Ensure food safety, save labor costs, improve work efficiency
Smart restaurant, make eating more fun (Online China)
In the back kitchen of the restaurant, the robotic arm brings out a plate of dishes from the rows of shelves; in the dining lobby, the food delivery robot delivers delicious dishes to the customers... This is the daily picture of many smart restaurants.
In recent years, automated, intelligent, and unmanned smart restaurants have become increasingly prosperous, becoming one of the new trends in the upgrading and transformation of the catering industry.
Front hall and rear kitchen are full of sense of science and technology
Where is the smart restaurant "Wisdom"?
Recently, the reporter visited the Haidilao Smart Restaurant in Chaoyang District, Beijing, to find out.
Through the display window, the reporter saw several white robotic arms waving rhythmically in front of the dish rack in the back kitchen. It is understood that this is an automatic dish dispenser.
"After the customer orders the food, the computer system will notify the food dispenser, and the robotic arm will realize the process of food delivery and serving, which greatly reduces the workload of manual food delivery." Hu Jie, R&D manager of the Haidilao New Technology R&D Center, told reporters. The intelligent kitchen management system independently developed by Haidilao is the brain of the back kitchen intelligent equipment.
"The system will collect and analyze the data of each link of the smart kitchen, and monitor the kitchen's running status, production status, inventory, etc. in real time. For example, if there is a dish that is about to expire, it can automatically identify and remove it in advance to better ensure The quality of the dishes."
When you come to the dining area, customers can experience more intelligent services: 360-degree projections of blue sky, white clouds, and pink cherry blossoms on the surrounding background walls are full of technological sense; an intelligent exhaust system is arranged under the desktop to cook hot pot. The steam is sucked directly from below; the restaurant's smart pot machine provides a "thousand tastes" service, and customers can customize the personalized pot bottom according to their own tastes.
Haidilao Smart Restaurant is not alone.
Nowadays, more and more catering companies across the country are moving towards intelligence. For example, Sichuan Xiangtianxia, Guangzhou Restaurant, and Xinbailu have introduced smart devices.
Experts said that the application of information technology and smart devices is constantly changing the operating model of the traditional catering industry.
Food delivery robots are very popular
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the demand for robots in the catering industry has continued to rise.
In the upper reaches of the industrial chain, a large number of intelligent robot manufacturing companies such as Siasun, Udi, and Qinglang Intelligent have invested in this field for research and development.
Among them, the food delivery robot produced by Qinglang intelligent can realize tasks such as conveying dishes and reclaiming empty plates, and can also avoid obstacles autonomously.
In order to better achieve "no contact", the robot has also added a new function: After the dishes are delivered, the customer does not need to press the OK button with their hands, and the robot can autonomously perceive and return to the original path.
For example, the grandmother’s restaurant uses intelligent robots to reduce personnel contact. Customers order food through a QR code, and then the food delivery robot delivers the food according to the menu of each table, and attaches the payment code for the checkout. The entire meal can be served without manual service.
According to the statistics of Qinglang Intelligent, 2 food delivery robots can satisfy the dining of 20-30 tables of customers, which effectively saves the labor cost of catering enterprises and improves work efficiency.
The person in charge of Qinglang Intelligent believes that from the perspective of efficiency, cost and food safety, with the continuous development of the intelligent trend of catering, the entire industry will increasingly rely on new technologies such as unmanned delivery.
Drive the catering industry to improve quality and efficiency
The industry believes that compared with traditional restaurants, smart restaurants can better ensure food safety.
For example, by using the identification code on the dinner plate, the digital control of the dish information can be realized, and the food safety can be traced.
Using the fully automatic food dispenser, the dishes can be picked up directly from the transfer box that is transported from the central kitchen to the store, reducing human errors and preventing foreign objects such as flying insects from mixing into the dishes.
In addition, the services of smart restaurants are more adapted to the individual needs of customers, allowing customers to get a more diverse and interesting dining experience.
Based on these advantages, intelligence in the catering industry has become a trend.
The "2021 China Catering Industry Ecology White Paper" pointed out that the catering industry services are developing towards intelligence, and various new application scenarios have been continuously derived, and online and offline connections have become closer.
Companies that provide services to the upstream of the industry are developing rapidly, the demand for the cold chain of the whole people has exploded, the infrastructure system is increasingly perfect, and the upstream of the industry is constantly innovating.
Related policies are also supporting the development of smart restaurants.
Recently, when the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce talked about “supporting the development of new types of consumption and cultivating a complete domestic demand system”, he pointed out that it is necessary to promote the acceleration of digitalization, intelligent transformation and cross-border integration of physical commercial enterprises, the development of smart restaurants, etc., and the promotion of online and offline Broader and deeper integration.
In the future, smart restaurants will have a vast application space for exploration and mining.
Hu Jie said: "Especially large-scale catering companies will continue to make efforts in innovative technologies, continue to promote investment in innovation and new technologies, optimize business management systems and smart restaurant technologies, and drive the entire catering industry to achieve quality and efficiency improvements."