The Evolution of Automation: Meet the Restaurant Run by Robots
Robot automation is a rapidly rising trend in many major manufacturing areas, from cars to construction to clothing, and bots are also taking over customer service jobs, like retail assistant or even food deliverer. Now, one startup is putting robots somewhere relatively new: the kitchen.
Zume Pizza in Mountain View, California, is letting robots make their pizzas and reducing labor costs in the process. To be specific, Zume is having robots take over the tasks humans traditionally have difficulty doing. These robots spread sauce evenly and work the 426°C (800°F) oven, a workplace hazard for humans. The delivery-only company has also built a delivery van with a robot that can cook 56 pizzas en route to the customer, ensuring freshness.
The robots have allowed the startup to produce 288 pizzas an hour, and that’s with humans still contributing to the process. Zume expects full automation by March 2017.