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com
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Available ScienceDirect
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ScienceDirect
Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Procedia CIRP 00 (2017)
Procedia 000–000
CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

13th
13th CIRP
CIRP Conference
Conference on
on Intelligent
Intelligent Computation
Computation in
in Manufacturing
Manufacturing Engineering,
Engineering, CIRP
CIRP ICME
ICME '19
'19

Service robot
Service28th introduction
CIRP
robot to
to aaMay
Design Conference,
introduction restaurant enhances
2018, Nantes,
restaurant France
enhances both
both
labor
labor productivity
productivity and
and service
service quality
A new methodology to analyze the functional andquality
physical architecture of
existingTakeshi
products
Takeshi for an
Shimmura
Shimmura a,b,cassembly
a,b,c
,, Ryosuke oriented
Ryosuke Ichikari
Ichikari
b
product
b, Takashi
, Takashi family
Okuma
Okuma identification
b, Hiroyuki
b
, Hiroyuki Ito
Itoc,,
c

Kei
Kei Okada c, Tomomi Nonakaa
c
, Tomomi
OkadaDantan, Nonaka
a
Paul Stief *, Jean-Yves Alain Etienne, Ali Siadat
a College of Gastronomiy Management, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1, Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan
a
College of Gastronomiy Management, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1, Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan
École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, LCFC EA 4495, 4 Rue Augustin Fresnel, Metz 57078, France
b Human Augumentation Research Center, AIST, 6-2-3, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
b
Human Augumentation Research Center, AIST, 6-2-3, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
c Ganko Food Service co. Ltd., 1-2-13, Shin-kitano, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka, Osaka, Japan
c
Ganko Food Service co. Ltd., 1-2-13, Shin-kitano, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka, Osaka, Japan


* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 37 54 30; E-mail address: paul.stief@ensam.eu
* Corresponding author. Tel: +81-6-6308-5770. Fax: +81-6-6308-2759. E-mail address: t-shinmura@gankofood.co.jp
* Corresponding author. Tel: +81-6-6308-5770. Fax: +81-6-6308-2759. E-mail address: t-shinmura@gankofood.co.jp

Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
In today’s business environment, the trend towards more product variety and customization is unbroken. Due to this development, the need of
This study introduces service
service robots to aa restaurant company to
to reduce work hours and to
to improve service quality. The industry
agileThis
and study introduces
reconfigurable production robots
systemstoemerged
restaurant
to copecompany
with various reduce work
products andhours andfamilies.
product improve serviceand
To design quality.
optimizeThe industry
production
must
systems
enhance
must enhance
as well as
productivity
productivity
to choose the
because
because it is the
optimalitproduct
lowest
is the lowest
matches,
in the
inproduct service
the service industry,
industry,
analysis methods
but service
butareservice quality
needed.quality
is a
Indeed,ismost
crucially
a crucially important
important
of the known methods
factor
factor for
aimfor
to
added
analyze value.
added avalue.
product An
An automated
or automated guided
one product guided vehicle
family onvehicle (AGV)
the physical
(AGV) system
level. for
Different
system restaurant
for product stores
families,
restaurant stores was
however, developed and
may differand
was developed used
largely in
in terms
used a Japanese cuisine
of the number
in a Japanese and
cuisine
restaurant.
nature
restaurant. Service
Service operations
of components. were
were changed.
This fact impedes
operations Work
an efficient
changed. Work hour
hour reductionwas
comparison and choice confirmed.
reductionwas of appropriate
confirmed. Sales per
per labor
product
Sales familyhour
labor were
were calculated
combinations
hour for the to
calculated confirm
production
to confirm
productivity
system. enhancement.
A new enhancement.
productivity Furthermore,
methodology isFurthermore, service
proposed to analyze staff
serviceexisting working time
productstime
staff working and
in view place
andofplace are
theirare recorded
functional
recorded by a Pedestrian
andbyphysical Dead-Reckoning
architecture.
a Pedestrian The aim is toSystem
Dead-Reckoning cluster
System
to
to analyze
these products
analyze operations and
and to
in new assembly
operations assume
tooriented service
assumeproduct quality
servicefamilies changes.
qualityfor Results
Results show
the optimization
changes. that
of existing
show AGV
AGV introduction
that assembly lines and thereduces
introduction creationwork
reduces hours,
of future
work and
and that
that it
reconfigurable
hours, it
enhances
enhances labor productivity. Furthermore, each service group emphasizes their main task to enhance service quality at lunch time.
assembly labor
systems. productivity.
Based on Datum Furthermore,
Flow Chain,each service
the physical group emphasizes
structure their
of the products ismain task
analyzed. to enhance
Functional service quality
subassemblies are at lunch
identified, and
time.
aEach
functional analysis is performed. Moreover, a hybrid functional and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the
Each group
group undertakes
undertakes multitasking
multitasking to to enhance
enhance labor
labor productivity
productivity by by AGV
AGV introduction.
introduction.
similarity
© 2019 between
The Authors.product families
Published by by providing
Elsevier B.V. design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative
2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2019 B.V.
example of open
Peer-review
This is an a under
nail-clipper is used
responsibility
access article to
underofexplain
CC the
the scientificproposed methodology.
committee of the 13thAnCIRPindustrial
Conferencecase study on two product
on Intelligent families
Computation of steering columns of
in Manufacturing
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific
BY-NC-ND license
committee (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
of the 13th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing
thyssenkrupp
Engineering. Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed approach.
Peer review under the responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing
Engineering.
©Engineering,
2017 The Authors. Published
17-19 July 2019, by GulfElsevier B.V.Italy.
of Naples,
Peer-review under Engineering,
Keywords: Service responsibility of the scientific
Restaurant committee
Productivity, of the Service
Service Robot, 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
System
Keywords: Service Engineering, Restaurant Productivity, Service Robot, Service System

Keywords: Assembly; Design method; Family identification

1.
1. Introduction
Introduction smooth
smooth cooking
cooking through
through information
information sharing
sharing [2].
[2]. In
In the
the 2000s,
2000s,
process
process management
management systems
systems (PMS)
(PMS) were
were introduced
introduced to
to
1. Introduction
In of the product range and characteristics manufactured and/or
In the
the 1970s,
1970s, thethe restaurant
restaurant industry
industry in in Japan
Japan introduced
introduced aa change
change
assembled
cooking
cooking
in this
operations
operations
system.the
from
from
In this
in-line
in-line
context,
cooking
cooking to
to parallel
parallel
the main self-ordering
challenge in
chain
chain store
store operation
operation system for enhancing labor productivity cooking
cooking [3]. Recently, industry introduced
Due
[1]. The to
system fastasystem
the uses central
for enhancing
development
kitchen in labor
(food the
factory)
productivity
domain
to of modelling [3].
and Recently,
analysis thenow
is industry
not introduced
only to cope self-ordering
withstaff.
single
[1]. The
communicationsystem uses
and a
ancentral kitchen
ongoing trend(food of factory)
digitizationto reduce
reduce
and
systems
systems to
products, toa omit
omit
limited
accepting
accepting
product
order
order
range
operations
operations
or existing
by service
byproduct
servicefamilies,
staff.
the
the total
total number
number of
of cooking staff
staff members
cookingenterprises members in
in aa important
restaurant
restaurant Since
Since the 1990s, the industry introduced operations research
digitalization,
kitchen. manufacturing
Moreover, the system simplifies aremenu
facing and cooking but also tothe
methodology be 1990s,
able
to to the
improve
industry
analyze andintroduced
to compare
productivity
operations
throughproducts toresearch
demand-supplydefine
kitchen.
challenges Moreover,
in reducing the
today’s marketsystem simplifies
environments: menu and
acooking cooking
continuing methodology
new product to improve
families. It productivity
can be observed through
that demand-supply
classical existing
operations for dependence on a chef’s
chef’s cooking skill. optimization. For instance, production capacity and actual
operations
tendency
Furthermore,
for
towards reducing
the reduction
system
dependence
of product
aims to
on
increase
a
development
total timesskill.
throughput and
of
optimization.
product families
operating
For
ratios areofinstance,
regrouped
cooking
production
inmachines
function ofcapacity
areclients and
or
measured,
actual
features.
with
Furthermore,
shortened the lifecycles.
product system aims In to increase
addition, totalis throughput
there an increasing of operating
However, ratios
assembly of cooking
orientedfor machines
product are
families measured,
are hardly with
to find.
the
the restaurant
restaurant store
store to
to realize
realize mass
mass production
production and
and scale
scale changed
changed menu
menu assortments
assortments for optimizing
optimizing customer
customer orders
orders and
and
demand
economies. of customization, being at the industry
same time inexpanded a global On the product family level, products[4].differ mainly in two
economies. The The Japanese
Japanese restaurant
restaurant industry has has expanded operation
operation ratios
ratios of
of cooking
cooking machines
machines [4]. Since
Since the
the 2000s,
2000s,
competition
from with competitors all over the world. This trend, main characteristics:have (i) the number of components and (ii) andthe
from 88 trillion
trillion yen
yen inin 1970
1970 toto 25
25 trillion
trillion inin the
the 2000s.
2000s. kitchen
kitchen simulators
simulators have been been developed
developed for for kitchen
kitchen design
design and
whichIn is inducing the development from macro to micro type of components (e.g. mechanical, electrical, electronical).
In the
the 1980s,
1980s, thethe industry
industry introduced
introduced information
information systemssystems cooking
cooking staff
staff work
work scheduling
scheduling [5]. [5].
markets,
for results labor
in diminished lot sizes due to augmenting Classical methodologies considering mainly single products
for enhancing labor productivity at restaurant stores.
enhancing productivity at restaurant stores. For
For Although
Although the restaurant
the restaurant industry
industry has has continuously
continuously
product
example, varieties (high-volume to low-volume production) [1]. or solitary, already existing product families analyze the
example, point-of-sale
point-of-sale (POS)(POS) systems
systems developed
developed to to achieve
achieve introduced
introduced productivity-improving
productivity-improving methods methods and and technology,
technology,
To cope with this augmenting variety as well as to be able to product structure on a physical level (components level) which
identify possible optimization potentials in the existing causes difficulties regarding an efficient definition and
2212-8271 ©system,
production 2019 The Authors. Publishedtobyhave
Elsevier B.V. knowledge
2212-8271 © 2019 The it is important
Authors. Published by Elsevier a precise
B.V. comparison of different product families. Addressing this
Peer-review
2212-8271 ©under
2020responsibility
The Authors. of Published
the scientific
bycommittee of the 13th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering.
Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer review
2212-8271 under
© 2017 the
The responsibility
Authors. Publishedofbythe scientific
Elsevier B.V.committee of the 13th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing
Engineering,
Peer-review 17-19
under July 2019,ofGulf
responsibility of Naples,
the scientific Italy. of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
committee
10.1016/j.procir.2020.05.103
590 Takeshi Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594
T. Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
actual labor productivity remains lowest among Japanese
industries (Fig. 1) [6]. The first reason is that customer needs
change. Because customers have experienced dining of various
types, customer preferences have become diverse [7]. By
contrast, chain store systems enhance productivity through
mass production and menu simplification. As a result, a large
gap separates customer demand (diversification) and supply
systems (simplification). The restaurant industry should
develop new production systems to improve productivity and
to adapt to customer needs.
A second reason is the characteristics of service goods [8].
As many earlier papers and reports have described,
characteristics of service goods prevent service industries from
enhancing productivity. Service goods are intangible
(Intangibility). Therefore, they can not be stocked
(Perishability). Consequently, it is difficult for service
industries to stock service products. To be sure, food is a
tangible good, but the quality of dishes rapidly worsens
immediately after cooking. Therefore, dishes are similar for
service goods characteristics. As a result, if the total demand
exceeds the service production capacity, then lost opportunities
will occur. To avoid such losses, restaurants keep a production
capacity buffer through work hour allowances. But work hour
allowances will be wasted if customer demand is lower than
expected. The restaurant industry should introduce a new
production capacity buffer instead of a human-based buffer.
To resolve this difficulty, service robots are introduced for
use in multiproduct Japanese cuisine restaurants. Multiproduct
cuisine restaurants fit customer preferences today because there
are many and various menus, but labor productivity of the food
industry is the lowest in the Japanese industries because of
complex cooking operations. Restaurant operation processes
have two characteristics: value-creation process and non-value
creation process. Staff members can emphasize value-creation
processes by introducing service robots to non-value creating
processes.
Fig.1. Labor productivity among Japanese service industries.
horizontal axis=Labor Productivity (million yen), vertical line=Industry
2. Convey robot introduction
2.1. Structure of service operation
Restaurant operations are divisible into several processes:
cooking, conveyance, service, and set-up changes. Fig.2
depicts typical restaurant service flow. Cooking and serving
are value-creating process; conveyance and set-up change are
non-value creating. Quality of dishes is a core factor
underlying restaurant value. That quality depends deeply on
cooking staff skill. They will carefully cook dishes to realize
high quality if cooking staff emphasize cooking processes.
Furthermore, if service staff members emphasize customer
service, then they observe customers carefully and find better
modes of service. Instead, non-value-creating process such as
conveyance and set-up change processes should be shifted
from humans to service robots. In this study, conveyance
robots are introduced to replace the staff’s conveyance process.
2.2. Robot introduction
Conveyance robot systems are introduced to a multiproduct
Japanese cuisine restaurant located in Kyoto, Japan (441 sheets,
restaurant space 1,658.2 m2). Conveyance robot systems
consist of 4 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV), 1 charging
machine, 1 control server, 50 Radio Frequency Identification
Device (RFID), 1 contactless battery charger, 4 connect battery
chargers, and magnet track. Fig.3 depicts the system structure.
Individual AGVs are controlled by operation programs
mounted at a control server. The program assigns an individual
AGV route via RFID, and an AGV moves on a designated
route while recognizing a magnetic trail and using an RFID
transmission system and magnet sensors.
Staff members can design nine typical operation patterns,
and register them with the program. For instance, when a
restaurant is busy, staff members use AGVs for dish
conveyance from the kitchen to the dining room, but if the
restaurant turns idle, staff members will use AGVs to return
Fig. 2. Structure of restaurant service
 Takeshi Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594 591
T. Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

To confirm the system effectiveness for productivity, sales

per labor hour are measured as a key performance indicator
(KPI). Labor productivity is formulated by division: added
value (output) divided by work hours (input). Therefore, sales
per hour are defined as the output index. Work hours per hour
are defined as the input index.
Staff work hours of the restaurant are recorded by the
attendant management system for wage calculation. Therefore,
work hours before and after AGV introduction were
downloaded from the system. Work hours depend to a
considerable degree on the total number of customers.
Therefore, work hours of the AGV-introduced year and the
prior year were compared. Staff work hours before and after
AGV introduction were downloaded from the system for 9
weeks each. Furthermore, sales per labor hour before and after
AGV introduction were compared because work hour
Fig. 3. AGV system structure
reduction might arise from decreased sales. Sales data are
downloaded from the POS system of the restaurant. They are
dishes from the dining room to the dishwasher. Four typical
calculated using work hours and sales data.
patterns (pre-restaurant-open, serving, dish-back, and closing-
The service staff working time and area is recorded to
restaurant) are set as programs.
assume influence and difference between human-based service
Physical evidence is an important factor for service quality
system and human–machine combination service system
control. Therefore, AGVs are redesigned to fit a Japanese
because it is also important for a restaurant to enhance service
traditional cuisine restaurant atmosphere because the original
quality and to achieve work hour reduction.
AGV design does not fit traditional restaurant. The beep sound
Accumulated working time for each area is estimated based
is changed from western style music to Japanese traditional
on measured service staff’s working position. Work hours are
Koto music, the exterior is changed from a white monotone to
divided to lunch time and dinner time because of operation
Japanese traditional picture. The door is changed from a simple
differences (lunch time: one-way service because of tray
sliding door to a Japanese traditional “Misu (reed-made roll
service, dinner time: plural way service because of course
screen).” Fig.4 presents the AGV design.
service). In addition, service staff are divided to three groups
In addition, the AGV behavior algorithm is refined because
(in room service group, conveyance group and catering group)
the AGV runs through the dining room. It is easy to control the
because of functional differences (in room service staff mainly
employee stream and AGV tracks because employees should
obey stream regulations if AVGs are operated in the factory.
However, the human stream at a restaurant can not be
controlled because customers need not obey stream regulation.
To avoid collision accidents, moving speed, deceleration, and
the stop distance between a human and AGVs, in addition to
turn action are re-set at the factory based on needs in different
rooms and environments.

Fig.5 Staff wears IMU devices

Fig.4 AGV design.

 T. Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
592 Takeshi Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594

emphasize service, conveyance group mainly emphasize dish

conveyance, and catering group mainly emphasize tray
service). The staff working area and time before or after
introduction were compared because the PDR system had not
been introduced at the restaurant the prior year. Before
introducing AGVs, the service staff workplace was recorded
for a week. When a service staff member started working, they
input personal ID to the PDR system. It automatically recorded
the workplace. When they input the ID again, the system
recognized it as finished working time. A total of 1-day work
hours was aggregated using the system data. At two months
after AGV introduction, the service staff workplace was
recorded the same way for a week. Working time was divided
every 15 min. It was divided by workplace: dining room, aisle,
kitchen, service station, pantry, and reception.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Results

Average service staff work hours per day before introducing

AGV (previous year) were 292.1 hr. The figure obtained after
Fig.6-2. Scatter diagram of sales and work hours after AGV introduction.
introducing AGV (this year) was 270.5 hr. Assuming equal
X=work hours (hour), Y=Sales (yen)
variance with one-sample t tests, significant difference was
found in the means (t(63)=5.382, p<0.05). Sales per labor hour
before introduction were 8,000 yen. Those after introduction
were 8,932 yen (Figs. 6-1, 6-2).Table 1-1 presents the average
working time(s) and place of three service groups before and
after AGV introduction of AGV at lunch time (11:00–16:00).
Table 1-2 shows that of dinner time (16:00–22:00). Tables 2-1
and 2-2 show statistical test results. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests
are applied to assess the significance of working time
difference between before and after AGV introduction. Table
2-1 shows the figures obtained for lunch time. Table 2-2 shows
the figures for dinner time.

Table 1-1. Working time and place of service staff (lunch time / s)

R2=0.5518

Fig.6-1. Scatter diagram of sales and work hours before AGV introduction.
X=work hours (hour), Y=Sales (yen)
Table 1-2. Statistical results (Wilcoxon rank-sum test / lunch time)
 Takeshi Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594
T. Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
Table 2-1. Working time and place of service staff (dinner time / s)
Table 2-2. Statistical results (Wilcoxon rank-sum test / dinner time)
3.2. Discussion
First, the relation between AGV introduction and work hour
input reduction is discussed. Figs 6-1 and 6-2 portray scatter
plots of work hours (X axis) and sales (Y axis) at the restaurant
before and after AGV introduction of AGVs. As results show,
AGV introduction reduced service staff work hours, and
improved sales per labor hour. Results show that AGV
introduction is useful for input reduction and productivity
improvement. Naturally, conveyance processes are shifted
from service staff to AGV. The store manager can reduce the
labor input of the conveyance group staff.
In addition, AGV introduction partly resolves the low
productivity problems attributable to service product
characteristics. Service is intangible products (Intangibility).
Therefore, it is difficult to stock it (Perishability).
Consequently, service providers should produce service
immediately when a customer orders it (Simultaneity). A
service provider with insufficient production capacity (service
staff) will lose sales opportunities. A provider keeping
sufficient production capacity, but with few customers for
example because of bad weather, will waste labor hours.
593
Actually, the use of AGVs shifts conveyance operations
from staff to machine. Consequently, a store manager can
reduce the total of service staff, especially the conveyance
group, because the conveyance capacity of AGVs is a buffer
for service operations. If the total number of customers is much
greater than expected, then the AGVs support a service
conveyance buffer for staff conveyance operations. Service
staff can instead emphasize room service and tray service. In
other words, AGV is storage of service capacity. Therefore,
AGVs reduce the influence of service product characteristics
(Perishability).
Also AGVs decrease the influence of simultaneity. As Figs.
6-1 and 6-2 show, the coefficient of correlation between work
hour sales before AGV introduction is 0.55; that after AGV
introduction is 0.75. Human-based service systems should
maintain production capacity by staff attendance. Therefore,
the total of staff members tends to be greater than the total of
customers. By contrast, human–machine service systems need
no staff buffer because of AGV conveyance capacity.
Therefore, it is possible to match the total of staff attendance
and the total number of customers.
Secondly, the relation between AGV introduction and
increased output (added value) is discussed. At lunch time, the
service group’s working time in the kitchen decreased
significantly from 71 s to 16 s. Before AGV introduction,
service staff members went to the kitchen to pick up lunch trays
if conveyance staff were unable to bring them because of the
high workload. After AGV introduction, service staff members
need not do it because the catering staff put lunch trays on the
AGV. Then the AGV brings it from the kitchen to the dining
room. As a result, their working time in the kitchen is reduced
significantly. They can therefore service the dining room. As a
result, the in-room service time increased from 230 s to 260 s
(no significant difference).
Also, the catering group’s working time in the kitchen
increased significantly from 458 s to 547 s. They had to go out
from the kitchen to the aisle and dining room for the same
reason before AGV introduction, but they also need not cater
lunch trays because the AGV covers the catering operations.
Consequently, working times in the dining room decreased
from 55 s to 30 s. Those of the aisle decreased from 293 s to
242 s (no significant difference), and emphasized tray service
in the kitchen.
By contrast, no significant difference was found between
the conveyance group’s working time before and after AGV
introduction. However, roughly speaking, working times in the
dining room were decreased from 281 s to 228 s. Those of the
aisle increased from 232 s to 259 s. The purpose of AGV
introduction was to shift conveyance operations from humans
to AGVs. Therefore, the conveyance group mainly receives
benefit from the system. Why does the group reduce their main
workplace’s working time?
The conveyance group working time decreases in the dining
room because the service group concentrates in room service.
They need not do so for room service. They transfer the time
allowance from in-room service to organizing and clearing
dishes so that the dishwashing group can reduce their workload.
They organize dishes outside of the dining room (aisle).
Therefore, their working time at the aisle increased.
594 Takeshi Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 88 (2020) 589–594
T. Shimmura et al. / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
At dinner time, the service group’s working time at service
station increased significantly from 101 s to 114 s, and that of
reception increased from 14 s to 36 s, but that of the dining
room decreased from 293 s to 258 s (no significant difference).
Why does the group reduce the main task’s working time?
Naturally, in-room service is important, but it is not the only
component of restaurant service. For instance, reception and
send-off are factors influencing customer evaluation for
service because good reception greeting can foster a good
impression, and send-off will bring a good aftertaste for service.
High-quality restaurants understand the importance. Therefore,
they place a receptionist at the front of the restaurant. The
group transfers working time from the dining room to reception
because AGV creates sufficient time for them: 258 s is
sufficient time for in-room service.
In addition, the catering group showed significantly
decreased main workplace working time from 511 s to 446 s.
That of aisle increases from 237 s to 268 s (no significant
difference). Along with the service group, the kitchen was the
main workplace for them. Why does the group reduce the main
task’s working time?
The group working time at aisle increases from 237 s to 268
s. They revised the dish arrangement again before the service
group serves them to customers because the food arrangement
sometimes becomes disrupted while the AGV conveys it.
Additionally, they spray water or put a blade on a lacquerware
bowl as part of the Japanese cuisine tradition. The water and
blade will get dry as time passes. Therefore, the group transfers
the operation from kitchen to a side of dining room (aisle).
The conveyance group’s working time in the kitchen
increased significantly from 50 s to 139 s. That of reception
increased from 334 s to 288 s (no significant difference). As
described above, the service group gets sufficient time for the
main task (in room service). Therefore, the conveyance group
need not support them. Consequently, the group showed
decreased working time in the dining room. They transfer the
working time from the dining room to kitchen because they
support dish arrangement that is originally conducted by the
kitchen staff. In other words, each group emphasizes their
main task to enhance service quality at lunch time, but each
group transfers to multitasking to enhance labor productivity.
4. Conclusions
In this study, an AGV was introduced for use in a Japanese
cuisine restaurant to enhance labor productivity and to improve
service quality. After the AGV operation system was
developed and introduced in the restaurant, conveyance
operations were shifted from staff to AGV. Store managers
changed the work schedule to reduce work hours of the service
staff. Service staff members changed their operations.
To confirm work-hour reduction, the service staff working
hours per day after AGV introductionwere compared to those
of the prior year. Additionally, sales per labor hour of after
AGV introduction and those of the prior year were compared
to confirm the improved labor productivity.
To analyze operation changes and to assume service quality
change, working times and places of service staff were
recorded. Service staff members were divided to three groups:
a service group, a catering group, and a conveyance group.
Staff members wore PDR sensors, which recorded the
workplace and time.
Results demonstrate that AGV introduction decreased the
work hours of service staff from 292.1 hr to 270.5 hr); it also
improved labor productivity (sales per labor hour improve
from 8,000 yen to 8,932 yen). Moreover, each service group
emphasizes their main task to enhance service quality at lunch
time. However, each group transfers to multitasking to enhance
labor productivity through AGV introduction.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the JST Program on Open
Innovation Platform with Enterprises, Research Institute and
Academia (OPERA).
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