Where are all the British robots?

Sarnies andBLTCEO precision engineering may seem to be worlds apart. But Greencore, Britain’s largest sandwich-maker, spends £20m ($25m) on industrial robots annually. They peel, slice and stone avocados. They cut wraps and baguettes in half using ultrasonic knives. They place slices of bread above fillings. They also help make sushi.Machines have not solved all of Greencore’s problems. They’re unable to make a classic (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich, whose fillings are hypersensitive to bruising from heavy machinery. “The software exists but the dexterity of the robot is not where it needs to be,” says Dalton Philips, Greencore’s . Robots struggle with other tasks, too. The company’s workers wrap millions of sandwiches by hand each week. But where they can help, machines make a huge difference, saving 350 hours of manual labour each week on sushi-making alone.