Technology + chocolate = crazy delicious.
Chocolate sales are likely to reach nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars in the US alone this Valentine’s day. As we prepare to consume that mountain of confectionary bliss, we should think about the ones responsible for bringing us such delectable treats. I’m speaking, of course, about robots. As with nearly all other forms of modern food production, chocolate making is a robotic-man’s world. Even for the most gourmet of goodies, the truffle, there’s a horde of machines responsible for every step of the creation process from mixing to wrapping. Take a close look at the automated acrobatics of the machines in a New England factory as it creates gourmet chocolate truffles in the video below. Is it silly to want to install some of these robots in my home? Yes. Yes it is. …but I can’t think of any better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Most of the automated process shown in the video above is fairly typical for chocolate production, but it’s still pretty amazing to watch. I love the spinning racks at 0:34 (reminds me of a space satellite), and you probably can’t see it, but those truffles at 0:22 are being filled with nozzle inside nozzles to mix multiple fillings. Mmm…double the nozzles means double the delicious.
The footage is taken at Dan’s Chocolates, a New England based gourmet chocolate company with a modern vibe. The small factory shown still manages to produce 250 truffles a minute. The majority will be sold online. Dan’s Chocolates is a good example of how robotic advancements (paired with modern shipping) can allow a relatively small company to compete on a national scale successfully. They’ve already sold a million+ sweets while still keeping to some of their loftier environmental and social goals: they try to locate all of their supplies within 100 miles of their factory, they donate proceeds from every sale to charities of their customer’s choosing, etc, etc. You can learn more about their ideals and their chocolate factory on the Dan’s Chocolate’s website.
It seems like every week or two I’m showing you a new video about an automated factory. I’m pretty sure I could post a new video every day and still never run out. There’s simply so many industrial robots that the majority of us have never seen. And there’s going to be more. As machines become more sophisticated, and cheaper to build, they will continue to replace much of the traditional labor in manufacturing, even for small businesses. Whether you think that’s a positive or negative change for the world, it’s hard to ignore how few people and how many robots are making our everyday goods. Moving forward, those companies which are able to effectively expand their automated production lines are going to be the success stories of the 21st century.
So, this Valentine’s Day, do the smart thing. Skip the chocolates and buy your loved one a robot.
Why settle for one box of truffles when you can have a machine that could make you millions?
[screen capture and video credit: Dan's Chocolates]
[source: Dan's Chocolates]
Comments
Technology is destroying jobs faster than they can be created. Until recently when new technology laid off workers increased demand and profits created savings for investment and other jobs but now technology destroys jobs faster than they are created. The evidence is everywhere. The US and now the UK economy does not create jobs, unemployment is 20% in Spain, 10% in France and high everywhere. In the UK part-time work has grown from 24% to 27% of jobs in a year, huge numbers of adults are virtually unemployable, millions of the self-employed are marginal, most public sector workers are superfluous, two thirds of 18-21 yr olds are students and many unemployable on graduation.
Manufacturing was lost to China not solely because of a competitive currency or cheap labour – that has always been so. It was highly automated logistics and virtually free communications. Service work replaced the jobs lost but that too is being lost to automation. Employers know that the cost of machinery keeps falling and the cost of people keeps rising and that machinery works 365 day a year, day and night, doesn’t take holidays, go sick, strike, have personal issues, payroll taxes, working time directives or take maternity leave.
Some high wage economies like Germany and Japan compete with low wage economies by off-shoring, automation and moving up market. We must do the same but it will not increase employment. Even in China industrial employment peaked some years ago whilst production continues to soar. Fanuc doubled their sales of robots to China last year.
China will lose its comparative advantage because it will be irrelevant where things are made.
I’m interested in articles featuring robots, but this video really doesn’t show much. Robots should have a certain degree of autonomy or flexibility. The “robots” profiled here are just assembly-line preparation and packaging machines.
Dude, where is the holiday spirit? We know the robots aren’t special in this video, but we thought it would be fun to pair up a chocolate factory with Valentine’s day.
Chocolate is about to become known as a Health Food. Really. Check out the USDA reports on Antioxidants – unprocessed Cacao produces the highest results. How would you change if, instead of a junk food, a Healthy Chocolate had demonstrated health benefits?
This isn’t chocolate , this is cheap fat and refined sugar.