Serious fast food
In 1954 Ray Kroc walked into the McDonald brothers burger bar in San Bernadino. It was clean and well run, but it wasn’t really any different to any other burger bar in the US. Every town had one. It was unremarkable.
The system
Ray made McDonald’s remarkable. He systematised the burger business. He took all the processes, all the documents, all the machines all the raw materials, all the work and built a system.
- There was a scoop for picking up the fires
- There was a rota for cleaning the toilets
- There was a timer to cook the burgers
- There was a layout for the kitchen
He left nothing to chance, in the kitchen, the restaurant, the car park or the back office
Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald’s. Everything else was secondary for me. ~ Ray Kroc
Ray built a burger bar and put it in a box. Now anybody who wanted to run a burger bar could buy the system, and more than a handful of people did.
Rule 10: build systems
Now Ray’s system feeds 68 million people every day, it has more employees than the population of Luxembourg and is the largest distributor of toys in the world.
What does your systems do?
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Image by Thomas Hawk
Hello James,
I find myself in total agreement regards building the ‘system of production’. I wish to make two observations:
1. If the system works against the folks that work in the system then there need to be folks who are constantly on the backs of the folks that do the work. The folks on the backs of the other folks are referred to as Managers. On the other hand, you can design a system which works with the way that human beings naturally are and work. When you do this then the system tends to work without the need for managers. Instead there are coaches and facilitators – folks who coach other folks and facilitate the working of the system.
2. I am certain that the system introduced by Ray Kroc in the 1950s is not the same system that is in place today. Living is a process – it is dynamic. Hence, any imposed system works as long as it stays within its boundaries. When the context in which the system operates changes sufficiently then adjustments have to be made to the system. So who is attuned to the fit between system and world? The danger with the management model is that the managers get wedded to the system as it is and do not change the system as and when it needs to change.
Maz
Maz, thanks very much for your comment.
I particularly like your point that:
You can design a system which works with the way that human beings naturally are and work
Why is it that so many of our systems aren’t designed that way? And that the worst culprits invariably belong to H.R. who you would expect to be the best?