4 ms·

This may seem like a bit of a brazen comment, but... what about french fries? A burger is boring, a burger and fries is a very American meal. They point to eli

by Kerrick 14y ago

This may seem like a bit of a brazen comment, but... what about french fries? A burger is boring, a burger and fries is a very American meal. They point to elimination of tile floors, aprons, hair nets, and the like, but if the customer cannot get an order of fries from this robot, the restaurant will still have to have traditional kitchen infrastructure to make french fries.

froo 14y ago
Fries shouldn't be a difficult problem to solve. Donut Machines have been doing something similar for a long time (production line deep frying) and I imagine that Fries wouldn't be very similar if you wanted a consistent output.
- kposehn 14y ago
  We designed a continuous liquid-bath cooking machine that can turn out fries, etc. in a relatively small space. Does pasta too! It was a fun experiment. The biggest problem was having demand that continues unabated; a machine like you're describing is used in industrial food production I believe.
  - SoftwareMaven 14y ago
    The donut machines exist in every Krispy Kreme store, but I think you nailed it: the automation problem gets much harder when your food doesn't stay fresh more than 10 minutes. Going after the higher-end market will help these guys: people won't wait for McDonalds but they are more willing to wait for Five Guys or better.
    - forgotAgain 14y ago
      Why should people wait? If they're automated wouldn't they also take orders from mobile devices? If those devices provided GPS location and if local traffic sensors gave road conditions then the food would be ready just as the customer arrived.
      - SoftwareMaven 14y ago
        You've significantly upped the investment cost, which will make the burgers more expensive. Wouldn't it be better to have them be the same (more expensive) price, though a bit slower, and pocket the difference? To automate everything and have it hot and ready is a really hard challenge. Fries take about four minutes to cook. A burger between one and three. While you can compute an average car order, any given set of cars will order significantly different amounts of food. Get it wrong and you are forcing people to wait (what we are trying to get away from) or wasting food (bumping up costs). This optimization was the thing McDonalds spent the most time optimizing when I worked there years and years and years ago. On the other hand, I'd be happy with waiting if I could input my order and I knew my order would be correct.
witten 14y ago
The technology exists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Znch-RfhRI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Znch-RfhRI
- rsheridan6 14y ago
  Now we have proof of concept of automated burger flippers, fry cooks, and, elsewhere, ordering from a kiosk instead of a person (I've seen this in the wild). What does that leave, someone to clean up and to stock the machines?
  - tfb 14y ago
    I see no reason clean up and stocking (for the most part) couldn't be automated as well!
PeterisP 14y ago
Fry machines exist already, but the big point is that it makes sense to robotize as soon as you replace a whole staff position. If you have devices that can replace the whole "kitchen backoffice" and only have the front cashiers/servers, then it makes sense to do that. If some critical task (burgers or fries) requires the kitchen guy to stand there - then it's not useful to automate the rest, since savings are minimal.

by Kerrick 14y ago

froo 14y ago

Fries shouldn't be a difficult problem to solve. Donut Machines have been doing something similar for a long time (production line deep frying) and I imagine that Fries wouldn't be very similar if you wanted a consistent output.

kposehn 14y ago
We designed a continuous liquid-bath cooking machine that can turn out fries, etc. in a relatively small space. Does pasta too! It was a fun experiment. The biggest problem was having demand that continues unabated; a machine like you're describing is used in industrial food production I believe.
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  The donut machines exist in every Krispy Kreme store, but I think you nailed it: the automation problem gets much harder when your food doesn't stay fresh more than 10 minutes. Going after the higher-end market will help these guys: people won't wait for McDonalds but they are more willing to wait for Five Guys or better.
  - forgotAgain 14y ago
    Why should people wait? If they're automated wouldn't they also take orders from mobile devices? If those devices provided GPS location and if local traffic sensors gave road conditions then the food would be ready just as the customer arrived.
    - SoftwareMaven 14y ago
      You've significantly upped the investment cost, which will make the burgers more expensive. Wouldn't it be better to have them be the same (more expensive) price, though a bit slower, and pocket the difference? To automate everything and have it hot and ready is a really hard challenge. Fries take about four minutes to cook. A burger between one and three. While you can compute an average car order, any given set of cars will order significantly different amounts of food. Get it wrong and you are forcing people to wait (what we are trying to get away from) or wasting food (bumping up costs). This optimization was the thing McDonalds spent the most time optimizing when I worked there years and years and years ago. On the other hand, I'd be happy with waiting if I could input my order and I knew my order would be correct.

witten 14y ago

The technology exists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Znch-RfhRI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Znch-RfhRI

rsheridan6 14y ago
Now we have proof of concept of automated burger flippers, fry cooks, and, elsewhere, ordering from a kiosk instead of a person (I've seen this in the wild). What does that leave, someone to clean up and to stock the machines?
- tfb 14y ago
  I see no reason clean up and stocking (for the most part) couldn't be automated as well!

PeterisP 14y ago

Fry machines exist already, but the big point is that it makes sense to robotize as soon as you replace a whole staff position. If you have devices that can replace the whole "kitchen backoffice" and only have the front cashiers/servers, then it makes sense to do that. If some critical task (burgers or fries) requires the kitchen guy to stand there - then it's not useful to automate the rest, since savings are minimal.