Original subtitles

[narrator] On Tomorrow's World Today

we explore the cutting-edge advances

that are shaping four different worlds.

The world of inspiration,

where the wonders of the natural world

amaze and inspire us.

The world of creation,

where ideas come to life from traditional arts.

The world of innovation,

where ideas and inventions move us all forward.

The world of production,

where innovations are mass produced

to improve our lives.

From Inventionland world headquarters,

here's your host George Davison.

Hey, everybody.

Today, let's talk about something

that's had a huge impact on American culture since the 1950s.

Pizza.

The first pizza chains popped up in the 1950s.

And they've been a staple in American culture ever since.

And just when you didn't think pizza couldn't get any better,

well, imagine a world

where your pizza is made not by a human anymore,

but by a machine.

They're building a world

where the perfect pizza is just a few taps away

on that smartphone of yours.

It's not just a dream anymore.

Autonomous pizza technology is already here

and it's changing the game for pizza lovers everywhere.

Every step of the process,

from rolling the dough down to production line,

to delivering it to your door,

can be fully autonomized.

Meaning your pizza will be cooked to perfection every time.

Thanks to autonomous pizza-making technology

large corporations can make and...

deliver delicious pizza at an incredible pace.

And with this autonomous pizza preparation,

chefs can focus on creating new and exciting recipes

to please even the pickiest of us eaters out there.

So I'm gonna send Greg to the world of innovation

to explore the future of pizza making.

Where technology and tradition come together

to make the perfect pizza every time.

[Greg] Americans love pizza.

As a matter of fact,

the average American eats almost 23 pounds of pizza a year.

Now it doesn't matter what kind of pizza you like.

I'm a good old fashioned pepperoni guy myself.

But most people like to have that pizza delivered.

And that's why we're here

at the Dominos Supply Chain Center in Merrillville, Indiana

to learn about their innovative, logistical system

that helps them to deliver 90,000 dough balls

to over 300 stores across five states every day.

Let's head inside now and talk to Andy James.

He's the senior director of supply chain operations.

And Noe Fuentes Aguilar,

who's the senior manager of supply chain operations for production,

to see how all this is done.

Hi, guys.

[Andy] Hey, Greg, welcome to Domino's

in the Indiana Supply Chain Center.

Thank you very much. I am excited to be here,

and I cannot wait to see how you guys actually pull off these numbers.

Well, we do a lot of stuff outta here,

including making 950 deliveries a week,

and making over half million dough balls.

Wow, that's excellent. Now what are the five states that you serve us?

Out of this location Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa,

and a little bit of Nebraska.

Okay, now, I-- I know that

sustainability and quality control

are both really important to Domino's.

So tell me a little bit more about that.

[Andy] Absolutely. We really wanna control the process from end to end.

And we do that by delivering all the pizza ingredients

and all the toppings to the stores,

not just the dough.

And we really wanna sustain that process

just like they do at the store level with electroceuticals.

Excellent, well, I'm ready to get going.

What's the next step?

I'm gonna hand you off to Noe.

He's the production expert and he's gonna show you around.

-Greg, are you ready to make some dough? -Absolutely.

[Noe] Greg, so here's where all the dough-making process begins.

By the receiving of flour.

Okay, so how much flour is in this vehicle?

[Noe] Fifty thousand pounds.

[Greg] Wow, now where will you store that much flour?

[Noe] Right behind me,

you can see the silos that hold about--

Each of them individually hold 65,000 pounds of flour.

Wow. Now from the silos, where does it go?

From here it goes into our ingredient room.

Let's check that out.

Well, Noe, here we are.

It's-- This is the ingredient room, right?

[Noe] Yes, it is.

Here's where we store our flour, our salt and our sugar.

[Greg] Now is this everything that goes into the mixture?

Well, right behind you,

we have an 85,000 pound soy bean oil tank.

[Greg] Wow, now is everything put together right here in this room?

Everything comes together into that small hopper

and before it goes into the production room.

-Let's go make some dough. -All right.

[Noe] All right, Greg.

Those ingredients that we just saw

travel through those pipes right above us.

In addition at this point

we also introduce our premix and our yeast manually.

At this point,

we use a conveyor system right behind us,

that takes our butter into our mixer station.

[Greg] Okay, show me how the mixer works.

[Noe] Let's go there.

[Greg] All the dry ingredients,

the salt, the sugar, the flour,

the yeast, the butter and your secret ingredient,

they all go into this mixing machine

and they end up here.

[Noe] That is correct.

At this point is where we pull it a sample,

to check for consistency and temperature.

Right on target.

Okay, so the conveyor starts running,

and the dough ends up where?

[Noe] It goes into our divider.

So using this long blue conveyor belt right above us,

we're able to move big chunks of dough

from point A to point B.

[Greg] So this is where the action really gets going.

[Noe] That is correct,

this is where the automation begins.

[Greg] I'm at the Domino's Supply Chain Center in Indiana,

to explore how they are revolutionizing the pizza delivery process.

So far, we've looked the arrival and mixing of the ingredients.

Now it's time to follow that dough.

[Noe] As you saw,

we already have the big chunks of dough

falling to our divider hopper.

At this point,

we're able to change the preset settings that we have

depending on the size that we want.

This divider is capable of cutting between extra large or extra small

and sends it through the rounder table,

where it gives us the perfect dough ball that we need.

[Greg] So how do you check for that consistency?

[Noe] Great question, Greg.

So we have two critical pieces of equipment right in front of us.

We have a checkweigher that checks for consistency of the dough ball,

but we also have a metal detector

to ensure that we don't have any foreign material in our product.

-Right, safety is paramount. -Hundred percent.

Now, as we move along the conveyor here,

I see we're getting towards some pretty cool technology.

I used to stand behind that conveyor

and place each individual dough ball by hand.

Now we have robots doing it.

Not only is it easier and safer for our team members,

but it's more consistent for our customers as well too.

How many balls a day will come out of this machine?

Roughly, 90,000 dough balls.

That's incredible.

Now how does the-- how does the machine know,

uh, how to consistently place the balls

so that your stores are able to get exactly what they need?

This piece of equipment has a high tech visual system

that is able to see each individual tray

to ensure that it's perfectly placed into the tray.

Okay, great. Well, where do they go from here?

Into the chiller.

So Noe, these trays are headed to the chiller.

But what's happening right here?

[Noe] Well, check this out.

Right before it goes into the chiller,

each tray gets a label.

-Let's get cold. -All right.

[Noe] Here you can see the mechanics of the chiller.

It goes up and down for about an hour.

This really helps us slow down the proofing process.

[Greg] Now by the proofing process,

you actually mean the rise time for the dough.

And by chilling it this way, uh, it never has to be frozen.

You send it out to the stores absolutely fresh.

That's right. Fresh never frozen.

Okay, so from here it actually goes on the truck.

So now to the stores?

[Noe] Straight to the stores.

But now I really wanna show you what happens to these trays

when they come back from the stores.

Okay.

Well, Noe, this is, uh,

this is a pretty extensive operation.

Clearly re-using these trays is a big part

of Domino's efforts towards sustainability.

[Noe] That's right, as you can see behind you,

that's our trucks coming back with trays.

Over 10,000 trays make it through those conveyors daily

into our tray washer

where they get washed, cleaned and sanitized and ready for production.

Now let's go meet up with Andy.

-[Andy] Welcome, Greg. -Thanks, Andy.

-Noe, thanks a lot, man, this has been awesome. -Have fun.

All right, Andy, so now,

the logistical system that Domino's has put together

in order to get your products into the stores,

it's really impressive.

And I wanna know exactly how it works.

So every day we take orders for about 150 stores,

and we have about 150 different products other than just dough

that comes out of the center.

So all the pizza ingredients, all the pizza toppings,

everything that is in a Domino's store, they get from us.

Now in order to do that,

we have to pick it and load it efficiently.

Part of what helps us is using these carts over here.

Everything comes on wheels,

and once everything gets picked,

as you can see here on the floor,

we have all these staging lanes lined up.

They're numbered one through 15.

So one equals the first stop

or the first store on our route,

and 15 would be the-- the 15th store on the route.

All right. So what's the next step in this process?

Really glad you asked, Greg.

Got a couple more carts here that need to be loaded

and then delivered to the store.

So it'd be great if you help with that.

But you need to put on a uniform to look the part.

All right, I guess I'll be back in a minute.

-Carlos, you ready? -[Carlos] Yes, sir.

[Carlos] Ready to make some deliveries?

-Absolutely. -[Carlos] Let's go.

[Carlos] Thank you for loading the truck as well.

-[Greg laughs] -[Carlos] You got it secured, right?

-[Greg] Absolutely, everything's tied down... -[Carlos] Oh.

[Greg] ...and everything is safe.

- I think we'll be good. -[Carlos] Awesome.

[Greg] Well, where are we heading to first?

Wisconsin.

-Uh, we'll be up in Kenosha. -[Greg] Okay.

And we'll working our way down from Kenosha down.

[Greg] How many deliveries do you make in a typical shift?

[Carlos] Anywhere between, uh, 10 and 12.

-Okay. -[Carlos] Ten and 12 deliveries.

The beginning of the week will be a lot lighter...

-[Greg] Uh-huh. -...versus the end of the week.

Obviously, uh, Domino's sells a lot over the weekend.

About how many trucks go out every day?

I think there are up to, uh, 50 drivers now.

-[Greg] Wow. -[Carlos] Yeah, it's just Domino's--

[Greg] And that's just from this center?

[Carlos] They're just for this center, yeah.

There's always a truck on the way there,

-to make sure you get your pizza, right? -Absolutely.

Uh, a lot of people don't think about the truck.

But the truck is the most important part.

[Greg] It seems as though everybody that works for, for Domino's,

at least everybody that we've met in the center

appreciates what everybody else in the center does.

[Carlos] Oh, it's a-- It's a family.

You know, we all, we all-- Everybody gets along.

We all work together to make things better.

[Greg] The pizza industry a $40 billion a year business.

And Domino's is helping satisfy that hunger.

I'm heading from the supply chain center

to the Munster, Indiana Domino's store

where we are going to drop off everything they need.

-[Carlos] We'll set 'em up right here. -[Greg] All right.

[Carlos] Well, Greg, you did a great job.

-Thanks for your help. -Thank you, Carlos.

-You ready to make some pizzas? -I am.

[Carlos] All right, well, Brittany will take over.

All right, Brittany, let's get going.

[Brittany] All right, let's go.

Before we get started,

put on a uniform, put on an apron,

-and I'll see you out there. -All right.

-Okay, so, teach me how to make a pizza. -Awesome.

First we're gonna get the cornmeal out.

So if you wanna get a little scoop...

-All right. -...and set it right up here.

[Brittany] Perfect.

-Next we knead the dough. -All right.

[Brittany] So we're gonna coat both sides in this cornmeal here.

All right, then we're gonna start creating our edge.

So you're gonna hold your fingers together like this.

And then about a half inch from the edge,

you're gonna go around. We're gonna create that pencil thing rim.

And then now we can go into the stretch.

So you're gonna cup your hand

and then stretch with your other hand.

So keep going until we're at the size of about a medium screen,

which is 12 inches.

So we're gonna drape it over the back of your hand,

just like that.

Get a good grip on that center underneath it,

and then drape it right over your screen.

Let's get some sauce on it.

-So we're gonna take this spoodle here... -[Greg] All right.

...which is basically just a flat-bottomed ladle.

Dump that sauce right in the center.

You're gonna hold it down flat and firm

and spread it out

until you get to about three quarters of an inch from the edge.

There you go.

[Greg] All right.

[Brittany] Flat and firm.

Great. Let's get to the cheese.

All right.

[Brittany] All right, so we're gonna weigh out five ounces of cheese here.

We hold our hands high up

so we can get really good coverage on the cheese here.

-[Greg] Gotcha. -[Brittany] Awesome.

[Brittany] We know how much pepperoni to put on here

by looking at this job aid right here.

You're doing a beautiful job.

[Greg chuckles] You did that way faster than I'm doing it.

-[Brittany] I believe in you. -[Greg laughs]

[Greg] Excellent.

[Brittany] All right.

You set yours right next to mine.

Done.

[Brittany] If we were clearing these off the screen right now,

we would just hit this "carryout" clear item,

or for "delivery" clear item over here off these bump bars.

And six or seven minutes later,

we have fully cooked pizzas on the other side of the oven.

[Brittany] Exactly.

Brittany, thanks a lot, this has been great.

I'll see you on the other side.

[Brittany] Buckle up, drive safe.

Ready to go on your first delivery?

-Absolutely. -All right, let me show you something first.

Next to the drivers name,

it's gonna be either orange or blue.

If it's blue,

that means that they're on the way to the delivery.

If it's orange,

then they're on the way back from the delivery.

It lets the store know that we're on our way back,

they can load the next delivery.

-Are you ready to go? -I'm ready.

Well, you can't wear an apron.

Can you put a coat on?

[Greg] You take this, I'll take that.

-All right, let's go. -[Greg] Let's go!

[Carol] Driver out.

[Greg] So tell me about the fleet of electric vehicles

that Domino's is using for their delivery system now.

[Carol] So Domino's is the first brand

that committed to providing opportunities for delivery drivers.

So our franchisee committed to buying more than 50 electric vehicles.

So now using the app as we are right now

to-- to make a delivery.

Everybody's in sync.

There's lots of communication

between everybody that's involved in this chain.

[Carol] Absolutely. So right now,

the customer that we're delivering to knows where we are,

the customer knows how many minutes till we get there.

Uh, the customer also at the store level

knew who took the order, uh, who made the order

and then who did a quality check on the order.

[Greg] Right. Well, as we saw in the supply chain center,

there's a, a real, uh, sense of ownership

with everybody who works at every level of the operation.

Here we go, Carol.

-[Carol] Hi, how are you? -Hello.

-[Carol] You placed an order. -Yes, I did.

All right.

Here we go, one pizza hot and fresh.

-Thank you. -[Carol] Thank you so much.

-[Carol] We appreciate your business. -Thank you.

-[Carol] Call us again. -Always, thank you, guys.

-[Carol] Okay, thank you. -[Greg] Have a good night.

-[woman] You too as well. -[Carol] Have a good night.

All right, Carol.

I gotta get outta here and get back to Inventionland.

-But... -Okay.

I have got to get one of these for George.

-Can I do that? -Absolutely.

[Greg] Get me to the airport.

[Carol] All right, let's go.

[George] Hi, Kate, welcome to Inventionland.

-This place is amazing. -[George laughs] Thank you.

-Please have a seat. -Thank you.

Well, I'm hearing some great things

about what's going on in Indiana.

This new supply chain center?

Yes, our new supply chain center in Indiana

is state-of-the-art technology.

We're doing incredible things.

We even have robotic arms

that make the process more efficient and--

You got it, it's right here.

Striving efficiency and just a better experience for our team members.

-[George] Mmm. -We also have a spiral chiller...

-Okay? -...which allows us to do the perfect proofing,

and bring the temp down on our dough.

It's pretty incredible to see.

It's four times faster than when we used to do it manually.

So you're not freezing dough

and shipping it all over the world?

Never frozen,

always fresh dough from Domino's.

[George] That's great to hear.

We also have been working hard to get the word out

about a myth that we need to bust,

which is that you can't recycle pizza boxes

when there's grease on them or there's food left over.

And I'm here to dispel that.

You can still recycle those boxes.

We've done the research. It's absolutely fine.

Well, that's good to know,

'cause I thought that-- I believed that myth, so.

You're not alone. I'm glad you know now.

I will recycle from now on.

-That's great. -Awesome.

Now I'm also hearing some whispers

about this new pinpoint technology.

What's that about?

[Katy] Yeah, the rumors are true.

We've been working hard on developing technology

where you can drop a pin almost anywhere you are.

Think if you're at the beach, or you're at campground,

or you're at the park and there's no address,

now you're gonna be able to drop a pin

and our delivery driver will deliver right to you.

That's great.

I get hungry just about anywhere.

-[laughs] So that's good. -Me too.

All right, so.

Uh, maybe you could look into the, uh,

the pizza crystal ball there,

and tell me a little more about the future

of pizza manufacturing and delivery.

That is so cheesy.

-But I'll go with you. -[George laughs]

Uh, the future of, uh, pizza

and our operations and delivery is very bright.

I see a lot of opportunity

in logistics and efficiency and automation.

Also see a lot of opportunity in unleashing our data

to do more predictive analytics...

-Mmm. -...and really kind of predict what consumers want.

And everything in the delivery space,

from automation and you know, selfless driving cars,

I think that's the future.

And my gosh,

maybe we'll even be doing drone deliveries one day

to again, be relentless about delivering the best customer experience.

Well, I can see you have the future

firmly in your hands there, Kate.

I have a question for you, though.

Ah, what's your question?

So did you just ship me a box?

[Kate] I did, I'm so glad it came.

[George] It did. And it has one of these in here.

Yes, this is a car topper.

It is an innovation Domino's came up with years ago.

-[chuckles] -Right?

Other places, taxi companies,

and pizza companies use them today.

And it lights up. It's kind of cool, right?

It is really cool.

I-- I'm gonna put it in our museum.

[Kate] Fantastic.

Well, I've gotta get out of here.

But I wanted to also bring you Domino's for lunch.

I have some pizza for you

in our newest product innovation.

-Okay? -Loaded tots, Philly cheesesteak flavor.

-Ooh, that sounds good. -[Kate] Yeah.

So I gotta catch a plane,

-but great to see you. -Thank you.

Thank you.

-[George] Safe travels. -Thank you.

[George] Oh, [chuckles] look at that.

Mmm.

[chuckles]

Way to go, Kate.