There are a number of trends that have come from the year of the pandemic. At the top of that list in the foodservice industry is technological advancement. The goal of adopting these new technologies is to add value, consistency, and overall satisfaction in all segments of the restaurant and foodservice industry.
We live in a world consumed by technology, and if this pandemic has taught us anything it’s that we rely on technology more than we realized. In order to look at the impact of the technology boom, we need to look at the dramatic increase in takeout & delivery. The backbone of that growth has been the rapid increase in foodservice industries adopting order aggregators.
With aggregator software, a company’s aggregator essentially works together with delivery providers and the company’s POS system, automatically gathering all the crucial data, online orders, and payment into one central location. When you walk into any restaurant or ghost kitchen today, you will see a bank of tablets. Each of them is fielding orders from Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash and the countless other local options.
This has made the aggregating software by companies including Ordermark and It’s A Checkmate an essential tool in creating a smooth flow of data from customer to kitchen to delivery driver. Aggregators are going to become a necessity as delivery options have become a staple for customers during the pandemic.
With a tip of the hat to the history of our industry, I recognize that nothing can ever replace the experience of watching a dish being created and tailored right in front of you by a professional chef. The reality of the pace of life today is moving the priority away from dining experience to the production of meals that can consistently replicate the
restaurant experience.
As food equipment manufacturers, our factories are starting to reflect those changes. The combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics is going to give manufacturers an opportunity to produce foodservice equipment with the latest technology at affordable costs.
Our work at RPI during a period where technology and food delivery options are more popular than ever, has taught me about the importance and value of a company taking advantage of software. Technology is just about pre-planning as it is with a diagnosis. You want to gather data based on what you see, leverage that to predict what could happen and observe spikes to determine what the causes are.
Having an efficient way to track that data allows these analyses to take place. Artificial intelligence will recognize inefficiencies and patterns and eventually be able to automate those processes and analyze the historical data to make insightful business decisions.
The factory floor will always require manual labor to seamlessly merge the technology into the manufacturing process. The human labor would become a supervisor of a robotics team.
There are certain aspects of running a business that clearly need to be steered by the human production team. I don’t necessarily predict that foodservice and robotics will grow rapidly– production equipment aside– because of the issues in justifying ROI.
The next frontier to track will be watching how robotics moves into the actual restaurant and foodservice dining rooms. Last month’s purchase of Chowbotics by DoorDash is eye opening as we start to envision your salad or pizza being prepped by a robot.
While the food service industry may be hesitant to integrate technology to replace the role of a chef. I do see great value in the Pandemic-led obsession for technology being a perfect fit for the new cleaning and disinfecting protocols.
No one trusts anyone anymore. You’ll see someone wash their hands in front of you, but you still won’t want to shake their hand. You’ll see signs in a restaurant informing you that all employees wear gloves, and all counters are consistently cleaned, but you want to actively see those health and safety precautions being enforced. This is where I think people are trusting technology more than other humans with sanitizing and disinfecting. The cleaning supplies that are actively used in a restaurant are also going to help generate that level of trust with a customer when choosing where to dine inside.
Customers want to feel that every precaution necessary is being made to ensure their safety. Here at our RPI plant in South Jersey, we’ve started using antimicrobial films for our touch screens. However, our screens are essentially contactless– you walk up, scan your QR code, and won’t have to touch anything but a disinfected bag.
I see the next step as we get ready for a return to normal life, will be the use of technology to “pack more under the hood” not replace products on our line. For instance, we can utilize different heating technologies, and ultimately construct a system that can do both heating and cooling. That would make our cases more energy-efficient and cost less to operate.
This pandemic has proven that technology is becoming an essential part of the foodservice business. As companies across the globe collaborate with technology advancements, I predict that we are going to start observing new ways of operation and success.
We are excited to embrace this movement and (fingers crossed) expect to be part of a movement by global manufacturers when we reconvene again at the next NAFEM (North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers) Show.
