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I am for kiosks, mainly because it helps with special order tickets. I am not keen on fast food cooking robots making special orders as the programming would need to be very specialized to know order 182 wants a burger with just meat and cheese while order 183 has one regular burger, one burger with not lettuce and pickles... Then have to label the package correctly. There's a lot of issues there that are no different with employees, but at an expensive upfront cost and crippling the economy by removing workers from the labor force.
Hey genius, if all the cashiers were replaced by kiosks, there would STILL be lines! And, guess what, some of the customers are Luddites too, so you'd STILL be waiting 10 minutes to be served waiting for them to figure out how to order.
When that happens there will be app based ordering. I'll still avoid the line...genius.
I am for kiosks, mainly because it helps with special order tickets. I am not keen on fast food cooking robots making special orders as the programming would need to be very specialized to know order 182 wants a burger with just meat and cheese while order 183 has one regular burger, one burger with not lettuce and pickles... Then have to label the package correctly. There's a lot of issues there that are no different with employees, but at an expensive upfront cost and crippling the economy by removing workers from the labor force.
That's a relatively simple algorithm. The customer makes the choices and the robot delivers only what is requested and outputs the food on a conveyor belt numbered and in physical order.
Whether we like where automation is going or not, the reality is, it will be part of our lives, and soon. In addition, artificial intelligence is making it's way into business.
What Amazon has done is to force retailers to rethink their business strategies and use technology to bring more customers into their shops. More changes are coming, not fewer.
i da a little problem with the macdonald kiosk but it was not being able to find the route on the machine, i love the machine and will use it again. i did notice it took longer to get my meal, like the counter help just wasnt there for the kiosk. a little tweaking of the menu on the kiosk and it be great.
i wanted sausage macmuffen with hash browns and could not find it onthe machine, it was hidden
That's a relatively simple algorithm. The customer makes the choices and the robot delivers only what is requested and outputs the food on a conveyor belt numbered and in physical order.
Depending on the machine they get of course it could be simple. A cheaper machine though could be a problem. However if it goes down it would actually be a costly problem as until that point it is fixed, there is a huge back up or they need on call fry cooks to fill in or have to close until such a time the machine is back up again. At least with kiosks, it gives an option for choosing a real person or DIY. This is why I see us staying where we are at and not advancing to the burger flipping robots.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brownbagg
i da a little problem with the macdonald kiosk but it was not being able to find the route on the machine, i love the machine and will use it again. i did notice it took longer to get my meal, like the counter help just wasnt there for the kiosk. a little tweaking of the menu on the kiosk and it be great.
i wanted sausage macmuffen with hash browns and could not find it onthe machine, it was hidden
I used Disney World's and the one at Be Our Guest had a backdoor just to remove items while the Wendy's kiosk I use it is rather easy to change toppings. I will say some items are harder to find and it would remove the secret menus from many places, unless you put it together on your tray.
Depending on the machine they get of course it could be simple. A cheaper machine though could be a problem. However if it goes down it would actually be a costly problem as until that point it is fixed, there is a huge back up or they need on call fry cooks to fill in or have to close until such a time the machine is back up again. At least with kiosks, it gives an option for choosing a real person or DIY. .
Not hard. In all likelihood, the local franchisee group would buy a few backup robots, and share them as needed when the one in store is getting repaired or preventive maintenance.
I worked for a corp who did that for our warrantied equipment. We kept loaner units, costs us 5k plus each, that were shipped from local to customer regional service agents, while customer shipped theirs back for repairs. We paid ALL freight. (This was when field agent could not fix customer's same day..on the spot).
Not hard. In all likelihood, the local franchisee group would buy a few backup robots, and share them as needed when the one in store is getting repaired or preventive maintenance.
I worked for a corp who did that for our warrantied equipment. We kept loaner units, costs us 5k plus each, that were shipped from local to customer regional service agents, while customer shipped theirs back for repairs. We paid ALL freight. (This was when field agent could not fix customer's same day..on the spot).
And many of these units might work 18 to 24 hours in a single day to be fair, requiring them to be off if it is after business hours for repairs (let's face it, repairs isn't exactly office hours but after 5pm, good luck getting it) or even the warehouse, it will mean lost revenue. The company you mentioned likely was 10 hours tops and not in an industry like fast food with 24 hours operating periods. Many are 24 hours if only for fast food ordering.
And many of these units might work 18 to 24 hours in a single day to be fair, requiring them to be off if it is after business hours for repairs (let's face it, repairs isn't exactly office hours but after 5pm, good luck getting it) or even the warehouse, it will mean lost revenue. The company you mentioned likely was 10 hours tops and not in an industry like fast food with 24 hours operating periods. Many are 24 hours if only for fast food ordering.
wrong. Customer base were hospitals and nursing homes, and we also had tech support remote diagnostic capability remotely, offered 16 hours per day, 7 days per week.
We'd have a loaner to you next day, fully operational. We did not want the loaner back until yours was back 2 full days, so we kept you up and running.
Local franchisee hq will stock loaner robot burger makers and kioks, too. Share the cost amongst all sstores in region.
Just as we increased our equipment pricing to account for loaner costs spread amongst many customers.
PS: to be a service agent for us, you had to be wiling to go work at a hospital on equipment anytime they needed you.
It's "efficiency", or lack thereof, is based on whether or not people use them as intended. The self checkouts were originally intended to take the heat off of the 20 items or less registers. They were never intended for people to scan two weeks worth of groceries. That's what creates lines at self checkout. That and 'problems'.... And the larger the order the more likely there'll be a problem, or two, during the process. Most people don't have that much but some do so we now have four scanners with belts.
I have been amazed at the business our self checkouts do every day. Before we got the new layout and equipment we only had about eight total scanners. We now have 18 and they stay really busy. That also means we now have four or five associates at a time working them instead of two. We hired 12 new cashiers just for this expansion and it's working out just fine.
I'm not sure how young you are, but do you understand that there used to be a cashier for each and every open register? That means 18 self serve registers take the place of 18.cashiers, less the 4 associates that now cover those registers, equals 14 cashiers that were NOT hired.
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