The ROI of Automation with Commercial Conveyor Ovens

No matter what the current foodservice trends or challenges, there’s one important truth every operator tries to achieve — doing more with less. Whether that means achieving greater efficiency with a smaller number of staff members, doing more with a limited supply of ingredients or developing a wider range of menu items using less equipment, the goal is always to accomplish more without wasting valuable resources. Using commercial conveyor ovens, like the Middleby Marshall CTX Conveyor Oven will help.

Automation in foodservice will be key moving forward. The ability to take certain processes and reduce the amount of restaurant labor costs required to achieve them—while also maintaining quality and consistency—will be key to our culinary future. This automated grilling system and recipient of the 2017 Kitchen Innovations Award from the National Restaurant Association is a great way to begin your kitchen of the future. With a continuous, conveyor-based cooking platform, operators can automate a wide variety of cooking processes and styles including grilling, baking, broiling, searing, steaming, and even sous vide cooking. With so much versatility in one piece of equipment, it’s no wonder restaurants like Red Lobster, Chili’s, and The Boathouse in Disney Springs all utilize the automation benefits found in the CTX Oven in their kitchen operations.

The Middleby Marshall CTX Oven Allows You To Rethink Your Entire Operation

Especially in today’s state of the pandemic, doing more with less is key. The CTX provides a level of versatility that could generate nearly all of an operation’s menu items. It can do the work of a convection oven, a griddle, a charbroiler, microwave, and a salamander — all in one automated oven footprint. Typically, these types of functions require close attention and consume labor. With accurate and automated cooking, those needs are eliminated.

Labor Savings With The CTX Oven

Conveyor cooking eliminates the labor needed to continuously monitor food while its cooking. Customers who utilize the CTX Oven in their commercial kitchens reported thousands of kitchen labor hours eliminated per year. Some operations have reported eliminating more than 3,000 labor hours using the CTX Oven, a huge savings considering today’s labor shortages. They’re easy to operate too. With no technical training required, a limited kitchen staff can still produce a consistently cooked product. The CTX Oven reduces hard restaurant labor costs, man-hours, and human error that can prove costly for restaurants operating on the thinnest of margins.

Faster Cook Times in the Takeout Era

The CTX Oven cooks foods between 30 and 60 percent faster than traditional cooking methods. In places where fast service is required or in the current climate of curbside pickup, having an oven that can reduce cooking times by an average of 12 to 22 minutes can be a game-changer. Even high-ticket items like lobster or steak are cooked precisely, allowing fine-dining operations to utilize a takeout offering that can keep them from shutting their doors. With the CTX Oven, one person can monitor a number of different cooking processes at one time.