Want Fries with Your Machine Learning?
Los Angeles-based Miso, a restaurant technology disruptor in fry station automation and AI-powered robotics for commercial kitchens, has announced the launch of its next-generation Flippy Fry Station robot.
Powered by Miso's Kitchen AI and more than 25 patents, the new generation of Flippy Fry Station automates the preparation of French fries, onion rings, chicken, tacos and many other fried items with groundbreaking precision and consistency – aimed at delivering 'day one' ROI to its customers with its reliability.
Now backed by investments from industry powerhouses like cleaning solutions leader Ecolab, collaborations with vision-AI leader NVIDIA and new leadership led by CEO Rich Hull, Miso began piloting its newest Flippy at several White Castle locations late last year. Compared to the prior version, the new Flippy is half the size, twice as fast, more reliable and installs in existing kitchens overnight in just a few hours (75% less time than previously). It was also designed in close collaboration with restaurant partners, including aforementioned collaborator White Castle, to create a next-generation product that caters to QSR operators' expectations.
'Being the first mover in fry station automation has brought years of successes, surely a few failures and mountains of proprietary data and learnings for Miso. Now all of those important experiences combine to make this game-changing new generation of Flippy the most reliable fry station automation product in the market,' said Hull. 'At a time of massive labor disruption and restaurants' inability to hire enough kitchen workers, the new Flippy creates immediate, provable customer ROI, while also unlocking much needed additional pools of labor under federal guidelines by reducing the danger to workers.'
Among the many dangerous jobs in a commercial kitchen, the fry station towers above the rest. A 2024 survey conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health noted that almost 80% of fast food employees have sustained burns within the past year. Unlike with traditional frying stations, federal regulations allow employees under 18 years of age to operate a Flippy Fry Station, unlocking a much-needed additional pool of available labor for QSR kitchens.
Dennis Lock, Miso's head of sales, commented, 'With no upfront costs and a rental price of $5,400 per month, the new generation of Flippy generally costs less than the equivalent full-time employees, so there is little downside for restaurant operators. Plus, Flippy can drive $5,000 to $20,000 of new prime cost reductions and revenue increases per month through labor redeployment to higher value tasks, faster speed of service and reduced food waste.'
Rob Seely, AVP operations strategy & design of WD Partners, a strategy, design and execution consultancy for the restaurant industry, added, 'We've spent a great deal of time over the past months to create real-world case studies that quantify the substantial labor, speed of service and food waste benefits that the new generation of Flippy Fry Station creates for a restaurant's bottom line. In a market where labor shortages and labor costs can no longer be passed onto customers through menu price increases, Flippy and kitchen automation like it provide the restaurant industry's best solution.'
Rollouts to additional White Castle locations, Jack in the Box and several other large brands are scheduled for 2025 in both corporate and franchisee locations.
Flippy's advancements are also bolstered by Miso's strategic and investment partnerships with Ecolab, a global leader in food safety and hygiene solutions. Ecolab's expertise has helped to enhance Flippy's cleaning speed and procedures and food safety capabilities. In addition to Miso's in-house sales team, Ecolab now also offers its customers Flippy rentals through a dedicated sales team derived from Ecolab's 6,000 sales professionals.
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