McDonald’s and the Lean Pull Process (#30)

McDonald’s and the Lean Pull Process

Growing up, my dad was a U.S. Marine and we often traveled with him. I was 18 when we joined him for a tour in London, England. After that we traveled back home to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Our family was there for 14 days when my dad got his orders to go to the Middle East as part of “Desert Storm.”

My initial college plans were to go to a university in Greenville, NC. Since it was three hours away from home and my dad was getting deployed again, I decided to go to a community college close to home to watch after my mom and sisters.

After I registered for classes, I scoured the help ads in search of a job. A night shift position at McDonald’s was the only job I found that would be flexible with my class schedule. I’ve always prudent with finances. Just like with teaching, the Marine Corps isn’t something people do to make a lot of money. Because of this, I have an eye for waste and it was something that I saw almost immediately when I walked in on my first day. This was long before I understood the Lean and Six Sigma Methodology.

If you remember how McDonald’s used to cook their food in the 90’s, you’ll remember that they would cook all of their sandwiches and put them under a heating lamp until they were ordered. We would separate batches of burgers with flag markers to let employees know when a batch expired, and became waste.

There was not a real system in place. McDonald’s management would forecast to fit demand. Often they would over predict during busy hours and under predict the rest of the time. Without a set process, they were risking a chance of extreme waste; a waste that I saw each day. I worked at McDonald’s for 18 months and the “process” remained the same.

20 years later, I went to lunch with my girls at McDonald’s. I took a peak at the heating bins to see if they still used the same process. To my surprise they were empty except for a few special-order sandwiches. I assumed that they were tailing off a huge rush trying to play catch up. I positioned our seat so my girls could play and I could watch the employees behind the counter.

I saw that after the meat was cooked, it was placed into steaming trays positioned beside where the sandwiches are assembled. Once an order was placed, it was instantly put together and delivered to the customer. With my full knowledge of the Lean and Six Sigma Methodology, McDonald’s new system is a great example of the Lean Pull Process.

McDonald’s used to make the sandwich inventory and keep them under the heat lamp. The process constraint was cooking the meat. The old process also left the bun soggy because the ketchup and mustard had soaked in. McDonald’s new process removed the constraint. They did so by creating a Pull Process; pulling the meat out of the “Supermarket” (the bins they stored the cooked meat). When the order is placed, they would pull the meat out of the “Supermarket” and make the sandwich just in time to fulfill the order. 


What is your experience with a Lean Pull Process?


About Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.
We are Certified as an Accredited Training Organization with the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC)
“The IASSC Accredited Training Organization (ATO) designation validates Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. has demonstrated adequate management systems, courseware with a high degree of correlation to the subject matter contained in the IASSC Bodies of Knowledge, delivery schema consistent with such content and highly qualified instructors.”
We Provide Public Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training Courses in 34 Cities across the globe.
Our Training Centers are located in: Albuquerque, New Mexico | Anchorage, Alaska | Atlanta, Georgia | Austin, Texas | Boston, Massachusetts | Calgary, Canada | Charlotte, North Carolina | Chicago, Illinois | Cincinnati, Ohio | Cleveland, Ohio | Columbus, Ohio | Dallas, Texas | Denver, Colorado | Detroit, Michigan | Dubai, UAE | El Paso, Texas | Fort Smith, Arkansas | Honolulu, Hawaii | Houston, Texas | Indianapolis, Indiana | Jacksonville, Florida | Kansas City, Missouri | Las Vegas, Nevada | London, England | Los Angeles, California | Louisville, Kentucky | Memphis, Tennessee | Mexico City, Mexico | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Montreal, Canada | Nashville, Tennessee | New Orleans, Louisiana | New York City, New York | Northwest Arkansas | Orlando, Florida | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Phoenix, Arizona | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Portland, Oregon | Raleigh, North Carolina | Salt Lake City, Utah | San Diego, California | Seattle, Washington | St. Louis, Missouri | Tampa, Florida | Toronto, Canada | Vancouver, Canada | Washington, DC

We Provide Onsite Lean Six Sigma Certification Training. Some of the training's we provide are: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma Champions Training and Lean Certifications for Healthcare, Finance, I.T, Manufacturing, Processing, Logistics, Retail Sales and Government.
SSDSI will come to your site to train for your choice of the Lean Six Sigma Certification Levels. Onsite training is more cost effective than open enrollment training when training larger groups of team members.
Benefits of Onsite Training:
The Training is focused on Your Opportunities
SSDSI uses your opportunities in class (vs. generic examples)
You will get the experience of a seasoned Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will help mentor you while completing your Lean and Six Sigma Project
You can train up to 20 employees for one fixed cost (this cost includes course ware and the instructors travel & lodging)
Our courses are full of games, simulations, and active learning to help the adult learner
SSDSI can customize the training to meet your company’s particular training needs
Call Kevin Clay at 214-731-3176 or email at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com for more information

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

McDonald's and the an example of a Lean Pull process...

When I was 18 we (my family and I) had just returned on an accompanied tour with my father (a U.S. Marine) in London, England. We were in Jacksonville, NC for around two weeks when he received orders to ship off to the middle east to be a part of "Desert Storm". I was preparing to go to college in Greenville, NC which was about three hours from Jacksonville. I changed my plans when we got the news that my father was to be deployed again. I decided to go to the local community college so that I could watch after my mom and two sisters.  My first order of business once I was registered for school was to find a job. The only employment I found that would work around my schedule was McDonalds. I was hired as a night shift cook. I have always had the mind to be frugal with money. Like teaching, you don't enlist in the Marine Corps to get rich. I say this because I immediately saw waste at the McDonalds though At the time I did not know the concepts of Lean nor Six Sigma. ...
Read more

We Invest  in process improvement like we invest in our health...

I'm sure most of you have seen thousands of infomercials over the years of "get fit quick" gimmicks. The man on the TV that I call "the Circus Barker" that excitedly tells you of a way to lose weight and get fit in seven days. We fall for these gimmicks time after time with the same result ... a new contraption that sits in a closet or in the middle of the room as a clothes hanger. Why does this happen? Because we want the quick fix with minimal investment.  Let's correlate the above example with an organizations investment in process improvement. When I am asked by people "Kevin, what do you do?"... I answer "I am like a fitness trainer for your organization except that I focus on the health of  your processes not necessarily the people." Organizations investing in process improvement are investing in the health of their company. For those of you that have significantly improved your health and sustained that improvement know that t...
Read more

Myth Busters (#77)

Image
Myth Busters! I love watching the show Myth Busters! It’s entertaining and enlightening; hopefully you think these blogs are too!  😊 The Lean Six Sigma Methodology is full of myths. One of these being that it is the CI’s role to improve processes. Saying it louder for those in the back: It is a Myth that the CI’s role is to Improve Processes. Confused? Let me explain. A myth is a false idea or belief that is widely recognized. Most people believe that it is the CI’s responsibility to improve processes. Why wouldn’t you believe that? Their title literally means Continuous Improvement. Let’s take a look at this example of how the majority of companies practice process improvement. Charlie is a Continuous Improvement Engineer for the Operating Expense Dept in his organization. Their team consists of three people out of a staff of 900. Leadership has asked the team to speed up the order entry process; a request made by corporate because they believe that the order entry...
Read more