Question

McDonald’s

When a customer drives up to the speaker box at some McDonald’s drive-throughs, their order is placed with an employee located in a distant call center. The order, along with a photograph taken to the match the customer with the order, is then instantly displayed on a video screen in the food preparation area of the restaurant where the order is placed.

Brainerd, Michigan – Ellie Feld pulled into the drive-through lane at McDonald’s the other day, craving a double cheeseburger. As she leaned out of the window of her Chevy Blazer to place her order through a speaker box, Feld was greeted by the friendly voice of an order taker she thought was working inside. Not even close. Four states away in a Colorado Springs, CO call center, “Linda” recorded Feld’s order and flashed it onto a computer screen inside the kitchen of the Brainerd McDonald’s. Less than 2 minutes later, Feld drove away, a smile on her face and a burger in hand.

In these McDonald’s test sites, the drive-through turnaround time improved by 20 seconds and orders contained fewer mistakes. “In most McDonald’s you’ve got someone to take the order, make the change, and go get the food – you’ve got somebody doing three things,” said Glenn Cook, owner of Brainerd McDonald’s. “Here, someone is sitting at the call center and they have nothing else to do. They are not multi-tasking.”

Question-1

As a service company, McDonald’s includes their customers in the production process. How do customers participate? What aspects of their production process are tradable? How does customer involvement limit the tradability of inputs and finished goods?  

Answer 1

In McDonald's orders can be customised by the customers according to their requirements like adding spices or some extra cheese. The person available at th ecounter asks the customers if they would like to customise their order and hence the customers can participate in the production process by choosing their ingredients. The aspects are done as per th ewishes of the customer and hence tradable. The customer can even choose the base of the burger or the way the fries can be seasoned. This process makes the actual planning of the company to go low and hence the availability of ingredients might not go as planned. Some products may be overly used an dsome might not be of use at all. Hence the whole plan gets disrupted.