and your revenue goes up. Here’s how we do it.
Automated blending: One touch. A perfect drink. Available on The Summit® Edge High-Performance Blender, the Auto Blend feature stops blending when a beverage reaches the ideal consistency. Auto Blend even detects cavitation—the formation of an air pocket just above the blades, which prevents thorough mixing—and adjusts to prevent it.
Results: Better product quality, more customer satisfaction
Automated beverage mixing: When it comes to milkshakes and other frozen treats, your customers expect consistency. The MixStation™ Heavy-Duty Drink Mixer delivers, with 6 pre-programmed cycles and the ability to upload custom programs for your signature drinks. Plus, the MixStation™ Heavy-Duty Drink Mixer does the work in record time: 5 seconds for a soft-serve blend, or 10 seconds with mix-ins.
Results: Better product quality, improved service speed
Hands-free automated mixing: The SmartServe™ Blend in Cup 3000 commercial milkshake machine blends drinks inside a hands-free chamber, automatically stopping once it’s done. With a powerful motor and 9 combinations of blend cycle and cup size, there’s no treat it can’t handle.
SmartServe™ is so fast and intuitive that operators tell us they’re able to reduce staffing levels—its speed and hands-free operation mean a single team member can make drinks and take orders with ease.
Results: Improved service speed, decreased labor costs
Automated rinsing: The time it takes to clean drink mixers is a significant limiting factor in service speed. Hamilton Beach Commercial makes all our beverage equipment easy to clean, with features like detachable magnetic shields and capacitive buttons that can be wiped clean. SmartServe™ goes a step further: It automatically rinses itself between each drink with as little as 10 oz. (300ml) of water.
Results: Improved service speed, decreased labor costs
Browse Hamilton Beach Commercial’s full line of high-performance blenders and drink mixers.