Mcdonald’s Strives To Put The ‘Fast’ Back In Fast Food

McDonald’s owner-operator Steve Bigari issues the challenge: Order anything you want and watch the new Golden Arches at work.

The battle is engaged, and the clock starts ticking. One cheeseburger, extra pickles, add some bacon, hold the mustard. One Arch Deluxe, extra mustard. One Quarter Pounder with cheese, extra pickles, ketchup, mustard and no onions. Two Crispy Chicken meals and one Grilled Chicken meal, with two medium drinks.

Forty-two seconds later, it’s all there, hot and steamy even before the customer has the money out of his pocket.

McDonald’s is putting the “fast” back into fast food as it works to lure more customers back. New technology being tested here and elsewhere has automated the preparation of fries and drinks and made it easier and faster to prepare better-tasting, made-to-order food.

“Some people have the mistaken impression that you can improve the quality of the food, but only at the expense of service,” Bigari said.

“We’ve proven them wrong.”

McDonald’s has been testing the technology in 64 stores around the country, including Pueblo, Colo.; Shreveport, La.; Columbus, Ohio; and Grand Rapids, Mich. The chain this month approved an expansion of the test to stores in the San Diego area, spokeswoman Julie Cleary said.

McDonald’s, based in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, has been struggling to boost sales while fending off competitors such as Wendy’s and Burger King. It has shaken up its domestic management, introduced new promotions and sandwiches and slowed expansion - with little immediate impact on the bottom line.

Analysts, franchisees and customers say McDonald’s must focus on its food if it hopes to expand its domestic operations. Earlier this month, the chain reported that second-quarter sales at domestic stores open at least a year declined despite marketing campaigns including Monopoly, discounted Chicken McNuggets and Teenie Beanie Babies.

Executives have hinted for months at changes in the way the company does business, promising new technology and new dishes that can best be served with that technology.

To emphasize that direction, McDonald’s has appointed Tom Ryan, a former Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut executive, as vice president of menu management to oversee food development.

But the new equipment, which has been tested quietly for the past four years, could do more for McDonald’s than any other initiative - if it is embraced by franchisees, who would have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to remodel.

Analysts say it’s no surprise McDonald’s is moving against its competition, which have seen strong sales gains while revenues at McDonald’s stores open at least a year have been slipping. Although the domestic business has been down recently, it is by no means out, said Merrill Lynch analyst Peter Oakes.

“McDonald’s is like a big battleship that’s slow to turn, and the competition is presenting more of a challenge today than what they saw even a few years ago,” Oakes said. “But we’re going to see (McDonald’s) a little more nimble in days ahead, working to address some of their competitive shortcomings.”

Bigari is one franchisee singing the technology’s praises.

“The underlying technology prepares the best food you can get,” he said. “Then the fact that it’s all fresh just makes it all the better.”

Behind the counter, two of his five Colorado Springs restaurants have a futuristic feel, with computer screens everywhere and digital clocks ticking off the time to prepare food.

In plain sight of the customer, a computer-monitored machine dumps frozen fries into a basket that in turn is dunked into hot oil for cooking. Then the machine shakes the fries and dumps them into bins for serving. Robot machines elsewhere prepare drinks so quickly that a woman’s large Diet Coke is poured before she changes her mind and orders a regular medium Coke.

“So much of this is so radical, something we’ve never done before,” Bigari said. “It’s kind of fun, it’s kind of entertaining, but at the same time it’s easier on the crew. And from a customer standpoint, the perceived quality is dramatically different.”

The brains of the operation is a computer system that instantly transmits orders to the kitchen, allowing workers to prepare hot, made-for-order food and raising the restaurant’s efficiency level substantially, McDonald’s executives say.

The computer even “senses” increases in customer traffic and orders workers to make up particular sandwiches in advance. It also can perform analyses that tell owners the right number of workers for any given hour of the day or week.

In the kitchen, McDonald’s has set up computer-run holding bins that regulate temperatures for cooked meat to keep it hot and juicy. By keeping track of the time meat was placed in each bin, store managers know exactly when 30 minutes have passed. At that point, McDonald’s says restaurants should throw out the food, even if it remains hot.

The bins allow staff to wait for orders to appear on an overhead computer screen and made sandwiches quickly, no matter what the order. A digital clock tells personnel how quickly they’re going.

McDonald’s appears so confident of its technology that it also keeps large digital clocks outside drivethrough windows and promises customers they will get their food in 3-1/2 minutes, or the next meal is free. At the height of the Friday lunch hour, most get their food in a little more than a minute and a half.

Across the street at Burger King, the average drive-through wait is nearly three minutes. Inside, it takes 5-1/2 minutes waiting in line before ordering two special-ordered sandwiches. Nearly five minutes later, the burgers arrive.

Analyst Ron Steger at KPMG Peat Marwick predicted it will be hard for McDonald’s competitors to match the chain’s awakened effort to boost domestic sales.

“McDonald’s is the 600-pound gorilla of the fast-food industry,” Steger said. “Simply because of its sheer size, the company has a lot of muscle where others don’t, and their growth formula is going to work for them down the road.”