Service Robots and the Changing Roles of Employees in ...

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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