If the Automated Robots Take Your Job, What's Your Next Best Move?

Regardless of the ascending trend of automation, creative strategic thinking is the key for the ambitious expediters and capitalists who does not want to lose their social-economic position in the global value-driven food chain.

How does one acquires this mindset? ... Viewing the technical realm of one's life without the Occam's Razor perspective, will enable one to examine the configuration of their terrain in terms of components, coverage, conditions and other tactical specifics.   

Click here and here for some interesting insights from McKinsey.   

More to come. 

*  Many thanks to Rick Matz of Cook Ding's Kitchen for these links 

Automated Sushi

It is a matter of time that most buffet type of eateries and fast food restaurants will be automated.

In California and at other parts of the world, Kula is the lord of the automated sushi.

If Your Job Became Automated Today, What is Your Next Move? (A Pragmatic Analysis to the "Living Wage" Protest)

Fast Food Self-Ordering Replaces Cashiers Video

(updated at 1118 hrs) 

Cause and Effect
Protests and walkouts are taking place around the world where the fast food workers were "demanding" a "living wage" ($15/hr).  

Some people have claimed that this action accelerated the adoption of this technology.  It is coming. ...  McDonalds Europe purchased 7000 touch screen cashiers in 2011. 

Click here on a previous "living wage" protest.

Automating Fast Food 
Robots are slowly taking over the jobs in the fast food restaurants and the other low paid labor niches. ... We predicted that this trend of fast food eateries replacing their human  workers with robots  in 2010.  

thefiscaltimes.com

Do not be surprised if some of your favorite fast food eateries are preparing to employ a conveyor belt type of machine to serve their products.  ... 

Mobile technology is also slowly changing the restaurant terrain.  It was only a matter of time that this niche is going to be automated. 

The Perspective
Since the costs of health care and employees benefit are rising, the smart employers are taking initiative to reduce costs while increasing their revenues. 

To be operationally efficient,  the implementation of robotics and data automation are some of their current choices. Idealistically, it could start by deploying a robot who does the work of 10-20 employees, one employee to check on the performance of the robot's and a part time employee to maintain the operating standard of the robot.  Some people might not like this example but this is the future.

The negative side of most macro technological advances is that more jobs are being destroyed than the number of jobs that are created.  The after-effects of the zero-sum economy continue to burn the lower end of the 99%.

The robots and the drones are also taking over other avenues of blue collar work. 

The Foxcom Conversion
In 2011, Foxcom, the chief manufacturer of Apple iPhone knew the days of human labor were numbered and decided to pursue the route of the robotics.  Early this year, they announced that they were moving  their capital-intense manufacturing projects  to the USA.


Interestingly Google is helping them in amplifying their robotic process.

Automation Rules 
According to Alibaba.com, going into 2013 78% of the 600 U.S. small business owners surveyed plan to automate to cut costs and streamline operations, 49% plan to create a new e-commerce website and 87% do not plan to hire additional employees. This tends to show that small business owners are seeking ways to operate within the difficult economic climate.

63% Expect the Economy to Remain Unchanged or Weaken Further
It would seem that with the majority of small business owners that were surveyed by Alibaba.com stating that they expect the economy to stay the same (33%) or worsen (30%) in 2013, that their optimism about their own business revenue for 2013 would suffer. But, that was not the case. Of the 600 small business owners that were surveyed, only 21% expect lower revenue, while 46% actually expect an increase in revenue (the remaining 33% are uncertain). This supports the reputation of small business owners and entrepreneurs being eternally optimistic and always looking for ways to make lemonade when given lemons.
Source: docstoc.com

Click here for more stats,  As mentioned before, this is the beginning of the end for the low end jobs. 

Before you decide to automate your business, spend some time assessing the configuration of your situation.  Identify the possible problems and the obstacles. Then, determine whether you have the resources to adjust to that specific situation. It would be a smart move on your part.

The After Effects
Think about it, when the utilization of machines becomes the operational norm of the working world, where would the "real" blue collar jobs be? ... Do you think that the economic value chain becomes shorter?

Connect this dot of information with this dot.  Continue the connection  process with this dot, this dot and this dot. Now, look at the Big Tangible Picture.

After identifying the specifics of your position, connect it to all of the above-mentioned dots. Finally, ask yourself, are you currently ahead or behind the "social-economic" curve?

Click here on a MIT's view of how the technology will replace the majority of the blue collar jobs in the global economy.


Second Thoughts
What would happen to the immigrants who are holding those jobs now?

Retrospectively. do you really care?

The Compass Solution

To stay ahead of the "robotic and outsourcing" curve,  one focuses on becoming "innovative and inventive."  While being aware of one's own settings and beyond,  focus on one particular act of inefficiency and ask these two questions - can that task be optimized?  Based on the given data, what is the best approach for minimizing the timeline and the resources?

The other approach is to anticipate the inefficiency by others and to capitalize on it.

Stay centered, observe quietly and learn.  

Have a good weekend.

If Automated Robots Took Your Job Today, What Would Your Next Move Be?

thefiscaltimes.com

(revised on 07.28.13 09:48 am)

Robots are slowly taking over the fast food restaurants and the other low paid labor places. ... We predicted that this trend of fast food eateries replacing their human workers 
with robots  in 2010.  

Do not be surprised if some of your favorite fast food eateries are preparing to use a conveyor belt type of machine to serve their products.  ... It was only a matter of time that the robots is going to play an important part of our economy.   ...

Cause and Effect
Protests and walkouts are taking place around the country where the fast food workers are "demanding" a "living wage" ($15/hr).  Some people have claimed that this action accelerated the adoption of this technology.  

The Perspective
Since the costs of health care and employees benefit are rising, the smart employers are beginning to think about the different ways to reduce costs. Implementing robotics and data automation are some of their current choices. Idealistically, it could begin by having a robot who can do the work of 10-20 employees, one employee to check on the performance of the robot's and a part time employee to maintain the operating standard of the robot.  

To be efficient, the smart employers are focused on being operationally efficient.

The negative side of most macro technological advances is that more jobs are being destroyed than the number of jobs that are created.  This is the after-effects of the zero-sum economy.

The robots and drones are also taking over other avenues of blue collar work. 

Automation Rules
According to Alibaba.com, going into 2013 78% of the 600 U.S. small business owners surveyed plan to automate to cut costs and streamline operations, 49% plan to create a new e-commerce website and 87% do not plan to hire additional employees. This tends to show that small business owners are seeking ways to operate within the difficult economic climate.

63% Expect the Economy to Remain Unchanged or Weaken Further
It would seem that with the majority of small business owners that were surveyed by Alibaba.com stating that they expect the economy to stay the same (33%) or worsen (30%) in 2013, that their optimism about their own business revenue for 2013 would suffer. But, that was not the case. Of the 600 small business owners that were surveyed, only 21% expect lower revenue, while 46% actually expect an increase in revenue (the remaining 33% are uncertain). This supports the reputation of small business owners and entrepreneurs being eternally optimistic and always looking for ways to make lemonade when given lemons.
Source: docstoc.com

Click here for more stats,  As mentioned before, this is the beginning of the end for the low end jobs. 

Before you decide to automate your business, spend some time assessing the configuration of your situation.  Identify the possible problems and the obstacles. Next, determine whether you have the resources to adjust to that specific situation. It would be a smart move on your part.

The After Effects
Think about it, when the utilization of machines becomes the operational norm of the working world, where would the "real" blue collar jobs be? ... Do you think that the economic value chain becomes shorter?

Connect this dot of information with this dot.  Continue the connection  process with this dot, this dot and this dot. Now, look at the Big Tangible Picture.

After identifying the specifics of your position, connect it to all of the above-mentioned dots. Finally, ask yourself, are you currently ahead or behind the "social-economic" curve?

Second Thoughts
What would happen to the non-English speaking immigrants who are seeking jobs?

The Compass Solution

To stay ahead of the "robotic and outsourcing" curve,  one focuses on becoming "innovative and inventive."  While being aware of one's own settings and beyond,  focus on one particular act of inefficiency and ask these two questions - can that task be optimized?  Based on the given data, what is the best approach for minimizing the timeline and the resources?

The other approach is to anticipate the inefficiency by others and to capitalize on it.

Stay centered, observe quietly and learn.  

Side Note

For specific strategic modeling, we utilized an exotic process model that integrates concepts and principles from Jiang Tai Gong, (the Father of Chinese Strategic Studies) Six Secret Teachings, Sunzi's AoW and other strategic essays. Jiang Tai Gong view of strategic development is quite different from Sunzi's Art of War.  It emphasizes that proper intelligence gathering enables the strategist to understand how the configuration of his strategic situation  operates from a top down perspective.

We will touch on that topic one day.

When the time comes, the successful strategists implement the hook, the line and the sinker.

Compass Trend #32: The Rise of Robotics and Automaton Continues (Especially in the Efficient Society)

Robots Rule
Since the costs of health care and employees benefit are rising, the smart employers are beginning to think about the different ways to reduce costs. Implementing robotics and data automation are some of their current choices. Idealistically, it could begin by having a robot who can do the work of 10-20 employees, one employee to check on the performance of the robot's and a part time employee to maintain the operating standard of the robot.  

To be efficient, the smart employers are focused on being operationally efficient.

Automation Rules
According to Alibaba.com, going into 2013 78% of the 600 U.S. small business owners surveyed plan to automate to cut costs and streamline operations, 49% plan to create a new e-commerce website and 87% do not plan to hire additional employees. This tends to show that small business owners are seeking ways to operate within the difficult economic climate.

63% Expect the Economy to Remain Unchanged or Weaken Further
It would seem that with the majority of small business owners that were surveyed by Alibaba.com stating that they expect the economy to stay the same (33%) or worsen (30%) in 2013, that their optimism about their own business revenue for 2013 would suffer. But, that was not the case. Of the 600 small business owners that were surveyed, only 21% expect lower revenue, while 46% actually expect an increase in revenue (the remaining 33% are uncertain). This supports the reputation of small business owners and entrepreneurs being eternally optimistic and always looking for ways to make lemonade when given lemons.
Source: docstoc.com

Click here for more stats,  As mentioned before, this is the beginning of the end for the low end jobs. 

Before you decide to automate your business, spend some time assessing the configuration of your situation.  Identify the possible problems and the obstacles. Next, determine whether you have the resources to adjust to that specific situation. It would be a smart move on your part.

Side Note
We predicted this trend of fast food eateries replacing their human workers with robots  in 2010.  ... It is only a matter of time that this will be a reality.   ...

Think about it, when the utilization of machines becomes the operational norm of the working world, where would the "real" blue collar jobs be? ...

Connect this dot of information with this dot. Then continue the connection  process with this dot, this dot and this dot. Now, look at the Big Tangible Picture.

Identify the specifics of your position. Connect it to all of the above-mentioned dots. Ask yourself, are you currently ahead or behind the "social-economic" curve?

Compass Trend (3): Automated Service Centers

In previous posts, we discussed the trends of automated restaurant services and the incremental use of automated processes and robotics in the service economy.

This past Monday, IBM supercomputer system competed in a popular answer-and-question quiz show. Watson was the computer's name. Memorizing data and articulating in English is his game.

It was a great feat of brainpower. After a few moments of admiring the amazing functionality of Watson, we began to assess how it can be apply to our service economy.

Since Watson was able to handle a slew of game show's questions with ease, we concluded that Watson is technologically efficient and that it can be configured to manage the questions of the customers of companies that have various customer service centers, help desks, phone banks, fast food eateries, etc. (updated on 02.17.11)

Many months ago, we heard about the changing state of the fast food industry. We believed that a good percentage of the fast food industry will be automated in the urban areas. The projected timeline is somewhere between two to three years.

You can read more about Watson (or similar computer systems) from today's New York Times.

The Compass View

Overall, Watson is going to make millions of off-shore workers unemployed. One can only expect that these off-shored workers will join the current group of unemployed Americans.

Since commodity prices, medical costs and state employers taxes are rising, we expected that the captains of our global service economy will be purchasing the IBM's Watson computer system as their service center's system.

Summary

For every technological breakthrough In our information economy, new and improved automated services have always been a positive gain for the implementers. Just think about the number of banking jobs that were lost to the ATMs.

While operating costs shrinks, the risk of occasional social drawback and an economic consequence for the lower tier of the job market becomes obvious.

Countering the Unforeseen Technological Breakthrough

in the Informational Economy

It is important to know one's strategic position within their competitive (market) terrain and then look beyond.

Securing relevant data consistently is important.

In an information economy, the effect of the zero-sum gain becomes a significant factor to both the chief decision makers and the lower tier workers. The quality of positive impact (reward) goes to the chief decision makers who utilized the new and improved automated services is inversely proportionally to the quality of the negative impact that affects the obsolete workers.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

Spending time to understand the big tangible picture will enable the chief decision makers to stay ahead of the "automated services" curve. The key is to recognize the benefits, the challenges and the drawbacks of the various on-coming influences.

The Compass Rule For Viewing the Big Tangible Picture

Study the Big Tangible Picture. Define the Dots (opportunity, etc.). Connect the dots. Reap the rewards.

The challenge is to define the dots and connecting them within the timeline of the opportunity.

Are you doing it?

Compass Trend (1): Automated Restaurant Service

Kura, a chain in Japan, relies on small staffs and lots of automation, like sushi-making robots.

As stated in an earlier post, robotic-driven service is the future

Alpha Points:

• In China and Japan, the automatic food service is incrementally becoming the norm.
• It has been rumored that the various national fast food vendors are on the verge of building this automated service in the United States soon.
• This service is specifically designed for serving the masses

Benefits:

• Lower food costs
• Lower human labor costs.
• Customers will be satisfied with lower costs and a greater rate of efficiency

Challenges:

• People who prefer human contacts.

Drawbacks:

• There will always be minor machinery breakdowns.
• Giving the employees a maximum of 24 to 36 hrs work per week, will not create any bond of loyalty.

Efficiency/Flexibility:

• Companies can hire less people at weekly shifts of 24-36 hrs per week.
• Statistics have shown that the achievement of high efficiency means higher profits.

Forecasts:

• When a relevant cost efficiency standard starts in Japan, we expected this service to be the norm in the western economy.
• In order to secure lower food costs, the masses will accept this practice of automated service.
• We also expected that the human to human customer service to be catered to those who are willing to pay for it.
• Effective Service + Customer Satisfaction = Success
• There is a strong possibility of more unemployment for the lower working class in the urban areas.
• The divide between the masses and the elite is magnified again

(This post was updated on 01.03.11)

#

December 30, 2010
For Sushi Chain, Conveyor Belts Carry Profit
By HIROKO TABUCHI

SAYAMA, Japan — The Kura “revolving sushi” restaurant chain has no Michelin stars, but it has succeeded where many of Japan’s more celebrated eateries fall short: turning a profit in a punishing economy.

Efficiency is paramount at Kura: absent are the traditional sushi chefs and their painstaking attention to detail. In their place are sushi-making robots and an emphasis on efficiency.

Absent, too, are flocks of waiters. They have been largely replaced by conveyors belts that carry sushi to diners and remote managers who monitor Kura’s 262 restaurants from three control centers across Japan. (“We see gaps of over a meter between your sushi plates — please fix,” a manager said recently by telephone to a Kura restaurant 10 miles away.)

Absent, too, are the exorbitant prices of conventional sushi restaurants. At a Kura, a sushi plate goes for 100 yen, or about $1.22.

Such measures are helping Kura stay afloat even though the country’s once-profligate diners have tightened their belts in response to two decades of little economic growth and stagnant wages.

Many other restaurants and dining businesses in Japan have not fared so well. After peaking at 29.7 trillion yen in 1997, the country’s restaurant sector has shrunk almost every year as a weak economy has driven businesses into price wars — or worse, sent them belly-up. In 2009, restaurant revenue, including from fast-food stores, fell 2.3 percent, to 23.9 trillion yen —20 percent below the peak, according to the Foodservice Industry Research Institute, a research firm in Tokyo.

Bankruptcies have been rampant: in 2009, 674 dining businesses with liabilities of over 10 million yen went under, the highest number in the last five years, according to Teikoku Data Bank, a credit research company.

In November 2009, Soho’s Hospitality, the company behind celebrity restaurants like Nobu and Roy’s, filed for bankruptcy. Roy’s is now run by another company, while Nobu’s chef, Nobu Matsuhisa, has opened a new restaurant elsewhere in Tokyo with Robert De Niro.

Along with other low-cost restaurant chains, Kura has bucked the dining-out slump with low prices and a dogged pursuit of efficiency. In the company’s most recent fiscal year, which ended on Oct. 31, net profit jumped 20 percent from the same period a year earlier, to 2.8 billion yen.

In the last two months alone, Kura has added seven stores.

“If you look at the restaurant business, consumers are still holding back because of employment fears and falling incomes, and there’s no signs that will change,” said Kunihiko Tanaka, Kura’s chief executive, who opened Kura’s first sushi restaurant in 1995. “Amid these worsening conditions, our company feels that consumer sentiment matches, or is even a tail wind” to the Kura business, he told shareholders earlier this year.

The travails of Japan’s restaurant industry, and the changes in Japanese dining habits, may be among most visible manifestations of how Japan’s “bubble economy” excesses in the 1980s have given way to frugal times since the bubble burst in 1990.

With wages weak — average annual private sector pay has fallen 12 percent in the last decade, to 4.05 million yen, or about $49,300, in 2009 — the Japanese now spend less on eating out. An average single-person household spent 163,000 yen on dining in 2009, 27 percent less than in 2000, according to detailed budget surveys compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a survey by Citizen Holdings, the watchmaker, of 400 men in their 20s to 50s, the average time spent at cafes and restaurants plunged from 7 hours and 52 minutes a week in 1990 to 2 hours and 25 minutes in 2010.

An aging population is also depressing restaurant sales. More than one-fifth of Japan’s population is already over 65, and surveys indicate that older people tend to eat out less. The population is also shrinking, reducing the restaurants’ potential customer base.

Meanwhile, Japanese companies have cut back sharply on their entertainment expenses, further hurting restaurant sales. Total corporate spending on dining and entertainment has halved from a peak of 9.5 trillion yen in 1991 to 4.8 trillion yen in 2008, according to data from the National Tax Agency.

“The restaurant industry here is so linked to the state of the economy, and that’s why we’re seeing this decline,” said Munenori Hotta, a food service industry expert at Miyagi University in Japan. “In this climate, even top restaurants are having to moderate their prices to keep attracting customers,” he said.

Japan’s dining-out boom had its roots in the 1970s and 1980s, as incomes grew and rural populations flocked to big cities. So-called family restaurants brought cheap, Western-style food to the masses flourished in that era. So did American fast-food chains, which were considered novel at the time. Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its first restaurant here in 1970, followed by McDonald’s in 1971.

At the other end of the price range, a new generation of wealthy Japanese savored imported French wines at lavish restaurants. By 1986, there were 503,088 restaurants across Japan, according to records from the Internal Affairs Ministry. That was nearly double the number from 15 years earlier — and was more restaurants than now operate in the United States, which has more than twice the population of Japan.

After the bubble burst in 1990, new low-cost restaurant chains that offered pizzas for as little as 400 yen, or $4.86, started to spread across Japan, and restaurateurs spoke with alarm of ready-made, convenience-store meals that were siphoning off sales.

In the depths of the slump, in 1995, Mr. Tanaka started a company based on serving quality sushi on the cheap.

His idea of using conveyor belts to offer diners a steady stream of sushi on small plates was not a new one; an Osaka-based entrepreneur invented such a system in the late 1950s. But Mr. Tanaka set out to undercut his rivals with deft automation, an investment in information technology, some creativity and an almost extreme devotion to cost-efficiency. In Japan, where labor costs are high, that meant running his restaurants with as few workers as possible.

Instead of placing supervisors at each restaurant, Kura set up central control centers with video links to the stores. At these centers, a small group of managers watch for everything from wayward tuna slices to outdated posters on restaurant walls.

Each Kura store is also highly automated. Diners use a touch panel to order soup and other side dishes, which are delivered to tables on special express conveyor belts. In the kitchen, a robot busily makes the rice morsels for a server to top with cuts of fish that have been shipped from a central processing plant, where workers are trained to slice tuna and mackerel accurately down to the gram.

Diners are asked to slide finished plates into a tableside bay, where they are automatically counted to calculate the bill, doused in cleaning fluid and flushed back to the kitchen on a stream of water. Matrix codes on the backs of plates keep track of how long a sushi portion has been circulating on conveyor belts; a small robotic arm disposes of any that have been out too long.

Kura spends 10 million yen to fit each new restaurant with the latest automation systems, an investment it says pays off in labor cost savings. In all, just six servers and a minimal kitchen staff can service a restaurant seating 196 people, said a company spokesman, Takeshi Hattori.

“Its not just about efficiency,” Mr. Hattori said. “Diners love it too. For example, women say they like clearing finished plates right away, so others can’t see how much they’ve eaten.”/// The Big Picture: Effective Service + Customer Satisfaction = Success

Traditional sushi chefs have not fared so well, however. While the overall market for belt-conveyor sushi restaurants jumped 42 percent, to 428 billion yen, in 2009 compared with 2003, higher-end sushi restaurants are on the decline, according to Fuji-Keizai, a market research firm.

“It’s such a bargain at 100 yen,” said Toshiyuki Arai, a delivery company worker dining at a Kura restaurant with his sister and her 3-year-old son. “A real sushi restaurant?” he said. “I hardly go anymore.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/global/31sushi.htm
#

Robot waiters in China are steeled for service
A restaurant going for a futuristic vibe and satisfied customers opts for robot service staff. Patrons are pleased.
By Ken The,
Associated Press
December 25, 2010

Reporting from Jinan, China
Service with a smile also comes with an electronic voice at the Dalu Robot restaurant, where the hotpot meals are not as famous yet as the staff who never lose their patience and never take tips.

The restaurant, which opened this month in Jinan, in northern Shandong province, is touted as China's first robot hotpot eatery, where robots resembling Star Wars droids circle the room carrying trays of food in a conveyor belt-like system.

More than a dozen robots serve as entertainers, servers, greeters and receptionists. Each robot has a motion sensor that tells it to stop when someone is in its path so customers can reach for dishes they want.

The service industry in China has not always kept up with the country's rapid economic growth, and can be quite basic in some restaurants. Patrons at the Dalu restaurant were full of praise for the robots. ...

"Humans can be temperamental or impatient, but they don't feel tired, they just keep working and moving round and round the restaurant all night," Li said.

"I hope this new concept shows that China is forward-thinking and innovative," Zhang said.
... He also said that he hopes to roll out 30 robots — which cost $6,000 each — in the coming months and eventually develop robots with human-like qualities that serve customers at their tables and can walk up and down the stairs.

/// We are anticipating China to manufacture these robots and other automated service machines with better cost efficiency than the rest of the world.

Associated Press writer Chi-Chi Zhang in Beijing contributed to this reportYou can read more about it by clicking this link.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-adfg-china-robot-restaurant-20101225,0,2724934.story


Since last year, we expected to see some of the national brand fast food franchises to start the process of pushing automated service into the urban areas quite soon. We expected the labor costs to be quite low and the number of unemployed food service specialists to rise.Regardless of the anticipated benefits and consequences, this service will be coming to your neighborhood. It is only a matter of time.

Summary

One of the prevailing rules of the information economy is the importance of creating an efficient service that is near cost-effective on the first run.

Another rule is that almost everyone has access to the same core of general information. The driven implementers are those who can make the first move to start the strategic momentum. Proper implementation determines the success.Some entrepreneurs begin by viewing the big tangible picture and then asking the following questions:

• What are the current state of my targeted market terrain?
• What are the prevailing variables?
• How long will it last?

There are more questions, we will touch on those questions later.When the economic state of a terrain changes, the smart people and their technology tools evolve. The costs will slightly drop and the profits rise. The "thrivers" are those who evolve. That is the Compass rule of capitalism.If you are interested in knowing more about our strategic consulting services, drop us a note at www.formspring.me/Compass360CG.