Could a McDonald's Restaurant be automated ?

Mc Donalds will always need human workers to supply the spit. The synthetic stuff don’t taste the same.

Spit?

So that’s why they no longer talk about the Big Mac’s Special Sauce!

I remember reading an article many years ago that concluded that cheap labor is much more desirable than a fully automated system.

Small changes can easily be implemented quickly with people, but require a very expensive manufacturing, programming and testing process with humans. Just imagine, if they wanted to add onion rings inside the big Mac for example, they would have to get highly paid, mechanical engineers to retrofit the onion-ring placement array into the existing Big Mac assembly machines in all 12,000+ US locations. Or they could just send out a company-wide memo and the changes could go into effect the next morning.

Machines break, and they are very expensive to repair. Look at the airlines as an example of massive companies with lots of unusual specialized equipment. I worked for an airline, and while the planes were kept in great, safe conditions at all times, the ground equipment (some of which was 30+ years old) was always broken. We had 3 or 4 tugs (the little tractor cart things that pulled the baggage carts and other ground equipment) and often only had 1 or two operational at any given time. Also the belt-loader was always on the fritz and the air bottle (think of a jump-starter for jet engines) was unreliable at best. The point is that this stuff was unusual, specialized equipment that was difficult to replace, and repair. It requires well paid, highly trained personnel to service, and that’s just mechanical equipment. Picture highly sophisticated robotic parts and assembly lines with microchips, and many moving electrical components.

Lastly, I would argue that being a multi-billion dollar company, Mc Donald’s and other fast food companies have certainly already looked into this option and if it had been more profitable, I can guarantee they would be implementing it. Minimum wage is cheap, specialized robots and mechanical and electrical engineers are expensive.

@gorillapaws is right on. Trained minimum wage labor is the best deal for McD. Humans can quickly react to change and customer demands and are needed at the front end. Much of the process is automated already. If they could automate the grill and wrapping stages cost effectively they would.
Look at this Chinese Stamping Press video. Clearly it was quicker and less expensive for the owner to use low wage labor to move the product from the press to the bins.

I thought McDonald’s was already. They have those mindless people that do repetitive tasks all day, wearing the same uniforms. and unable to deviate from a script of what they can say and do.

They’re already using robots.. these ones just happen to breather air.

@elbanditoroso… not to mention so many mindless customers who buy their c**ppy food.

As for total automation of McDonald’s, it’s possible if franchises were set up like the old (long gone) New York Automats, the original fast-food restaurants where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines. They had employees who worked behind the scenes making the food, but McDonald’s automats might only need someone to come in regularly to add food and keep an eye out onsite problems.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Took my answer. The automat was a treat when I was little girl! The macoroni and cheese was delicious. But, @gorillapaws and @LuckyGuy make interesting points. A few McDonald’s had two people in the drive through, not sure if they still do this, a McD’s near me was one of the test stores, where you order with a live person rather than into a speaker, then pull foward and get your food at the next window. I liked that way better than the typical drive through. But, I almost never drive through.

@JLeslie – at one near me (off I-85 in Atlanta), when you go to the drive through, you are speaking to a person in the midwest (Nebraska?) though the microphones. I guess they are in a call center some place. As soon as you place the order with them (it is a live person), they transmit the order to the cashier at the store. So my order for a milkshake is actually travelling 1400 miles even though I am 30 feet from the pickup window.

Yes, but the food wouldn’t be as good as it is.

Let’s not go there.

@elbanditoroso I never heard of such a thing. Usually you are talking to someone right inside the restaurant, even if it is through a speaker/mic thingy system.

The Sonic by my house allows you to text your order and pick it up at the window. So, it’s only a matter of time…

Personally, I don’t find waiting 3 minutes for my food to be a huge inconvenience.

@JLeslie – see this and other articles: http://consumerist.com/2008/06/17/mcdonalds-remote-ordering-system-is-gaining-popularity/

@JLeslie, I loved the Automat, too. In my memory the food was excellent, the environment friendly and clean, and the prices quite reasonable. I loved their sandwiches.

@elbanditoroso Wow. Thanks for that link. I hate that idea. LOL. But, as I said, I don’t like drive through in general.

In Canada we experimented with automatic french fried vending machines. The fries tasted wonderful, but the machine needed maintenance frequently.