In 1948, two brothers revolutionized the food service industry in an attempt to address to more fast-paced life styles, increase efficiency and boost revenue. First, they ran the data and found most of their profit came from hamburgers. So, they simplified the menu to focus on that item, potato chips and apple pies, according to author Bill Bryson.

But the real innovation was more conceptual than that. Brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald saw their kitchen for what it truly was: an assembly line. In 1952, they purchased a new building that would both catch the eyes of passing drivers and give them the space to create a clean, extremely efficient, standardized process for preparing meals. That single innovation, some 70 years ago, continues to inform the business of quick service restaurants and fast casual food retail in important new ways. Here’s a look at three other innovations that promise to shape the restaurant business in 2018.

1. The integrated supply chain in the contemporary modern kitchen

The integrated supply chain of food covers a network of vendors, manufacturing centers, warehouses, distribution centers and restaurants that raw materials move through, and are changed to meet the needs of the final consumer. The complexity of the food supply chain has grown enormously since Maurice and Richard McDonald’s day, but what remains critical is data. Data informs decisions at every successful food retail operation.

Gone are the days of a burger, chips and an apple pie as the main menu. Today large QSR restaurants can have a dozen different cheeseburger choices on the menu, 13 different sides to choose from, a half-dozen salads and 18 drink choices. And then there are the seasonal coffees, short-term signature sandwiches and other offerings that come and go. This food and drink comes from many different parts of the country, and depending on the operator, even the world. Connected restaurant real-time data provides operators information on everything from food costs to cross-unit operations managers and owners need to make strategic decisions, spot trends, identify issues and reward successes.

At Panasonic, data is at the heart of what we call the “connected restaurant.” This covers not just assembly line technology with conveyor belts that move food as workers prep. It’s a digital overhaul that includes connecting all parts of the restaurant to provide data analytics that promote a better operation. Software ties together disparate functions, collects and interprets data and sends out alerts to quickly inform restaurant operators of things going wrong, and right.

2. Transparency in the food supply chain

Food safety and quality has always been important to restaurants; what’s changing is the attention that consumers are paying to the topic. Social media, education and government regulations are helping to drive interest. “In 2018, expect to see transparency and traceability for all, regardless of their income,” predicts market intelligence agency Mintel. In other words, patrons will be able to learn just about everything they want to know about a food’s origins, ingredients and nutritional information. One example: Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC), a SUBWAY franchisee-owned and operated purchasing group.

Focusing on the “Fresh Forward” theme, IPC has for several years worked to achieve the full traceability of suppliers' products as they travel from their source into SUBWAY restaurants, according to a recent article in Modern Restaurant Management. “Knowing exactly where a specific lot code of food product is in the supply chain is our goal. If a product is a risk to our brand, and our customers, the benefits of adopting the use of standards are immeasurable,” Dennis Clabby, IPC’s executive vice president, purchasing, told the magazine, highlighting a view that will accelerate across the industry in the coming year.

3. QSR in the age of autonomy

New technology and pilot projects have generated incredible interest in autonomous vehicles. Developments range from driverless cars navigating city streets in the U.S., Japan and Europe to announcements of advanced technology that will speed developments in both autonomous vehicles and smart infrastructure. These developments are pushing automakers to rethink the business of buying and selling vehicles, and the same developments are expected to reshape retail, restaurants and other industries.

As cars start talking to cars and road infrastructure, it’s not a stretch to imagine a car communicating with a restaurant. Here’s how it might work: A vehicle’s infotainment system uses beacon technology to connect to the restaurant’s operations center. The restaurant accesses data on the purchasing characteristics of the vehicle so that, when this vehicle arrives, the system knows that its occupants typically order two double cheeseburgers, fries and a soda. Already major restaurant operators are rethinking the future of the drive thru.

To understand the future of quick service restaurants and fast casual establishments, tech companies such as Panasonic not only invest in in-house innovation, they also devote considerable time evaluating, testing and supporting nascent entrepreneurial ideas that could be fundamental to not only future driverless cars, but also the food business. In this scenario, tech leaders take on a much greater role as third party ecosystem managers which involves code sharing, open innovation and other partnerships. The beneficiaries are consumers who gain customized and fast service they’ve come to expect while allowing owners to increase revenue and efficiency.

Matt O’Connor is the Senior Vice President Food Service & Retail Solutions Group at Panasonic Corporation of North America.

Route 66 was constructed to address a need created by an emerging technology: the rise of the auto in the United States. When completed in 1926, the highway gave motorists quick passage (at the time) from Chicago to Los Angeles. This transportation shift also gave rise to another innovation. In 1947, Red's Giant Hamburg in Missouri opened the first drive-thru window so customers could pick up their food without leaving their car.

This year the drive thru turns 70, and its influence on the food business is staggering. Americans made 12.4 billion trips to the drive thru in 2016, according to a QSR magazine study, which said that quick service restaurants routinely generate 60–70 percent of their business through the outdoor lane. McDonald’s alone reported that the drive thru accounted for 70 percent of its U.S. sales last year.

Driverless cars, mobile and automation

Tech continues to shape the drive-thru with the biggest changes yet to come. One force is the auto industry. By 2030, around a quarter of all miles driven in the U.S. could be in shared autonomous electric vehicles, according to research. Already technology providers are looking at ways driverless cars could change the food business. More immediately, mobile communications, and automated supply chain advances are spurring shifts.

Forecasting food’s future tech

At September’s FSTec restaurant industry food show, where I delivered a keynote presentation on integrated solutions shaping food service, audience questions covered everything from mobility to connected kitchen strategies. Here are a few ideas.

Ever approach the drive-thru in the middle of a rainstorm? You and everybody else. At America’s drive thrus, bottlenecks are often inevitable, and companies are introducing technologies to serve customers what they want when they want it.

Innovation at Habitat Burger Grill

A few years ago, a chargrilled burger from The Habit Burger Grill, a nationwide fast-casual restaurant concept that specializes in fresh ingredients, was named the “best tasting burger in America.” To accommodate growing interest in its food, The Habit Burger Grill opened drive-thru windows.

To handle the numbers of people who want to use the outdoor lanes, the company introduced a careful mix of planning and technology. It turned to Panasonic Toughbooks to take orders from customers while they wait in the drive-thru line. This gives restaurant employees multiple points to take orders instead of relying on the traditional microphone and menu setup. By having employees move up and the down the line while cars wait, ordering and drive-thru pickup is faster.

DQ’s experience

In Texas, select Dairy Queen restaurants have moved toward putting the entire ordering process into customer’s hands. By providing Panasonic’s solution for self-service touch-screen kiosks, the company has put the power to fully customize orders directly into the hands of their tech-savvy customers. Now customers can place and pay for their orders on self-service kiosks. This frees up staff to more quickly complete orders.

For many food franchisees, profit nirvana is the connected kitchen, which links technologies in the front of the house—including drive-thru windows and kiosks—to automation systems in the back. Robotics is one area garnering excitement. More immediately, tech companies are leveraging other forms of automation—such as algorithms and artificial intelligence—to create solutions to repetitive tasks, like predictive maintenance on a deep fryer so food oil is ordered and changed just in time.

For more on how technology is reshaping the restaurant business, read The Future of the Drive Thru: Overcoming Choke Points.

About 67,000 food services pros from around the globe converged on Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center for the National Restaurant Association’s annual trade show in late May. These are the people who own, manage, buy and sell for some of the industry’s largest brands, and those that we spoke to had questions about technology that blurs lines between business solutions and consumer electronics.

Major food service businesses are increasing investments in technology as a way to improve convenience and the customer experience. They’re also trying new digital endeavors to appeal to a fresh crop of eaters seeking better quality food and an experience that incorporates their gadgets. Whether it’s a tablet-based POS software or an app that allows customers to engage with restaurants on their mobile devices, restaurants are moving toward technologies that look more and more like the tech consumers use in their daily lives. Here’s a look a few other of the most interesting ideas from the show.

1. Co-operative innovation

Some very exciting ideas in food service come from startups, and Panasonic has a track record of working with small companies to provide end-to-end solutions to customers. It benefits the entrepreneur who has an innovation, but may be struggling to bring it to the marketplace or to introduce it to more customers. The small company gains exposure to the engineering and tech resources of a global organization. Perhaps the biggest winner is the food service provider because it sees a steady stream of solutions that can help to increase customer engagement. Panasonic’s work with entrepreneurs take different forms, from partnerships to investments to acquisitions. One such example is Quick Service Software Inc., known for back office software to manage information from the POS and aid in all aspects of managing a quick service restaurant.

2. Immersive tech

For example, those who visited the Panasonic booth this year were able to experience the company’s own twist on this concept with our LinkRay technology. Using visible light communication, LinkRay delivers mobile content by enabling ordinary smartphones to read IDs sent from LED transmitters, such as displays, signboards and spotlights, and to connect to associated mobile content. Applied to restaurants, this technology allows consumers to view expanded menus, nutrition information and even order from their smart phones.

3. Step savers and other productivity hacks

Upscale dining at the movies is a trend sweeping across the U.S., according to Nation’s Restaurant News, which reports that foodservice spending at movie theaters has risen 20 percent compared with a year ago. “Many major movie-theater chains now offer full chef-driven menus complete with alcoholic beverages and seat-side service,” according to the article. One such trendsetter is Flix Brewhouse, which welcomes people with craft beers, fresh and familiar food and blockbuster movies.

To simplify the serving process — and help prevent servers from interrupt action scenes on the big screen — Flix Brewhouse introduced to its locations a feature-packed tablet that would integrate with our existing network infrastructure and most importantly to have ruggedization — and to last without trading off features.

By allowing its servers to present the check and take the payment all with the same device in a single stop at the table, it saves the time that goes into the back-and-forth between dropping the check, returning to pick up the payment, walking to the credit card machine and running the payment before, finally, dropping off the completed bill for the customer to sign and leave a tip. Matthew Baizer, COO of Flix Brewhouse, say that technology provided an opportunity to increase speed of service at their locations.

"We've seen our guest satisfaction and speed of service scores escalate a lot," Mr. Baizer says.Watch a video on how Flix Brewhouse uses mobility to boost customer service:

Direct Store Delivery (DSD) has become a standard model for maintaining retail inventory levels of perishable food and beverages or demand frequent restocking for product freshness. The practice means the product is delivered directly to the retailer by a supplier – bypassing a central distribution center or warehouse. By bringing goods directly to the store and avoiding the added step of a distribution center, suppliers and their delivery operations must be constantly connected with the retailers and be able to respond and deliver goods almost on-demand.  Ideally drivers are updated and often re-routed in real-time based on retailers requests on an as needed basis. By communicating directly with retailers, suppliers get better insight into inventory levels which in turn can drive sales growth.

However, by interfacing with the store directly, suppliers now must also take on tasks that would otherwise be completed by the logistics and distribution center team. Such tasks include inventory management, delivery scheduling and tracking as well as capturing proof of delivery. Today these tasks are usually completed using a mobile device and as more suppliers are discovering, mobile tablets and handheld devices are an ideal fit for the job. But with so many mobile device choices on the market today, it can be difficult to determine which type and model makes the most sense. In order to help make the selection process easier, we put together a list of the top five features to consider when evaluating mobile devices for DSD needs.

1. Ergonomic Scanning: Inventory management and identification are at the heart of DSD and the devices used by delivery drivers must be able to quickly and accurately scan product barcodes or RFID tags and send data updates in real time. Mobile devices that integrate barcodes and RFID tag reading capabilities into the same unit used for all the other tasks the driver needs to accomplish in a day simplify the job. Look for handhelds that include an angled scanner so the driver can scan and use the touchscreen at the same time to increase efficiency.

2. Battery Life: With the need to have real-time, constant connectivity and communications, as well as running multiple applications and delivery routes that can go beyond the standard eight-hour workday, extensive battery life is critical for delivery drivers. Consider devices that have extended high performance operation batteries.  Drivers need to be able to rely on the battery in their mobile device to last throughout the day, in and out of stores as well as their vehicles without having to remember to plug in and charge while on the go. Opt for rugged mobile handheld tablets that provide approximately 12 to 16 hours of battery life so that drivers can make it through all the day’s deliveries without the worry of a dead battery.

3. Reliability: Device reliability under basic consumer usage is the norm today, but device reliability when used by delivery drivers for eight or more hours a day requires purpose-built devices for field workers. Rugged mobile devices that can withstand the accidental drops and bumps that can happen in the fast-moving DSD environment. With the need for digital signature capture or other digital forms of delivery confirmation, a non-functioning device is simply not an option. Be sure to ask about product failure rates when selecting a mobile device and look for those with the lowest rates.

4. Superior Connectivity: Drivers are constantly on the move and while on the road from location to locations, may find themselves in locations that have poor connectivity. However, their apps still needed to communicate their location and receive updated delivery information. Research how devices are engineered and manufactured, as there are devices that have specially designed antennae that are better able to connect wirelessly even in harsh conditions. This design will keep drivers on schedule and inventories up to date.

5. Security: With retailer account and payment data at stake, suppliers must implement stringent security features in order to ensure this sensitive information is kept safe. While many device manufacturers now tout their devices as secure, look for third party validation through standards bodies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 certification.

The DSD model continues to grow and the demand for mobile solutions that fit this specific market’s requirements are becoming better defined. Suppliers are quickly learning that basic smartphones fail to stand up to the job. More rugged, multi-purpose tablets and handhelds offer a better fit. To help you in your research and selection process for the right solution for your business, Panasonic offers solution consulting.  Visit us online to learn more about Panasonic’s solutions for DSD, including the world’s most rugged 5-inch tablet, the Toughpad FZ-E1 / FZ-X1.