McDonaldization

INTRODUCTION

The American sociologist George Ritzer has attracted wide attention with his concept of
"the McDonaldization of society" (expounded in his book of the same names). In his book,
Ritzer analyses the particular ways in which the success of the American hamburger chain has
impacted upon not only economic patterns, but in particular on a multitude of facets of social life
in general. Basing his analysis on Max Weber's theory of rationalization.

What in Ritzer's view is responsible for McDonalds' revolutionizing effect, is the fact that
its model offers four "alluring dimensions" to producer and consumer alike, namely efficiency,
calculability, predictability and control. Naturally all of these have led to beneficial and
irreversible changes which are not to be denied. Equally undeniable, however, is the negative
consequences: the ecological impact, the dehumanizing effect of ever more automation, and the
inescapable mistaking of quantity for quality.

McDonald's revolutionising influence on the fast-food industry not only in America, but
increasingly across the globe, has led to the establishment of dozens of clones in just about every
branch of the retail industry and has led to other social institutions adapting McDonald's
principles to their operations. The process by which these principles are coming to dominate
more and more sectors of society, is perceived by Ritzer to extend to education, work, health
care, travel, leisure, dieting and many more fields.

In essence, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization, albiet taken to extreme

levels. Rationalization is a sociological term that simply means the substitution of logically
consistent rules for traditional (or illogical) rules. One of the fundamental aspects of
McDonaldization is that almost any task can (and should) be rationalized.

The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This
is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The resulting
tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for completing each task. All
other methods are then deemed inefficient and discarded.

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The result is an efficient, logical sequence of methods that can be completed the same way every
time to produce the desired outcome. The outcome is predictable. All aspects of the process are
easily controlled. Additionally, quantity (or calculability) becomes the measurement of good
performance.

The process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in which "the principles
of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as
well as of the rest of the world.”

Since Mcdonalds standardization is a root cause of ritzer’s analogus comparison to

society focus would be put on such practices after understanding the dimension of
Mcdonaldization.

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Dimensions of McDonaldization
Ritzer’s theory consists of four dimensions that are typical for fast food restaurants:

1. Efficiency:

Always choosing the optimal and fastest way to accomplish something,

e.g. to make a burger. It is an advantage for the consumers who can get what they
need quickly and without effort.

Efficiency means the choosing of means to reach a specific end rapidly, with the least amount of cost
or effort. The idea of efficiency is specific to the interests of the industry or business, but is typically
advertised as a benefit to the customer. Examples are plentiful: the drive-up window, salad bars, fill your
own cup, self-serve gasoline, ATM's, Voice Mail, microwave dinners and supermarkets (versus the old-
time groceries where you gave your order to the grocer). The interesting element here is that the customer

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often ends up doing the work that previously was done for them. And the customer pays for the
"privilege." We end up spending more time, being forced to learn new technologies, remember more
numbers, and often pay higher prices in order for the business to operate more efficiently (maintain a
higher profit margin).

2. Calculability:

The idea that quantity is more important than quality. McDonald’s

equals quantity with quality and wants to make the impression that a large amount of food,
prepared in a short amount of time, is the same as a high quality product. The costumer gets
more food, but its quality and uniqueness are low.

Perhaps it is in its dimension of calculability that the character of the McDonald's model
is best revealed. Exactly so many patties have to come from a pound of meat, the buns must be
of a certain exact size and the patties again have to have a certain limited fat content so that, after
being cooked, it will still have a larger diameter than the buns, the fries must be of a certain
thickness and the bags must never be too full or too empty. It is easy to see how seemingly
neutral measures, meant to ensure standardization, eventually lead to the reduction of the
processes of production to a game of numbers. Even though this may not be too harmful in the
case of hamburgers and fries, the spread of an attitude like this will in the case of the majority of
industries of necessity lead to depersonalisation of both customers and workers. Another facet of
calculability is the accent that is being put on size. In the case of McDonald's the very example is
the Big Mac, but a multitude of examples can be gathered from just about every type of business,
whether in America or elsewhere. This inevitably leads to quantity being mistaken for quality.

3. Predictability:

The consumer always knows what kind of service and product he will get, because taste
of the burger and behavior of the workers towards customers are standardized worldwide.

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Predictability is maybe the one dimension of the McDonald's setup that is most directly
aimed at how it is perceived by its customers. It is imperative that the products must be the same
everywhere, so that being in Moscow or Peking (or Johannesburg, for that matter) wouldn't be
that big a problem if you get homesick: at least McDonald's would be the same as it is back
home. Naturally this would preclude any possibility of cus- tomers expecting anything else than
the standard McDonald's fare (in any case, why should they?) and, more important, of any
McDonald's employee showing a tendency towards innovation or initiative.

4. Control:

Employees of a McDonald’s restaurant have to follow strict rules for food

preparation, they have to dress uniformly and they need to smile when receiving orders from
customers. A lot of their work is replaced by machines that they can operate in only one way.
The McDonald’s corporation controls the franchisee of the restaurant.
He has to follow the corporation’s rules, like getting the materials only from
specific suppliers. This includes bread and meat, but also cleaning agent and toilet
paper.
The dimension of control, in so far as it has not been implied by the foregoing, is attained
"...especially through the substitution of nonhuman for human technology..." (Ritzer, 1996, p.
11). This tendency, by far not unique to McDonald's, enable the company to far better control the
uniformity of production and to at least partly eliminate the hassles of having to deal with human
beings. Even the implied threat of replacing human with other technology enables further control
over employees. But it is not only the employees that need to be controlled, but also the
customers. This is ac- complished by a range of subtle measures, among which not the least is
the restriction of menus to a limited number of items, the utilization of customers to do work
them- selves, such as carrying food to the tables and litter away from it, and of course the
availability of hard chairs which certainly does not encourage customers to linger.

There are other dimensions of McDonaldization that Ritzer didn't include with the main
four, but are worthy enough for prime attention. They are:

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• Irrationality - A side effect of over-rationalized systems. Ritzer himself hints that this is
the fifth dimension of McDonaldization. An example of this could be workers on an
assembly line that are hired and trained to perform a single highly rationalized task.
Although this may be a very efficient method of operating a business, an irrationality that
is spawned can be worker burnout.
• Deskilling - A work force with the minimum abilities possible to complete simple
focused tasks. This means that they can be quickly and cheaply trained and are easily
replaceable.
• Consumer Workers - One of the sneakiest things about McDonaldization is how
consumers get tricked into becoming unpaid employees. They do the work that was
traditionally performed by the company. The prime example of this is diners who bus
their own tables at the fast food restaurant. They dutifully carry their trash to friendly
receptacles marked "thank you." (The extreme rationalization of this is the drive-thru;
consumers take their trash with them!) Other examples are many and include: ATM's,
salad bars, automated telephone menus, and pumping gas.

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Supply chain –the cause to the term ‘ Mcdonaldization ‘

Supply Chain is one of the critical factors for the smooth functioning of any business.
And when we are talking about fast food business with McDonald’s as the subject of the study it
can expected a Supply Chain model of one of the highest precisions. It is this unmatched Supply
Chain Structure, which not just ensures on time delivery of raw materials and supplies to
McDonalds but also enables it to cut down on its cost and maximize profitability along with
maintaining highest quality standards of its products. The level of commitment of McDonalds
can be gauged from the fact that even before it set up its first restaurant in the country it infused
Rs 400 Crore to set up its delivery mechanism. McDonald’s initiative to set up an efficient
supply chain and deploy state-of-art technology changed the entire Indian fast food industry and
raised the standards of performance to international levels.

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McDonald's is committed to providing quality products while supporting other Indian

businesses. And so, we spent a few years setting up a unique Supply Chain, even before we
opened our first restaurant in India.

A Supply Chain is a network of facilities including - material flow from suppliers and
their "upstream" suppliers at all levels, transformation of materials into semi-finished and
finished products, and distribution of products to customers and their "downstream" customers at
all levels. So, raw material flows as follows: supplier - manufacturer – distributor – retailer –
consumer. Information and money flows in the reverse direction. The balance between these 3
flows is what a Supply Chain is all about.

When there is a balance in the finished product ordering, the Supply Chain operates at its
best. Any major fluctuation in the product ordering pattern causes excess / fluctuating
inventories, shortages / stock outs, longer lead times, higher transportation and manufacturing
costs, and mistrust between supply chain partners. This is called the Bullwhip Effect.

Depending on the situation, the Supply Chain may include major product elements,
various suppliers, geographically dispersed activities, and both upstream and downstream
activities. It is critical to go beyond one’s immediate suppliers and customers to encompass the
entire chain, since hidden value often emerges once the entire chain is visualized. For example, a
diesel engine manufacturer may be able to integrate a GPS locator system into its engine control
system. Its immediate customer, a heavy truck manufacturer, may see no need for this
functionality. However, the downstream customer, a trucking company with a large fleet, may be
very interested in a locator system. Understanding the value to the downstream customer is part
of the supply chain management process.

McDonald's had been working critically on its supply chain part. Considering, an
international brand trying to make inroads into the Indian consciousness, its Indian supplier
partners were developed in such a manner that made them stay with the company from the
beginning. The success of McDonald's India is a result of its commitment to sourcing almost all
its products from within the country. For this purpose, it has developed local Indian businesses,
which can supply them the highest quality products required for their Indian operations." As per

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today's standings, McDonald's India works with as many as 38 Indian suppliers on a long-term
basis, besides several others standalone restaurants working with it, for various requirements.

McDonald's entered its first distribution partnership agreement with Radha Krishna
Foodland, a part of the Radha Krishna Group engaged in food-related service businesses. The
association goes back to July 1993, when it studied the nuances of McDonald's operations and
requirements for the Indian market.Better facilities and infrastructures were created along with
new systems by them to satisfy McDonald's high demands, which finally culminated into an
agreement with McDonald's India, for Radha Krishna Foodland to serve as distribution centres
for our restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai." As distribution centres, the company was responsible
for procurement, the quality inspection programme, storage, inventory management, deliveries to
the restaurants and data collection, recording and reporting. Value-added services like shredding
of lettuce, re-packing of promotional items continued since then at the centres playing a vital role
in maintaining the integrity of the products throughout the entire 'cold chain'. The operations and
accounting is totally transparent and is subject to regular audits.

McDonald's had worked aggressively to attain the right suppliers and systems that
ensured that 90 per cent of yield was indigenous before the doors were opened to consumers.
The only products that we used to import were oil and fries, for which we have had made
arrangements to manufacture the oil in India. We ensured that the products developed locally
abide by global McDonald's standards,"

Over the last 10 years, the company has gained experience and adopted procedures that
helped in maintaining a continuous supply of food products irrespective of the climatic
conditions.Our logistics and warehousing system is robust that prepares us to deliver products at
the same temperature throughout, without a single break in the cold chain."

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Two Task orientated strategies

The general approaches followed by Mcdonalds for purchasing and logistic

• Purchasing
– “The 3 legged stool”: Corporation – Franchisees – Suppliers
– Exclusive, certified facilities
– Handshake agreements, Trust
– Long term win-win partnership, risk sharing
– Rigorous product and service specifications
– Strong focus on quality, product specification and environmental audits

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– Decentralized supplier structure, zone consolidation for multinational suppliers

– Distributor is wholesaler for Restaurants
• Logistics
– ~100 sales items in the restaurant
– ~400 SKUs in the warehouse (Hubs: up to 1,500)
– ~200 restaurants per DC (~180 DCs globally)
– Delivery frequency: ~3/wk, higher in urban areas
– 2-3 stops per route
– Exclusive distributors (3PL)
– Freight consolidation (via freight forwarders)
– Long term partnerships with service providers, risk sharing
– Strong quality focus (Cold Chain, HACCP, QIP)

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McDonald’s Logistics Standards

• DQMP (Distributor Quality Management Process)

For over 50 years, McDonald’s has been serving customers its famous sandwiches, fries
and salads. Thanks to its stellar food safety program, McDonald’s delights each day over 50
million global citizens from young to old with confidence. In order to boost the level of
assurance in its food safety program, McDonald’s Europe decided to outsource its supply chain
auditing. More specifically, McDonald’s Europe targeted certification bodies to audit its food
suppliers against own standard SQMS (Supplier Quality Management System) or distribution
centres against DQMP (Distributor Quality Management Process). The company required an
unbiased view from certification leaders capable of evolving into veritable partners for
McDonald’s and its suppliers. As a result, McDonald’s Europe provided its suppliers with a
short-list of pre-approved certification bodies from which they could select one to conduct
required audits.For a certification company to make it onto the list, it had to undergo a stringent
six-month approval process.

 Key steps in our certification process are:

• Definition of certification scope
• Pre-audit (optional): audit of your current position against the standard’s requirement
• On-site audit: including a traceability test
• Central review of audit report and shipment to

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McDonald’s Re-audit according to SQMS or DQMP frequencies.

• Quality Control (HACCP / QIP)

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a systematic approach to food

safety that emphasizes prevention within our suppliers' facility and restaurants rather than
detection through inspection of illness or presence of microbiological data. Based on
HACCP guidelines, control points and critical control points for all McDonald's major
food processing plands and restaurants in India have ben identified. The limits have been
established for those followed by monitoring, recording and correcting any deviations.
The HACCP verification is done at least twice in a year and certified.

• Cold Chain standards

Cold Chain was one of the unique concepts of McDonalds supply chain in India,
on which it had spent more than six years to get the system into place. This system
brought about a veritable revolution, immensely benefiting the farmers at one end and
enabling customers at retail counters get the highest quality food products, absolutely
fresh and at great value. Through its unique cold chain, McDonalds has been able to both
cut down on its operational wastage, as well as maintain the freshness and nutritional
value of raw and processed food products. This has involved procurement, warehousing,

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transportation and retailing of perishable food products, all under controlled

temperatures. The following list of suppliers, who build up the major supply chain of
McDonalds, reveal how this ‘Cold Chain’ works and contributes towards the efficiency
of McDonalds.

Setting up extensive cold chain distribution system forms the lifeline of any fast
food business. In this regard, McDonald's incorporated state-of-the-art food processing
technology along with its international suppliers to pioneering Indian entrepreneurs, who
are today an integral part of the cold chain. and have imparted technical training to all our
suppliers on how to operate the imported machineries, educated them on the McDonald's
philosophy of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (QSCV) in order to provide
standardised food to our customers."

The 'cold chain', on which the QSR major has spent more than six years for
setting up the same in India, has brought about a veritable revolution, immensely
benefiting the farmers at one end and enabling customers at retail counters. McDonald's
finding the factor of cold room being vital ensured that even before vegetable from farms
enters the refrigerated zones, they are locked in a pre-cooling room to remove field heat.
Vegetables are placed in the pre-cooling room within half an hour of harvesting where
rapid cooling decreases the field temperature of vegetables to 2ºC within 90 minutes.
Then a large cold room (a refrigerated van) is used for transportation to the distribution
centers. In the van, the temperature and relative humidity of crop is maintained at 1-4ºC
and 95 per cent, respectively and the flavours and freshness are locked at -35°C.

• Hygiene regulations

All suppliers adhere to government regulations on food, health and hygiene while
continuously maintaining McDonald's recognised standards. As the ingredients move from farms
to processing plants to the restaurant, McDonald's Quality Inspection Programme (QIP) carries
out quality checks at over 20 different points in the Cold Chain system. Setting up of the Cold
Chain has also enabled us to cut down on operational wastage

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Conclusion

Mcdonalds had a strong homogeneous effect on the culture in its home country the same
cannot be said about the countries be said about the countries it expanded to. There its
localization process was rather about the countries it expanded to. There its localization process
was rather about assimilating into the cultural than to suppress it.

On the one side, Mcdonald’s leads to a standardized and homogenous global consumer
culture, but on the other side , it brings variety ,diversity and innovation to many parts of the
world. It contributes to the creation of a hybrid global culture ,especially as we saw in asia .
When the localization process of Mcdonald’s is viewed out of the customer , the risk is leading
towards a homogenous culture is smaller than the theory of Mcdonaldization suggests.

The expration of mcdonalds into Germany did not earse local traditions, because it was
something completely new and thus needed its own category . anyway ,it changed publics
eating habits in Japan and replaced the traditional parks and teahouses as places for old people to
meet.

The spread of the fast food culture also bars some risks. Even though it did not lead to a
homogenous global culture yet, it could lead towards what is the case in the USA now in just
some decades. I think this is possible because the whole world is becoming more hectic and
because the values of family and having a home-cooked meal together are declining.

Other than culture, the spread of fast food corporations can lead to many economical
risks when they become a dominant factor in the local economy. As usual when it comes to
globalization, the average person will be the looser of such monopolies.

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