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Atlanta, Georgia-based Chick-fil-A is saving nearly 10,000 hours a day at its locations by automating the lemon squeezer that produces the juice used in one of the fast food chain's most popular drinks. It is said that it is being reduced. I will report.
The company, whose slogan is “Eat more chicken,” has a factory just north of Los Angeles with more space for its machines than a typical Costco wholesaler, Bloomberg reported.
The same machines occupying this space are tasked with squeezing 1.6 million pounds of lemons, which are then bagged and shipped to Chick-fil-A stores across the country. Once you arrive at the restaurant, staff will add sugar and water to create the company's trademark lemonade.
Before introducing robots into the process, restaurant staff were responsible for squeezing the lemons, which sometimes resulted in finger injuries.
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Chick-fil-A, an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in chicken sandwiches, outdoor patio in Shaw Review, Minnesota. (Michael Silk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The company hopes to take this work off staff and streamline it through automation, making work at its locations more attractive.
“When you start doing the math, you're going to run out of team members,” Mike Hazelton, Chick-fil-A's vice president of supply chain procurement and operations, told Bloomberg.
There are reportedly 120 employees on site where the lemons are squeezed to maintain the equipment and ensure that the juice produced meets quality standards.
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March 29, 2023, Portugal, Ripe lemons hanging from a lemon tree in front of a house. (Viola Lopez/Photo Alliance via Getty Images/Getty Images)
When a truckload arrives, an employee signs it off for shipment before machines begin processing the fruit into juice.
Even the oil from the skin is extracted during the process before being sent to companies in the cosmetics and fragrance industries, creating a new revenue stream for Chick-fil-A.
Bloomberg reported that nearly all of the lemons were used during processing at the facility, resulting in an efficiency increase of about 40% compared to when employees squeezed the lemons.
Chick-fil-A did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for more information about the process and what it means for the business.
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Chick-fil-A restaurant in Indianapolis, May 2019. (license/image)
Chick-fil-A isn't the only company looking for ways to leverage technology for automation.
Last year, Yum! Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill restaurants, has begun implementing technology with plans for “AI-powered” fast food, The Wall Street Journal reports. .
The company has increased investment in technology and automation, with around 45% ($30 billion) of revenue coming from digital, nearly double what it was in 2019, Yum's chief digital and technology manager said. Joe Park told the paper. This is approximately double the level in 2019.
The move comes as states like California raise their minimum wages. When California's new minimum wage law went into effect in April, most fast-food workers' wages increased to at least $20 an hour.
As a result, most restaurant owners have started turning to AI to cut costs and increase sales, the magazine reported.
For fast food giants like Yum, the use of AI is about more than improving the customer experience.
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Hmm! has a mobile app for restaurant managers called SuperApp, which The Wall Street Journal reported is testing generative AI that allows team members to ask operational questions like how to set oven temperatures. Now it looks like this. Park told the Journal that the app is used in more than 8,700 Pizza Hut and KFC locations and can also be used to purchase ingredients and set employee shifts. Also, new augmented reality features could help teach employees how to create new menu items.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, fast food chains have also increased their investment in technology, including digital ordering and increased drive-thrus.
While some worry that the need for human workers will be replaced by AI, a Yum! spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that “employees will always play an important role. Deaf,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
