Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Operations Management in
McDonalds
INTRODUCTION TO OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT
Statement of
McDonalds Operations Strategy
To provide unmatched consistency in operations in
support of high product quality. This must be
accomplished with adequate speed, low cost, and
process innovation to accommodate changes in
consumer tastes.
From the statement of McDonalds operations
strategy, it is clear that both consistent and highperformance qualities are considered order winners,
while speed, cost, and innovation are considered
order qualifiers.
Facilities
Process
Technology
Vertical
Integration
Workforce
Organization
Control
Systems
Strategy
Growth as needed through additional stores - but
capacity added carefully
Well-utilized - franchisee's well-being depends on it
being used heavily
Distributed facilities, each facility being very similar to
the next, all focused around the same menu - although
the uniformity is beginning to change
High degree of process understanding, emphasis on
"fool-proof" processes
A leader in the technology of fast-food delivery
Partnership arrangement
Long-term relationship with suppliers to promote
innovation and quality improvement
Franchisees: well-trained, carefully selected,
entrepreneurs
Operators: high-turnover, cheap
Guidelines provided by corporation, but franchisees
push to locally optimize
Centralized buying
Bulk contracts
"Push" system for basic supplies, "pull" system day-today in the restaurants
The restaurant has always issue in supply chain and inventory management due to which
there is always shortage in shock. The problem may be due to inappropriate ordering or
miscalculation of stock.
McDonald's restaurant use batch processing where numbers of sandwiches are made at the
same time with the same condiments. If a customer wants, say, a hamburger without onions,
he or she has to wait for a new batch of patties to be grilled.
Product Planning
Every company should introduce new products. New products development shapes the
company's future as well as gives a new taste to the customer. A company can add new
products through attainment or promotion. Product planning is just a systematic decision
making in all aspects of the development and management of a firm products. A product is
anything that can be presented to a market to satisfy a want or need.
Keeping on mind the exact utilization of the product through product planning, McDonald's
Restaurant should keep on adding new products to its menu so as to accumulate the needs
and choices of the customers which are persistently changing. For instance, the increasing
liking of consumers towards healthy food made the restaurant add healthier food items to its
menu. On the other hand, depending upon the season, it has to add new products for
different seasons, for example hot coffee in winter and milkshakes in summer.
Location Planning
Another most important role that every organization must focus on is location planning.
Success or failure actually depends on the location where it is situated. So, location planning
plays a vital role for any organization. Better location planning leads the organization in
success and obviously worse location planning leads the organization in failure. Therefore, it
is an essential significant success factors for any organization. Thus, it is very important for
businesses to choose an ideal location.
McDonalds Restaurants also have to choose their location in such a way that maximum
customers visit their restaurants and have full facilities of parking. Some customers may
have no waiting time to eat in, so drive thru should be introduced. Moreover, it also prefers
locations that are suitable and have plenty space for raw material delivery.
Process Design
Process planning can be defined as the systematic method by which a product is to be
manufactured economically and competitively. It consists of developing, selecting and
specifying processes, machine tools and other equipment to convert raw material into
finished and assembled products. After developing the product, the businesses have to
develop proper processes planning for making and supporting the product. Process planning
begins after the product design is completed.
In McDonald's restaurant, the operations manager should develop and establishes the
process of cooking food items so that food is prepared using that method which helps them
to maintain the speed and the quality of the food. Moreover, it should also design processes
so that the health, safety and hygiene issues are taken into consideration. Also the managers
should keep on introducing latest equipments with the advancement of technology so as to
bring pace, perfection and quality in the product.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is another important operation of any organization. Inventory
management is the process of controlling the stocks needed to run any organization. It
involves choosing the best method of inventory control. While choosing the method of
inventory control, the organizations must keep in mind the expected demands of the
products.
McDonald's should follow the First-In-First-Out rules in the process of controlling the
inventory. This is because most of the inventory consists of fragile items. Delivery of
inventory happens twice or more times a week depending on the business of the restaurant.
In addition, the stock kept in freezer with proper packaging so as to ensure freshness of the
food items. All this activities comes under inventory management of the organization.
Quality Management
Whether for profit, non-profit, or an organization like health-care maintenance organization,
quality management is the single most important process in any organization for maintaining
the quality of the goods and services. It also helps the organization to keep up the reputation
of the organization. To manage and maintain the quality of the products and services, the
organization may adopt a number of practices like quality checks procedure etc.
Quality in McDonald Restaurant is very important because of two reasons. Firstly because of
the legal requirements of the quality of food served. Secondly, to keep up the good reputation
which McDonalds restaurants have earned over the years. Quality of food can be very
difficult to maintain and therefore, McDonald's restaurant carry on a number of practices to
make sure that quality food is served. Some of these practices are the visits by the food
inspector from the head office, supervisor checks etc.
Conclusion:
Therefore we conclude that operations management is very important for any organizations
as they have a relationship with the overall strategy of the organization. Operations
management contributes to the strategy and therefore helps the organization to gain
competitive advantage. For instance, process planning can help the organization reduce cost
and gain cost advantages and therefore gain competitive advantage. Therefore the
organizations must effectively manage the operations of the business as it has a massive
effect on the strategy of the organization.