McDonald’s might not be what it is today if it weren’t for the crazy idea that struck Dick and Mac McDonald as they were scoping out their brainchild’s operations.
Already successful restaurateurs, the brothers wanted to create something so efficient that it could sell quality food for a stunningly low price. They hit on a way to literally sketch out the ideal floor plan, as I was lucky enough to hear directly from Dick McDonald a few months before he passed.
The brothers loved tennis and had their own court. One evening, they invited a bunch of veteran industry associates to join them on the court and pretend it was a restaurant. Then they asked their guests to cover the bottoms of their shoes with chalk dust and pretend they were working a shift, each fulfilling a different role.
The chalk left a trace of how the participants moved to fulfill their pretend jobs. By the end of the night, the McDonald’s had a schematic of a restaurant’s actual workflow. From there, it was a matter of turning those indications into an ideal schematic.
Unfortunately, Southern California was hit by a rare rainstorm that night, and the map was reduced to a milky puddle by morning. But the brothers retraced their efforts and came up with the operational foundation of their bold new venture.
Now, refreshingly, a handful of restaurateurs are trying something along the same lines. They may not be using chalk this time around, but their objective remains little changed. How can they re-skew their operations to do the most with the least amount of space, labor and time?
New realities have added a new goal to the quest: How can they reconfigure to lessen the stress that’s driving restaurant workers out the door to less-wearing jobs?
Dunkin’ proved that a total rethink could improve employee retention back in 2018. While it was still known as Dunkin’ Donuts, the baked-treats specialist set out to recast itself into what management termed “a beverage-led, on-the-go concept.” Units were reconfigured to provide a more logical flow for customers, and the menu was cut to make their food choices easier, since there were fewer options to consider.
The strategy cost the brand a slight but still meaningful drop in sales. Yet it provided an overall boost financially because the shortened menu cut employee turnover significantly and the high costs rehiring entailed. Employees felt less stress because their workflow made more sense and they had fewer doughnut types to scan in their hunt for the ones ordered.
Now, with the industry walloped by what’s been dubbed The Great Resignation, operational rethinks are on the rise, often with the same sort of brain picking that proved monumental to Dick and Mac McDonald.
All that was missing from Caribou Coffee’s group think was chalked shoes. The 700-unit chain pulled together some of its top operators and asked them to come up with a unit design that addressed the opportunities and challenges they saw. Specifically, they were asked to rethink the drive-thru operation.
Their input enabled Caribou to cut a minute’s serving time at the drive-thrus of what it calls its cabin design. The floorplan changes also made the restaurants a better place to work because customers appreciated the faster service, according to CEO John Butcher.
“We trusted our teams,” Butcher told Jonathan Maze for a mid-October story. “We designed it so the entire experience would be efficient.”
The concept that epitomizes the group-think approach has to be Starbucks. Early in the brand’s stewardship by Howard Schultz, it instituted a website where baristas could post ideas on how to improve serve and evolve the menu. It was open to public perusal and comment.
A quantum leap came in late 2018 when the chain opened what it called the Tryer Center, described as “the company’s secret sandbox for every flavor of innovation, from product to process to store design.” Appearance-wise, “it looks like a cross between a laboratory, a design firm and a dot-com startup.”
The mission of the 20,000-square-foot headquarters facility is to “toimprove the customer experience and the day-to-day lives of partners working in Starbucks stores around the globe.” The major twist is that the ideas have to be implementable within 100 days.
A first-hand look at the secret facility would likely bring drowning by latte. But Starbucks itself has aired considerable detail about the lab. Among the tidbits it’s revealed: Within seven months of operation, the innovation incubator had generated 130 projects, “dozens” of which were ultimately adapted.
In addition to maintaining that facility, the coffee giant has formed a council of store operators and employees to brainstorm bottom-up innovations. It’s also rolling out new technology that’s intended in part to make employees’ lives easier.
“When we take care of our partners, they take care of our customers, and all stakeholders benefit,” CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement.
Oh, yeah: The chain is also raising its pay to an average of $17 an hour.