McDonalds (McD’s) and Burger King (BK) are key players in the fast food industry and have been competing for many years. They both provide similar food that is prepared quickly for a low price. So what sets them apart? The difference between McD’s and BK is their corporate culture – operational management. The manufacturing method at McD’s follows the “Doing It All For You” versus “Having It Your Way” at BK. The “Made to Stock” strategy at McDonald’s depends on an inventory of products, with great emphasis on the standard sized patties, which are made prior to processing a customer order. This means that when a sale is made and food delivered to the customer, the products in …show more content…
For example, McD’s spends around 2.2% higher on employee salaries compared to BK, please refer to Exhibit 5 and 6. Both McDonald’s and Burger King have put great effort toward deskilling the food process to minimize human intervention. The assembly process is deskilled at McD’s by incorporating the automated dispensers whereas deskilling is emphasized at the cooking phase at BK by implementing the broiler. In addition, at McD’s the counter specialist takes payment after assembling the order where as at BK the counter specialist takes the payment and then begins to assemble the order. The information flow functions differently in both companies as well, at BK counter specialists use microphones to relay the order to the production area and use register slips to assemble orders. McD’s, on the other hand, uses display monitors to assemble orders. The batch process at McDonald’s allows for a much faster speed of service. Though both McD’s and Burger King meet the hourly peak demand for Friday noon, as shown in Exhibit 7 and 8, there are significant operational differences in their approach to peak demand. McDonald’s follows the philosophy of “keep more in the bin than make a customer wait”. This method calls for additional backers which take on the role of an expediter in assembling orders, both in the production area and service area. In addition, a dedicated worker is assigned at the bin to maintain the