Fry cook duties across the Midwest are being taken over by robots.
White Castle has been outsourcing some of its jobs to Miso Robotics' "Flippy 2" across the country. The robot takes over the work of an entire fry station.
"By taking over the work of an entire fry station, Flippy 2 alleviates the pain points that come with back-of-house roles at quick-service restaurants to create a working environment for its human coworkers that maximizes the efficiency of the kitchen," Miso Robotics said in a statement. "The improved workflow allows for the redeployment of team members to focus on creating memorable moments for customers."
The fast-food chain has actually been experimenting with the robotic fry cook since September 2020, when the original "Flippy" was installed in a Chicago area restaurant.
At the time, White Castle said Flippy "brings intelligence to cooking, tapping into sensors, intelligent monitoring and anticipated kitchen needs to keep food temperatures consistent, that ensure optimal quality and a perfect bite for customers."
"The deployment will put autonomous frying to work for enhanced production speeds, improved labor allocation and an added layer of health and safety in the cooking process," White Castle said in a statement.
Following an upgrade to "Flippy 2" at the original test location in November 2021, White Castle decided to roll out a larger version of the program "after seeing an immediate positive impact on daily operations and the productivity of its team members."
In February 2022, the fast-food chain revealed plans to install Flippy 2 robots in 100 restaurants across the nation, saying the rollout would take place in the "years ahead."
Currently, 17 robots have been installed, according to reports.
A White Castle spokesperson told Today that the program is still being rolled out and will eventually be in nearly one-third of the company's approximately 350 brick-and-mortar restaurants across the Midwest, Southwest and the New York area. A timeframe for the rollout was not provided.
"The team members who work with Flippy are really, really happy and the rollout is going really well," Jamie Richardson, vice president at White Castle, told Today. "We're continuing to roll it out into (White) Castles as we remodel and we've made really, really great and fun progress."
"It's helped us on speed of service, it's helped us on order accuracy," Richardson added. "So it's, it's been a win."