ICYMI: French fries and onion rings are going high-tech, thanks to ‘Flippy 2,’ an AI-powered robotic fry station that can do everything from taking frozen foods from the freezer to cooking https://t.co/myOLQdjGYr pic.twitter.com/lHTzwpMz5q
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 9, 2022
24 Comments on You Want 15 Bucks an Hour at McDonald’s? Here’s Your Competition
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Yeah but ….. can it serve me with an attitude?
So much for high school kids looking to make some money in the summertime.
From what I saw in the video it should work well as long as you don’t mind onion rings mixed with your fries or vice versa.
Robots don’t even have pronouns.
But where are the boogers, pubes & spit?
McDonald’s can’t keep the ice cream machine working.
Good luck with something more conplex.
@ Wild Bill,
Whats ” high school kids looking to make some money in the summertime”?
I seem to remember something like that before the Great COOF of 2020 but it seems so long ago & far away.
Cheers, Jays Just Blew it!
Lemme see here: All those robotic parts are produced in China. And China is behind the $15.00 dollar an hour movement. How’m I doing?
Probably means the immigrant indentured servants pay will jump to $5.50. How many immigrants does the crooked left have employed under the table?
Does filppy change the oil more often?
Because it seems McD
Let’s it stay around way to long.
Stopped eating there long ago.
But hey, the ice is still ok.
Are they going to develop one to spit in cops’ food?
SNS
The McPuke’s Ice Cream Machine issue is by design.
My buddy owns 2 DQ franchises and his stuff has been reasonably predicable and reliable. esp. the older machines
The vid didn’t show how it opened the fries or onion packages. Did it use an ax giving them 40 whacks?
“McDonald’s can’t keep the ice cream machine working.”
McDonald’s is not the manufacturer or the designer.
As far as China building the parts, that’s not happening right now. They can’t get them shipped here.
Brad,
Its the service contracts.
No way in hell that fucking RED & YELLOW fucking clown isn’t allowing the revenue stream.
If they weren’t getting points on the repairs, that company would have been reduced to servicing shit pots in India.
Cheers, & Happy Canuck Thanks giving!
(Shouldn’t we be eating Beaver?)
Brad
OCTOBER 8, 2022 AT 11:05 PM
‘“McDonald’s can’t keep the ice cream machine working.”
McDonald’s is not the manufacturer or the designer.’
I understand that. Neither does the company I work for make its own robots, but it certainly is in trouble with meeting production goals if they do not work.
In terms of complexity, the Taylor ice cream machines McDs employs are MUCH simpler than the Flippy robots. Contractually McDs, one of the most powerful companies on the face of the Earth, cannot turn to anyone else to repair them, so they are bound by when, where, and how Taylor can send them a tech.
So no ice cream for their customers.
Do you think it will be better dealing with a more complex system, with a smaller company with a concomitantly smaller tech road force? I could not ask ABB to fix our Fanuc robots, they have no parts or expertise, so who’s McD gonna ask to fix Flippy if Flippy can’t send someone till next month, and when that guy gets there, he has to wait 8 months for a servomotor from China?
During this time, the robot is WORSE than useless, its actively in the way. Plus, while it DID work, it made their staff too small and too dumb to cook fries themselves.
The ice cream is kind of incidental to McDs. They can obviously make billions without it.
But wreck their ability to make burgers and fries the same way?
Armageddon for them.
…I make a very handsome living as an in-house automation specialist. Granted that I work on more than one system in more than one facility, but I am not cheap and the parts DAMN sure aren’t cheap, nor easy to come by. Also, lots of my work comes from the support staff, such as sanitors and loaders, destroying various parts of the machines through incompetence, lack of training, language barrier, or just good ol’ young American dontgiveafuck.
I’m right there to fix it, for one shift anyway. Does McD have a me in every store, or even in every region, to do the same?
I’m guessing not.
And I’m just using them because the ice cream thing is so well known. Could a smaller company do even as well? I think we all know the answer.
Automation has huge advantages for batch production, but small batch runs with frequent changeover isn’t its forte, as the onion ring/fry mixture demonstrates. While it is temptimg to eliminate more labor for a business and the 15 dollar floor makes the ROI horizon closer, its still a high start-up cost as you have to pay for site-specific engineering, your production and quality will be down at first while you work out the bugs, you have to hire and retain much more expensive people to maintain it (or contract with the OEM), train your support staff to not spray the pulsecoders with high-pressure steam and other particulars of safely working with robots, you or your contractor HAVE to keep spare parts and backups of everything, someone needs to be availabe to keep the mastering batteries changed or remaster everything if that guy falls down on the job and there’s a power failure, and a few years from now everything is obsolete just when your cables are worn out and need. replaced…the list goes on.
You need some comittment to automate your core operations, financially and philosopically. You’re not going to automate away your labor problems tomorrow, maybe you can get a cell past the Factory Acceptance Test this time next year if you order now, maybe not, depends on China and American ports.
Its kind of like elecric cars in that its a nice idea and a goal worth working towards…but we aint there yet, and it can’t be forced by current events.
I like automation. It bought me houses and cars and BFH paintings and vacations and kept my family fed for almost 30 years now.
But it is a long term solution at best, and I’m not sure it can be implemented before Pedo Joe’s inflation makes today’s $15 look like yesterdays’ $5.
A neat idea, but a little bit impractical in that environment.
The real question is can Flippy 2 slap feral customers who run behind the counter?
Pretty sure Flippy won’t stick his hand in the hot oil to get a few weeks off on Worker’s Comp, either.
(I knew a woman who did that)
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Younger Americans got used to unemployment and other bennies during Covid, and are now quiet quitting. I know many companies that have had a hard time finding employees, and others complain about young workers that just don’t do anything. I see more and more of those jobs being filled with illegals now. It is going to be difficult for a 25 year old US citizen with a poor employment record to find a job.
You want $15/hr? You better know how to fix that machine!
Minimum wage fast food workers in CA are slated to receive $22/hr for fast food workers. No way is that sustainable. Okay with me though, I don’t patronize fast food restaurants. I have a hard enough time with grocery clerks. The market will let FF know if they’ll be in business 6 months from now. Go bankrupt, I don’t care.
Ghost of Burner
OCTOBER 9, 2022 AT 8:58 AM
“You want $15/hr? You better know how to fix that machine!”
…you are NOT going to get anyone with robotic skills to dix it for $15/hr.
It’s a very high demand, high skill field thats only getting larger, so you send your $15 employee to robot school, he’s gonna jump ship immediately after because someone else will be willing to throw 2-3 times that amount at him.
Robo Boy doesn’t seem to be fine tuned and has a lot of awkward moves. Servos aren’t very precise.., out of balance. Not impressed. And mixing onion rings with fries is gonna start some shit, in the inner city, with the hood rats. So when the rumble in the jungle starts, does Robo boy become Robo cop ? And instruct citizens “to drop their axes, knives and guns. Your cooperation is appreciated. “? Lol.
I repeat, ObamaPsuquesDick.smeg.