Fast Food Equipment Repair, or "No Ice Cream For You!"
Heaven help me but I admit to liking McDonald’s chocolate “shakes.” I know they’re unhealthy but sometimes I get the urge. I’m human. I admit it.
So I was interested when I came cross a Boston Globe article reporting on the frequency with which McDonald’s “ice cream” machines are broken requiring repairs by the machine’s original manufacturer.
This brought back memories of once upon a time when I managed a consulting project for a manufacturer of fast food restaurant electronic cash registers. Managing the service and support operation for these machines, popular with most of the large fast food franchise operations, was a major operation, money maker — and a constant source of customer complaints.
In the fast food business the failure of a cash register, at least in those days of mostly counter based transactions, had immediate revenue impacts. Because of that my client operated a network of service and support operations, some by direct employees, others by contracted repair services. The question my consulting company was addressing was what the manufacturer might do better, data management wise, to improve the speed with which service and support operate in order to minimize return-to-service times for machines that went down.
Of course there is a big difference between an electronic cash register, which is a specialized computer, and an ice cream machine. While software controlled, the ice cream machine contains many mechanical parts that must be regularly cleaned and maintained to function safely and efficiently. The fact that the ice cream machines are “down” so frequently — something that I have experienced personally in my own quest for chocolate shakes — obviously creates a demand for service and repair by knowledgeable and trained individuals.
This brings us to the complicated issues of “right to repair,” patents, monopolies, competition, and revenue streams based on a mix of sales and support contracts. In the case of electronic cash registers the mechanics of the devices are only the tip of the iceberg given the complexity of software that supports point of transaction sales and integration with a variety of other software suites that support drive through orders, online orders, sales transaction analyses, tracking of preventive maintenance, communication with the home office cloud, and so on.
It’s complicated. You have to understand this stuff to maintain it. I imagine that similar issues arise with support for McDonald’s ice cream machines given the complexity of the machines, the labor required to keep them clean (4 hours each day, according to one article), and the time it must take to diagnose and repair them if they don’t operate correctly.
I’m also imagining how complicated it must be to price service and support for these devices given the need to position personnel and repair parts around the country in order to provide support quickly in the event a machine goes down and support gets a call. It can’t be cheap and if a call center is involved you need to have trained personnel able to diagnose problems over the phone on staff 24/7. Again, when a machine goes down a store’s revenue can get an immediate hit.
Perhaps this is a business where there is not a lot of competition given the unique needs of different fast food franchises; we all know how monopolies can impact prices.
At the same time, the manufacturer of any type of instore equipment has an incentive to get equipment up and running as quickly as possible so that the store’s revenue does not take a hit; it’s store revenue that ultimately drives equipment sales.
Believe me, having been exposed to the power and influence of fast food franchisees and major fast food brands, I can assure you that McDonald’s keeps track of how well the ice cream machines perform in its stores.
Copyright (c) 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald
