Donatos Pizza Testing Out Robot-Made Pizza At One Location
At every one of the 175 Donatos Pizza locations, of which 124 are franchised and 51 are company-owned except one, it's human beings who prepare the pizza. But at its Concourse B location at the John Glenn Columbus (Ohio) International airport, it's a robot that kneads the pizza and serves as one of its pizzamakers.
Kevin King, the president and CEO of Donatos Pizza, based in Columbus, Ohio, is emphatic that the pizza prepared by the robot tastes exactly the same as those made by hand by its pizza makers. 'There is no difference!' he states categorically.
He admits it didn't do any consumer research to confirm that the taste is the same, but he and his staff tasted it repeatedly to ensure the taste's consistency.
Even Robots Have Their Limitations
The robot prepares each pizza in about 6 minutes compared to humans who can take 6 to 10 minutes, depending on their technique. But King says the robots are designed for high volume continuous output which humans can't sustain.
Robots Making Pizza Can Help It Enter New Markets
But King adds that 'this robot can make pizza 24 hours a day' and that enables Donatos to enter markets such as airports, shopping malls, hotel kitchens and in rural America where 'labor is difficult and hard to recruit.' The robots prepare their food in an autonomous kitchen, a separate area.
But another goal is to eliminate employees having to do repetitive tasks, which wear people down and dampen their enthusiasm. 'Putting 100 pieces of pepperoni on a pizza is tedious,' he admits.
Even Robots Have Their Limitations
But here's the thing, even robots have their limitations. Indeed, the robot-making pizzamakers can only make cheese or pepperoni pizza, its two most popular styles, but not any of Donatos 28 unique toppings which includes more than 15 signature pizzas.
But Donatos Pizza is also testing out robot versions 2 and 3, so it's hoping that the robot can be trained to make more customized pizza in the future as well as serve drinks. 'The goal is to expand and grow our brand; this is part of the growth,' he explains.
King says it's testing out the concept at the Columbus Airport because 'there's lot of traffic; people work there 24 hours a day and there's always room for more pizza.'
Robots May Increase Their Tasks in the Future
Asked if the robots can prepare any of Donatos other items such as subs, wings, salads or calzones, King says it's looking forward to adding the others to the robot's capabilities but currently it's focused on producing those two kinds of pizza.
King also says its kitchen design at Donatos will stay the same and that it's not planning on converting any of them into autonomous kitchens.
He said training its human staff to work with the robot isn't complicated. 'The amount of training is minimal for our operators. The model is designed so all preventive maintenance and repairs is conducted by our trained technicians,' King states. He also states that no staff members at the locations were let go to be replaced by the robot.
Asked how much the robot costs, King replies, it's likely several hundred thousand dollars, but the newer robot versions will be cheaper.
Ultimately, of course, Donatos is driven by bottom-line results, which King explains, these robots improve. 'Adding sales with limited labor costs will enhance the profitability of our franchise partners/operators,' he says. But he adds that even the robots require human beings to 'restock, clean and support the restaurants,' so while labor costs are lower, employees are still necessary, not eliminated.
Donatos Pizza expects to open 8 new locations this year and 10 to 15 the following year so steady growth is on the agenda. 'We believe that the fully autonomous kitchen gives us a big opportunity for growth, both domestically and world-wide,' King states.
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