The Technocratic Hamburger

Nowhere in the entire service sector are the possibilities of the manufacturing
mode of thinking better illustrated than in fast-food franchising. Nowhere have
manufacturing methods been employed more effectively to control the operation of
distant and independent agents. Nowhere is “service” better.

Few of today’s successful new commercial ventures have antecedents that are
more humble and less glamorous than the hamburger. Yet the thriving nationwide
chain of hamburger stands called “McDonald’s” is a supreme example of the
application of manufacturing and technological brilliance to problems that must
ultimately be viewed as marketing problems. From 1961 to 1970, McDonald’s
sales rose from approximately $54 million to $587 million. During this remarkable
ascent, the White Tower chain, whose name had theretofore been practically
synonymous throughout the land with low-priced, quick-service hamburgers,
practically vanished.

The explanation of McDonald’s thundering success is not a purely fiscal one—i.e.,

the argument that it is financed by independent local entrepreneurs who bring to
their operations a quality of commitment and energy not commonly found among
hired workers. Nor is it a purely geographical one—i.e., the argument that each
outlet draws its patronage from a relatively small geographic ring of customers,
thus enabling the number of outlets easily and quickly to multiply. The relevant
explanation must deal with the central question of why each separate McDonald’s
outlet is so predictably successful, why each is so certain to attract many repeat
customers.

Entrepreneurial financing and careful site selection do help. But most important is
the carefully controlled execution of each outlet’s central function—the rapid
delivery of a uniform, high-quality mix of prepared foods in an environment of
obvious cleanliness, order, and cheerful courtesy. The systematic substitution of
equipment for people, combined with the carefully planned use and positioning of
technology, enables McDonald’s to attract and hold patronage in proportions no
predecessor or imitator has managed to duplicate. Consider the remarkable
ingenuity of the system, which is worth examining in some detail:

To start with the obvious, raw hamburger patties are carefully prepacked and
premeasured, which leaves neither the franchisee nor his employees any discretion
as to size, quality, or raw-material consistency. This kind of attention is given to all
McDonald’s products. Storage and preparation space and related facilities are
expressly designed for, and limited to, the predetermined mix of products There is
no space for any foods, beverages, or services that were not designed into the
system at the outset. There is not even a sandwich knife or, in fact, a decent place
to keep one. Thus the owner has no discretion regarding what he can sell—not
because of any contractual limitations, but because of facilities limitations. And the
employees have virtually no discretion regarding how to prepare and serve things.

Discretion is the enemy of order, standardization, and quality. On an automobile

assembly line, for example, a worker who has discretion and latitude might
possibly produce a more personalized car, but one that is highly unpredictable. The
elaborate care with which an automobile is designed and an assembly line is
structured and controlled is what produces quality cars at low prices, and with
surprising reliability considering the sheer volume of the output. The same is true
at McDonald’s, which produces food under highly automated and controlled
conditions.

French-fried automation

While in Detroit the significance of the technological process lies in production, at

McDonald’s it lies in marketing. A carefully planned design is built into the
elaborate technology of the food-service system in such a fashion as to make it a
significant marketing device. This fact is impressively illustrated by McDonald’s
handling of that uniquely plebeian American delicacy, french-fried potatoes.

French fries become quickly soggy and unappetizing; to be good, they must be
freshly made just before serving. Like other fast-food establishments, McDonald’s
provides its outlets with precut, partially cooked frozen potatoes that can be
quickly finished in an on-premises, deep-fry facility. The McDonald’s fryer is
neither so large that it produces too many french fries at one time (thus allowing
them to become soggy) nor so small that it requires frequent and costly frying.

The fryer is emptied onto a wide, flat tray adjacent to the service counter. This
location is crucial. Since the McDonald’s practice is to create an impression of
abundance and generosity by slightly overfilling each bag of french fries, the tray’s
location next to the service counter prevents the spillage from an overfilled bag
from reaching the floor. Spillage creates not only danger underfoot but also an
unattractive appearance that causes the employees to become accustomed to an
unclean environment. Once a store is unclean in one particular, standards fall very
rapidly and the store becomes unclean and the food unappetizing in general.

While McDonald’s aims for an impression of abundance, excessive overfilling can

be very costly for a company that annually buys potatoes almost by the trainload.
A systematic bias that puts into each bag of french fries a half ounce more than is
intended can have visible effects on the company’s annual earnings. Further,
excessive time spent at the tray by each employee can create a cumulative service
bottleneck at the counter.

McDonald’s has therefore developed a special wide-mouthed scoop with a narrow

funnel in its handle. The counter employee picks up the scoop and inserts the
handle end into a wall clip containing the bags. One bag adheres to the handle. In a
continuous movement the scoop descends into the potatoes, fills the bag to the
exact proportions its designers intended, and is lifted, scoop facing the ceiling, so
that the potatoes funnel through the handle into the attached bag, which is
automatically disengaged from the handle by the weight of the contents. The bag
comes to a steady, nonwobbling rest on its flat bottom.

Nothing can go wrong—the employee never soils his hands, the floor remains
clean, dry, and safe, and the quantity is controlled. Best of all, the customer gets a
visibly generous portion with great speed, the employee remains efficient and
cheerful, and the general impression is one of extravagantly good service.

Mechanized marketing

Consider the other aspects of McDonald’s technological approach to marketing.

The tissue paper used to wrap each hamburger is color-coded to denote the mix of
condiments. Heated reservoirs hold pre-prepared hamburgers for rush demand.
Frying surfaces have spatter guards to prevent soiling of the cooks’ uniforms.
Nothing is left to chance or the employees’ discretion.

The entire system is engineered and executed according to a tight technological

discipline that ensures fast, clean, reliable service in an atmosphere that gives the
modestly paid employees a sense of pride and dignity. In spite of the crunch of
eager customers, no employee looks or acts harassed, and therefore no harassment
is communicated to the customers.

But McDonald’s goes even further. Customers may be discouraged from entering
if the building looks unappealing from the outside; hence considerable care goes
into the design and appearance of the structure itself.

Some things, however, the architect cannot control, especially at an establishment

where people generally eat in their parked cars and are likely to drop hamburger
wrappings and empty beverage cartons on the ground. McDonald’s has anticipated
the requirement: its blacktop parking facilities are dotted like a checkerboard with
numerous large, highly visible trash cans. It is impossible to ignore their purpose.
Even the most indifferent customer would be struck with guilt if he simply dropped
his refuse on the ground. But, just in case he drops it anyway, the larger
McDonald’s outlets have motorized sweepers for quick and easy cleanup.

What is important to understand about this remarkably successful organization is

not only that it has created a highly sophisticated piece of technology, but also that
it has done this by applying a manufacturing style of thinking to a people-intensive
service situation. If machinery is to be viewed as a piece of equipment with the
capability of producing a predictably standardized, customer-satisfying output
while minimizing the operating discretion of its attendant, that is what a
McDonald’s retail outlet is. It is a machine that produces, with the help of totally
unskilled machine tenders, a highly polished product. Through painstaking
attention to total design and facilities planning, everything is built integrally into
the machine itself, into the technology of the system. The only choice available to
the attendant is to operate it exactly as the designers intended.