Virtual Reality Simulation Food Assembly Processes for Employee Training

The pizza chain partnered with Designing Digitally, Inc. to develop Virtual Reality Simulations to provide the processes accurately to the employees.  An immersive virtual reality (VR) kitchen that is accessed via the web and Virtual Reality Headset provides trainees with hands-on experience of pizza-making without having to worry about safety issues. This Virtual Reality simulation teleports trainees into a full pizza kitchen, equipped with all of the nuances of a real kitchen that make the environment feel real in both sight and sound. The Virtual Reality simulation PizzaMaker utilizes simplified game mechanics to get those unfamiliar with VR up and running quickly as well as for instructions on using the Oculus Go controller that could be simply ignored by anyone more familiar with the technology.

Trainees receive an order, such as a large pepperoni pizza, and step-by-step instructions in the form of a ‘to-do list’ poster displayed in the kitchen that outlines the steps needed to complete an order in a Virtual Reality metaverse. As the trainee completes a VR step, such as placing the sauce on the dough, they hear a ding as a checkmark appears on the to-do list, indicating they were successful with that step and should move to the next step, which in this example would be adding cheese. All of the ingredients, equipment, and tools the trainee might need are visible and within reach to reduce way-finding-related distractions, allowing them to focus on the process within the Virtual Reality simulation. Once the learner has mastered the steps to make a pizza with the step-by-step to-do list visible, the training uses a scaffolding approach by removing the to-do list and allowing the trainee to test their recollection of the steps in this virtual reality simulation.