Japan is known for its many innovations in both technology and food. In its fast-paced society, it’s no surprise that Japan has pioneered an efficient, self-service operation: self-service ticket machines at restaurants. These ticket machines allow you to purchase, place your food order, and pay--all without having to interact with a server! How does this system work?
When you first arrive to a restaurant in Japan (most commonly a ramen restaurant), you may find yourself coming in contact with one of these vending machines. Each vending machine has buttons representing an item on their menu. Like any conventional vending machine, you would insert your payment and select the item you want, but in this case, you would receive a ticket with your order! (In newer restaurants, there may even be a fancy touch screen system in place of a vending machine.) Then, if there is a staff member at the front, you would hand this ticket over to them and then be seated. Or, sometimes you may hand this ticket directly to the chef after seating yourself! From there, your food would be brought out according to your ticket just like any other restaurant. Sound easy? The best part is, when you’re finished, you can just get up and leave! Everything was handled by the vending machine; this is what makes it truly efficient and self-sufficient!
What does this mean for the restaurant industry? An autonomous system like Japan’s self-service ticket machines reduces the need for human waiters and servers. It also eliminates common human error from waiters manually taking customers’ orders. This saves restaurants the cost of hiring waiters and servers! For many small businesses, this would have a huge impact. In the U.S., we are already seeing a crop of businesses implementing their own versions of self-service ordering: Stacked, Shake Shack, and even McDonald’s! Expect to see more and more self-service kiosks pop up in this age of automation!