[Someone1234]

Downside is if an employee "breaks down" you can just call the next person on your call sheet, if a flippy breaks down, then what? You close? You have to have 50% more for resiliency?

There's been plenty of innovations that have failed because while the initial price tag looks like a saving, the long term maintenance has changed the calculation.

I'll be interested to see if places like White Castle are still using them after a year or two.

[kodachrome64]

This is what I'm wondering as well. Automation can do all sorts of cool things but my experience in manufacturing has shown me that machines break down all the damn time. When that happens, some poor tradesperson or engineer is under the gun to get it back up and running again because money is being lost by the minute. I'd imagine a machine running in a hot, greasy environment would need pretty extensive cleaning and routine maintenance to be reliable. Those things cost money and require diligent workers, and this is a company looking to lay off people that they're paying minimum wage.

[xoserr]

Exactly, this makes no sense to me.

Sorry, we have no burgers, come back later.

This just looks like some corporate process improvement project that is doomed to fail but looks good on someone's resume.

Google says fast food labor cost is about 25% of cost. I just don't know if that is really enough savings overall with the added expense and risk of a machine.