[pbhjpbhj]

How tightly do they manage their production rate, presumably they're more careful than just "keep 6 on the warmer" and more like "the usual rate at this time is 70 per hour, we only lose 15% of those sales by asking the customer to wait, 5% of those losses go for other products, so we'll make at a rate of 1 every X minutes unless we have more than Y on hand"? (numbers completely off the top of my head)

[upvotinglurker]

I worked at a franchised US Burger King in the late '90s. The shift manager would tell us how many fully assembled copies of each popular sandwich type to keep on hand. I never saw any charts or evidence of number crunching, but the numbers did vary based on expected traffic for the day of week and time of day, and the popularity of the specific item.

The sandwich wrappers had the numbers 1 to 12 printed on them, and you were supposed to mark the pre-made sandwiches to show when to throw them away. For example, if you assembled the sandwich at 12:15, mark the 5 to show that it should be thrown away when the clock's big hand is on the 5. Literacy not really required.

[greedo]

I worked back before they had installed microwave ovens, so the person in charge of coordinating the production rate had to be a good judge of the sales rate, the abilities of the grill team etc. We usually tried to time things so that we had the most food ready for lunch rush, and then let it tail off so that we didn't waste a huge amount. McDonalds had all sorts of little charts that averaged sales rates per hour, item rates within that hour etc, but a good employee running the "bin" was far better than someone who just used the charts.

[baby]

I was in a pretty busy McDonalds so we were usually asked to do one more of X when doing X, or two more of Y, or 5 more of Z, ... depending on the rush. That's how we ended up trashing some.

That's because, when doing a big mac for example, it's almost as easy to make one or five on a tray. So better make 5 if you're in a rush, they will likely be fulfilled.

In cool periods we would only produce on command. So no waste. Fresh burgers.

Everyone used to say that Franchise didn't care too much about these rules (where they should), and the director didn't like getting employees from Franchise McDonalds because they had to re-learn all the hygiene standards. Since that day I avoid franchise restaurants and go only to the official ones.

[greedo]

In my experience, franchise stores were generally better run than McOpCo stores. Many of the McOpCo stores were stepping stones for their mgmt staff so they didn't care about profits as much. They ran their stores by the book, but that didn't always correlate with a well run store. I used to be able to spot a McOpCo store within a few minutes of walking in.

[baby]

define better run? You mean from a business stand point? Sure. We would throw a lot of things, wash our hands all the time. From a hygienic/client point of view? I wouldn't agree.

[greedo]

I meant from a QSC standpoint. I'm sure this varies from region to region, but of the 200-400 stores I visited in my career, it wasn't even a close contest. Better quality food, better service, and better cleanliness. Even things like physical premises were generally kept better. I wouldn't hold this against any crew/mgmt team, since facilities maintenance was usually out of their control to a large extent.

Our stores were generally earning 4s in inspections, because Joan Kroc lived about 4 miles away from our best/highest volume store and frequently stopped in. Our worst store was probably closer to McOpCo stores, despite our efforts to improve it over time.

[baby]

What is QSC?

And what you say doesn't really make sense to me, of course my personal experience and what I was hearing at McDonalds is very subjective. But the official restaurants are here to show off what McDonalds is, they are supposed to hold the bar way higher than any other McDonalds restaurants.

[greedo]

QSC=quality, service, and cleanliness.

McOpCo stores have to follow all the rules and policies that Oak Brook dictates to the franchisees, but they also have to be profitable. Oak Brook was often out of touch with how life was for franchisees, and would make requirements that just didn't jibe with making a buck. A franchisee would make the decision to either emphasize or de-emphasize a new policy/procedure, and deal with the consequences from their regional manager if it became an issue.

McOpCo stores weren't immune to business pressures either; having to follow (in theory) all the policies and regulations imposes a cost on their business. And one of the keys to a well run franchise was a stable management team and stable staff under that team. With McOpCo stores being a stepping stone for managers to climb the ranks, it was harder to develop the team cohesion that a good franchisee could.