

Lessons I Learned at McDonald's that Help Me Build Software - arohner
http://edweissman.com/lessons-i-learned-at-mcdonalds-that-help-me-b

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joezydeco
I worked at McDonald's too, and I remember the bin system that edw519
describes. It's what made McDonald's famous.

The idea was that the warming bin would always be stocked with product and
historical data was collected to know _how_ much to stock at a given hour of a
certain day of the week. But food could only live in there for 10 minutes
before (by the rules) being trashed. Of course, a sudden bus arrival or freak
rainstorm could wreck all of those plans. And (hint hint), the 10 minute rule
was disobeyed a lot because management was tracking food waste percentages.
Wasted food took away from profits...which took away from their bonuses.

The other downside was that food that had been sitting in that warming bin for
9-12 minutes (typ) started to taste bad. People liked Wendy's and BK _because_
their orders were fresh. Customization was another problem. McD custom orders
could throw the entire workflow off if the grill staff wasn't in a good rhythm
or if they weren't actually making product at the time of the order. Oh, you
want a Filet-o-Fish with no salt? Get ready to wait 7-9 minutes.

So, fast forward 25 years and McDonald's is now making single orders in a
bespoke fashion, ala Wendy's or BK. Why do you think that is? What's the
analogy to making software?

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pasbesoin
Thank you, Ed. I really enjoyed reading that.

I can't help thinking that the counterpart -- which you've provided indirectly
in various other posts and comments -- would be a/the story of working
somewhere where these distinctions are not recognized or acknowledged. And the
risk this can pose to the high performers' well-being.

