Structured and Unstructured Problems

Upon visiting Taco Bell, another fast-food restaurant, I found the same scenarios as Burger King, and in some instances, more obvious examples of machine-like employees. The areas that were designated for the filling and preparation the orders were clearly out of the public view, so that patrons would not be able to see the assembly line on which their lunches were being prepared. The food is prepared and heated in stainless steel containers, sour cream, guacamole, and hot sauce are all

A perceived gap between the existing and the desired situation, or a deviation from a norm or described standard is one definition of a problem. To identify the problems I have to compare the current situation to the desired situation. One way to create the desired situation is to create a vision. By creating an initial vision, I will easier identify the problems.

Define the Problem: Describe the type of case and what problem(s) or issue(s) should be the focus for

States problem(s) clearly and concisely in one sentence. Effectively and completely identifies symptoms, critical factors and current state in Background discussion.

problems compared to fixing them. A plan needs to be put together that can create a

From a practical standpoint, cleanliness is an important part of the fast food industry, not only in the restaurant image, but also health safety of the customer. If customers received a dollar every time they ate or entered a McDonald’s, they could probably buy a franchise themselves. Sadly, most McDonald’s restaurants from Los Angeles to New York look the same, somber and bleak. In stark contrast, In-N-Out Burger painted sterile white inside and out, makes their restaurants look refreshingly clean and bright. In-N-Out’s fire engine red sign catches customer’s eyes as they drive along side of the famous restaurant. The employees are super friendly and accommodating at all times during the dining experience.

McDonaldization effects all aspects of today’s society—even the venues we often overlook. Two examples of some commonly overlooked McDonaldized venues are the Kimmel Center and the Hard Rock Cafe. Both of these venues emphasize the McDonald elements of success according to George Ritzer: efficiency, Calculability, predictability, and control. (14, Ritzer). Although these places may feel like a luxurious break from the everyday fast food trip, they are not all that much different.

Fast food companies’ main goal should be providing their workers with a sufficient amount of training. Unfortunately, this isn't the case majority of the time.

The fast food, or quick service restaurant industry (QSR), represents approximately 200,000 restaurants and $155 billion in sales in the U.S. alone, they are one of the largest segments of the food industry (Hoovers, 2011). This segment of the restaurant industry is “highly competitive and fragmented… number, size and strength of competitors vary by region, market and even restaurant. All of these restaurants compete based on a number of factors, including taste, quality, speed of service, price and value, name recognition, restaurant location, customer service and the ambience and condition of each restaurant” (Chipotle, 2010).

BK, on the other hand, uses the continuous chain broiler, with a capacity of 8 burgers per chain, where no human intervention is necessary because the patties enter the broiler on one end and come out on other end after 80 seconds. Furthermore, sandwich dressing is standardized at McD’s with lever based dispensers and portion controlled condiments. At BK, sandwich dressing is handled by employees using plastic squeeze bottles without pre-measured quantities. The lack of portion-controlled condiments at BK can result in different taste and quality of products in addition to wastage. Exhibit 5 and 6 reveal the operating results for McD’s and BK, respectively. McD’s is ahead of the game in the sandwich dressing department, Exhibit 6 shows that BK spends 1.1% of their sales in condiments wastage. BK also uses microwave ovens to maintain the “Made to Order” warm and fresh burgers. The use of microwave ovens result in a 2.1% increase in utility cost compared to McD’s. On the other hand, the cost of food at McD’s is 1.9% higher compared to BK because McD’s keeps finished goods inventory in a bin for 10 minutes before they are discarded. In addition, the paper used to wrap the burger contributes to higher food cost of 0.9% at McD’s.

Notably, with technology advances, everything has become so easy and fast such that we all want every other aspect of our lives to assume a similar concept, and fortunately, the fast food restaurants provide a suitable means of satisfying our hungry stomachs as fast and easy as possible. Surprisingly, most people have adapted a lifestyle that incorporates fast food chains as an important element. For instance, instead of making coffee at home in the morning, I buy coffee on my way to college, for lunch, I buy a sandwich or hamburger from a food truck, and in the evening after a tiring exhaustive day, I order pizza for supper from Pizza Hut. Arguably, food take-outs are part my daily routine, which serves the purpose efficiently but barely sufficiently.

The McDonalds Corporation’s strong internal workings also serve as benefits. In 2005, Fortune Magazine listed McDonald's as the "Best Place to Work for Minorities." McDonalds also invests more than $1 billion annually in training its staff, and every year more than 250,000 employees graduate from McDonald's specialized training facility called Hamburger University [4]. McDonalds also offers scholarships and opportunities to earn college credits for their employees who are still in school [5]. Internally McDonalds also has high standards for food safety regulations. While this might not be more to avoid lawsuits than to take care of their customers, McDonalds claims to go above and beyond national regulation to bring its customers a clean and health dining experience [5].

Mani, N. K., & Srivalli, P. (2014). A study on factors influencing Service Quality in Restaurants'. Annamalai International Journal Of Business Studies & Research, 6(1), 1-9.

By producing a regular number of identical sandwiches, this batch system helps ensure standard and predictable cycle times, consistent quality, greater predictability (less loss to error) and limits the amount of overlap activity; all of which align with McDonald’s objectives. To make a custom burger, the McDonald’s process ensures a level of freshness (relative to industry standards), but creates a delay for the customer. A “grill” sandwich is not processed until the next batch of that particular meat is cooked, and delivered to the customer as quickly as possible, with no opportunity to wait in a warming box. While this leads to fresher sandwiches, it also presents several logistical setbacks. Lead times for grill sandwiches are longer, which means that customers must wait longer, inconsistent with McDonald’s process objectives. This is particularly problematic with drive through customers, who must pull up to a parking space to wait, and may cause bottlenecks. Customers inside are asked to step aside and wait, which can be unnerving for a customer on a short lunch break. Notably, though, the cycle time during rush periods is increased, so the customer will not have to wait as long as during slow times. The grill sandwiches also present problems for the cashiers/servers who must deviate from their standard operation to accommodate

Unpleasant waiting experience might accompany with customers go through the whole service process, which could lower the overall evaluation of service quality easily. Not only the queuing experience, a number of studies also investigated that queuing time in a service organization significantly influences consumer satisfaction. In general, increasing in waiting time is associated with decreasing in customer satisfaction (Katz, M.Larson & C.Larson, 1991). The graph (Dube, Renaghan & Miller, 1994) below shows the effect of waiting time on customer satisfaction in restaurant industry, and suggests that most consumers do not satisfied if the waiting time is longer than 8 minutes. In addition, another study (Jones & Dent, 1994) examined that 70% of respondents considered waiting time as a major