The key to food sector success is delivering value for the money while creating an experience that will last a lifetime. Restaurants that draw customers but fail to deliver memorable experiences frequently go out of business because they cannot draw in repeat business. A restaurant may attract customers by offering a remarkable dining experience that boosts customer satisfaction and sales. The development of information technologies has recently had a considerable impact on the food industry. Technology integration is advantageous in preserving standards and efficiency and creating a distinctive hospitality experience. Automation has become a vital aspect of daily living in today’s contemporary working culture as organizations are becoming more aware that robots are being handed more and more basic activities. Robots are no longer confined to big companies but have also found their way into small industries such as fast food retail outlets. To keep up with automation, Burger King Restaurants will adopt an automated robotic system in their service delivery model to minimize cost and enhance customer satisfaction.
Robotics in the fast food sector
The growing application of robotics in many sectors has been largely driven by improved artificial intelligence software and the reduced cost of hardware materials. Restaurant robots can be fully automated with an AI-based service to enhance customer experiences and streamline restaurant operations. Restaurants have identified the potential of robot systems and their huge advantages as they can be utilized in the automation of every, if not all, of the restaurant activities. Robotic systems can be effective in streamlining cooking procedures through personalized cuisines, lowering operational costs by automating monotonous acts such as food recognition and categorization and utilizing robotic end effectors to handle food (Wang et al., 2022, pp. 3). The design and application of a robotic system by Burger King Restaurant will give the organization a competitive edge through novelty in gastronomy and economic benefits.
Understanding customer needs for efficient innovation.
Every organization’s success depends on its capability to create and innovate new ideas and products that meet its customers’ needs. Customers’ needs are the descriptions, suggestions, or benefits that customers utilize to evaluate the success and value of getting a job done. This translates to a desired outcome where customers define value and detail how the organization can achieve the value. To achieve the desired outcome and create customer value, the organization needs to obtain information regarding the jobs the customers want, the expected outcomes and the constraints to adopting the innovation (Katerina, 2018, pp.330). Innovation is only achieved through a thorough understanding of the activity or product, the customer’s needs, and achieving a higher purpose for which the customer can buy products or services. The method of understanding and achieving customer value can be utilized by Burger King Restaurants in implementing automated robotic innovations in their fast food joints to fulfil customer satisfaction.
Innovation Implementation
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing has developed as a significant source of information in organizations for facilitating organizational innovations. Crowdsourcing is a collaborative approach applied by organizations to obtain information from various contributors based on the identified wisdom of the crowd. Crowdsourcing seeks to tap into a particular population, including employees, customers and other business stakeholders, to gather data and ideas based on the notion that the information is dispersed among the people. As a combination of end-user empowerment and collective information gathering, crowdsourcing has gained significance because of the openness of organizations towards normal thinkers, the added value of people’s creativity in innovation, and the creation of communities. Crowdsourcing incorporates various actors, including the organization, employees, customers, and all stakeholders participating in the brand’s value-creation process (O’Leary, 2020). An innovative idea for crowdsourcing should be designed to allow a cooperative experience for individuals and the organization through creativity, brand loyalty, and knowledge creation. Crowdsourcing technology utilizes a process comprised of varying combinations of interlinked actions that are utilized to gather, evaluate, and actualize innovation ideas.
Crowdsourcing for Burger King
Burger King will utilize crowdsourcing to implement the robotic automation project by involving their customer base. Crowdsourcing offers a new range of operational abilities through the adaptation of the current information technology era, where the organization can use ideas and creations from multiple people as people tend to provide their creative ideas for free. In crowdsourcing, the crowd comprises prospective customers, thus giving the organization a firsthand experience of the customers’ needs and giving the public the impression that the organization will listen to their needs, building a rapport for collaboration (Zhao, 2020). Through a crowdsourcing network, Burger King can gain a large variety of expertise and ideas and allow for solutions from unexpected sources.
Stages of implementation of robotic automation through crowdsourcing
Identification of the problem
Identifying the problem involves formulating a problem list through internal crowdsourcing surveys from employees and social media surveys to gather public opinion. The organization will formulate a team of internal stakeholders such as chefs, serves and management staff, and an external team of experts for the professional requirements. The issues are then evaluated to synthesize and eliminate any unwanted content to identify the main issues. The identified issues are then ranked appropriately from the most significant to the least significant ones.
Introducing the process
After identifying the key issues, the team of experts will choose a technological platform to conduct crowdsourcing. The organization will adopt the platform Accenture’s Grapevine, an online collaborative tool to foster innovation. Grapevine enables idea generation, evaluation, and prioritizing of different ideas and helps decision-making (O’Leary, 2020). After identifying the platform, group characterization will be done to identify a target audience for the crowdsourcing process. Furthermore, the team will develop a communication strategy and a method for putting the strategy into action, such as running advertisements on social media platforms. After identifying a communication plan, the team schedules time frames for process implementation.
Creating the project
An essential aspect of every innovation is formulating the issue to be solved. The problem must be clearly stated with all the requirements, concise, and compelling to create a sense of urgency about how the solution can deliver the results. The crafting of the solution should be a collaborative process between the innovation champions, the project manager, and the company. An iterative process helps ensure that all concerns and stakeholder perspectives are considered.
Evaluation
The experts evaluate the solutions in relation to the identified issues. The evaluation should be cross-functional, involving all teams participating in project implementation. Additionally, since the company seeks to incorporate an external technology, it will need to assess the need to adopt an absorptive capacity. According to Dabic et al., firms with a high transformation dimension absorptive capacities can enhance their information management practices resulting in high innovation output (2019). Since the capacity lies in the research and design department, a good absorptive capacity ensures that the company can develop the technology in-house. When assessing the solutions, the implementing team will need to consider the organization’s absorptive capacity and possibilities to implement the automated robotic system.
Technology development and implementation
Once the innovative solution has been identified, the process of implementation commences. The implementation stage may encounter many drawbacks related to integrating the innovation with the existing company processes. Integration of technological advancement and collaboration with organizational staff is a long-term process that leads to organizational culture, structure, and process changes. Employees and affected stakeholders should be aware of the innovation and results communicated to portray its efficiency. The company should utilize the internal research and design department through collaboration rather than external providers to assure them of their importance to the company and assert the senior management’s trust in them to manage the technology.
Feedback
The company needs to collect feedback from customers and employees on their experiences with the innovation. Feedback ensures redesigning and reevaluating to conform to customer needs and perform functions as intended.
Conclusion
The service experience provided by restaurants plays a key role in ensuring customer satisfaction. The increased utilization of automated robotics in restaurants can ensure that most activities are automated, improving customer experiences and the efficiency of service provision. Burger King Restaurant will utilize robots for serving and selling food while also automating most of the repetitive tasks in the restaurant to save on cost and time. The service industry is dynamically changing, and since the main purpose of a business is creating and maintaining customers, Burger King will need to adopt emerging technologies to keep up with business.
Gant chart
References
Dabić, M., Vlačić, E., Ramanathan, U. and Egri, CP, 2019. Evolving absorptive capacity: The mediating role of systematic knowledge management. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 67(3), pp.783-793. doi: 10.1109/TEM.2019.2893133.
Katerina Y. Kozludzhova, 2018. “Understanding Customer Needs – The Key To Innovation Success (An Empirical Research Of Software Companies In Bulgaria),” Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 12(1), pages 327-340. RePEc:isp:journal:v:12:y:2018:i:1:p:327-340
O’Leary, D. E. (2020). Driving innovation using enterprise crowdsourcing. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 10(1), 2–10. //doi.org/10.1177/2043886919885943
Wang, Z., Hirai, S. and Kawamura, S. (2022) “Challenges and opportunities in Robotic Food Handling: A Review,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8, pp. 1–12. Available at: //doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.789107.
Zhao, Z. (2020) Idea crowdsourcing for innovation: Fundamentals and recommendations, Management & Data Science. Management & Datascience. Available at: //management-datascience.org/articles/121/ (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
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