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Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
81–90 of 114 posts
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#82I guess I don't understand what is really novel about this. Don't brands like Digiorno and Freschetta already have highly-optimized pizza assembly lines? Is it really that hard to make the topping/sauce dispensing dynamic instead of static? I also don't understand the appeal of having the pizza be super hot-n-ready. If you have an efficient baking-to-delivery pipeline, and an insulated container for the pizza, then h…
Yea, I don't see what's new here, a lot of pizza assembly lines exists that can do it faster and better, for example this does the sauce faster, and can do the toppings too, (and guessing from the music :) it's an old machine) https://youtu.be/rajNU2gels0?t=21 There are even pizza vending machines that are doing the dough too and the result doesn't look horrible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7_lxiU8eLM
Yeah, that advert for automated pizza manufacturing is a few decades old at least, judging from the title fonts. Apparently Pizzamatic Corp, the company behind those automatic pizza-production machines, have been in business since 1962 - not a new invention at all.
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being a huge pizza nerd, I have to ask, what is domino's pizza great compared to? There is a nice saying that is apropos - "pizza is like sex, even when it is bad, it is still pretty good."
It's consistent, cheap and fairly good. They re-formulated their pizza a few years ago and it is considerably better. Pizza is very regional and if you're in an unfamiliar place, you take a risk by going to a small "artisanal" pizzeria. Considering that they have such a large market share, their pizza can't be that if that's what millions of Americans prefer. It's also similar to the style of pizza many American's ha…
I can't imagine any small "artisanal" pizzeria being a "risk," especially if the other option is dominos which is about as big-agro "food product" as you can get.
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
So if you are a deep pizza nerd, the pitch that you'd have a neo-neapolitan style pizza at your door in short order is a great pitch. The issue with fulfilling this pitch is that pizzaiolos are expensive, hot ovens are hard to get close to people, etc. etc. Trying to solve all this is probably at one level a 'passion project' for a Valley engineer. A true 90 second Neapolitan pizza does not age that well, the crust i…
> Pizza though, pizza has like 90% gross margin. If you could get rid of labor, you'd have a huge advantage economically against competitors. That's true, but this company looks like they have a lot more labor than a typical pizza chain. If you ever watch a big chain make pies it is astonishingly fast, way faster than this "robot" version (which is really not robotic at all, there are so many people involved!).
Disagree. I worked at a Dominos franchise for a couple of years. It didn't make much money. Delivery pizza is insanely competitive and relies heavily on discounts and coupons. Most of the labor cost is the delivery personnel who can realistically on average make about three or four round-trips an hour. You need a lot more drivers than you need in-store personnel and I would doubt that the amortized cost of a robot kitchen is much less than a minimum-wage human.
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea of cooking on the road is great, but those wire conveyer racks that they're cooking on look like a nightmare to clean. I suspect cleaning all of those ovens will not be automatable for now either. on a different note, mini pizza ovens seem to be the best part of this startup, seems as though it could be a great product when combined with 'artisinal robot made' frozen pizza.
It seems unnessecarily complex having 56 separate ovens. Why not just one oven, that the driver loads up between deliveries? Am I missing something?
It looks like the individual ovens allow them to cook each pizza for a precise amount of time:
At precisely 3 minutes and 15 seconds before
arriving at the customer's location, the cloud
commands the oven to turn on and--" Garden made
the symbol of a large explosion emanating from
his brain-- "BOOM, the customer gets a fresh,
out-the-oven pizza delivered to their door."
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#86I tried this, as they had a coupon for a free pizza in Mountain View. The pizza was just ok, and considering the many choices around here for really good pizza, I probably won't actually pay for one of theirs unless I have some indication that the quality has improved.
It seems another user has a plan for checking this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11982016
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#87That robotic arm is the salary of a dominos employee for 10+ years.
Source? > How Much Do New Robots Cost? Complete with controllers and teach pendants, new industrial robotics cost from $50,000 to $80,000. Once application-specific peripherals are added, the robot system costs anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000. Reconditioned robots are a less expensive option. Typically, used robots cost half as much as new robots. Used robot prices can range between an estimated $25,000 and $40,00…
What you're leaving out is that the robot can only do one thing. The Dominos employee can do whatever is necessary including cleaning, restocking ingredients, handling customer/delivery issues, etc.
Also if the robot breaks down or otherwise stops working properly it's costing you anywhere from $250-$1000/hr in lost business plus cost of emergency repairs (robot techs on call at 10pm are generally not making minimum wage).
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Pizza though, pizza has like 90% gross margin. If you could get rid of labor, you'd have a huge advantage economically against competitors. That's true, but this company looks like they have a lot more labor than a typical pizza chain. If you ever watch a big chain make pies it is astonishingly fast, way faster than this "robot" version (which is really not robotic at all, there are so many people involved!).
Disagree. I worked at a Dominos franchise for a couple of years. It didn't make much money. Delivery pizza is insanely competitive and relies heavily on discounts and coupons. Most of the labor cost is the delivery personnel who can realistically on average make about three or four round-trips an hour. You need a lot more drivers than you need in-store personnel and I would doubt that the amortized cost of a robot ki…
> Most of the labor cost is the delivery personnel who can realistically on average make about three or four round-trips an hour.
This sounds high to me. Just to be clear, are you talking about one trip out delivering to four different addresses before returning, or four trips out each to a single address all within one hour?
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#89This is either going to end up dominating the food delivery business (unlikely, but possible) or present yet another case study in Silicon Valley delusions. It's entirely possible, easy even, to automate the pizza making process. You can go to the grocery store and purchase frozen pizzas which have never been touched by human hands. Exactly none of them are made by industrial robots. Industrial robots cost more than…
> You can go to the grocery store and purchase frozen pizzas which have never been touched by human hands. Exactly none of them are made by industrial robots. Industrial robots cost more than a pizza assembly line does, and they don't do anything that the line can't do.
What's an industrial robot? Why is a fully-automated assembly line not considered robotic?
Re: Zume, a new startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics
#90I'm genuinely curious, what's the difference between robots replacing American jobs and foreigners replacing American jobs? Politicians go to great lengths to protect the sanctity of American jobs by passing strict immigration regulations and instantiating border checkpoints hundreds of miles inside the border. They don't seem to be mirroring their actions for robots.
Foreigners bring their own culture along with them; robots can't do that.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/norway-offers-migrants-a-lesson-no-r...
> Migrants themselves can often be quite frank and astute observers of cross-cultural differences:
> “Men have weaknesses and when they see someone smiling it is difficult to control,” Mr. Kelifa said, explaining that in his own country, Eritrea, “if someone wants a lady he can just take her and he will not be punished,” at least not by the police.
Outsourcing would be a much closer parallel.