Technology Week 2 Essay

Submitted By bfin29@yahoo.com
Words: 386
Pages: 2

Technology continues to change the way companies conduct business. Throughout the years McDonalds has been at the tip of the spear when it comes to adapting these new technologies to give them an edge over their competitors. McDonalds’s uses technology to be a leader in the fast food industry, plan its marketing strategies, organize its products, and control its business.
“McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc, helped develop and sell the Multi-mixer, a machine that could make five milkshakes at one time” (Roland, n.d.). In the 1950’s, thanks to the development of the multi-mixer, milkshakes became easier to mass produce saving time and money. Since McDonald’s founder owned the rights to the multi-mixer McDonald’s led the industry and maintained control of production and sales limiting their competitor’s resources. As a result of proper planning and organization, Kroc was able to turn McDonald’s into an international phenomenon solidifying a market world-wide (Roland, n.d.).
Another way that McDonald’s used technology to become a leader in the fast food industry was by use of the French fry computer. In the early 1970’s, it was dangerous to cook French fries due to open flame burners that could easily cause grease fires, causing harm to the cooks and the restaurant itself (Thompson, 2011) . To resolve this issue, McDonald’s purchased a new innovation in which an electronic spark ignition of the gas burner in combination with a high-efficiency burner eliminated the pilot light and a “melt cycle” timer which kept the heat input low until the lard had melted (Thompson, 2011). This technology was instrumental in reducing the number of injuries and loss of