Automated kitchen with a wood-handling robot and a washing and cooling room at New OUH

The kitchen at New OUH is located in Servicebyen. Here, the hospital has automated as many processes as possible to streamline workflows and relieve staff of much of the heavy physical labor.

When the food carts carrying used dishes arrive at the kitchen, they are placed in an automatic intake, moved forward, and into the kitchen area itself. From the intake, the carts are transported to a robot, which uses suction cups to remove the trays and place them by the dishwasher. A combination of sensors on the robot and cutouts in the metal of the carts allows the robot to identify which type of food cart it needs to empty.

Once the carts have been emptied, they are moved to the washing area. The carts are washed so that they are clean and ready to be refilled. From the washing area, the carts are moved into the cold storage room to be cooled to a temperature of 4–5 degrees—the same temperature as the food. The cold storage room is divided into two sections by a door. The front section of the cold storage room can only hold four food carts at a time. When one or more carts are removed from the front section, new carts are automatically moved forward from the rear section. The door between the two sections ensures that there is no significant loss of cold air when employees open the door to the front section to remove carts. From the cold storage room, the carts are manually loaded with food and then transported directly to the hospital.

At Nyt OUH, automation was a major focus area when we were developing our logistics operations. We aim to create work procedures that are both more efficient and less physically demanding for our employees. For example, in the kitchen, we have eliminated much of the manual transport of food carts, so employees no longer have to push carts through the hot dishwashing area and directly into the cold storage area. Similarly, we have a robot that empties the dirty food carts. This improves the work environment, reduces energy consumption, and frees up staff to focus on other tasks.

Poul Køstner, Project Consultant for the project organization at New OUH