Business Needs and Priorities for McDonalds - Case Study Example

ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT INFS 5089 2017 Assignment 1 (Internal and External) Management Proposal Data Architecture for McDonald’s [Your Name] [Date] CONTENTS CONTENTS 2 Executive Summary 3 Business Processes 4 Information 6 Information Sources 7 EDM technologies and Methodologies 8 Enterprise Data Architecture Diagram 10 Reference List 11 Executive Summary McDonald’s is a leading global restaurant chain that offers fast foods to its customers in kiosks and restaurants. The global restaurant chain also allows its customers to place orders online via mobile phone apps and the website. At the heart of McDonald’s operational strategy is its ability to offer quality products to its customers at significantly lower prices as compared to its competitors. McDonald’s has also managed to retain its competitive edge in the market because of its ability to meet customer demand and offer exceptional services to customers. In meeting customer demand, the restaurant chain guarantees the availability of high demand products by filling in the gaps in the buffer shoots whenever the manager realizes that the restaurant is running out of stock of the item in demand. To guarantee the availability of products based on demand, the restaurant chain requires an efficient data management architecture that consolidates and reports information from suppliers, distributors, and customers. Business Needs and Priorities of McDonald’s In the quest to become a leading franchise in the fast food retail section, McDonald’s should ensure that it is able to meet its needs and attain its priorities. Since the restaurant chain operates in the fast food industry, McDonald’s business needs and priorities are in five main sections. The sections include the need to maintain focus on the customer, the need to utilise effective communication skills, the need to become to a leader in the industry, the need to have a “head” in the financials, and the need to participate in community programmes. Just like other firms in the industry, identifying the effective ways of satisfying such needs is imperative for the success of any firm operating in the industry. McDonald’s endeavours to work with professionals that leave and breathe its brand (McDonald’s 2017). As a result, the activities of such professionals should extend beyond the mere participation in marketing and advertising campaigns. McDonald’s considers its employees as global ambassadors. As a result, the firm has tasked its employees with the responsibility of making its global personality relevant to the community. The firm reiterates the significance of giving customers the final say by producing fast foods and offering services that meet the existing customer demand and specifications. Consequently, it is mandatory for the owners of all McDonald’s restaurants to upgrade their restaurants with the objective of making them appear modern and interactive in the quest to improve the experience of customers. Business Processes McDonald’s utilise four policies that govern its business processes. The policies include operations excellence, service delivery, quality, and hygiene (Shaymo 2014). In order to understand the business processes of the restaurant chain, it would be proper to consider one of their products, say the burger. It is evident that McDonald’s restaurants utilise standard procedures just like other fast food restaurants across the globe. However, an onlooker is unable to know that McDonald’s employs a specific way to make its burgers. Upon completion, its staffs place the burger in a particular shoot. It is also clear that McDonald’s limits the shoots to “Runner” products such as burgers. The important feature of runner products is their high demand characterised in terms of high predictable and big volume. Some of the runner products at the restaurant chain include chips, hamburger, Quarter Pounder, and Big Mac, among others. In order to attain operations excellence, McDonald’s ensures high precision in producing such products. This is important because the products turn out to be the main source of profits for the restaurant chain. In order to determine the number of burgers produced in an hour and the exact quality of the product, managers at McDonald’s require employees to adopt a specific process of making burgers at a specified rate (Shaymo 2014). This ensures that managers can have accurate information on the number of burgers produced and the rate of production. McDonald’s relies on the approach in all its business processes in the quest to meet customer demand. Staffs embark on making burgers only if the manager has identified a gap in the shoot. McDonald’s customers do not spend a lot of time on the queue since managers ensure the availability of a buffer that meets customer demands even when staffs are not in the process of producing burgers. The ability of the restaurant chain to avail customer products immediately following the placement of the order contributes towards improving customer experience. This indicates that the restaurant chain employs effective service delivery as an area of competitive advantage. The fact that the managers signal burger makers to fill gaps in the event that they arise ensures that the restaurant chain does not overproduce the product but rather produce based on the demand. In essence, the burger maker is always fully aware of the next move. McDonald’s also splits the waiting time between service time and queueing time in the quest to attain service delivery and operational excellence (Shaymo 2014). By so doing, McDonald’s servers asks customers to move aside after the customer has paid for the product. The strategy provides room for the servers to take orders from other customers standing on the queue. On the part of the customer, it is evident that the strategy yields the perception of flow and continuous movement. Even though the spreading of the waiting time across several stages does not reduce the total waiting time, it is apparent that it gives customers the impression of reduced waiting time. This is because the strategy reduces the idle time that customers could have spent at the cash register thereby reducing the number of staffs required at the registers and the amount of registers required. In simple terms, McDonald’s maximises the effectiveness of its processes. A similar system also works with suppliers. Consequently, it is the responsibility of suppliers to identify gaps each day and fill them as fast as possible to eliminate the possibility of waste in any part of the process. McDonald’s also applies the principle of Right First Time in preparing and giving out orders (Shaymo 2014). Under the principle, servers use the printed copy as a checklist to know the time when they give the product to the customer. The endeavour of the restaurant chain is to ensure that the process is 100% effective to avoid incidences where customers that arrive late get served before those that had arrived earlier. McDonald’s also employs two people in the burger making process. The decision ensures that the staffs can fill the gap as soon as possible. McDonald’s also hires a third staff to pack the burgers. This gives the impression of a classic assembly process in the making of burgers. As a result, managers have to gather performance and productivity data continuously in the quest to ensure the filling of gaps in the buffer shoots. McDonald’s managers understand that their profits depend on the use of cost-effective labour and materials. As a result, they have to get things done the correct way first time since there is no room for wastes considering its adverse impact on profitability. McDonald’s managers understand that in some instances, customers place orders for “Stranger” products. Stranger products are foods that do not have a significant contribution to the efficiency of the restaurant and executed only in rare occasions (Shaymo 2014). Managers do not follow the shoot process in serving customers of such products. In the event that a customer places an order for a Stranger product, the server would inform the customer that it would take five minutes for the staff to prepare the product and direct the customer to a waiting table. The server also informs the customer that she or he would avail the product to the customer’s waiting point upon the completion of its preparation process. This implies that McDonald’s uses service delivery in instances where it is unable to meet the speed requirement. Even though the process would cost more, it is evident that the cost of the additional service is negligible considering the entire services offered by the servers. McDonald’s also ensures effective service delivery by exhibiting top-class hygiene levels. In essence, it is proper to state that McDonald’s employs an effective process in making and delivering its products to customers (Shaymo 2014). Moreover, the entire value chain is also effective since suppliers identify and fill gaps as deemed necessary. In conclusion, McDonald’s system ensures low labour cost, minimal idle time, continuous order processing, controlled flow of finished products and raw materials, high productivity, high service delivery, fast-moving queues and minimal congestion. The system also ensures consistent and excellent customer experience across all chains and high quality processes that emanate from the use of standard work. Information The effective design of goods and services is one of the competency areas that McDonald’s utilises to remain on the competitive edge in the industry (Gregory 2017). As a result, the company require information concerning the prices of its products and the serving sizes. In the quality management endeavour, McDonald’s requires information about the price limits and costs. Such information would guarantee the consistency of the high quality product offerings in the restaurants thereby satisfying the expectations of consumers regarding the McDonald’s brand in the aspect of quality. McDonald’s also require information on the design of the process and the capacity. It is evident that the restaurant chain focuses on minimising costs as the basis of its process and capacity design. The information would play a massive role in enabling managers of the restaurant chain to ensure the efficiency of operations management by maintaining adequate capacity and process efficiency in order to meet the underlying market demand for its products. Prior to the establishment of a restaurant outlet in an area, it is imperative for managers to conduct a location research to determine the viability of the location in relation to the anticipated demand and the existing competition (Gregory 2017). It is evident that McDonald’s marketing mix comprises of different venues such as kiosks, restaurants, mobile phone apps, and the website. Besides location strategy, it is imperative that the restaurant chain requires information that would enable it to develop and implement effective layout and design strategies. In the quest to ascertain the effectiveness of its job design and human resource operations, McDonald’s requires information on the best skills and competencies required for staffs. McDonald’s also requires substantial information about its suppliers. The information spans across identifying the number and diversity of its suppliers to the effectiveness of the suppliers in filling gaps in their supplies. It is also evident that McDonald’s require substantial information on its inventory to ascertain the effective management of its inventory (Gregory 2017). Such information would enable the restaurant chain to manage its operations thereby reducing inventory costs and supporting the operations of its restaurants. McDonald’s also requires information about fluctuations in the market demand to enable the effective implementation of its schedules. Finally, McDonald’s values its maintenance operations. As a result, it endeavours to ensure the use of the most effective maintenance operations. Therefore, the restaurant chain requires information about the maintenance operations and their effectiveness in order to select the right staffs and personnel to conduct the operations. Information Sources In order to obtain information about the price of its products and the serving sizes, market research suffices to be the most important source. The research would enable McDonald’s to understand the serving sizes and prices of products offered by its competitors and use the information in conjunction with its mission and vision to retain its competitive position. However, McDonald’s should limit the information to the most popular consumer expectations since such information is pertinent towards luring customers to use its products (Gregory 2017). In order to gather information about price limits and costs, McDonald’s uses the production line method. With the method, the restaurant chain is able to ensure that the quality of its products is consistent. In the process of gathering information on the process and capacity design, McDonald’s utilises the production line method. Reaching customers through both traditional ways (restaurants and kiosks) and online ways (mobile phone apps and websites) would play a pivotal role in enabling managers to identify potential market areas (Gregory 2017). For instance, compiling data from online customers that live in areas that do not have a McDonald’s outlet would enable managers to consider the area as a viable location for an outlet. In gathering information pertinent in the development of layout and design strategies, McDonald’s utilises information on customer expectations gathering during the initial market research to understand customer needs. From such information, it is clear that McDonald’s customers value the quality and cost effectiveness of its products rather than the spaciousness and comfort of its kiosks and restaurants. Consequently, managers focus on delivering the former as opposed to the latter. McDonald’s subjects its aspiring employees to interviews to identify their skills and competencies and identify their areas of weakness. This enables the managers to train the employees on the proper skills required for effective service delivery. McDonald’s conducts adequate market research on the effectiveness and diversity of various suppliers and combines such information with the performance of its suppliers to work with the right group of suppliers. The information is detrimental towards preventing the supply chain risk (Gregory 2017). In collecting information necessary in inventory management, the restaurant chain coordinates the operations of its local and regional distributors and intermediaries in understanding the demand for specific materials in accordance with the demand for the finished products. The information plays a massive role in enabling the restaurant chain to fill gaps as fast as possible. In the quest to gather information on its schedules, McDonald’s uses corporate conventions with reference to the supply chain needs, laws, and market conditions. Such information is pertinent towards enabling the restaurant chain to deal with the fluctuations in the market. Restaurant managers and franchisees provide information about the maintenance operations in the restaurants thereby enabling the use of effective personnel to carry out the maintenance practices. EDM technologies and Methodologies The Data Lifecycle In the data lifecycle, McDonald’s should follow the five sequential actions in the data cycle. Conceptualise is the first action that requires the restaurant chain to conceive and plan the effective ways of creating data including the storage and capture options. Creating or Receiving data is the second action where McDonald’s should embark on the actual data collection process from data creators, data centres, or repositories. The third step is the appraisal and selection stage where McDonald’s should evaluate and select the required data for preservation and use. Ingest is the fourth action where McDonald’s should transfer the data to a repository. The final action is the preservation action where the restaurant chin should clean and validate the data in acceptable file formats for retention and long-term preservation. Data Integration and Sharing among Partners and Suppliers It is essential that McDonald’s should use the privacy-preserving data integration and sharing to limit the leakage of data to its rivals (Clifton et al. 2004). As a result, it would be imperative for the restaurant chain to share data on consumer demand, consumer expectations, and the market conditions, and prices with its local and regional distributors and suppliers without losing the privacy of such data. The Identification of New Information Requirements In the quest to identify new information requirements, McDonald’s should conduct in-depth market research in conjunction with its suppliers and distributors to identify consumer expectations, fluctuations in market prices, changing laws of consumer products, among other details. The restaurant chain should identify effective ways of integrating such information in its production practices in order to remain relevant in the market. Managing Master Data In the context of McDonald’s, master data entails the data shared across its entire system. In essence, this entails the data shared between the company, and its distributors, customers, and suppliers. Master data is important in the definition and classification of transactional data (Morris 2005). In the case of the order detail data at McDonald’s, it is evident that the order detail record refers to the ordered product and the overall order via a key or identifier. The order record then refers back to the client or customer. Managing master data also entails the use of reporting and analytics systems in the firm. Data Consolidation for Report and Analysis In the process of merging data for reporting and analysis, a packaged application would provide a viable approach to the process. The Oracle Hyperion Financial Management is one of the applications that could be important in the process. Besides fulfilling the requirements for management reporting, the package application also fulfils statutory or legal requirements. The functions of the application include structuring and automating data, supporting management reporting, and playing the role of a consolidated record book (Oracle 2008). Enterprise Data Architecture Diagram Figure 1: The Enterprise Data Architecture Diagram for McDonald’s Reference List Clifton, C, Kantarcioǧlu, M, Doan, A, Schadow, G, Vaidya, J, Elmagarmid, A and Suciu, D 2004, Privacy-preserving data integration and sharing, In Proceedings of the 9th ACM SIGMOD workshop on Research issues in data mining and knowledge discovery (pp. 19-26). ACM. Gregory, L 2017, ‘McDonald’s Operations Management, 10 Decisions, Productivity’, Business Management, Panmore Institute. Available from: http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-operations-management-10-decisions-areas-productivity McDonald’s 2017, ‘What you’ll need to become a franchisee’, Available at: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/People/Franchising.html/what-you-will-need.html Morris, H D & Vesset, D 2005, ‘Managing master data for business performance management: the issues and hyperion's solution’, IDC white paper. Oracle 2008, ‘Financial Consolidation, Reporting, and Analysis’, An Oracle White Paper. Shaymo 2014, ‘McDonald’s Business Process’, Future State. Available from: http://www.futurestate.ie/index.php/mcdonalds-business-process/ Read More