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Computer Manages Restaurant Workers
9x320 writes "The chicken restaurant chain Zaxby's has started to use computers with software by Hyperactive Technologies to direct employees what to do and when to do it, and to decide how many should come to work. The computer works through the use of sensors, analysis of historic data, and touchscreens. The article compares the software to that in a science fiction novel published only just a few years ago, except the computer, Manna, also carried a voice synthesizer."
I for one welcome our new computer overlords.
First all the "news photos" that are badly implemented by the matrix that they look like bad photoshops; now we see computer overlords directing food store employees. Next thing you know you'll see the same cat twice.
The computer directed me to round up all the neighborhood dogs - I'm just doing what it says, something about compensating for supply defeciency.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
We're going to need you to go ahead come in on saturday, Mmm..kay?
"Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny."
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Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Overheard behind the counter: "I'm sorry Bob, I can't allow you to jeopardize the restaurant. This conversation can serve no useful purpose. Goodbye."
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
customers_suck threatens to get way funnier.
What, no breakfast at 11:30? I demand to speak to your manager!
I don't think you want--
I'm the customer, I'm always right, and I get speak to your manager now!
Okay, but I warned you...
BEEP BEEP FREE BEATINGS FOR MEAT BEINGS
Suddenly 'Hoboken, NJ versus Giant Robot' gets a lot funnier.
My problem with spontaneous human combustion is that never seems to happen to the "right" people.
Yes, that's exactly what we need. Someone to manage a fast food restaurant's talent. After all, the one thing every fast food manager looks for is an employee who will step outside of the box and innovate! Someone who will try new things with the franchise, even at the possibility of lost sales, for the larger return in the future!
End sarcasm. Get a grip on reality. Fast food service is nothing but robotic work already, and that's the way the chains like it. If you don't want to be a robot, get a job somewhere else.
Step 1: Go to patent office
Step 2: Say what you just told us, and that you would like to copyright it.
Step 3: When officer opens his mouth to say "but that's already been...", quick add "no no, I meant on the internet!
Step 4: Profit.
Ever actually been to a Zaxby's? There's nothing fast about it. Don't go there if you're hungry, because you'll be ready to kill and eat the counter girl before they get your food ready.
To me this just screams corporate snafu. I can hear the boardroom conversation right now:
"Holy cow Bob, we're getting zillions of complaints about our extremely slow food process, should we tell the workers it's okay to put a little extra chicken in the fryer during lunch rush?"
"WHAT?!? Our customers depend on our promise to never ever ever start making any piece of food before they order it!"
"But...Bob, that's what everyone is complain..."
"No no, what we need is a huge computer system. And hookers."
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
"It looks like you're trying to make some fries. Would you like step-by-step instructions?"
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
I for one welcome our new computer boss overlords.
We already had that kind of system at Buger Thing in the early 80s. It used printing terminals at each workstation. The cash registers were these massive array of buttons. You chould key in special orders, such as, "whopper + extra onions", or "coke + no ice".
Of course the system was pretty brain dead, so you could also enter "whopper + extra ice" or "coke + extra mustard", which was always fun on a busy saturday afternoon.
One April Fool's day the manager swapped staff member's names for the products. Dave was the Whopper. Jenny was the Chicken Sandwich. It was kinda funny watching them come up on the terminals. Not as funny as tossing a handful of ice into the deep fryer when a new hire was stationed there, but pretty funny.
So Bob is running the place, and everything is fine. But what do you do when the insanely irate customer demands to speak to the manager in hopes of shouting horribly at a stranger until a free Large Fries is obtained? Bob can't help with that.
That's when ELIZA takes over. Simply diect the customer to the nearby terminal.
>HELLO CUSTOMER
>is this the manager?
>WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS THE MANAGER?
>my frys were cold and I paid for this crap
AND WHY DO YOU THINK YOU PAID FOR THIS CRAP?
>i wanted hot firies but they was cold dammit!
>AND WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK IS COLD DAMMIT?
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
If you think people were pissed when the computer wouldn't let them get their CARS out of the garage, just wait until the computer won't let the PEOPLE out of the freezer because the restaraunt owner and the software vendor are mad at each other!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
"you'll be ready to...eat the counter girl"
Well, if she's cute enough, then hell yeah!
I prefer them alive, though.
Ahh.. some rich, sheltered, bastard that never had to work fast food. Explosive boiling!
BTW, when I worked at KFC 30 years ago, we used to take hunks of fat from the chicken and throw it in the bug zapper by the back door. We were easily amused.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
Friers set up for french fries are set at about 350 degress Fahrenheit. Ice is presumably 32 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.
If you throw one ice cube in the fryer, it'll explode somewhat and you'll get some hot grease on you.
If you throw a handful, they'll explode a lot, and get grease everywhere.
If you fill a frybasket with ice and drop it in the fryer, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. the fryer will become a fountain of hot grease and steam with about a 12 foot blast zone. Soon after you get done cleaning it out of the exhaust hoods, between the fryers, off the employees that didn't end up in the hospital, the computers at the drive through station, the soda machine, a customer or two, the floor, the walls, and probably the ceiling, you'll get your last paycheck.
After that, you'll go across the street to the other fast-food restaurant and get a fresh minimum wage job. This takes about 15 minutes at worst.
In my 3 years at BK (best job i ever had), I've seen all 3, more than once. I highly reccommend it as a creative way to quit, provided that there aren't any other humans or managers around.
Since I got my computer science bachelor's and hadn't been able to find a programming job with it, I thought maybe I could take said degree and become a middle manager at a fast food joint or something. Only now it appears that job is going to be taken: BY A COMPUTER!
Screwed again.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
It will not continually direct the weakest employees to the most critical jobs. Hell, it will probably be smart enough not to schedule the weakest employees on the businest days
I currently have a manager that forgets to schedule shifts, fills shifts randomly with people that can't fill them, and routinely forgets to make the end of one shift the beginning of the next.
Replacing him with a 10 line basic program would be an improvement most weeks.
"According to this, you *DO* want fries with that."