Chick-fil-A has built a highly automated facility to handle its massive lemon-squeezing needs, freeing restaurant workers from a difficult and unpleasant chore.
Key Facts:
- A 190,000-square-foot plant north of Los Angeles processes up to 1.6 million pounds of lemons for the chain.
- The automation saves employees about 10,000 hours of lemon-squeezing work every day.
- Chick-fil-A’s vice president of supply chain procurement and operations, Mike Hazelton, said the plant helps the company grow amid a tight labor market.
- Robots perform nearly every step, including washing, extracting oil, juicing, and packaging.
The Rest of The Story:
Chick-fil-A’s automated lemonade operation shows how the fast-food industry is streamlining tasks once done by hand. The robot arms and driverless forklifts move fruit from delivery to boxed juice in about 45 minutes. Workers now focus on customer service and food preparation instead of painstakingly squeezing lemons.
This facility, opened in 2020, creates a more pleasant work environment by reducing finger injuries and repetitive tasks. The company also benefits from selling the extracted lemon oil to the fragrance and cosmetics market.
Instead of squeezing 2,000 lemons a day at a Chick-fil-A store, adding up to 10,000 labor hours across all stores, they opened a 190,000k square feet facility that automates the process. pic.twitter.com/avJcwUewSd
— Jacob (@JacobJaber) January 8, 2025
By removing a major back-of-house duty, Chick-fil-A’s restaurants can serve more people quickly while continuing to expand to new locations.
“Anything we can do to reduce turnover, improve efficiency, move prep up into the supply chain will really help,” Hazelton told Bloomberg.
Commentary:
Automation like this is likely to spread throughout the food industry as businesses look for solutions to ongoing labor shortages.
Fast-food restaurants face high turnover, so shifting tough or boring tasks to machines makes sense both financially and practically. This technology can help businesses maintain service quality while reducing the burdens on frontline staff.
As companies find success with automated solutions, expect more chains to invest in similar systems. It is a natural response to market conditions and a sign that the industry is ready to innovate even further.
The Bottom Line:
Chick-fil-A’s new automated approach to lemonade production stands as an example of how the fast-food industry is adapting.
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By relieving workers of repetitive tasks, the chain is poised for growth without sacrificing quality.