Pizza Checker will be tasked with ensuring consumer quality across Dominos’s Australia businesses. Source: Shutterstock

Domino’s Pizza Checker is making sure your pizza is perfection

By | 10 November, 2017

DOMINO’S PIZZA is taking a weird, high-tech approach to quality checks for your pizza experience – the popular pie joint’s new “Pizza Checker” is combining artificial intelligence with image recognition technology to enhance consumer experience.

The new technology will be aimed at ensuring that every pizza that passes through the doors of each parlor comes up to scratch. According to a report from News.com.au, the Pizza Checker will be tasked with ensuring that every pizza has the correct toppings and an even spread, as well as whether or not it’s been cooked to perfection.

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How it works is that a camera will take a photo of every pizza and compare them against a standard photo using artificial intelligence. The pizza company will be teaming up with Dragontail Systems, with whom they’ve signed a 12-month agreement. Dragontail developed the Pizza Checker technology which is based off Google’s AI software for its machine learning capabilities.

“Dragontail is the pioneer but it has been a joint collaboration,” Domino’s CEO Don Meij said to News.com.au.

“The other partner in this is Google AI software which allows companies like Dragontail and Domino’s to develop products more cost effectively rather than having a machine learning from scratch.”

Domino’s will be Dragontail’s first large-scale client since it tried out the system with an independent business last year. Meij said that the Pizza Checker will act as a “virtual trainer” which will help cooks in the kitchen get better and better at their pizza-making.

The results gleaned will be sent to store managers – while another photo is sent to the customer, who can also be alerted if their pizzas require remaking. The technology will be rolled out across Australia in 2018.

“It will dramatically improve the quality and consistency of handmade pizzas — cooked and cut to perfection,” he said.

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While kind of wacky and interesting, the move marks one of a handful of instances of increased automation encroaching into corners of the workspace that were heretofore pretty low-tech.

Where quality checkers and more managerial layers took charge of ensuring the best products made it through the kitchen, Domino’s is stepping away from hiring more people, instead hiring smart technologies for improved future gain.

It’s definitely going to be a cheaper bet for Domino’s – increases in staff wages definitely had a knock-on effect on the company’s ability to grow. Falling share prices are indicating concerns from all corners about the viability of the company’s future, though the Meij has pushed back against negative conclusions about the firm.



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