From bussing tables and delivering orders to flipping burgers and frying chips, robots are steadily infiltrating the restaurant world in response to ongoing labor challenges and ever-tighter margins.

Pizza’s widespread popularity and relative uniformity compared to other products make it a hotbed for automation adoption. That’s where Picnic Works is aiming to make an impact with its Pizza Station, an autonomous back-of-house makeline that whips out pies faster and cheaper than humans.

“You’ve got three billion pizzas that are sold in North America annually,” says Michael Bridges, CEO of the Seattle-based food automation company. “It’s a big market to actually go out and tackle.”

Designed to handle mundane, repetitive assembly tasks, the Pizza Station has been in operation in a variety of kitchens since late 2020. Employees simply select a recipe from a touch-screen interface and load the dough into the machine, which accommodates pies ranging from 7 inches to 17.5 inches. It dispenses and distributes precise amounts of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni as the product moves along the conveyor. When the pizza comes out on the other side, it can either be placed in the oven right away or stored in a refrigerator for later.

The system is equipped with vision technology, so it adjusts on the fly if the pizza is slightly off-center. It also is connected to the internet, so it can send data back to Picnic and learn from its mistakes. There are two versions available for operators: one for cheese and pepperoni, and another capable of dispensing additional granular toppings like sausage and onion.

Factories have been automating this process for the CPG industry for a long time, but that doesn’t translate easily into a restaurant. Picnic’s tool differs from those machines in a few respects. It has a modular design and can fit in almost any kitchen footprint. Plus, it allows for recipe customization and uses fresh ingredients.

Consistency is one challenge the machine solves. Bridges says it helps operators deliver a quality experience every time they send a pizza out. It also helps with food costs, since toppings like cheese can be expensive and often overtopped by time-crunched employees.

“The other beautiful part about it is that if something like cheese or pepperoni falls below, it gets caught in the system,” he says. “All of that can be reused, so food waste goes down to near zero.”

Like most robots, the ability to do more volume with less staff on the clock is a key selling point. And while there’s still some hand-wringing about automation replacing employees, Bridges says that’s not the message Picnic is putting into the market.

“One, there’s just not enough labor to go around,” he says. “We haven’t talked to someone that is overstaffed in a long time. Two, it’s about making labor more productive. A more consistent product, less food waste, a better overall customer experience, and a better overall employee experience—that’s really what we’re trying to go after. No one wants to sit down and count out 72 pieces of pepperoni and lay them on a pizza when it can be automated, right?”

Depending on the size, the Pizza Station can assemble more than 130 pies per hour with just one employee, which makes it a good fit for high-volume, low-customization markets. That’s why the company is zeroing in on concessions and other similar types of venues as its first big target.

“You have to find out who’s going to adopt it and where it works today, and then figure out how you’re going to morph and grow with that,” Bridges says. “We focus heavily on universities, stadiums, arenas, live sporting events, convention centers, big box retail, and convenience stores. We’re also working with pizzerias, but sometimes they may not have enough volume on a Tuesday or Wednesday night for it to make a lot of sense, so a lot of them are starting with their nontraditional locations.”

With more pilot tests accelerating in 2024, he expects expansion will kick into high gear next year. To that end, Picnic this spring teamed up with Roboworx to facilitate the national rollout of its pizza-making machine. The Robots-as-a-Service company specializes in hands-on support for automation technologies across a range of industries.

Installing the robot is a quick process that can be completed in a few hours, says Dale Walsh, VP of strategy and innovation at Roboworx. It requires only a 208v outlet, with no plumbing or extensive buildout necessary. Roboworx handles the unboxing, assembly, calibration, and any adjustments that need to be made to get the machine up and running. It also provides ongoing training, repair, and preventative maintenance services.

“Our focus isn’t just making sure the robots work correctly, but also making sure that the end user—in this case, the pizza restaurant—is truly realizing the value that they expected out of their investment in automation,” Walsh says.

All too often, he adds, robotics companies assume their machine will be successful in its intended environment as long as it works correctly. But there are other reasons why automation projects go south beyond electro-mechanical issues. Employees often don’t feel empowered to contact a robot company when something goes wrong. Restaurants are also dynamic environments, so each setting comes with its own special considerations that may change and evolve with time. That means success hinges on active management of both the machine and the staff that are using it.

“It’s all about acceptance, adoption, and utilization,” Walsh says. “In restaurants in particular, these robots are going into environments where they’re dependent on adoption by entry-level employees, so we observe the operations, talk to the end user, and ask them questions. And since they’re in high-turnover environments, we’re constantly retraining staff to make sure the robots get utilized.”

Walsh says the restaurant industry as a whole is still in the early stages of the adoption curve, but the next few years will see significant growth. He expects more automation in the back of the house, where robots can take over tasks that are “dirty, dangerous, and dull,” such as measuring ingredients, prepping pizzas, or operating fryers.

“Those are the things that robots are really good at, so I think we’re going to see more of those types of tasks become automated,” he says. “The cost comes down as you begin to mass produce, so as labor shortages continue and minimum wage keeps going up, it’s just going to make more and more sense for operators from an ROI standpoint.”