Kitchen & Automation
From hand-tossed chaos to a conveyor line that runs itself. Layout beats reflexes.
🔥 The iron rule: the U-line
Prep → sauce → cheese → oven → pass, arranged as a U with every step at most two paces apart. We have seen too many new shops put the oven in the far corner from the pass — five extra steps per pizza is an astronomical tax at rush hour. The conveyor oven goes long-side against the wall, mouths facing the flow.
Stations & Priority
Chopping and dough. Where all automation begins.
Auto-portions the sauce: -3s per pizza, and never over-sauces again.
-4s per pizza on cheese. Best value in the shop.
Bake two pizzas in parallel. The rush-hour lifesaver.
Load and walk away — finished pies exit the far side. The graduation piece.
Ingredient shelf life +50%, rat losses -30%.
Dirty plates auto-return to the wash station. No more floor patrols.
Phone orders post themselves to the wall. Doubles in value in co-op.
Week-One Purchase Plan
Days 1-2
Sauce Dispenser + Cheese Grater
$2,000 buys back 7s per pizza. Pour early profit here.
Days 3-4
Double Oven + Fridge Upgrade
The oven is your capacity ceiling; the fridge is disaster insurance.
Days 5-6
Dish Return Belt + Auto Order Screen
Zero out chore-time; you only make pizza now.
Day 7+
Conveyor Oven
Automation graduation. Watch the line run; revenue doubles.
“First night with the conveyor oven, I sat in the empty shop watching it bake by itself and finally understood why owners never do anything.”