More colleges primed to get automated pizza assembly

After piloting the Picnic Pizza Station at Texas A&M and the University of Chicago, Chartwells Higher Ed is bringing the automated pizza maker to additional schools.

Via an agreement between Chartwells and automation company Picnic, three more campuses will debut the station at the start of the coming school year: Missouri State University, Carroll University in Wisconsin and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

“Our team realized an unexpected benefit during the pilot. Due to the speed in which we were able to produce pizzas, we reduced waste at the end of the day by moving to a ‘just in time’ production model,” Christopher Burr, vice president of digital strategy for Chartwells Higher Education, said in a statement.

The Picnic Pizza Station can make up to 100 pizzas per hour, adding sauce, cheese and toppings after an employee loads the dough.

During the pilot phase, the station also helped with staffing at Texas A&M, according to a Chartwells district executive chef, who noted that “what used to take three people now only requires one.”