Operations Management of McDonald - Term Paper Example

Operations Management Grade Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction to Operations Management 3 Introduction to McDonald 4 Operational Strategic Decision Making of McDonald 4 Description of McDonald Drive-Through Process 7 Key Design Principles of Drive Through 7 Bottlenecks of the Process 8 Suggestions to Improve the Efficiency of the Process 9 Process Chart of Drive through Process 11 11 References 12 This paper is about operations management of McDonald, a fast food organization serving the customers all over the world. The paper will critically examine the structural and infrastructure operational strategic decision-making. The paper will start with the introduction of operations management and the fast food company under study. Introduction to Operations Management Operation is a broad term conveying the general meaning of any function being performed. However, in business terminology, it refers to the core functions of the organization, the function for which the organization exists (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012). Many organizations are manufacturing concerns hence production is regarded as operation. All other tasks related to marketing the product and customer service are considered the primary functions but generally are not included in the list of departments which are related to operations. Management is defined as planning, organizing, leading and controlling the related activities to achieve the desired goal. When the two terms of operations and management are combined, it includes all planning and executing tasks. Keeping in view this background, the general definition of Operations management is planning, organizing, leading and controlling all the processes that are directly involved in transforming outcome using inputs. As mentioned earlier, operations are the core responsibilities of the organizations; hence operation management is the most important activity taking place in every organization (Greasley, 2008). The operation management in any organization is directly affected by its corporate strategy (Ho, 1999). In other words, the corporate strategy and goals determine the shape and underlying principles of operations management. It is the area of operations management which leads to creation and maintenance of competitive edge for the organization. Introduction to McDonald As mentioned earlier, McDonald is a fast food restaurant having presence all over the world (McDonald, 2012) and expanding the business on regular basis. The restaurant finds its roots into a small burger shop established by two brothers in 1940 (McDonald, 2012). Mac and Dick opened a small restaurant in California to meet the needs of local customers. Its expansion was the idea of Ray Kroc who was impressed with the success of the small restaurant which sustained for 14 years. He introduced McDonald in literature and offered the two brothers a handsome price to sell the restaurant. The brother did not agree to sell their source of income; however, they offered Kroc the license to establish another restaurant with the brand of McDonald. It was the first franchise, which paved the way for remarkable success for McDonald in the days to come. McDonald offered its franchise license at wide platform and candidates from nook and corners of the world. McDonald expanded internationally in a short span of time. Presently, it has more than 33,000 outlets established in around 119 countries of the world (McDonald, 2012). The average number of customers visiting McDonald everyday is no less than 60 million. This figure is officially surveyed and published at the corporate website of McDonald (McDonald, 2012). Operational Strategic Decision Making of McDonald While describing the operational strategic decision making of McDonald, the paper will focus on two core factors of structure (Dant, & Kaufmann, 2003) and infrastructure. The paper will examine these two factors in the perspective of food production process. It goes without saying that food is the sensitive item the individuals eat and it becomes part of their flesh and blood. Food is energy source for individuals hence it should meet the quality standards. The food should act as a fuel to the body systems and do not create any issue in them. This is the basic principle, with which fast food industry establishes its business. McDonald also took special initiatives in this regard and based its strategy on the three principles of cleanliness, quality and service (McDonald, 2012). According to the corporate priorities, McDonald aligns all its production policies with its strategic goals (Gould, 2011). As the term is self-explanatory, quality means the absence of all harmful ingredients from the food recipe. The ingredients should be monitored from their production, preservation and usage as well. It is quite possible that McDonald focuses on strong procedure to ensure the preservation of ingredients in the same condition in which they are received in McDonald kitchen. However, it also needs to ensure that the condition in which they arrive is also satisfactory and meets all required standards. The cooking range and kitchen is free of dust, insects, and other items which can disturb the food quality. To ensure quality, it is also mandatory that the cooks and other staff present in the kitchen are healthy and clean. They do not smoke and drink in that area. Their hairs are covered and nails are cut. They do not contain any stuff that can be mistakenly dropped in the food utensils. In the kitchens of international standards, there are specific uniforms which are to be worn even by the visitors while entering the kitchen. It is to ensure the quality of the food prepared in the kitchen. Trash bins need to be placed away from kitchens so that germs are not spread around and the risk of producing unhygienic food can be mitigated. It is interesting to mention that many stomach related issues like diarrhea are caused mainly by eating food which does not meet quality standards. Customers are at liberty to sue the restaurant if they feel that food was unhygienic and became the cause of their upset physical condition (Schröder & McEacher, 2005). Once the restaurant is sued for such cases, it loses its market value all of a sudden and people tend to avoid it at a large scale. It is also possible that the restaurant wins the case, but the bad image stays in the market for long. People do not tend to compromise on food quality (Brembeck, 2003). Electronic cooking instruments like microwave ovens are notorious for injecting harmful effects in the food items cooked in them. All over the world, researches are conduct to find alternative ways of cooking and disposing food items. These researches specifically focus on environmental protection and heath care perspective. Fast food industry is criticized on these grounds and it is the need of the hour that corrective action should be taken with zeal and zest. Another strategic focus of McDonald is on hygiene and cleanliness of the atmosphere. Hygiene and cleanliness is of utmost importance because of the mentioned reasons. In addition to the ingredients and people involved in food production, the hygiene of entire facility and utensils is also important. It is the reason; McDonald tends to use disposable utensils so that their re-cleaning issues are eliminated altogether. An important factor to be considered from structural and infrastructural point of view is related to waste disposal. Because of increased focus on environmental cleanliness, many industries related to pollution and waste management are at hit list. They are required to identify new mechanism of food disposal so that environment protection can be ensured. A serious threat for McDonald is related to its placement near airport. The flying aircraft are prone to crash if birds are found on runways. Birds usually gather around the food items and their disposal bins. It is a big threat to the aircraft safety and the sensitive authorities can take action against it. The next section of the paper is related to drive through service of McDonald. It will analyze the drive through process of McDonald and identify bottlenecks in it. Description of McDonald Drive-Through Process McDonald Drive Through service is launched to facilitate the customers who do not have time to visit outlet to have meal. McDonald offers dine in facility to the visiting customers; however, they can take away the meal as well. In order to increase convenience for the customers who intend to take away meal, McDonald has established one window counter for them. Driving through the route towards McDonald, the customers adopt the lane which leads them to the one window counter. Customer’s horn invites the attention of counter person, who receives the order from the customer sitting in his car. The order is passed to the kitchen staff. The support staff readily packs the meal as required by the customer and hands it over to the counter person. The counter person gets the e-bill from his system and gives the meal and bill to the customer. The customer receives meal, pays bill and moves his car ahead. The counter person now attends the next customer in the queue of drive through. Key Design Principles of Drive Through The idea of drive through was conceived to facilitate the customer who is more interested in taking away the meal. Below are the design principles which determined increased effectiveness of this process. The first design principle is related to time saving element of the process. This design principle ensures biggest benefit to the drive through option. The benefit of the drive through process is related to time saving for the customer. It is quite possible that a customer wants to have a meal from McDonald but has no time to go there, wait at counter, and collect his order. He needs a parking place for his vehicle, walk inside the fast food outlet, wait in order queue, place order, make payment, wait in order collection queue, receive meal, walk out of the outlet, start the vehicle and take his way. The drive through eliminated many steps which are not related to order processing. Another design principle is about customer convenience. The outlet of McDonald has to establish a one window counter with active attendant so that drive through customer can be entertained as quickly as possible. It goes without saying that McDonald is incurring cost to offer this option, yet it is paying it well. It is because; customers are psychologically of the view that they can get meal quickly and without any hassle. By introducing this option, many customers who have busy schedule, find time to at least visit the drive through area. The third design principle is more of business perspective. Drive through offers competitive edge to McDonald. This service is not offered at many other fast food outlets, hence busy customers tend to avoid the length procedure discussed earlier. The placement of McDonald is also a contributory factor in determining the success of this option. McDonald places its outlet in commercial areas, entertainment spots and busy areas like airport. In many of these areas, parking is an issue and many people just overlook the food spots to save from the hassle of parking and waiting. It is quite possible that traffic is also heavy in these areas which can make shopping even more difficult. Bottlenecks of the Process There is always a room for improvement in every process as requirements may change with the passage of time. New issues can appear which need solution accordingly. McDonald introduced a convenient option in the form of drive through. It embedded the element of time saving, convenience and competitive edge in it, yet the process is not fool proof. The bottlenecks of the drive through process are discussed below. All customers in drive through are served at one window counter. They place the order and wait for delivery. There is a single attendant who takes the order, coordinates with the kitchen staff and gets the meal to hand it over to the customer. Then it collects the payment and there comes the turn of next vehicle. The element of time saving is reduced if there are multiple vehicles in the queue. All will have to wait for their turn, and the big size of vehicle will restrict more vehicles to take place in queue. The queue will spoil all customer convenience and competitive edge will become a big drawback of the process. It leads to the conclusion that drive through is designed for less number of customers, so that their time can be saved. It is a limiting factor of drive thorough and the design authorities should give it serious thought to overcome this limitation. Suggestions to Improve the Efficiency of the Process Another bottleneck of the process is related to the availability of manpower at the window counter. If McDonald really wants to speed up the process, there should be somebody who received the order with payment, at one window and allows the vehicle to approach the next window. By the time, the vehicle reaches there; his order is ready to be delivered to him and the delivery boy at the next counter hands over the meal to the customer. This method will eliminate the concept of waiting time; the moving queue will give the impression of speed while the dedicated attendant at the counter will also give the feel of customer convenience. If this option cannot be implemented because of space constraints at drive through lane, it can be implemented using many other versions. An instance is order is forwarded to the kitchen staff though online application which is operated by the window counter’s staff. The kitchen staff readily packs the meal and drops on the conveyer belt which is terminated at the window counter. Another option can be related to online order placement by the customer himself when he enters the drive through lane. By the time he reaches one window counter, his order is ready and he collects it on making payment. In all cases, the improvement to be carried out is about time management. It was the core reason behind introducing this system of drive through. Hence, the management should be active upon preserving the time saving factor lest it becomes a threat for them. Process Chart of Drive through Process References Brembeck, H., 2005. Home to McDonald’s: Upholding the Family Dinner with the Help of McDonalds. Food Culture and Society An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 8(2), pp.215-226. Dant, R. P., & Kaufmann, P. J., 2003. Structural and strategic dynamics in franchising. Journal of Retailing, 79(2), pp.63-75.  Gould, A. M., 2011.Working at McDonalds: some redeeming features of McJobs. Work Employment Society, 24(4), pp.780-802.  Greasley, A., 2008. Operations Management. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Ho, S., 1999. Operations and Quality Management. London: International Thomson Business Press. McDonald, 2012. History of McDonald’s Restaurant::About McDonalds.com [online] Available at: < http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html > [Accessed 10 April 2012]. McDonald, 2012. McDonald’s Corporate Leadership::About McDonalds.com [online] Available at: < http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/leadership.html > [Accessed 10 April 2012]. McDonald, 2012. McDonald’s Mission and Corporate values::About McDonalds.com [online] Available at: < http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mission_and_values.html > [Accessed 10 April 2012]. McDonald UK, 2012. Company Info, franchise & Contact UK [online] available at < http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ > [Accessed 22 Apr 2012]. McDonald, 2012. A Brief History of McDonald’s [online] available from < http://www.mcspotlight.org/company/company_history.html > [Accessed 22 Apr 2012]. Schröder, M. J. A., & McEachern, M. G., 2005. Fast foods and ethical consumer value: a focus on McDonaldʼs and KFC. British Food Journal, 107 (4), pp.212-224. Wheelen, Thomas L. and  Hunger, J. David, 2012.  Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability. USA: Prentice Hall. Read More