Fast Food Different Strategy

Both McDonald's Corporations and Burger King Corporation operate in the highly competitive and growing fast food industry. In a fierce battle to capture market share both companies operate in an environment of tight controls and clearly defined operations strategies. While McDonald's has opted to offer a standardized product to its customers, Burger King has attempted to capture market share by offering its customers the flexibility to customize. The advertising slogans, Have It Your Way by Burger King vs We Do It All For You by McDonalds explains the difference in production methods.

Therefore, the operational strategy has direct implications on the process flow, the output, the human resource management and the bottom line of each company. McDonald's uses a batch process to cook hamburgers (Exhibit A). Using a batch process means that the speed of delivery is dependent upon the speed and experience of the individual worker. Hamburgers are cooked on a large platen, in batches of up to twelve. Two or more batches may be on the platen at one time, in various stages of cooking.

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This means that a worker is required to manage the grill exclusively during rush hours.

The hamburgers are hand-seared after 20 seconds on the grill, turned at 60 seconds, and pulled at 100 seconds. While the hamburgers are cooking, buns are toasted (55 seconds) the crown of the bun is dressed and condiments are added. When the hamburgers come off the grill, workers complete the hamburger as per the pre-defined guidelines, wrap and shelve them in the bin.

If there are two batches going in different stages of cooking, speed is essential to keep the production moving For years, McDonald’s and Burger King (BK) have been the world’s two largest and most successful fast food chains.

Both have battled out all these years over their operational differences which form the core of their corporate culture. The “Doing It All For You” (McDonald’s) vs. “Having It Your Way” (BK’s) stems from their respective production methods. McDonald’s “Made to Stock” vs. BK’s “Made to Order” also originate from the differences in their respective processes. Exhibits 1 and 2 show the Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs) of McDonald’s and BK respectively. Exhibit 3 provides a detailed comparative analysis of the PFDs of these two fast food chains.

The main operational difference between McDonald’s and BK is that McDonald’s cooks their hamburgers on grills using a “batch process” (a batch of upto 12 patties/grill) with human intervention to turn, sear, and pull. BK uses the machine based – Continuous Chain Broiler assembly process (8 burgers/meat chain) for the production of their burgers – similar to an assembly line in a manufacturing process thus, requiring no human intervention.

For a “made to stock” process, it requires burgers in bulk and hence the batch process in McDonald’s. Whereas, for a “made to order” process, it requires an assembly chain process where meat patties are placed at one end and after 80 seconds they come out the other end, cooked – one by one.

Also, since BK harps on “make to order” process, it requires a semi-finished inventory – Steam Table in which mated buns and patties sit for 10 minutes and then discarded. In McDonald’s “continuous process” there is no such inventory and all the buns and patties are mated during the assembly process following the dressing. It should be noted that mating of the buns and patties before the assembly process in BK is a result of BK’s variety of menu. Whoppers and Burgers both are of different sizes and hence the mating before assembly process. McDonald’s menu” less product more often”.