Pizza Automation & Innovation
Food manufacturers that wish to hold onto market access must take steps to modernize production, if their operation intends to remain viable in the long run. The intelligent use of automation components can make a decisive contribution to securing the competitiveness of a company.
Automation suppliers and machine builders, therefore, need to appeal to end customers for technical understanding and an open attitude toward technological innovations.
Picnic, a company known as an innovator of food automation technology, announced last year at the International Pizza Expo and Conference, that it was accepting pre-orders from U.S. customers for its award-winning Picnic Pizza System.
The assembly-line-style food production robotic platform is capable of making 300 pizzas an hour by loading an empty crust onto a conveyor belt and use computer vision, configurable equipment and deep learning to add desired toppings and bake the pie to perfection.
The company also shared that it has completed successful pilots and deployments with customers in hospitality, entertainment, theme park, and restaurant industries, and unveiled its cost-effective robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing structure.
The Picnic Pizza System is the only modular and configurable pizza assembly system commercially available in the market today helping save time, money, and labor through kitchen automation technology. The system uses any restaurant’s existing menu and assists operators in making up to 300 pizzas per hour with consistent results. The cost-effective pricing model includes free delivery and installation, requires minimal training, and is ideal for businesses of any size, from large corporations to individual-owned pizzerias. Through the Picnic robotics-as-a-service subscription model, the system requires no upfront costs, includes free on-site maintenance checks, and is monitored 24/7 for maximum uptime.
“Picnic enables food service operators to eliminate many current pain points and address evolving consumer tastes,” said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic.
Because it uses modular components in the pizza making process, businesses that purchase the robot have the ability to customize each pie that is made. An empty crust is placed on the conveyor belt then a human worker inputs the specifications of the pie – such as size of the pizza and desired toppings. The crust then goes through the assembly, starting with the sauce, then cheese and toppings and finally, the pie is baked to perfection.
“This is a huge milestone for Picnic, and we couldn’t be more excited to announce commercial availability,” said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic. “The team has been working tirelessly with customers and strategic partners over the past year to fine tune the Picnic Pizza System. We’re very proud of the solution that we have created. The validation we’ve received from industry partners and customers reaffirms the need for kitchen automation solutions like ours, and we are looking forward to an excellent year ahead.”
You can read the rest of this article in Issue 1 of Worldbakers Digital magazine, which you can access by clicking here.