November 2005
SHORT REPORT:
McDonald's 50th Anniversary
by Mike Sherer with Brian Ward

As McDonald's celebrates its 50th anniversary, take a retrospective look at how the McLeader and its equipment initiatives have influenced an industry.

Look at the history of McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, Ill., and you can’t help noticing the lineup of synergies and symbiotic relationships. And nowhere are these mutually beneficial partnerships more apparent than in the relationships between McDonald’s and its equipment and supplies providers. Sometimes suppliers showed up with ideas the operators could use to their advantage. Other times McDonald’s defined an idea, and suppliers turned it into reality. But either way, the partners became more than the sum of their parts, and in many cases changed the direction of an entire industry.

On the pages that follow, just a few examples of McDonald’s role in equipment developments that changed its business, and sometimes the whole industry.

1955 Multimixer
The five-spindled, single-motored mixer invented by Earl Prince, operator of Prince Castle ice cream parlors, might be “the mixer heard ’round the world,” considering it’s  what brought mixer marketer Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers face to face. The mixer itself was a breakthrough, allowing five separate shakes to be mixed simultaneously in a tight footprint. Most busy operations kept up with demand using one or two of them. But in San Bernardino, Calif., the McDonald brothers had eight. Kroc, overseeing mixer sales at the company he founded, later called Prince Castle Sales division, got curious about just what kind of operator would need so many, so he went west to find out. Impressed with the bustling drive-in-turned-counter-service burger place, in ’54 Kroc became the exclusive franchise agent for the brothers. In ’55 he opened his first store.

1965 French Fry Bagging Scoop
Early on, it was obvious the company’s french fries were more than just a side attraction. They were a signature item, in fact, for the budding chain, which had exploded to more than 700 stores in a short 10 years. Recognizing both an ergonomic and a marketing need, McDonald’s engineer Ralph Weimer designed a device that would make it faster and easier to bag an order of fries in any serving size. Working with supplier Prince Castle, Weimer developed a fan-shaped scoop that vertically aligns the fries before they slide into a bag or box. That one hand tool suddenly created quicker service, as well as more consistent portioning and reduced breakage in a signature menu item.

1972 Egg McMuffin Ring
In ’71, Santa Barbara, Calif., franchisee Herb Peterson came up with the idea for a breakfast sandwich that would mark McDonald’s entrée into the breakfast daypart. When it quickly became apparent the Egg McMuffin was a hit, McD’s engineering staff looked at ways to prepare it consistently throughout the system. Ralph Weimer again headed a team with development partner Prince Castle. After testing a variety of materials, the team produced an aluminum-based ring with a non-stick coating that not only contained an egg on a griddle, but helped cook it more quickly. The single ring was launched in ’72, and a multiple-ring unit followed three years later when the sandwich went national.

1975 Direct-Draw Milkshake Machine
Throughout its history, McDonald’s has looked at automation as a way to improve consistency, quality, speed of service and efficiency. One of the early forays into automated equipment was the development of the direct-draw shake machine. The old way of making milkshakes using Multimixers involved several steps.  A new way would reduce those steps. Working with lead engineers Jim Coffey and Ted Kolowski, Taylor Company drew on its experience with soft serve ice cream machines and frozen drink machines. The result was a machine that freezes a ready-to-use shake mix to just the right consistency and combines it with flavored syrup. In ’94, the system was improved by adding a heat cycle that pasteurizes the shake mix, allowing operators to extend the cycle between complete machine disassembly for cleanings.

1975 Drive-Through Window
From the beginning, speed of service was at the top of McDonald’s list. But it was Fred Turner’s vision of how mobile society was becoming that led to the development of drive-thoughs. McD’s didn’t pioneer the concept—other examples existed around the country—but it was one of the first to build a production system expressly for the drive-through. Early examples were adaptations to existing McDonald’s restaurants, in some cases requiring a conveyor belt to take food from the kitchen through the dining room to a crew member at the window. New headset communication technology enabled the crew to take orders from customers and communicate with the kitchen. The first restaurant designed from ground up to be a drive-through opened in Sierra Vista, Ariz. In ’84, McD and HM Electronics partnered in the rollout of the chain’s first wireless drive-through communications system.

1983 Commercial Kitchen Ventilation Lab
Prompted in part by the energy crisis in the mid-’70s, Joe Knapp, an HVAC expert at McDonald’s, was given a mandate to reduce exhaust rates in McD’s kitchens and minimize make-up air requirements. For years, he experimented using calibrated updraft fans. He finally convinced McDonald’s and supplier Air Distribution Associates (his former employer) to build an airtight structure so he could measure air supply instead of exhaust. The result was a hermetically sealed lab environment built inside a warehouse in Wood Dale, Ill. The facility enabled the company to custom-design hoods for each of its cooking lines to provide complete capture and containment using the lowest volume of air possible. McDonald’s shared much of its findings with the industry at large, and eventually sold the facility. The state-of-the-art lab is now operated jointly by Architectural Energy Corp. and Fisher-Nickel, Inc. Clients today include commercial chains, ventilation manufacturers, engineering groups and others seeking ways to optimize makeup and exhaust. Truly an industry resource.

1986 Two-Sided Griddle
More speed of service. That, once again, was the goal when the equipment development group started work on a new way to cook hamburgers in the early ’80s. A team led by Tom Ewald worked initially with Wolf Range on a griddle that would speed cooking time while improving product consistency. Taylor Company and Garland Range stepped in as development partners during several trials, and the two-sided griddle, doubling the heat-transfer area without adding footprint, was rolled out into the field in ’85. Lang Mfg. later introduced its own version (a grill-broiler combo) and trademarked the name “Clamshell,” but McDonald’s still refers internally to the technology as a “clamshell” griddle.

1994 ARCH Dispenser
For decades, McDonald’s engineers have been on a quest to automate the process of cooking the perfect french fry. The system doesn’t yet exist, at least not one that meets the company’s rigorous specs. But in the late ’80s and early ’90s, a team working with development partners Ram Center (now Schwan’s) and Frymaster took a step closer toward that goal. The ARCH dispenser is a bulk dispenser designed to improve consistency and speed and reduce breakage. When loaded with frozen fries, the dispenser automatically weighs the proper amount of fries, dispenses them into an empty basket and moves a new basket into place.

1996-99 Made For You
In the ’90s McDonald’s saw its business changing dramatically. The menu expanded, adding variety, and more than 30% of orders included some sort of customization. All of which impacted speed of service and quality, too.

The “Made For You” initiative looked at the whole system, but ended up focusing primarily on production, not cooking. Three key pieces of equipment came out of the program—universal holding cabinets (UHCs), heated landing zones, and rapid-cook toasters.

Initial work with development partners Bob Marshall and Ralph Decker of Core Innovation Center, Countryside, Ill., took place in a mock-up McDonald’s kitchen built inside a rented warehouse. The first piece of the puzzle was how to hold a variety of products for a short time without losing any product integrity. Jerry Sus, McD’s senior director of development and strategic technology, took the lead with Tom Ewald and development partner Frymaster. The concept behind the UHC was to create a series of small environments flexible enough to accommodate one or several types of food at the same time.

Another challenge was finding a faster way to toast sandwich buns. A.J. Antunes and Frymaster contributed expertise. Ultimately, the team hit on the idea of using the same heat transfer method used in their clamshell grills in a conveyor toaster. A.J. Antunes produced a unit with heating elements cast right into the platen that heated up and transferred that heat more quickly than any other. Two conveyor belts pull buns vertically down between the platens. Heat is transferred right through the belts. Toasting times were reduced from 45-60 secs. for a typical commercial toaster to 11 secs. in tests. Stores typically toast buns in 15 secs., less than half the 35 secs. it took with old toasters.

Finally, to keep sandwiches at the proper temperature for the few moments it takes a crew member to assemble an order, Sus and Ewald developed a heated “landing zone”—a bin heated from the bottom and insulated with a warm air curtain. With the help of H&K and Franke as fabricators and Frymaster, the team went from concept to 40 prototypes for the company’s ’96 convention in less than 10 weeks. They rolled out nationally in ’99.

1998 Automated Beverage System
Ever since opening its first drive-through in Sierra Vista, Ariz., in ’75, McD’s has looked for ways to decrease drive-through time while improving order accuracy and efficiency. With limited space in the drive-through service area, the challenge is how to increase production rates without adding labor—for both cost and physical space reasons. Working with development partners Coca-Cola and IMI Cornelius, Jerry Sus and Jim Coffey realized that the serial nature of orders in the drive-through made the notion of automating beverage service possible. When orders are keyed into the POS terminal, the ABS automatically dispenses a cup, ice, and the proper beverage. Filled cups rotate on a carousel as each new beverage is dispensed. LED displays track the cups’ positions, indicating to crew members what each cup contains.

2002 Environmentally Friendly Refrigeration
For some time, Bernard Morauw in worldwide equipment systems and Bob Langert in public affairs talked about how the company could be even more proactive about environmental responsibility. They became the catalysts for a “refrigeration summit” in October ’00, hosted by McD’s and attended by suppliers like Coca-Cola and Unilever, and non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace. The summit led to a cross-functional team and serious talks with equipment manufacturers about alternate refrigerant solutions, all with the goal of opening an HFC-free store in Europe. When suppliers like Danfoss, Fin-Dan, H&K Int’l., IMI Cornelius, Nilan, Scotsman, Taylor and Vestfrost developed HFC-free refrigeration units for their respective equipment, the team worked with regulators to make sure the equipment met Euro code approval. Then the Danish Technical Institute was commissioned to perform a risk assessment study and verify equipment performed to Danish code. Finally, in December ’02, the first HFC-free McDonald’s restaurant opened in Vejle, Denmark. A pleasant side effect: During the unit’s initial test period, the eco-friendly refrigeration equipment used 12% less energy than refrigeration in a comparably sized traditional store.