An Indian Restaurant Brand's Central Kitchen Cuts Food Giveaway 67% With Robot Arms

Hand portioning at tables, with giveaway built into every tray

The central kitchen ran its curry lines the old way. Workers stood at tables rather than conveyors, passing bowls along and filling trays by hand. Each line needed eight to ten people and produced 10 to 15 trays a minute, with the hand fed pace topping out near 12 entrees a minute.

Portioning was the quieter problem. Workers overportioned because nobody wanted to send a customer away short, and that extra curry was food the business paid for and never sold. Spills ran from the curry into the rice. Weight checks happened about every 30 minutes, so drift could run for half an hour before anyone caught it.

With 12 curry entrees in rotation, the line handled a high count of recipes, and each switch carried its own risk of drift that no single check could catch.

• Hand fed tables instead of conveyors
• Throughput capped near 12 entrees a minute
• Eight to ten workers on each line
• Sampling of weights only about every 30 minutes

Four robot arms first, then a phased ramp across both lines

The rollout started small. Four robot arms went in first, followed by four more to partially automate two lines. The plan then called for eight more, bringing the total to 16 robots for full automation of both lines. Growing the count in steps kept each stage small enough to check.

The robot supplier describes a deployment window of about two weeks and changeovers under 10 minutes. Each arm records the weight of every deposit, which replaces periodic sampling with a complete record. A new conveyor carried the trays past the arms, and each line kept a small crew of three or four dedicated workers.

• Install four robot arms first and add a new conveyor
• Add four more arms to partially automate two lines
• Plan eight more arms for full automation, 16 in total
• Log the weight of every deposit in place of 30 minute sampling
• Keep three or four dedicated workers on each line

Giveaway fell 67 percent while output rose two to three times

The robot supplier reports that giveaway fell 67 percent within one year. Output rose two to three times, and lines now average up to 30 trays a minute, up from 10 to 15. These figures are vendor reported and describe the central kitchen's own lines.

Staffing shifted with the line. Where eight to ten workers once ran each line, three or four dedicated workers now do the job, and the supplier reports a 60 percent average gain in labor productivity. Meals made by the arms were accepted at a rate of 91 percent, against 75 percent for meals made by hand.

The least visible gain may matter most. A weight record on every deposit turns portioning from a periodic check into a continuous one, which makes the link between portioning and giveaway far easier to see and manage.

What a line like this asks of a robot integrator

Service Robot Co. is an OEM neutral commercial robot integrator for US businesses. We select the right robots across manufacturers, then finance, deploy, integrate, train and service every unit through a nationwide US engineer network, so the whole lifecycle sits with one vendor.

For a kitchen like this one, the first step is a site assessment that maps the line, the recipes, the changeover pattern and the points where portions drift. Customers get our robots on a three year lease, with one fixed payment quoted after that assessment.

Deployment then follows a phased pattern like the one in this study, with crew training, go live support and a service team ready for the day a unit needs attention. Robot deployment and integration is where a line like this is won or lost.