Posted on 07/27/2015 8:55:24 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Fifty years ago, the engineers of AMF's Central Research Labs in Stamford, CT invented automated foodservice. This entertaining film (circa 1964) describes a pilot operation for the then-burgeoning fast-food industry.
Watch as hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, seafood, french-fries, onion rings, shakes, and soft drinks are ordered, prepared, and packaged automatically by AMF's revolutionary AMFare System.
All the food was delicious, especially the flame-broiled hamburgers, double-hamburgers and cheeseburgers. The entire menu was cooked-to-order and served in minutes - at the desired temperature for each item.
AMF's Orbis system (shown here) pioneered the concept of electronic ordering, price tabulation, and inventory management in foodservice. Today that is the standard worldwide. However, AMF's Orbis system went further; it electronically controlled the machinery that prepared, cooked, and packaged the food items. AMF's automated beverage dispensers (also shown here) are today common at the "drive-through windows" of many fast-food operations.
Not a lot of stuff on AMFARE on the net, but here are two more items:
http://hackaday.com/tag/amfare/
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1964/05/28/page/81/article/a-m-f-automates-drive-in-chef
The system cost $125K in 1964 dollars - pretty expensive.
And I wonder what cleanup was like?
Then there’s In and Out in California. Great food, national reputation for a regional brand.
They pay their employees well over minimum wage, and customers will pay more should they be forced to.
McDonalds is old school. Chipolte, Panera, Shake Shack have passed them.
>>>It failed because it couldn’t spit in your burger<<<
You obviously haven’t seen the new updated Jesse Jackson Model.
AMF! (If you know what I mean.)
I was born in Stamford. My father had moved there to work for AMF on designs for hardened ICBM launch silos, specifically the Titan I.
Go to an In and Out and watch the Staff perform.
You never see an Employee standing around looking for something to do. No Deer in headlights looks, just an efficient use of Human Resources.
They pay better because they expect better. They have been doing that for Decades, and they make a point to Promote from within.
Many former Burger Flippers working there are Managers now. They do not Franchise, so they have complete control of their Product. They have the same Menu Items that they had when I was a Kid and people still keep coming in droves.
When a Double Double costs the same (or less) than a Big Mac, you know who has it figured out and who doesn’t. Is there even an argument between the Quality of those two Items?
Cleanup?
Please tell me it’s not the Leona Helmsley Waiter model....
Did you see the SIZE of that computer!?!
The McDonald / In-n-Out comparison is similar to Oldsmobile / Toyota in 1985.
We kept hearing, and I fell for this, that is was bad unions keeping the American product uncompetitive. Actually, it was bad owners and management, perhaps more so than the unions. They did not see how a car that behaved like an appliance (reliable for 20 years) was possible.
So forcing some arbitrarily high, minimum wage will force business owners to fire marginal employees, and hire In-n-Out competent level staff, many of whom will be minorities.
Well, my Parents knew a Couple that bought an early 60’s Buick that had a rattle in the Drivers Door.
The guy brought the Car to my Dad’s Gas Station since they were friends, and my Dad found an empty Beer Bottle inside the Door.
I have no idea how that could have happened. LOL
When I lived in Michigan the largest number of drug busts in Flint were being made in the parking lots at Buick City, during lunch hour.
Just sayin’.
I used to work in a meat processing plant. The clean up between batches of different product was quite meticulous. I imagine the same would be true of the AMFARE.
Grease and dirt. And machines breakdown. All those little metal and plastic parts will distort and/or wear out and breakdown. Throw a bunch of grease and dirt in the mix and they break down even more. I know there's many people here on FR that think machines are just days away from replacing all the humans in a McD's but that's just not gonna happen. Not in our lifetimes and probably never. That's just a dream. Humans are still cheaper and more efficent and agile than a machine like this. Even at 15 bucks an hour.
Dream on Freepers. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.