McDonald's is rolling out self-service kiosks. Adios, cashiers ?

It's about time. The technology for this has been around quite a while, and I've seen it used elsewhere.

But then, I suppose one could say that McDonald's has been helping the low-wage, entry level portion of the economy by holding out this long, too.

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Screw jobs. We need people who will take responsibility for themselves and quit relying on someone to hand them work and/or handouts all the time.

 

Kiosks are more efficient at taking orders, which decreases the time taken to collect an order. This will result in higher order volume based on a) efficiency and b) higher customer return rates due to faster order implementation.

Higher order volume requires higher order output, which means higher demand of resources for output. These are represented by a) human resources and b) automation. Currently there are less reliable options for food production automation than there are for trained human resources. Trained human resources for food production are financially more advantageous as they are more abundant and cost less.

In other words, kiosks can be expected to support the same or higher use of human resources. This may result in either a net zero adjustment in those employed as more human resources in order production balance out reduced human resources in order taking/counter service, OR it may result in an increase in those employed in order production.

Until food production sees MUCH more automation, order kiosks are more likely to advance employment at McDonalds.

A similar result has been observed in the automotive industry, wherein productivity rose and a slight erosion in unskilled labor resulted in higher employment within semi-skilled and skilled labor. See here for details: https://hbr.org/2015/06/robots-seem-to-be-improving-productivity-not-costing-jobs

 

Is that why automation, robotics, and machinery have replaced so many workers? Real world evidence proves you wrong.

 

One day, almost nobody will have to work because of technology.

 

just shifts the jobs they do. Automatic phone connections (technology) replaced phone operators.... but there are still jobs in the phone industry. Now, instead of being an operator, a low skilled person in the industry sells phones. But that transition is slow and if you were a phone operator, you didn't just get laid off from one job, and jumped right into the other.

 

Money is an IOU. A job is just one man solving a problem for another, expecting to have a problem solved in return.

If I need my hair cut, I can solve a problem for the barber and he can solve one for me. If I'd rather not solve a problem for him today I can trade a couple $5 bills (IOUs) for that haircut. Giving him an IOU means I've taken something out of the economy (a haircut) and it means I either need to put that value back (because I borrowed that IOU) or have already put that value in (because I received that IOU for value contributed).

Money can make that trade simpler, but it's still the same transaction with or without it -- one provides value in exchange for taking value. And yes, money alone (or any IOU alone) isn't going to cut it.

There must be some actual compensation involved at some point. At some point, people have to put real value into the economy if they're taking real value out. If some of us don't, eventually all the IOUs will pile up in front of those who are providing value.





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If we were Amish or Eloi, maybe.

As technology grows, so do our ambitions. We want more. We'll always need someone developing new solutions, prototyping them, implementing them, operating them, and eventually managing their automation to deliver that more.

When technology means you can accomplish the same thing you did last year, with half the effort. It also means your contribution is now less valuable to those who want more. You can either accomplish more, accomplish something more valuable, or accept that those who do will enjoy greater value while you settle for what you received last year.



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Probably not a coincidence that McDonalds was one of the few corporations given a waiver when ObamaCare was first implemented or that their hiring spikes seemed to coincide with the white houses "jobs have gone up!" reports.




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Pipe dream.

 

"McDonald's is rolling out self-service kiosks. Adios, cashiers ?"

republicans cheer?

 

Their one of the biggest employers because they pay less than slave wages, slaves were afforded housing and food as it was necessary to keep them as laborers. Minimum wage employees can't afford housing or food and are subsidized by the government.

We'll see how long Mcdonald's can last on vending machine burgers in the market.

 

You mean I might actually get correct change at McDonalds? I'm all for it...

 

The market for cash registers that have pictures on their keys is going to take a hit.




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If you are trying to make a living on minimum wage you're a loser.

 

This is way off topic but I couldn't agree more. I'm current trying to get my kids into programming, its a great skill to have. Oh and even MS has a free version of visual studio, and then there's you tube and code academy... It's never been easier to obtain that skill set.

 

I will say though that as a software engineer I feel my job is pretty secure from competition. Unfortunately like all STEM paths no one wants to get into programming. They feel it would be too hard. I guess the dirty secret is that it's easy! It's all logic and with the internet you can solve most problems in minutes. If it's getting too complexe you're probably doing it wrong.

 

why did you clip my post, including the quotes around my quoted text to make it look like I said that?

just asking as was weird of you to do - lol

 

I'm cheering but I'm in the business of automation.

So for a huge company like McDonald's to take this step brightens my future.

 

if they buy American made that is

 

Automation, robotics, and machinery have NOT replaced trained human resources for food production in environments such as what we're discussing (i.e. McDonalds). Please read what I wrote more carefully.

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This is something only elitists believe.

 

Although, I would love nothing better as a former farm kid to see this disgusting company go away. McDonalds represents the worst in humanity and inhumanity.

I was raised in farm country, where we respected life. Yes, we literally killed animals for food. I did it with my own hands. But we did not keep animals in tight cages or inject them with chemicals. They were free to roam until they got old. We got milk from cows and eggs from chickens from our neighbors. We would butcher the chickens when they got old and eat them.

Mcdonalds literally manufactures animals for food. I want no part of that.

They're a disgusting company.

 

I imagine there will be some developing, prototyping, implementing, and managing... but not operating as such.... and certainly not for wages, but for the love of the work. Whilst some like to paint, others like to code, build mechanical devices. Those will be the ones developing. As more people are put out of work by machines, there is less money available to buy what the machines are producing. Eventually, there will be no cash and people will not need to work.

I see almost every task being performed by AI and robotics. From house building with massive 3D printers, to serving beer at your favorite establishment.

It's been happening quietly for a long time. Farmers now use all sorts of equipment for milking cows and ploughing fields; they no longer employ as many as they would on such a scale of production. ATM machines mean no longer having to visit a real teller - some bank buildings are being closed as they are hardly used. Factories have been automated providing higher quality and quantity turnaround of some products. And as the technology advances further, so will it's use.

Fiction? Perhaps for now.

 

AMF's Automated Drive-In Restaurant

The first page of the PDF of this article appears below.

http://cqx.sagepub.com/content/6/1/83.extract#

The article, about a fully automated commercial kitchen, is from 1964.

Or maybe you prefer an article from 1988 ...

"BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY; Robots to Make Fast Food Chains Still Faster
By CALVIN SIMS
Published: August 24, 1988

Restaurant industry experts are predicting that the fast food business will undergo a technological revolution in the next few years that will place increasing numbers of robots and other labor-saving devices in the kitchens. The machines will flip hamburgers, bag french fries, spread pizza dough, fry chicken, bake biscuits, stuff burritos and deliver drive-in orders to cars in about half the time and at about half the cost that human workers require.

''The fast food industry has no alternative; it will have to robotize,'' said Joseph Durocher, professor of hotel administration at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics. ''No longer can they afford the luxury of having human workers standing at the beverage bar with a cup or watching hamburger patties on a grill.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/24/b...ts-to-make-fast-food-chains-still-faster.html

Or maybe you prefer 2014 ...

"A company called Momentum Machines has built a robot that could radically change the fast-food industry and have some line cooks looking for new jobs.

The company's robot can "slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger, giving you the freshest burger possible." The robot is "more consistent, more sanitary, and can produce ~360 hamburgers per hour." That's one burger every 10 seconds.

The next generation of the device will offer "custom meat grinds for every single customer. Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground to order? No problem."

Momentum Machines cofounder Alexandros Vardakostas told Xconomy his "device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient. It’s meant to completely obviate them." Indeed, marketing copy on the company's site reads that their automaton "does everything employees can do, except better."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/momentum-machines-burger-robot-2014-8#ixzz3iaimka3w



Or maybe you can just walk into BK and you'll see they don't need burger flippers. They've been using conveyor belt grills for decades.

 

How's that $15 minimum wage working out?