Clarifying the Conveyor

There’s a camp out there, the conveyor oven camp. They think they’ve automated the pizza-baking process and so they like to tout things like labor savings, consistency, speed, and even heat retention. I get it, it’s hard not to be interested in something with claims like those. And I get it, at first glance, a conveyor seems to make sense. That’s where we come in. It’s time to clarify those claims and rethink that conveyor. Of course, as a national PizzaMaster dealer the clarifications and comparisons will be relative to a PizzaMaster. There are quite a few of them so buckle up!

YOU SURE YOU DON’T NEED SOMEONE BY THE OVEN?

LABOR SAVINGS?

It’s the number one claim from the conveyor camp, “It will save you labor, and we all know how hard it is to find people!” Well last I checked pizzas can’t enter and exit the oven on their own. Someone has to do it no matter what type of oven they’re using. In fact, it’s pretty important to have someone monitoring the conveyor exit. If not, there goes a pizza right onto the floor. Obviously that can't happen in a PizzaMaster. Even if you’re late pulling out a pizza the worst that could happen is it's a little overbaked.

Once the camp hears that, they will pivot to “yeah, but the person working a conveyor doesn't need to be as skilled which makes them less expensive since all they need to do is stand by the exit”. Without getting into a wages debate, the pizza person has to make pizza and load the oven no matter what kind of oven it is. Claiming you can pay someone less because they don’t have to open an oven door or decide when a pizza is ready is highly unlikely. Not to mention, PizzaMaster ovens have full-width window doors so it doesn't take that much skill to know when a pizza is ready when you can look directly at it.

Also, even if you could realize a wage difference, there are several incurred costs and inefficiencies associated with a conveyor that would certainly cancel it out. More on those below!

LOAD-WAIT-LOAD-WAIT CONVEYOR ACTION VS CONTINUOUS LOADING ON A PIZZAMASTER

CONSISTENCY?

Yes, if you run 10 cheese pizzas through the same conveyor deck they should all come out the same. So your cheese pizzas should all be consistent with each other. However, what happens when you run a sausage and mushroom pizza through the same conveyor? Exactly, it will be under-cooked. You can't run a pizza with toppings through the same deck calibrated for a cheese pizza. Either the cheese pizza will be over-cooked or the topped pizza will be under-cooked depending on your settings. So now you will need at least three conveyor decks to ensure a consistent overall product from one pizza combo to the other. You will need a dedicated deck for cheese, a deck for medium topped pizzas, and a deck for heavily topped pizzas. That's what most conveyor operators do. I’ve even heard some conveyor operators use a separate deck for any pizza with sausage.

CAPACITY?

Expanding on the number of decks topic, it is very inefficient to not have all decks available to you when you need them. For example, if you had an order for 3 cheese pizzas you would not be able to load them into a conveyor at the same time. So even if you have 3 conveyor decks, you cannot load 3 of the same pizzas at the same time since all the decks have different settings. You couldn’t even load 2 of the same pizzas at a time. You’d have to load a pizza, then wait for it to travel far enough so another pizza can fit, then load the second pizza, then wait, then load, etc, etc… You'd have two other conveyor decks up and running but unable to accommodate cheese pizzas. So now your pizzamaker looks like the one above standing in front of the conveyor waiting for each pizza to get far enough along the "cheese deck" so they can load the next one.

In a PizzaMaster, you have the entire deck available to you at all times. Additionally, you could have multiple or all decks on the same settings so you could put any pizza anywhere. If it's heavily topped you just leave it in longer. For example, in a PM 933 you could comfortably load six 16” pizzas of various topping combinations in one deck at one time. If you’re fast enough, you could load eighteen 16” pizzas at one time across all three decks. Just like the guy above.

It is a similar story on the back end as well. Just check out my guy below. When you can load multiple pizzas at once, that means you can also remove multiple pizzas at once. More action and less standing around by the oven exit waiting for a couple pizzas to show their face.

And don’t forget about par-baking. In a PizzaMaster, you could load every deck to capacity at the same time and they would all come out at the same time. Essentially, you can par-bake in large batches which several of my customers do. Trying to par-bake a dozen crusts in a conveyor, for example, is such a painstaking process with so much wasted time. First you'd have to change settings so all decks match, then you would load one crust per deck, wait till they get far enough, load another one per deck, wait, load, wait, load... While someone is at the other end waiting for each one to come out one at a time. Either that or your pizzamaker is running from end to end. Any labor savings you originally thought you had would be gone in the par-baking process alone.

WHICH SCENE WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE IN YOUR KITCHEN?

MAINTENANCE(!)

This is a big one. All those moving parts and internal components need to be replaced and maintained regularly. There is a lot going on in there and the conveyor operators I spoke to for this article all told me they are on a first name basis with their service company technicians. One of them actually told me he gave his technician a key to his restaurant! This way the tech can come in early and service the oven before any of the employees arrive and need to use it. That's how often he's there and that's how close they are with a repair man. So remember all that labor savings talk from the camp? Well even if that was true it just got gobbled up by maintenance. PizzaMaster ovens have a 2 year parts and 1 year labor warranty, and all the maintenance you should have to do in the first 4-5 years is change lightbulbs. This won't get you anywhere near a first-name basis with our techs. Additionally, all PizzaMaster parts are stocked here in the USA and the PizzaMaster Service line is available at all times.

ENERGY SAVINGS

As mentioned, you will always need to run all three conveyor decks since you need to be prepared for all different pizza combinations. Simply put, that is a waste of energy.

When operating a PizzaMaster, or any deck oven for that matter, you only need to run as many decks as you need based on how busy you are. For example, if you have a three deck PizzaMaster chances are you do not need all three decks during lunch on Mondays, so save some money and don't turn them all on. And since PizzaMaster ovens are the only ovens with TURBO MODE, your oven will reach temps in about 30 minutes. This means you can run one deck for lunch and wait until a little before dinner service to turn on another deck. Same thing on the back side. As your night is winding down, save some energy and turn off a deck or two if you don’t need them. And if that isn’t efficient enough for you, PizzaMaster ovens so energy efficient that several states offer instant rebates of $1,000 to $2,000 PER DECK!

Additionally, a conveyor oven is open on both sides which is not only very inefficient but also heats up your kitchen. The hot air pouring out of both sides makes for an uncomfortable kitchen, a high AC bill, or both. On the other hand, except for the front glass and panels, a PizzaMaster isn’t even hot to the touch.

SLICES, PREP, & OTHER ITEMS

You want to sell slices but have a conveyor? Looks like you’re going to need some sort of countertop unit for reheating slices. On the other hand, if you have room in your PizzaMaster and it works for your kitchen you could always leave an area of your oven open for slices. It’s very common. Maybe you were getting a countertop unit either way but, if not, that's an added conveyor expense.

And what about prep work? A PizzaMaster can be used for all your pizza prep like roasting veggies and pre-cooking sausage. It can also be used for breads, garlic knots, pastries, cookies, and much more. Whereas trying to do all that in a conveyor is simply not practical.

POWER & VERSATILITY

PizzaMaster ovens can reach 932 degrees F. While you may not bake anything quite that high, the power is certainly available. This unlocks many more pizza possibilities. For example, if you wanted to add a pizza style to your menu or just offer a special once and while, you could do that with ease. A conveyor on the other hand is restricting creativity since there are maximum temperature constraints and you cannot free up a deck for the reasons mentioned above.

SUMMARY

There will never be a shortage of companies trying to automate or streamline the pizza making process. Whether it’s a conveyor or a robot they will all have their own camps touting their own benefits. Remember to dig into those statements and see for yourself. Above I explained several benefits of the PizzaMaster and you are always welcome to see and test for yourself. There are several test kitchens scattered across the country, so just fill out the form and I will be happy to coordinate.

Camp has ended.