Whatever happened to reliable cheeseburgers?

Went to McDo's to get a quick dinner last night.

McDo's have been revamping their operational flows since sometime last year or possibly earlier. The roll out started in the city locations and have arrived at the heartlands.

1 : Develop McCafe - higher margin products. Up the hip and cool quotient to attract people to sip high end coffees at McDo's. Diversification from core business to compete in a different pie together with players like Starbucks and Coffee Bean.

2 : Streamline operational processes to that of a coffee joint. Take orders at counter, then move aside while another staff assembles the order. Counter staff are solely in charge of taking orders.

3: Production staff are cut further back from front counters to make space for McCafe concept - coffee bars, lounge chairs. Communication is aided by technology similar to that of Burger King's. Counter Crew and Kitchen Crew communicate through orders keyed into central system, and transmitted via a screen in the kitchen.

4. Kiosks are set up in the shop floor for customers to help themselves to condiments, straws and serviettes. To free counter staff to take orders faster. Clear the queues more quickly so that more revenue can be captured


So McDo's is my comfort food place, I admit. I dig their cheeseburgers and Large Ice Teas which have been my default orders whenever I have a need for comfort food. And I dig a nice warm cheeseburger with slightly melted cheese... oooh oooh yum yum!

But back to this neighbourhood McDos. My idea of a quick dinner at a FAST Food Restuarant faded quickly as I observed how they have changed the layout of the place.

Food production kitchen moved upstairs, detached from the crowds at the counter. There was a cctv camera at the counter for the staff to see one another. Communication was done via telephones and the computerised order system where all orders showed up on screen simultaneously in the kitchen and at the counter.

A fast moving belt like a huge clock kept revolving to move hot food orders from the kitchen upstairs to deposit at the counters downstairs.

I made my order with a counter staff who repeated my orders mechanically. No I am not complaining. This is Fast Food. Just give me what I want, the way I want it, FAST. Heck, I even prepare my change ahead of time to speed up your transactions.

But now, the counter staff waits for me to prepare payment as she does nothing. Another staff assembles the order for her. 1 counter, 2 staff.

I was told to move aside to wait for my cheeseburger as it was being prepared and sent on the revolving conveyor belt linking the system between 2 physical floors. But hey, there were 3 others also asked to "wait at the side" for their orders.

So there was another queue forming next to the counter queue. The staff continue to be busy staring into the order screen and scrutinising the receipts which they place on each customer's tray (or plastic bags for takeaways)

So the queue builds up. 2 queues for each counter. Could tell customers were getting confused. Which is the actual correct queue to buy the freaking burger?!

This process works well in places like Starbucks where the counters are designed specially to accomodate waiting in front of the bar. At McDos, no one factored in the waiting. Cos no one thought anyone needed to wait with this expensive high-end technology they invested gazillion$$ in. No, no space to wait, but wait we must.

And the total number of counters have been reduced from 8 counters to 3 in this new restaurant. Possibly because the new system is suppose to hasten operational processes, thus reducing the need for physical counters.

2 of 3 counters were operational last night. 4 queues snaked from the counter to the door, threatening to spill out to the walkways.

I got my tray of stuff, and turned left to reach the condiment kiosks cos apparently you serve yourself these days. I waddled through the crowds, fearful for the safety of my large ice tea. Could barely walk cos all you see are feet and more feet, no ground.

Reached the condiment counter which was filthy by any standard. Disappointing to see this at McDos. Thought this possibly could exist in other fast food chains, but not Mcdos. Ketchup and chilli sauces - spilled by careless users from the dispenser pump. Yea, no more indv packs, pump into small shallow plastic dishes. Squirt squirt splash splash. There were serviettes all over, and chilli sauce on the floor and upturned dishes of sauces all over the counter. I side stepped my way to get my stuff.

So you go green by saving resources used for indv packs of sauces. BUt hey, what about the useless plastic dishes that barely hold anything? McDos - look and learn from MOS please.

Oh well. Maybe they're getting used to the new system and layout. But still...

Anyway, got my ketchup straws and stuff, and had to waddle through the crowds AGAIN. Cos my table's at the other end of the restaurant. By then an impossible number of people have crammed into the area in front of the counters.

Made my way safely to the table seating area. Why they got such HUGE chairs for such a small space is beyond me. In a 8m x 6m area, there were 3 different types of chairs. All knocking into one another.

My cheese burger was cold. Like my Ice Tea. Another order of Big Mac was also cold. The cheese was not even melted to begin with. Looked like one of those slices from the fridge you slap onto your morning breakfast loaf. So it wasnt a case of hot food gone cold. It was not even hot to begin with.

Perhaps it was the kitchen equipment, or environment or whatever. But hey cold cheeseburgers are a HUGE turnoff! If a company cannot get the quality of its basic bread and butter products right, something is fundamentally, intrinsically wrong. If I cannot get a decent cheeseburger at McDos, where do I go? Tze Char stall in Geylang??!

I reflected on the layout of the new concept. Taking some 50% of floor space was a huge coffee bar for McCafe concept. Coffee machines and a big cake display. Giant lounge chairs to encourage lounging and free wifi.

Seriously, I wonder how many % of profits and revenue comes from this McCafe? Why the sacrifice of precious floor space for huge bulky lounge chairs?

I am not fm McDos and have never been. But this smells like a classic mgmt case study Drucker would have liked to use.

1. Diversification is good. Only if the fundamentals are sound.

Looks like McDos is trying to brew high class expensive coffee at the expense of making burgers, their bread and butter business. Are they confused? Is a cup of hot expensive latte excuse enough for cold sub-standard cheeseburgers?

2. Look , Listen, look and listen again.

Nothing beats seeing the real thing in action. Figures and Plans are only figures and plans.

The whiz kid managing McDos should seriously test out their business process and see how ridiculous the business plan looks in reality.

3. Adapt what is fundamentally sound for the business

Countries like Australia benefit from McCafe concepts because there is no lack of space, and there are McDo's a hop skip and jump away in densely populated areas. No competition for space in a land sparsely populated.

McCafe is designed to DRAW people to the store, linger and give life to the place. In Oz, burgers are no longer enough to sustain the business ( no people = no business ), and McCafe injects what's needed. There is enough room to accomodate coffee drinkers who linger over a single drink, and those who are in need of a quick good ol' hot McDos meal.

In land scarce Singapore, allocating some 40-50% of counter space to MaCafe and lounge seats eats into the core business of burgers and hot meals. Compound that with space-consuming seats which look good but serve little purpose.

I wonder what the revenue and profits are like for McCafe in the suburban areas. Is it in proportion to the allocated space?
I quote successful concepts in GWC where the cafe is distince from its basic operations. But look at the suburban malls in Yishun, Bt Batok to name a few. Just go see for yourself.

4. Communicate communicate communicate. Facilite communication and remove barriers.

To remove physical proxmity of its kitchen to front counter is a joke. The kitchen crew cannot communicate except via TV screens and telephones cos they are now located one floor above.

Who in the right mind has time to pick up the phone when he/she has 2 hands full of patties and sesame seed buns?

Floor managers cannot monitor food quality as easily, and staff cannot get a feel of the demand and rush for orders as they could before.

Counter crew are more focused scrutinising the order receipts than on the customers. Everyone now communicates via receipts and computer screens when in the past, a shout to the kitchen would be answered by the person directly responsible for burger production.

Whatever happened to removing barriers to communication? In this day and age where companies are showing more acceptance of instant messaging tools to facilitate collaboration and communication, McDos just physically removed all possible channels of communication between its sales and production people. Clap clap clap.

And all I wanted last night was a quick hot cheeseburger meal so I could watch Prison Break. Needless to say, I was 50 min late.

Oh and by the way, anyone wondered why they could not have moved the McCafe to the floor above, physically distinct and keep the kitchen close to the front counters?

And interestingly McDos is running adverts for recruitment. Cos now it takes 2 persons to man one counter. Just so they can scrutinise printed receipts, multi million dollar computer screens and telephones in a fast food outlet.

And don't tell me they welcome older workers cos I see none. Technology has handicapped the older workers who worked for yonks with them, and they are being phased out of the spanking new multi million dollar concepts.

Just because Kopi just isn't the same as a Latte or Hazelnut Low fat Cappucino