THE FOUNDER; The case of McDonald’s.

ECYQG3, Victor Nyabuti Ong’era.

Bsc. Environmental Engineering.
NUPS Vtk, October 2019.

Key words: McDonald’s, quality control, speeded system, fast food, franchise

McDonald’s is a world renown brand that can be virtually found in any part of
the world. They are boasting 119 countries and still counting. Its famous and
respected a favourite to many. It was however not this way during the early
years of its establishment. The guys Richard and James McDonald were the
brothers who founded McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California in 1940. It
was the shake machine salesman Ray Kroc who bought the rights to their
“system” to create the modern-day McDonald’s corporation. But it all started
with a couple of brothers in a family run business.
1. Introduction
The brothers faced challenges in once family establishment. Its after they
thought of the box that they actually managed to come up with a system that
reduced not only the workforce but also the waiting time. Normally people
could line up in long queues as they try to get food from restaurants. The typical
plates that were used to serve food then added additional costs to the owners
because they had to be washed leave alone being broken. The brothers (Richard
and James McDonald) redesigned their kitchen and restaurant. The result was
that the waiting time reduced from hours to just 30 seconds hence the ‘speeded’
dubbed system.
2. Difficulties in the earlier years of establishment.
a. Non efficient system
With several food on the menu and workers that were many, the brothers
realised that the full potential of the restaurant was not achieved. This was
because of sharing of responsibilities and lot of items that were in the menu.
b. Quality problems
The brothers actually tried to open up the market in to other cities. They
however did not succeed because it was so hard for them to monitor and make
sure that the products were of quality when they were sold. Because of this, they
closed more than 3 branches that they had opened.
c. Customers neglect
The scrubbing off of carhops that used to deliver food to individual cars made
the business a little bit different in those days. Customers that were not
accustomed to this drove in and left away while others just lamented the old
good system. For some time, the facelift was a disaster and the brothers in
response made the employees park in front of the restaurant.
3. Part of solutions
The brothers conditionally closed the branches that they had opened because
they could not make sure by themselves that the quality was achieved in this
other location.
After some time, they adopted a new system they retreated, in the dark of night,
to the tennis court behind their home. Using thick chunks of red chalk to plot
the action, they choreographed an assembly line of food preparation and
delivery, where workers could most efficiently grill the meats (40 patties in 110
seconds), fry the fries (900 servings an hour), and dispatch an entire meal to a
hungry customer in just 20 seconds. This hamburger dance allowed Dick and
Mac to address the costly issue of personnel. The alluring carhops were swiftly
marched out of the picture: Customers would have to get out of their cars and—
gasp—walk to the window to order. And while they were there, they could gaze
inside the “fishbowl,” and marvel at the meticulous, efficient kitchen where
their food was being prepared. The new staff was to be all male, outfitted in
tidy, conservative paper hats and white uniforms which imbued them with an air
of surgical cleanliness and precision. Women employees, the brothers believed,
presented an unnecessary distraction.
After some time, customers started to flock the restaurant to have a taste of their
own. They were indeed willing to trade choice for speed and price. The quality
of the food wasn’t the main draw.
4. McDonald’s founders and quality management
In my opinion the brothers had a hands-on approach on the Total quality
management of the business. From the Video we could see how concerned they
were when Kroc wanted to introduce a milk shake that tastes like the original
one but actually not. They insist that that was MacDonald’s and as the founders
they knew exactly what they wanted. Other ways that the brothers showed of
the total quality management included:
a. Product Quality
The brothers cooked the restaurant food. They in fact physically checked the
hamburgers trying to find any mistake. The skills of service or product that they
were trying ti imply here was quality itself. They knew each ingredient, what
temperature the fries were cooked at and when they even tasted a little different
or became crispier, it was interesting that they could actually realize.
b. Training
In the sector of human resources, we saw how they actually trained the staff.
How to rotate in the kitchen so that to achieve maximum output. The fact that
the were required to wear the cap perfectly showed that the brothers actually
cared about quality management.
c. Continuous improvement
In the very first place, the brothers were in another location. When they saw an
opportunity in another place they moved. This included cutting their small
restaurant into half. Hey then after establishing themselves became crazy
enough to redesign the kitchen o achieve maximum efficiency. The fact that
they were looking forward to order more machines that could make the
milkshakes showed that they were continuously improving themselves as part of
quality management. The brother then went ahead to train the workers and then
entered into partnership with Ray. Ray spear headed he franchise deal. Where
they expanded from the west coast to Illinois.
d. Customer satisfaction
Not only did they train te workers but also make sure that the products were of
great quality before they got to the customers. There was an exact amount of
ketchup that had to be added and even a certain amount of time to cook the
fries.
5. Keys to McDonald's Success
a. Focus on Customer Satisfaction
The staff were generally encouraged to be more friendly. They were to focus on
customers satisfaction. This is by making the place clean and smiling when they
were serving the customers. They always prioritized at making the customer
happy. The fats services were also aimed at making the customer happy.
 b. Higher quality products that were affordable
From the video the founder we could see that the brothers were very strict on
what the customer gets and eats.by streamlining the working place and reducing
the labour cost, the brothers managed to make sure that they could reduce the
burden of the customer.
c. Deals with suppliers
Though not shown in the video, the brothers must have maintained a good
relationship with their suppliers. At the same time, there was a concept of
introducing other menus that were not offered originally by the restaurant. The
partnership with coca cola for example is a good example.
d. Franchise
Though the brothers had already created a few other branches, the speed and
frequency of this process was high when a milkshake seller decided to work the
brothers. He could not understand why the brothers would order so many
milkshakes that were able to make 8 milkshakes at once. Until he visited them.
When he saw the scale of the operation, it dawned on him on how big the whole
idea would be.
i. McDonald's everywhere
Ray Kroc tells the brothers about his observation. In every state there was a
church and a courthouse and he could not imagine why there would not be a
MacDonald in every place as well. Humorously he says that MacDonald’s
would be like church but the difference would be that people would worship in
it all the day seven days a week.
ii. Success of franchise
The main success of franchise can be directly be associated with Ray Kroc who
envisioned and Implemented A Successful Model. This franchise model was
first to develop a franchise at a large scale with consistent experiences whatever
location they attended. Attention to detail – Same set-up, process, and taste. It is
said that “attention to detail was one reason for the company's extraordinary
success. McDonald's is the largest Worldwide Franchised Food Service
Organization. McDonald's model had a different approach - A very supportive
process to ensure the franchisees excelled. It was noted that they only collected
a fraction of its sales as a service fee. This contrasted with the territorial model
(which the parent company would sell supplies to the franchise and a large
franchise fee) that many other fast foods were utilizing
 6. Conclusion
McDonalds’ are an organization that realized on the significance of customer-
centred philosophies and they emphasise on how to turn the quality
management approaches to help managing their businesses. An effective
approach has been analysed and the differences between customer want, need
and expectations and their perceptions has been highlighted with the full
support with an example. These important gaps is the serious quality that
associated with external customer services and this could be extend to secure
other major gaps and consequently, it could be urbanized in order to be
functional for internal customers as for the employees and the service providers.
McDonalds has maintained their products quality accordingly to the
international standard and also maintains a very good environment in every
premise of theirs. McDonalds has a very good learning environment for their
employees to development and provides customer satisfaction as daily life goes
on for them.
Its apparent that very little companies will ever come near the magnitude that
MacDonald has achieved. Some of the reasons why MacDonald has become a
leader in the fast food industry include but not limited to;
a. Developing strong, efficient processes and procedures and
remaining consistent on them allow for businesses to develop
consumer confidence in the brand.
b. Having the foundation of consistent processes allows businesses
the flexibility to innovate and adapt to consumers' concerns, and
improve the brand with minimal disruption.
c. Problems and downtimes will happen in business. Having an
established rapport with consumers can help businesses be resilient
when difficulties arise.
d. Listen. Customers know what they want. The main function of a
business is to discover these wants and cater to them. When
customers are telling you what their desires are, it's an invitation
for growth and deepening bonds for the future.
7. My own words on the movie
At the very end Ray said: ‘know what you’re thinking, how the heck does a
fifty-two-year-old, over the hill, milkshake machine salesman build a fast food
empire with sixteen hundred restaurants and an annual revenue of seven
hundred million dollar? One word: persistence.’. To some extent he had a point.
It was however heart-breaking to see that the real owners of MacDonald’s were
even sent ou of their starting place. He continued to say, ‘Persistence. Nothing
in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent won’t. Nothing is more
common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius won’t. Unrewarded genius
is practically a cliché. Education won’t. The world is full of educated fools.
Persistence and determination alone are all powerful. Show that you don’t have
to be defeated by anything. That you can have peace of mind, improved health
and a never ceasing flow of energy. If you attempt each and every day to
achieve these things, the results will make themselves obvious to you. While it
may sound like a magical notion, it is in you to create your own future. The
greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by
altering their attitudes of mind. Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson declared, “A man
is what he thinks about all day long.”’ This was like an awakening call to me.
Its not automatic that if one has an idea or is clever in class, they will make it in
life but through persistence and hard work any thing is achievable. At all time
we have to make sure that we don’t give up.
8. References:
• Essays, UK. (November 2018). Total Quality Management (TQM) at
McDonalds. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/total-quality-management-
for-macdonalds-marketing-essay.php?vref=1
• The founder 2016, American Biographical Movie.