service robots and the changing roles of employees in
TRANSCRIPT
Service Robots and the Changing Roles of Employees in RestaurantsAarni [email protected]
Research Background
▪ Data collected pre-pandemic, 2018-2019, in the US and Japan
▪ Observations (n=28) at restaurants that make use of service robots in food service production and/or
delivery
▪ Different types of venues
▪ Visits 4h on average, spanning different service times (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
▪ 15% sites visited twice, on different times & dates
▪ Interviews (n=16) with individuals in charge of designing, implementing, and/or managing service robot
integration
▪ CEOs, CTOs, GMs, founders, roboticists
▪ 41 min on average
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#universityofsurrey 3
Start-to-finish burger assembly:
• slice & toast bun• sauces• pickles, tomato, onion
sliced to order• lettuce• cheese grated and
melted to order• patty ground and grilled
to order
Creator’s burger bot can dish out 120 burgers per hour
Creator, San Francisco CA
Examples! Back-of-House
Dishwashing is one of themost difficult positions to fulfill, with the averagekitchen porter quitting afterfirst month (and in the UK circa 30% of kp positions go unfilled)
Dishcraft’s integratedsystem stacks, scrubs, and re-stacks plates
Each dish scanned for leftover residue with greateraccuracy and consistencyrate than human eye
West Coast US
Examples! Back-of-House
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Complementing traditional mixologists, Makr Shakr’s bartender bot can dishout up to 120 drinks per hour
Customers order through a tablet and follow as their order moves to thequeue on the screens behind themachine
From casinos and cruise liners to multiple brick-and-mortar locationsacross the world, most recently in Milan and London
Examples! Front-of-House
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What Makr Shakr is doing to cocktails, Cafe X and Blendid are doing to coffeeand smoothies
Both have several locations mainly on theWest Coast US (in and around SF)
Examples! Front-of-House
Average server walks 5 to 9 miles per shift (8 to 14km)
Penny delivers orders and takes back empty plates
2nd gen. model can carrymultiple stacks of plates, drinks, as well as interactwith guests (e.g. take orders, payments, feedback) throughan integrated tablet computer
Several venues across US, Japan, South Korea
Examples! Front-of-ouse
Implications: Role of Robot
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From supporting and
substituting employees in
specific tasks to
differentiating and
improving the service
offering as well as upskilling
employees
Implications: Role of Employee
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From enabling and
coordinating technology-
use to differentiation
through deep domain
expertise, education, and
innovation
Further Reading
▪ Tuomi, A., Tussyadiah, I., Stienmetz, J. (2020). Applications and Implications of Service Robots in
Hospitality. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/1938965520923961.
▪ Tuomi, A., Tussyadiah, I., Stienmetz, J. (2020). Service Robots and the Changing Roles of Employees in
Restaurants: A Cross Cultural Study. E-Review of Tourism Research 17(5), pp. 662-673.
Thanks! Questions / comments? Please get in touch: [email protected]
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