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Pizzeria will make sci-fi a reality with AI-powered assembly line

The AI-driven automated pizza assembly line made public this morning promises to take pizza brands' make-stations out of human hands and turn them over to a 300 pie-per-hour data and pizza-making dynamo.

Centerplate Executive Chef Taylor Park views a pie on the pizza assembly line. (Still from Picnic video)

October 1, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

The owners of Zaucer Pizza, Aaron and Gayle Roberts, have been waiting for the future to arrive. After all, the branding of their single location in Redmond, Washington, is built around the techie whiz-bang stuff of tomorrow, along with the sci-fi campiness that goes with it. And thanks to an AI-driven, automated pizza assembly created by Seattle-based foodservice intelligent tech company — Picnic — their wait is over.

"That's the technology we're going to use to grow," Aaron Rogers said in an interview with this website. ... "We've been very careful in our growth strategy, but Picnic is giving us the advantage to give us the real growth potential we so desire. So we're excited to see where this goes — that's for sure."

The system, which Zaucer is now implementing, uses a series of fully movable pizza ingredient-dispensing "modules" equipped with stockable hoppers, along with a 6-foot-long pizza conveyor belt to allow consistent, customized pies with pre-specified quantities of everything from cheeses and sauces, to sliced and chunked meats and vegetables. And all of it can go directly into the AI-equipped system via online ordering apps.  (Watch it here.) 

It can also be paired with a dough elevator and other dough-prep mechanisms, as well as a conveyor-style pizza oven, which means the pizza-making process is basically hands free, according to Picnic CEO Clayton Wood.

"It's really designed to fit into your pizza-make station," Wood said of the system's dimensions. "If you have a more extensive menu — as so many have — you would want additional modules, but  you can add 12 more granular toppings by adding 2 feet to the length of the system."

The system was the missing piece to the Roberts' expansion strategy. 

"I've been thinking about this since the very beginning," Aaron Rogers said, referring to the brand's start in 2005. Back then, however, it was known as Flying Saucer Pizza.  "I think it's a fantastic idea. ... Timing is everything as you know, with technology and the timing couldn't be better because ... in my opinion they (Picnic) have really nailed it."

A growth problem-solver for emerging brands?

As Roberts sees it, the automated pizza assembly lines solve several problems, including pizza consistency, labor management and better customer service.

"Those top three things right there are really important and those are the things that are going to allow us to grow to any size we want because we can make great pizza and scale it without overburdening ourselves with too high a head-count, because honestly that's your No. 1 expense," said the self-described tech geek, who took on an advisory role to Picnic during the development phase. "So, if we can keep that consistent and the product consistent, those are my keys to success."

Yes, but, how much is it?

Although the people behind Picnic are well aware of their system's ability to meet operator needs, they also understand that few brands have the cash to purchase such AI-driven automation outright for their stores. That's why this technology is being brought to the market today under a  RAAS — Robotics as a Service.

"That works like this: Basically you sign a contract with us and first thing we do is go through a lot of information exchanges, like 'What's your menu? What's your volume throughput requirement? ... What do peak days looks like? Peak hours?' Wood said. 

"Then we ask, 'What are your actually ingredients down to the brand?' ...We qualify your ingredients on our system to make sure it's tuned to work with your ingredients. ... And there is no upfront cost for you as the operator to do that, but then you'll pay a monthly fee to operate it." 

The systems are scalable, too. In fact, one of the first customers aside from Zaucer is at the other end of the volume spectrum. Live event foodservice provider, Centerplate Hospitality, serves more than 115 million guests annually at sports, entertainment and convention venues. 

"We are happy to roll out a pilot of the Picnic pizza-making technology in our kitchens, as we look to enhance our quality and speed of service," Centerplate Senior Vice President Adrian Dishington said. "Technology that enables employees to be more successful will influence the guest experience at ballgames, concerts and all types of events moving forward."

The AI edge 

As mentioned, since the system also takes orders directly from online sources, a step is eliminated from brand employees, as customers' orders are fed directly into the assembly line. Further, all the data about orders, their sources, their specific customizations and even pick-up and delivery times is also accumulated into a cloud-based reservoir that can be tapped and used for insights on everything from stock and supply chain needs, to marketing parameters for best times of day and week for individual promotions.

Additionally, this automated pizza-maker also learns as it goes because its not only monitoring inputs, but outputs and processes to see how it can do its job better for any given brand.

"Our system itself, what it's doing is it's gathering data on what it's doing," Wood said.  "So it's both monitoring whether it's operating correctly and what the sensors are saying about ingredient levels of the hoppers, but also doing the operating unit phase, which is how many pizzas am I making,how many pizzas are in the queue, how much of each ingredient have I consumed , what's ordering pattern.

"All that operational data is getting stored and uploaded to the cloud so that you can integrate that data with predictive analytics to say here's your ordering pattern and here's how much cheese you need for tomorrow based on what happens on a Thursday and you can do much finer tuning." 

Another plus is that the learning curve is simple, and training is included in the monthly contract, said Wood, who would not reveal specific monthly costs but said the system makes 300 12-inch pies an hour. That's comparable to the fastest human pizza makers, who, according to Wood,  can make one pizza in about 45 seconds. The difference is that assembly line can keep that rate going for hours, which would be unlikely for a typical human employee in a busy restaurant. 

"The way I'm looking at it, I may not grow in employee count, but the guys I have I will use more efficiently," Roberts said. "Now everybody does everything. ... This is going to make their lives so much easier."

First inset photo: Via Zaucer Pizza

Second inset photo: Still from Picnic video.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.