It’s a well-known fact that automation is the future of work. This goes especially for jobs that require employees to perform mostly simple and repetitive tasks. Many restaurant jobs fall under this category, and are thus prime candidates for automation.
Especially as the pandemic has taken its toll on the world, restaurant automation has become increasingly prevalent and necessary. Restaurants, even those that previously didn’t have them, have implemented online ordering systems or self-ordering kiosks to reduce customer contact with employees.
As the pandemic comes to an end, there’s little reason for restaurants to abandon these systems they’ve now come to rely on.
This may be a scary prospect for some food service workers — nobody wants to lose their job to a robot, only to be left without a paycheck. But luckily, that often isn’t the reality of automation. Instead of simply replacing workers, restaurant automation can be used to reallocate labor and resources to increase productivity, benefiting employees as well as restaurant owners and customers.
Automation usually isn’t about eliminating jobs. It’s about reducing inefficiencies and eliminating certain repetitive duties that employees need to perform, freeing them up to do more engaging tasks.
What Does Restaurant Automation Look Like?
There are a variety of restaurant automation systems that can be implemented, both in the front-of-house and back-of-house. Customer-facing automation systems in the front-of-house can reduce the need for cashiers and servers, allowing customers to place their own orders without help. Back-of-house systems can increase productivity in the kitchen, making restaurant work more efficient.
Every restaurant is unique in its identity and business model, and each may benefit from different forms of restaurant automation. There’s no single solution that will fit every restaurant concept, but the variety of systems for automation in restaurants means that practically every restaurant can benefit from some form of automation.
Here are just a few of the many restaurant automation systems that owners can take advantage of.
Back-Of-House
Kitchen Display System
A digital kitchen display system can be used to replace traditional paper slips. The display system is essentially just a large screen that displays incoming orders to show employees what they need to prepare. A KDS gives detailed information on each order, including any necessary customizations, increasing order accuracy and removing miscommunications.
These systems can also display more than just orders — they can be customized to show speed statistics and organize orders based on priority, helping hold kitchen staff accountable and ensuring a smooth process.
The removal of paper slips also reduces material costs and waste, while increasing speed. The display will automatically show the order as soon as it’s submitted, instead of needing a front-of-house employee to hand the slip over to back-of-house.
Back-Office Management System
A back-office management system allows managers to exercise total control over the restaurant’s operations, without needing to remain on the restaurant floor. Cloud-based software allows real-time management from anywhere — you don’t even need to be in the back office to use it. Management software can be accessed even on a normal laptop at home.
Management systems can provide key business statistics instantly, and allow changes to be made without delay. Owners or managers can make menu changes and manage vendors or employees from anywhere.
Restaurant owners who manage multiple locations would find this software particularly useful, as it allows them to seamlessly switch between managing any number of restaurants without compromise.
Automated Food Assembly System
Flipping burgers and adding spices does not require much complex thought or movement. As such, even the actual cooking can be automated to an extent — just ask the founders of Spyce, a Boston-based restaurant chain.
Spyce uses robots to cook and assemble its healthy grain bowls, minimizing the need for human staff at the restaurant. This maximizes the restaurant’s cost efficiency, requiring almost no human labor. Implementing cooking robots at other restaurants can increase profitability as well as productivity.
Front-Of-House
Digital Menu Board
This is a piece of restaurant automation tech that many quick-service restaurant chains have already implemented. Instead of printing paper menus or displaying a physical menu behind the register, a digital menu board ensures extra flexibility.
Like a kitchen display system, a digital menu board is simply a screen that displays available menu items and prices. It can be updated whenever needed, whether a menu item needs to be added or removed, or a simple typo needs to be fixed.
If there’s an out-of-stock ingredient, like a smoothie joint running out of pineapple, a digital menu board can instantly be updated to let customers know about the shortage before they order. This saves them the disappointment of asking for pineapple in their smoothie just for the employee to disappoint them with the update.
Digital menu boards also allow for more marketing opportunities. They can be programmed to display tempting images of menu items, drawing customers away from their usual order to try the restaurant’s brand new food or drink. If the marketing tactic doesn’t seem to be working out, changing it is quick and easy, unlike printing new menus.
Self-Ordering Kiosks
Since the pandemic began, contactless ordering became a must for many customers. Self-ordering kiosks are the solution: they allow customers to select their own order without having to interact with a cashier. They show detailed information about the menu, from nutrition to item availability, and allow customers to make any customizations to their items.
Much like digital menu boards, self-ordering kiosks can be used to display photos of menu items that can convince customers to order more. They can also be used to promote upselling, increasing ticket sizes by more than 15%.
Self-ordering kiosks that can be found in many fast food chains today are touchscreens, but kiosks can be integrated with conversational AI, allowing customers to speak directly to the kiosk to order. Conversational AI means the kiosk speaks back, imitating human speech and providing customers with a friendlier experience.
AI-Empowered POS System
AI in the point of sale market has boomed in recent years, allowing a variety of new sales possibilities, from online ordering to social app payments. AI-empowered POS systems can track business statistics and inventory, even automatically ordering shipments of supplies that are running low.
A restaurant’s lifeblood is its POS system — this is where all the money flows in to keep the business afloat. An AI-powered POS can be used to make tasks like taking online payments and ordering supplies faster and easier, freeing up more time for employees.
Combining Automation Technologies
All of the aforementioned technologies can be used together to create a seamless restaurant automation system. Even if every piece of technology doesn’t work for your restaurant, integrating the technology you do have is the key to making your restaurant as efficient as possible and keeping your customers satisfied.
For instance, combining self-ordering kiosks with a digital kitchen display system allows the two to work in tandem — as soon as the order on the kiosk is accepted, it appears instantly on the kitchen display, keeping things moving as fast as possible.
Integrating a self-ordering kiosk with an AI-powered POS system can allow your restaurant to make in-store ordering and online ordering almost identical, providing a seamless experience for your customers.
So How Does This Benefit Employees?
It’s clear: restaurant automation opportunities mean that humans need to perform fewer tasks around the restaurant. Of course, this is good for the business, because it means it will require fewer employees or fewer hours — but how does it actually benefit the employees?
More Meaningful Work
With AI and automation eliminating the need to do menial and tedious tasks, restaurant employees will be more free to perform meaningful work at their jobs. Instead of being bound to one station all day every day, an employee could be free to hop around and help out wherever the restaurant needs a hand.
If the manager needs help stocking the freezer, a cashier in a restaurant with self-ordering kiosks could run back to help out, since the kiosks can take orders instead. By being exposed to different aspects of the operation, employees can gain valuable experience and skills by working in a restaurant empowered by automation.
Room to Be Creative
Machines are good for repetitive tasks, but even powerful AI would struggle to beat the human brain when it comes to creativity. Automation leaves more time for employees to come up with new, creative ideas to improve the restaurant.
A cook who works in a kitchen with machines that can assemble food on their own, for instance, could spend any extra time experimenting with existing recipes or coming up with new ones. Your restaurant’s new best-selling menu item is just an idea away, so why not give your workers the space to come up with that idea?
Conclusion
Human potential is wasted by forcing people to do the boring work that can easily be done by a basic machine. People thrive when their job gives them the space and time they need to do things they deem meaningful and important.
Automation is a frightening concept to some, for reasons that are entirely understandable. But ultimately, automation in restaurants will revolutionize the industry, making restaurant experiences better for customers while also making food service jobs more fulfilling for employees.
