Time is the enemy of food. Well it is for Don Meij and the team at Domino's which today unveiled the latest innovations at this digitally-driven business.

Meij has been clear that this is an organisation that has gone beyond making pizza to focus on delivery. Today's Abacus Live event – which started right on cue as any time-driven event should – was also streamed live on Facebook.

"The breakthrough we continue to work on is a life work for many of us, said Meij. "We are really proud to do a lot of firsts.”

Abacus Live was all about the newest innovations – those already introduced, and those to come.

The latest technological development launches on Monday 13 June and is all about fresh pizza at pick-up.

On Time Cooking

"On Time Cooking is the GPS tracker of pick up,” said Meij. Customers will have the option for Domino’s to start making the order once they are close to the store to ensure the pizza is as hot and fresh as possible.

The GPS Customer Tracker will allow Domino’s to track the customer’s progress whether they are walking, driving or riding a bike.

“We will start tracking you and will only start cooking the pizza fresh when you reach the cooking zone,” said Meij.

Speeding up the order process

How seamless can pizza ordering become? For those customers for whom four clicks on a device is too many, news of the Zero Click application will be welcome. Inspired by developments in the US the business will be launching this within the next few months.

Customers will be able to download the App to get an even faster ordering option: Zero Click repeats the customer's last order unless cancelled within the 10 second countdown.

Slow where it matters, fast where it counts

The new mantra for the business is 'Slow where it matters, fast where it counts.'

Meij reiterated the importance of project 3/10, preciously announced as a delivery goal for the business: making a pizza in three minutes, delivering it in 10.

"This is a really significant project, the most significant in the 29 years I've worked here. Today 68 stores can deliver in 10 minutes, and we have pick- up down to four to five minutes."

Domino's found from adding in new data that 29 percent of times estimated by team members were inaccurate.

"Our pizza spent more time on the rack and in car park than in delivery," said Meij.

Now the process has been further streamlined.

While the safety initiative GPS Driver Tracker, assembling the pizza correctly, and spending time with the customer are processes that don't need to be rushed the parallel cooking of pizza and sides rather than a single production line, faster ovens, and the hustle to get to the car or electric bike streamline the process of delivery.

Adding value

Michael Gillespie, group chief digital officer, said the business had been looking for ways for the data to give better value to customers. The solution he said, is targeted up-sell.

"GPS provides another level of insight. We wanted to add a bit of fun and energy too, so we introduced polls, about our product but also social and political. We post the answers online.”

Robots and artificial intelligence

The audience online and at the venue were introduced to DRU, the autonomous delivery vehicle launched in March.

This is just the start of the role of Artificial Intelligence in Domino’s. Meij expects to see robotic delivery within the year in New Zealand but most customers will come across AI in the near future as a virtual voice assistant helping with orders, he said.

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