An Investigation On Robots That Completely Eradicate Retail Staff

No more retail service staff needed (complete eradication of retail service staff)! This is true now and the varieties of robots that reduce manpower are increasing! For this segment of our productivity and innovation knowledge base for July, we are investigating on robots that can replace service staff and reduce the need for foreign manpower. We are sure if you visit a few fruit juice stalls in shopping malls, you would be able to see them hiring some foreigners. Now we are not saying hiring foreigners are bad. But we are simply exploring and investigating on alternative manpower solution since we are already constrained by foreign manpower quota. We either move on or we give up, which the latter option is never for real entrepreneurs.

​Our team travelled to Sim Ling tower and Novena Square to investigate these robotic vending machines, we bought orange juice and interviewed buyers. Below are the pictures taken, left column of pictures are taken at Sim Ling Tower and right column of pictures are taken at Novena Square

​Robotics fresh orange juice vending machine may look simple but in actual fact, it is a complicated machine. The machine needs to produce fresh orange juice and the steps may seem very simple but actually is a much-complicated robotics machine than a simple vending machine that delivers canned drinks. At Sim Ling Tower, we thought nobody will buy fresh orange juice from that machine as there we are many soft drink machines on the ground floor of Sim Ling Tower that in competition with it. However, within 10 mins, a man walked towards the machine and bought a cup of fresh orange juice. We interviewed the man, and he gave a thumb up and said it is fresh and taste good. Thus, we too on the persuasion of the man, we bought ourselves some fresh orange juice and to be honest, it is amazing. We cannot imagine that the day whereby fresh juice or fresh food could be served without a service staff had arrived. Yes, the day had arrived.

​The robotics fresh orange juice vending machine is an encouraging example of innovation that leads to higher productivity. We must be prepared for the future where increasing different types of robots will appear in the market to eradicate certain types of manpower. This is the reality, we must be prepared for changes and disruption.