Combi Ovens, Robotics and IoT: Where Kitchen Automation Actually Earns Its Money

The combi oven remains the clearest win

The numbers are well documented. A Zurich University of Applied Sciences study found combi ovens can save operators up to 70 per cent on energy costs and 53 per cent on water, while their footprint saves more than 30 per cent of kitchen space. They also cut fats and oils use by up to 95 per cent and reduce waste by removing cooking error, with presets meaning less staff training and fewer people per shift.

Read that list again as a P&L. Energy line down. Water down. Rent efficiency up. Oil purchasing down. Training hours down. Labour per shift down. Very few single purchases touch that many cost centres.

Manufacturer positioning reinforces the yield argument. RATIONAL Australia states that the iCombi Pro “sensitively adjusts its cooking processes which reduces weight and cutting loss” and “produces the same high quality on every single rack, which considerably reduces waste”. That is manufacturer copy and should be weighed as such, but weight loss during cooking is exactly where portion consistency and food cost meet.

Robotics have arrived at the supply level

Automation is no longer something you read about in American QSR trade press. Federal Hospitality Equipment, Australia’s largest commercial hospitality equipment supplier, with 50-plus years in market, launched the Robochef Cooking Robot in its 2025 line-up, designed to streamline production and reduce labour dependency, targeting QSRs, ghost kitchens and hotel night service. Its Dito Sama and Yasaki Prep4You prep machines cut bench space by up to 60 per cent, according to Fine Food Australia.

Bench space at a 60 per cent reduction is not a gadget claim. In a tenancy where every square metre carries rent, prep footprint is capital.

The industry framing for Food & Hospitality Week 2026 at ICC Sydney, 25–27 May 2026, is equally direct: automation, AI tools, robotics and smarter POS systems are increasingly being viewed as essential operational tools rather than future concepts, deployed to reduce overheads and improve efficiency and consistency, according to Restaurant Business Australia.

What group-scale adoption looks like

Event Hospitality & Entertainment (EVT), Australia’s fourth-largest hotel owner, with more than 8,000 staff and 196 hospitality venues across Rydges, Thredbo and Event Cinemas, puts a RATIONAL iCombi in every new or retrofitted kitchen, using it as an oven, batch cooker and regeneration oven, and specifies the iVario, which uses up to 40 per cent less energy and cooks four times as fast, in all new builds. Group Director of Culinary Adam Petta says the group has worked with Comcater for more than 15 years to ensure it has advanced technology in its kitchens, according to Comcater.

The lesson for independents is the standardisation, not the brand. EVT can move chefs between 196 venues because the equipment behaves identically everywhere. Multi-site operators should be making the same call.

Buying well

• Specify against your actual production plan, not your aspirational one.
• Model total cost of ownership, energy, water, servicing and consumables, not sticker price.
• Value programmability as a labour strategy. Presets convert skilled cooking into repeatable cooking.
• Standardise across sites so recipes and training transfer.
• Insist on commissioning and training as part of the purchase. Unused functionality is the most common waste in Australian kitchens.
• Use IoT monitoring for HACCP logging and preventative servicing, not just dashboards.

Kitchen design and equipment specification are where a lot of otherwise sound concepts quietly lose their margin. Alto Cibum helps operators match equipment to production models and rosters, so the capital you commit is capital that pays back. We are glad to review your plans before you sign anything.