Ed Rensi, a former CEO of Mcdonalds has revealed that the company could be cutting humans completely out of the picture very soon. This, whilst protests to push the minimum wage to $15 an hour grow stronger.
Rensi who was a guest on a show on Fox Business, said: “I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry — it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries — it’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across [the United States] like you’re not going to believe.”
That is sure to enrage the McDonalds employees who are currently fighting to stay relevant to the company. However, as harsh as the words from the former CEO are, they are undeniably true.
The restaurant industry is integrating into Industrie 4.0 more than people realise. It’s all about mobile in the restaurant industry, says founder and CEO of VMob, Scott Bradley. “For us, it’s mobile and using mobile apps and mobile engagement effectively. It really requires an understanding of the customer, so using customer data to personalize that mobile experience is really the key to success. Mobile attraction and mobile engagement.” Humans want instant, streamlined food production, and robots can do that more efficiently than humans can, as was apparent at the convention.
At the event, there was also a robot that prepared salads without the need for human intervention. Alongside that, a 3D printer that printed confectionery items and a robot that did a collection of pan-frying and deep-frying.