Industrial Cuisine Revisited

Abstract

Industrial cuisine is a rationalized system of food production for offering customized products in a cost-effective way. Industrial cuisine combines mass customization, production decoupling, and innovative foodprocessing technologies such as sous vide. At the heart of industrial cuisine is the concept of "mass customization," which combines the positive aspects of mass production and customization by responding to individual customer needs while achieving production efficiencies that enable competitive pricing. For consumers, industrial cuisine-Which ideally also encompasses service elements-can reduce prices, increase consistency, and improve satisfaction. For restaurateurs in all industry segments, it can reduce costs, simplify production, and reduce the level of culinary expertise required at the unit level. Nevertheless, few food-service operators have embraced industrial cuisine completely. A key element is information technology, to capture and manage individual customer preferences and specifications. Other important factors are quality management, process reengineering, organizational development, and superior market research. Regarding food production, industrial cuisine requires innovative and flexible process technology (such as sous vide and robotics) and valuechain reengineering (e.g., production decoupling). In deciding whether an industrial-cuisine strategy is appropriate, a company should assess (1) the degree of customer sensitivity to customization, (2) whether the company can support a mass-customization strategy at an operational level, (3) the competitive environment, and (4) its own readiness.