DA 3: Review the following news item to motivate your discussion.

Extended menu is Crippling McDonald’s Fast Food delivery process

For your discussion, I am including below links to news article and video profiling McDonald’s recent expansions of menu items, which have made the company’s kitchen operations increasingly complex. The menu has expanded from 85 items seven years ago to 121 today. Its McCafé drinks, for example, require a separate station behind the counter equipped with coffee grinders and blenders, causing longer waits. Also, Premium McWrap invariably stalls the food-assembly line. These additions to menu are hurting McDonald’s goal of getting customers through its drive-throughs in 90 seconds or less; in 2014, McDonald’s average speed of service was clocked at 189+ seconds! In contrast, In-N-Out Burger also offers its Secret (or now, Not-so-Secret) Menu to customers, which surprisingly does not considerably negatively impact the average service speed. Provide your opinion on what your learned from these news items. In your discussion, you may include your insights on what are the causes for slow service speed when comparing McDonald’s vs. In-N-Out menu expansion.

News Item 1: New menu additions are Choking McDonald’s service process.(clicking this link will download the item as a PDF file)

News Item 2 (Video): In-N-Out’s Not-so-Secret MenuLinks to an external site. (clicking this link will open an external site to containing the video)

A sample post from my friend:

Many upper level managers do not/cannot understand the weight of another menu item adds to the processes within a company. Adding a menu item increases the workload for the front line workers. Upper level managers would not understand how an extra menu item impacts their front line work processes if there is no communication between the top and bottom of the company. Larger menu options slow down processes as well as customization options. Constantly adding new items, which is what Mcdonald’s likes to do, also slows down many processes because of the time and training required for each employee to master dealing with the new item. Mcdonald’s has been the leading fast food restaurant for years and seems to be trying to expand their strengths by making available larger scales customization and offering multiple types of food. Their main strength is the speed of service, and so this should be their primary goal as a company.

In-n-out, on the other hand, plays in the competition of “fast food” very well. Their goal is obviously fast food as well, but the difference is that they keep their menu extremely simple. They technically only have one type of burger on the menu and the rest are “customized” versions of that burger. Even their secret or not so secret menu is not a completely different item, such as Mcdonald’s wraps. The secret menu is just a few different changes in their one item that they have. This type of menu keeps processes extremely simple and fast. New employees only need to learn how to make one thing, and the rest of the menu is as simple as pulling one thing out or putting another in. Because the new employees only need to learn a few tasks, they can quickly become used to the job, resulting in fast service even by new employees. In-n-out rarely introduces new items to their menu. They have recently reintroduced hot chocolate as an item, but they still keep their more complex items extremely simple.

As a result, from personal experience, even though In-n-out is extremely busy, your food is ready in a couple minutes. Mcdonald’s sometimes takes 10-15 minutes for a simple burger. When Mcdonald’s is compared to In-n-out, the speed at which the food comes out is near unacceptable as a customer. Mcdonald’s needs to reconsider their goals as a company and make a decision of whether to serve fast food or to serve in a more restaurant style.

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