Starbucks is looking to expand its use of its Mastrena II coffee makers (machines) that they initially began to roll out last year to a number of Starbucks locations. They seem to be happy with the results as they now plan to roll an additional 4,000 machines this year to join them, planning to have every location equipped with them by 2022.
The new approach takes the job out of the hands of a coffee barista (employee) and places it in an AI-enabled machine that can do the job much faster and efficiently, allowing them to get the lines moving more quickly without any loss in quality (so they say).
The Mastrena II features Starbuck’s very own Deep Brew AI that allows it to not only brew and build a cup of a custom request quickly, but it can do things like serving a triple shot of expresso instantly. It mixes and blends and prepares a cup of coffee much quicker than an employee can dish out, and has many other features to go along with it.
It automatically rinses itself, runs automatic adjustments, and tracks various analytics. These analytics let employees know when it’s grounds drawer is getting full, when one of the bean hoppers (three in total) are running out, or when repairs might be needed soon for some of the hardware (hey, maybe they have their own version of Splunk running in the background).
With this many machines rolling out to various locations, there is a good chance that you will run into one where you live. So give it a try and comment below on what you think. Is there consistency in quality? Does it live up to what one of the baristas would have served up by hand?
There is no word on if Starbucks plans to cut back on the number of employees just yet, but with machines replacing job descriptions, it’s likely to happen. Maybe it’s time for some of their baristas to take classes on how to repair the machines that might take their jobs, so they don’t lose their jobs completely (the revolving door always has two directions).
