Have you ever ordered a coffee and been left disappointed upon discovering it had been made incorrectly? Chas Studor, founder of the firm Briggo in Austin, Texas, is working to stop this issue from occurring again. He has created a Coffee Haus machine that is completely independent from human baristas, and has robotic accuracy when making drinks. With the machine, people can order their drinks through an app and then watch the drink be made through a window in the machine. While it is currently only being used in a few locations such as airports, offices, and shopping centers, it has the potential to be used on a much larger scale and remove the need for human baristas altogether.
I think the idea of having robotic baristas is really useful, and something that larger coffee companies like Starbucks and Peet’s could implement to increase their profits. Robotic baristas would give companies the ability to improve multiple aspects of their business, such as speed, quality, and customer satisfaction. Robots will be able to directly receive each drink order and begin working on it right away, and do so with precision that can be hard to achieve for humans. With multiple of these Coffee Haus machines at work all at once, customers will all be able to receive their drinks much faster than usual, and always be satisfied with them. I know there have been many times where I have ordered my drink from Starbucks and received something that tasted nothing like it had the previous times I had ordered it, or times where I have been left waiting up to 20 minutes to receive my order, so having robots like this incorporated into shops across the country is definitely something I would like to see.
While the Coffee Haus machines have the potential to improve many aspects of businesses, there is still some improvements to be made. As of now, the machines only make a few variations of coffee, but many of the companies that would implement them serve a variety of drinks such as teas, hot chocolates, juices, and Starbucks speciality frappuccinos. Without the capability of making these drinks, the robots will be useless for a large number of orders.. Until these improvements can be made, they will continue to be used for on the go coffee in locations with high amounts of foot traffic.
Along with the lack of drink variation, people worry about the loss of jobs for thousands of baristas if these machines are implemented. While this is a valid concern, the reduced need for human baristas gives those workers a different area of focus in their jobs. Without the task of preparing hundreds of drinks a day, workers can instead be used to focus on customer service and improve customers overall experience. I believe that once the necessary improvements are made to widen drink variations, these Coffee Haus machines will have a positive impact many companies’ efficiency and customer satisfaction.
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Today, I sent a Tapingo order to Starbucks, only to see the wait time was over an hour with 50 orders ahead in line. The frustration of not being able to order a drink left me wondering how much more efficient a Starbucks franchise would be if robots produced the drinks, instead of people. Many of the recent articles I have read for comments and my own blog posts, this one included, have focused on different ways automation is being used by companies to produce goods and provide services cheaper, faster and better than a person.
Automating baristas is surely an enticing prospect for larger coffee chains. An automated barista is likely to be cost effective as a unit at Starbucks will fulfill a large amount of volume at a lower cost than a human. Provided the system becomes more advanced, the machine will be able to use surgical precision to produce drinks the same every time, removing the variance of barista error. When the system advances enough to handle customer orders without any human input besides restocking, Starbucks modules could potentially become a break room staple in larger firms; a vending machine for the 21st century.
Even in current form, the Briggo still has application potential at high volume coffee shops today. While some drink orders are too complex for the current robot to handle, the more common hot and iced coffee varieties can be easily dispensed into the appropriate cup and distributed. This seems like the happy medium between job destruction and overwhelmed baristas; a machine to lighten the load during peak hours. With the aid of the Briggo, baristas can greatly increase output over a given interval, while pleasing consumers and generating increased sales for Starbucks.
This article really stood out to me as I was a barista at dunking donuts when I was sixteen. While making coffee is essentially an easy task with all the different flavors and styles it can be more complicated than you think. When I worked at dunking donuts, we learned how to make 65 different drink combos in our training alone. Employees were then updated monthly on new flavors and drinks of the month. Coffee shops often have seasonal drinks/flavors and innovate frequently to intrigue new customers. As well as rush hour can add stress that can lead to drink errors.
Coffee shops get really busy early in the morning and staff can be overwhelmed. There are so many little mistakes that can be made and end up costing the company money. Every time a barista messes up an order the drink has to be completely scrapped and remade. This costs time as well as material. Automating barista could effectively cut preparation time and climate mistakes. This would benefit coffee shops exponentially. While I think a real person will always be needed to oversee as long as they is a manager in store the shop could run more smoothly than ever.
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