McDonalds Franchise

6 Sigma Project
Project number 1 Wednesday December 18, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Quality Management General Layout Observations Process Improvement Follow up Conclusion 2 4 5 19 19 20 21

Prepared by Matala Touir Gohar Fahd Simon Guienguere

Ford

Introduction
McDonald's Corporation is the largest fast-food operator in the World and was originally formed in 1955 after Ray Kroc pitched the idea of opening up several restaurants based on the original owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. Today, McDonald's operates more than 32,000 restaurants in over 118 countries at year-end 2008 and have one of the world's most widely known brand names. McDonald's sales hit $57 billion company-wide and over $25 billion in the United States in 2008 (McDonald Annual Report of 2008). McDonalds, the long-time leader in the fast-food wars, faced a crossroads in the early 1990s. Domestically, sales and revenues were flattening as competitors encroached on its domain. In addition to its traditional rivalsBurger King, Wendys, and Taco Bellthe firm encountered new challenges. Sonic and Rallys competed using a back-to-basics approach of quickly serving up burgers, just burgers, for time-pressed consumers. On the higher end, Olive Garden and Chilis had become potent competitors in the quick service field, taking dollars away from McDonalds, which was firmly entrenched in the fast-food arena and hadnt done anything with its dinner menus to accommodate families looking for a more upscale dining experience.

McDonalds Corporation 2111 McDonald's Dr Oak Brook, IL 60523 1-800-244-6227 E-mail: support@mcdonalds.com

MCDONALDS FRANCHISE
I am Lovin it!

Were on the web www.mcdonalds.com

Despitethisfuriouscompeti tionin2003,McDonalds servedanaverageof47million customersaday.In2008,the companysaverageincreased to58millioncustomersaday, anincreaseofabout25per centinjustfiveyears.Withthis hugenumberofcustomer servedadayMcDonald'slike anyothercompanyfocuson satisfyingtheircustomerby providinggoodfoodandser vice.McDonald'salsotargets businesscustomersasapartof theircorebusiness.Business customersmaystopduringthe workdayandcancountonfast service,andconsistentlygood food.Therefore,customers

waitingtime(beforegot served)isoneofthemostim portantfactorsthatMcDonalds focusedonlatelyinthisfast paceera. Afieldsamplescollectedfrom twoofthebusiestrestaurantin theregion.Thedatawascol lectedbasedonthetimewhen thecustomerordersthefood untilthetimethecustomerget thefoodonhands.Thewaiting timeinthequeuebeforeorder ingthefoodwasnotconsidered becauseofitswidevariability. Thewaitingtimeofsixtycus tomersweremeasuredbyone operator(toeliminatetheGage variability).

DuringthisSixSigmaproject study,oneprojectmethodology followed.Thismethodologyin spiredbyDemingsPlanDo CheckActCycle.Which,com prisingfivephaseseach,bear theacronymsDMAIC (Wikipedia,2009) DMAIC is used for projects aimed at improving an existing businessprocess.

DMAIC
TheDMAICprojectmethodologyhasfivephases:
Definehighlevelprojectgoalsandthecurrentprocess. Measurekeyaspectsofthecurrentprocessandcollectrelevant data. Analyzethedatatoverifycauseandeffectrelationships.

Determinewhattherelationshipsare,andattempttoensurethatall factorshavebeenconsidered.

Within the individual phases of a DMAIC project, Six Sigma utilizes many established qualitymanagement tools that are also used outside of Six Sigma.

Improveoroptimizetheprocessbasedupondataanalysisusing

techniqueslikeDesignofexperiments. Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before

they result in de fects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to pro duction, set control up

mecha

nisms and continu

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Quality Management Tools and Methods used in Six Sigma.

Within the individual phases of a DMAIC project, Six Sigma utilizes many established quality-management tools that are also used outside of Six Sigma. The following table shows an overview of the main methods used or can be used (depend on the data collected).

Regression analysis Root cause analysis Run charts Stratification Thought process map

Analysis of variance Business Process Mapping Catapult exercise on variability Cause & effects diagram Chi-square test of independence and fits Control Chart Correlation Cost-benefit analysis CTQ tree Quantitative marketing research through use of Enterprise Feedback Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) General linear model Histograms Quality Function Deployment (QFD) Pareto chart Process capability
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General Layout of Six Sigma

Define Quality Function Deployment Cost of Quality Trend Analysis Causeand-Effect Diagrams Process Maps. Measure Scatterplots Exploratory Plots Time Sequence Plots Gage Studies for Variables and Attributes Sample Size Determination Analyze One Variable Analysis Capability Analysis for Variables Capability Analysis for Attributes Multivariate Capability Analysis Distribution Fitting Two Sample Comparisons Multiple Sample Comparisons Improve Regression Analysis for Measurement Data Regression Analysis for Attribute Data Life Data Regression Analysis of Variance Design of Experiments Screening, Response Surface, and Mixture Designs D-Optimal Designs Inner and Outer Arrays Designs for Categorical Variables Multiple Response Optimization. Control Phase II Control Charts Multivariate Control Charts Acceptance Sampling Classification Methods

stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

Waiting Time (in minutes)
Obs. # RestauRestaurant

DMAIC

Sample Data used in this Study

Waiting Time (in minutes)
Obs. # RestauRestauObs. #

Waiting Time (in minutes)

RestauRestau-

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

2 2.5 1.5 2 2 4.5 2.5 3 3.5 2.5 3 2 2.5 4 4.5 3 2.5 2.5 2 3

5 2 2.3 3 2 3 4 4.5 4 2.5 2.5 2 2 2.5 3 3.5 2.5 2 3 2.5

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

3.5 4.5 4.5 3 2 2.5 2 3 2.5 2.5 3 3 2 2.5 2.5 4 3.5 3 3 2.5

3 2 2.5 3 4 4.5 3 3.5 6.5 2.5 3 3 4.5 2.5 3 2 3 2.5 3 2

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

2.5 2 3.5 4 2.5 2 3 2.5 2.5 4 3 2 2.5 3 3 2.5 3.5 3 3 2.5

2.5 2 3 4.5 3 2 2.5 3 2 2 3 2.5 2 2.5 2 2.5 3 2 2.5 2

Table1:Sample data used for this study (from two restaurants; location A and B)

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Cause & Effect Diagram

Man Machines Materials Fishbone Of McDonalds Waiting Time
Measurements Machines Man

Old vs New

Food Temperature

Lack of Training
Wear

Cause

Unknown Quality
Cleaning Process Time Of Cooking

No Instruction

Employees number

Slow-food Cooking

Taste

Task vs Multi-tasks

Qualified

Improve McDonalds Waiting Time

Customer Profile Self Services Not Optimized
Random Environment Methods

Not Busy

Time to prepare Special Orders

Pre-cooked Food

Fresh Food Special Orders compexity Drinks Quality

Location

Busy

Controled Process

Coffee Quality

Meat Quality

Materials

Figure 1: Cause and Effect Diagram for McDonalds Serving Time Improvement. CauseandEffectDiagramisadiagramthatshowsthecausesofacertainevent.Commonuses oftheC&Ediagramareproductdesignandqualitydefectprevention,toidentifypotentialfac torscausinganoveralleffect.Eachcauseorreasonforimperfectionisasourceofvariation. Causesareusuallygroupedintomajorcategoriestoidentifythesesourcesofvariation. TheC&EDiagramisusedtounderstandtherelationshipbetweenKPIVsandKPOVs.Itcanhelp initiateexperimentalinvestigations.TheKPIVsareinputstovaryandrecord,theKPOVisare sponsetomeasure.Theseexperiments,naturalorDOE,canbeanalyzed.TheC&Ediagram alsoprovidestheinitialinputtotheprocessFMEA.Whenever,aKPOVdriftsoutofspecifica tionthatisan"Effect".Whenthathappens,theC&Ediagramshouldhavelistedwhateverthe "Cause"was,asaKPIVgoingoutofspecification. Also,theC&EmatrixisusedinitiallyintheDefinestagetoprioritizetheissuestofocuson. WhatbusinessesarelookingforaretheParetoissueswhere20%ofeffortwillgive80%ofthe gain.ThisisaStrategicPlanningadaptationoftheC&Ediagramhelpingorganizationsidentify theaspectsoftheirplanthataremostcriticaltoitsoveralleffectiveness.Thiswasusedtocom parecustomerrequirementswithprocesssteps,andidentifyiftheprocessalignedwithcus tomerrequirements. TheoutputsfromtheC&EdiagramarethenfedintoaprocessFEMA(EffectAnalysis)tohelp assesswhatmightgowrongwiththecriticalaspectsoftheplan.
Current and planned Ford hybrid electric vehicles: 2004 Ford Escape Hybrid 2006 Mercury Mariner 2008 Ford Fusion/ Mercury Milan

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FMEAStudy
Process Function (Step) Start Customer enter the restaurant Cashier Available Wait to place Order Place Order long waiting time long waiting time longer than expected longer than expected take long time require one employee to do it. take long time require one employee to do it. Customer not able to serve him self Took longer time Not hot and tasteless Took longer time Bad service Bad service Custer leave Bad service Take loner time to prepare Take loner time to prepare Frustrated customers Frustrated customers Less people will drink Coffee Frustrated customers 4 4 5 4 Bad service Bad service Bad service Bad service Not enough employees to do this order in time. Not enough employees to do this order in time. Do not know how. long waiting time long waiting time long waiting time 4 4 4 4 Inspection Inspection Inspection Inspection Inspection 4 4 4 4 64 64 100 64 Potential Failure Modes (process defects) Potential Failure Effects (KPOVs) Potential Causes of Failure (KPIVs) Current Process Controls OCC RPN SEV DET

Special drink in the Order?

120

Employee prepare special item Self service drink Meal is ready Customer wait Customer served End (Customer leave)

Inspection self service Self service Self service Self service

80

3 6 4 4

2 5 4 2

3 4 3 2

18 120 48 16

Table 2: FMEA table

According to the FMEA table the strongest point of the process are 1) the Meal is ready (took more than 5 minutes waiting), 2) the order contain special items (special drink; ice cream, McCafee, Mocha, Expresso, etc), 3) waiting time to place the order and finally the employee taking too much time preparing special order (items). Special items require extra work and should be made fresh and most of the time you have one employee take care of one order at the time. The weakest point of the process are the customer self service drink and when the customer served in less than 4 minutes. According the table 2 the strongest points of the process Figure 2 and Figure 3 show McDonalds Service Process chart and Service Blueprint respectively.

Start

Customer enter the Restaurant

Cashier available?

No

Wait to place order

Yes

Place order

Yes

Payment

Yes Employee prepare special item Yes

No

Special drink in the order?

Yes

Self service drink

Meal is ready?

Yes

Customer served

End

No

Customer wait

Figure 2: McDonalds Service Process Chart

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Figure 3: McDonalds Service Blueprint

Pareto Chart of Process function Of McDonlad's Serving Time

700 600 500

100 60 40 20
? dy er rd O er rd er ? le

400 300 200 100 0

Process function

t t er er ai an th rd rd w a ab ur O o O a re lO al er e st s ce ce Av cia th li la om re la e r p P st in e ea ie sp k to th M Cu e sh in it r r r a Ca te pa lD W en re ia p ec er e Sp ye om o st pl Cu m E RPN 120 120 100 80 64 64 64 48 34 Percent 17.3 17.3 14.4 11.5 9.2 9.2 9.2 6.9 4.9 Cum % 17.3 34.6 49.0 60.5 69.7 79.0 88.2 95.1 100.0

Figure 4: Pareto Chart

Percent

80

RPN

After examining the output from the Pareto Chart the following recommendation has been made: We have to focus on resolving the issue of number of order per customer (family order) and the existing of special items. The special items must be prepared fresh and cant be prepared in advance. Therefore, McDonalds employee must prepare each order separate and as consequence the serving time increases from an average waiting time of 3 minutes to more than 5 minutes.

We have to identify where human error can cause mistakes or slowness to occur, especially in processes that rely on the workers attention, skill or experience. We have to establish a standard to inspect the special drink preparation, storage, and employee speed and quality of order in order to reduce the risk of have customer waiting too long for their Expresso or Mocha to be ready. A continuous process improvement and self inspection could eliminate a lot of risk in the process too.

Remarks about the main process

The process of McDonalds serving customer is relatively inadequate during the busy time. The process indicates that customers who have special order or order for more than one person is delayed for more than 5 minutes per serving. Therefore, the issue must be addressed in order to remedy the outcome. The cause of the waiting time greater than five (5) minutes could be caused by one or more factors that were presented in the C&E diagram. We have to establish a new process to understand the relationship between KPIVs and KPOVs and inspect the KPIVs in order to have the appropriate KPOVs. The inspection process can help initiate experimental investigations to find the root cause of the waiting more than five minutes. A good way is to use the elimination process in order to find out where are the major KPIVs that cause this variation if the customers waiting time. Since the KPOV waiting time is a response that easy to measure. Follow up action is to make sure the McDonalds employees are aware and well informed about the best practice of making of serving customers in a timely manner. Also, educate people about the importance of the 6M factors in the process of serving fast food and making special drinks. For restaurant location that is not busy the customers wait time is relatively too small (less than 2 minutes). A waiting time less than two (2) minutes is not good for the business because this is an indication that the hamburger meat is already cooked and for longer time and it is ready in advance on top of the griller to be served. The disadvantage of having the meat on the griller for long time jeopardizes the taste of the hamburger and hurt the company reputation.
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TheidealMcDonaldscustomerswaitingtimeisbetween2.5minutesto4minuteswherethe freshnessofthefoodwontbesacrificedforthefastservice. Followupitems: Keepthefreshnessofthefoodinmind. Addmoregrillersifnecessary Successiveinspectionisdoneatthenextstepoftheprocessbythenextworker. Selfinspectionmeansworkerschecktheirownworkimmediatelyafterdoingit. Sourceinspectionchecks,beforetheprocesssteptakesplace,thatconditionsacorrect. Oftenitsautomaticandkeepstheprocessfromproceedinguntilconditionsareright. CrosstrainingforMcDonaldsemployees. Forlargerorder(familyorder)musthavetwoemployeestoreducethewaitingtime. Musttreatlargerorderasindividualorderinordertoreducethewaitingtime Payattentiontoorderthathavespecialdrinklike(Icecream,McCafe,Mocha,Expresso, andsoon.)because,thiskindofdrinkrequireexpertisetopreparethemandtime.

DescriptiveStatistics:RestaurantA
Total Variable Restaurant A Count 60 N CumN 60 Percent 100 Mean 2.8417 SE Mean 0.0932 TrMean 2.8056

60

Sum of Variable Restaurant A StDev Variance 0.5211 CoefVar 25.40 Sum 170.5000 Squares 515.2500 N for Variable Restaurant A Median 2.5000 Q3 3.0000 Maximum 4.5000 IQR 0.5000 Mode 2.5 Mode 19 Skewness 0.76 Kurtosis 0.12 Minimum Q1 2.5000

0.7219

1.5000

Variable Restaurant A

MSSD 0.3792

Histogram (with Normal Curve) of McDonald's Location A

20
Mean StDev N 2.842 0.7219 60

15 F requency

10

1.6

2.4 3.2 McDonald's Location A

4.0

Figure 3: Histogram (with Normal Curve) of McDonalds Location A

Probability Plot of McDonald's Location A

Normal - 95% CI
99.9 99 95 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 1 0.1 Mean StDev N AD P-Value 2.842 0.7219 60 2.269 <0.005

P ercent

3 Location A

Figure 2: Probability Plot of McDonalds Location A Examining Figure 1 and 2 plots the data of restaurant in location A is not normally distributed which mean that the McDonalds waiting time does not follow the normal distribution. The descriptive statistics of restaurant in location A indicates that the average time to serve a customer is 2.8417 minutes and the standard deviation 0.7219. The minimum and the maximum time to serve a customer was 1.5 and 4.5 respectively. The median of this sample is 2.5 minutes.
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The skewness of the data is 0.76.

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Descriptive Statistics: Restaurant B

Total Variable Restaurant B Count 60 N 60 CumN 60 Percent 100 CumPct 100 Mean 2.855 Sum of Variable Restaurant B StDev 0.899 Variance 0.809 CoefVar 31.50 Sum 171.300 Squares 536.790 N for Variable Restaurant B Median 2.500 Q3 3.000 Maximum 6.500 IQR 1.000 Mode 3 Mode 17 Skewness 1.70 Kurtosis 3.76 Minimum 2.000 Q1 2.000 SE Mean 0.116 TrMean 2.765

Variable Restaurant B

MSSD 0.611

Histogram (with Normal Curve) of McDonald's Location B

18 16 14 12 F requency 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 McDonald's Location B 6
Mean StDev N 2.855 0.8994 60

Figure 4: Histogram (with Normal Curve) of McDonalds Location B

Here the data distribution is skewed and have tail in the right it looks like a Gamma distribution.

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Probability Plot of McDonald's Location B

Normal - 95% CI
99.9 99 95 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 1 0.1 Mean StDev N AD P-Value 2.855 0.8994 60 3.396 <0.005

Percent

3 4 Location B

Figure 5: Probability Plot of McDonalds Location B Examining Figure 4 and 5 plots the data of restaurant in location B is not normally distributed which mean that the McDonalds waiting time does not follow the normal distribution. The descriptive statistics of restaurant in location B indicates that the average time to serve a customer is 2.855 minutes and the standard deviation 0.899. The minimum and the maximum time to serve a customer are 2 and 6.5 minutes respectively. The median of this sample is 2.5 minutes. The skewness of the data is 1.76. The high skewness is due to the assignable cause forcing the customer to wait The average time more than to serve a customer 5 minutes is 2.855 minutes to receive and the standard the meal. deviation 0.899

I Chart of McDonald's in Location A

5 UCL=4.667 USL=4.5 4 I d u Valu n ivid al e

_ X=2.842

LSL=2

1 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 Observation 43 49 55

LCL=1.016

Figure 6: Individual Chart of McDonalds Location A The Individual chart for location A indicates that the process is in control all the observations are inside the LCL and the UCL (scattered around the process mean). However based on our research we find out that McDonalds have policy to control the total waiting time for their customer the USL should be less than 5 minutes and LSL should be more than 2 minutes (customer should expect to wait at lest 2 minutes). We chose here UCL=4.5 minutes and LSL=2 minutes in order to show that there are few customers can complain about the process.

I Chart of McDonald's Loction B

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LCL=0.601 0 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 Observation 43 49 55 _ X=2.855 LSL=2 UCL=5.109 USL=4.5
1

Figure 7: Individual Chart of McDonalds Location B

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I d u Valu n ivid al e

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The Individual chart for location B indicates that the process is in control all the observations are inside the LCL and the UCL (except the point number 29 where the waiting time was 6.5 minutes due to a large family order). All the observation scattered around the process mean. The process showed that few customers their waiting time exceed the USL
Xbar Chart of McDonald's Location A
5 UCL=4.667 USL=4.5 4 S p M am le ean

_ _ X=2.842

LSL=2

1 1 7 13 19 25 31 Sample 37 43 49 55

LCL=1.016

Figure 8: Xbar Chart of McDonalds Location A The xbar chart for location A indicates that the process is in control all the observations are inside the LCL and the UCL (scattered around the process mean).
Xbar Chart of McDonald's Location B
7 6 5 S p M am le ean 4 3 2 1 LCL=0.601 0 1 7 13 19 25 31 Sample 37 43 49 55 _ _ X=2.855 LSL=2 UCL=5.109 USL=4.5
1

Figure 9: Xbar Chart of McDonalds Location B

The xbar chart for location B indicates that the process is in control all the observations are inside the LCL and the UCL (except the point number 29 where the waiting time was 6.5 minutes due to a large family order).
Xbar-R Chart of Restaurant A, ..., Restaurant B
5 U C L=4.595 Sam ple Mean 4 3 2 1 1 7 13 19 25 31 Sample
1

_ _ X=2.848

LC L=1.102 37 43 49 55

4 Sam ple Range 3 2 1 0 1 7 13 19 25

U C L=3.034

_ R=0.929 LC L=0 31 Sample 37 43 49 55

Figure 10: Xbar Chart of both Location A and B

Xbar Chart of Waiting Time (minutes by Stage)
5 A B UCL=4.529 4 S p M am le ean USL=4

_ _ X=2.855

LSL=2

1 1 7 13 19 25 31 Sample 37 43 49 55

LCL=1.181

Figure 11: Xbar Chart of both Location A and B (by stage)

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Figure 15 shows the data plotted by stage (by location). The process shows that the average time to serve a meal at McDonalds is the same across the two locations. However, the process overall have a little variability because of the uniform policy and procedures across all McDonalds locations. There are few exceptions due to the variability of the customers visiting the restaurant (different customers in each location).
Between/Within Capability of McDonald's Location A
LSL
P rocess D ata LS L 2 T arget * USL 4.5 S ample M ean 2.84167 S ample N 60 S tD ev (B etw een) 0.775709 S tD ev (Within) 0 S tD ev (B /W) 0.775709 S tD ev (O v erall) 0.721884

USL B/W O v erall

B/W C apability Cp 0.54 C PL 0.36 C PU 0.71 C pk 0.36 O v erall C apability Pp PPL PPU P pk C pm 0.58 0.39 0.77 0.39 *

1.6
O bserv ed P erformance P P M < LS L 16666.67 PPM > USL 0.00 P P M T otal 16666.67 E xp. B/W P erformance P P M < LS L 138954.50 PPM > USL 16265.33 P P M T otal 155219.83

2.4

3.2

4.0

E xp. O v erall P erformance P P M < LS L 121821.09 PPM > USL 10802.79 P P M T otal 132623.88

Figure 12: Capability plot of McDonalds Location A

Between/Within Capability of McDonald's Location B
LSL
P rocess D ata LS L 2 T arget * USL 4.5 S ample M ean 2.855 S ample N 60 S tD ev (B etw een) 0.803413 S tD ev (Within) 0 S tD ev (B /W) 0.803413 S tD ev (O v erall) 0.899421

USL B/W O v erall

B/W C apability Cp 0.52 C PL 0.35 C PU 0.68 C pk 0.35 O v erall C apability Pp PPL PPU P pk C pm 0.46 0.32 0.61 0.32 *

1
O bserv ed P erformance P P M < LS L 0.00 P P M > U S L 33333.33 P P M T otal 33333.33

E xp. B/W P erformance P P M < LS L 143616.87 PPM > USL 20303.80 P P M T otal 163920.67

E xp. O v erall P erformance P P M < LS L 170900.72 PPM > USL 33703.18 P P M T otal 204603.90

Figure 13: Capability plot of McDonalds Location B

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OBSERVATIONS
The menu at McDonald's typically consists of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, drinks, shakes, and a recent influx of healthier alternatives. McDonald's also is widely known for their breakfast menu, which consists of sandwiches, pancakes, French toast, hash browns, breakfast, Coffee, and a large variety of drinks. During the phase of collecting data an assignable cause observed during the food serving. Most customers in both restaurant who had a waiting time more than the USL=4.5 minutes they had an item that is considered special order (e.g.: McCafe, Mocha, Espresso, Ice cream, or Smoothed milk) or a combined order for more than one person. In addition the highest waiting time observed in location B was 6.5 minutes. The reason for this long waiting was due to the fact that this order was for a family of 5 kids and three adults. Also, we observed that most of

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
1. Add more burger cooking space (larger stoves). 2. Add more frying containers for the French fries 3. Add more workers to prepare each order; do not wait until more collect 4 to 5 order to deliver them to the waiting customer. 4. Separate the process of food preparation. 5. Add more cashier 6. Have the manager present in the store all the time. 7. Have the cashiers after taking orders help in preparing the special drinks (items). 8. Cross training of the employees (train the cook to be able to do different functions in the process). 9. Train the drive thru employees to be able to help in different functions when it is necessary in the busy time. 10. Design a service for family orders.

Have the manager present in the store all the time

Follow Up and Suggestions

Since McDonald's appeals to such a wide audience, it must constantly re-evaluate its menu depending on feedback and market research. In addition, McDonald's process is tacking in consideration its growth and therefore, reducing the serving time (wait time of customers) is one of its major priorities for years to come. McDonalds is facing a huge challenge of their food quality by competitors (Wendy and Burger King). The tradeoff between the food taste and the time of serving is far from over. Another major target of McDonald's marketing is to teens. Teens find the value menu especially appealing and McDonald's markets their restaurants as a cool place to meet with their friends and to work. Thus, preparing a cool place for family to enjoy their meal is important too. McDonalds should deal with family order with more emphasis. For example, after the family order is submitted the kids should get something to get busy (e.i: chocolate bar, Kandy bar, foaming Kandy, etc) while waiting for their Hamburger and French fries to be ready. McDonalds is putting more emphasis on the drive thru order. The waiting time for the drive thru order is less than 2 minutes (the time customer places the order to the time receives the order) which is extremely very good.

Serving time risk

After examining the collected data two major problems observed. 1) Food served in less than 2 minutes and 2) food served after more than 5 minutes waiting time. Serving a meal in less than 2 minutes jeopardize the taste of the hamburger, thus, the only explanation of this fast delivery is that the hamburger is already cooked (for longer time) and waiting on top of the stove to be served. In the opposite if the customers wait for more than 5 minutes is not acceptable in the fast food business where food must be served in timely matter. The ideal McDonalds customers waiting time is between 2.5 minutes to 4 minutes where the freshness of the food wont be sacrificed for the fast service. In fact, having in mind the risk associated with serving fast-food, the Companys internal food serving process should be designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability and efficiency of food serving and preparation. The company should establish a process control over its food preparation process and enforce policies and procedures that: 1. Help employees and management to maintain a certain degree of knowledge of the company philosophy and priority (reasonable detail that fairly reflect the position of the company). 2. Provide reasonable assurance that food is served in timely manner (even for large order). This requires management involvement in the process.

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4. Provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of process mal functioning that might harm the company assets. 5. Provide efficient internal controls which assess the effectiveness of the process, including the possibility of human error and the circumvention or overriding of controls. 6. Provide a mechanism to reduce the variability of the process across multiple locations. 7. Establish a measurement criteria to test continuously evaluate the process functionality and effectiveness.

Conclusion
Despite McDonald's is well known for their maximum customer focus. McDonalds faces some difficult challenges. Key to its future success will be maintaining its core strengthsan unwavering focus on quality and consistencywhile carefully experimenting with new options. These innovative initiatives could include a brilliant idea to make the waiting time of their customers an enjoyable time (life experience). In addition, McDonalds should have a separate brand name company responsible for maintaining McDonalds compliance with safety, quality, environment, and customers satisfaction. A brand new branch will improve the company image and will reduce the company risk toward loosing ground for competitors. The company also could look into improving their service toward family orders (large orders).

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References
[1] http://www.mcdonalds.com/ [2] www.analist.nl/reports/mcdonalds-2008.pdf [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s [4] www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-71707946.html [5] https://news.fidelity.com/news/news.jhtml? cat=MarketBeat&articleid=200911130921MRKTWTCHWSJ_MRKB_30C04424-C2D4-D422D354-B056E088919D&IMG=N [6] http://mcchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/07/wall-street-manhattan-mcdonalds.html [7] http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2009/11/09/mcdonalds-us-sales-stall/

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