Daiichi Foods and Panasonic Connect have introduced a tray making automation system to Daiichi Foods’ Sagamihara factory.
This system automates the tray-making process (the process of combining foods that match the patient’s pathology and placing them on trays), which is a highly difficult task in providing hospital meals.

Hospital lunches require three meals a day, 365 days a year, and early morning and late night shifts to prepare breakfast and clean up after dinner. Currently, it is difficult to secure human resources, and we are facing a serious labor shortage. On the other hand, the complete out-of-hospital meal service concentrates most of the hospital meal service in the central kitchen, and by specializing each process, it is possible to provide meals with a smaller number of staff compared to general hospital meal service.
Since the tray making process is generally combined for each patient, there are about 100 million combinations. This is the most difficult process. It took a long time to train staff for the tray making process because it required skill.

Against this background, they have developed a “Tray Making Automation System” that simplifies the tray making work and saves manpower.