Manufacturing excellence in fast-food chains

All over the world, people are impressed by the high standard of cleanliness and consistency of service found in every fast-food restaurant. They are all extraordinary in maintaining their quality standard. This leads to the question of how they can ensure that tens of thousands of people throughout the chain all over the world adhere roughly to the same standard and genuine concern for quality. The objective of this paper is to identify the parity for the application of manufacturing excellence to the fast-food operation. Although manufacturing excellence was originally designed for use in manufacturing companies, it is not just for factories. It is applicable to any type of business operations. For those companies that take this message seriously, opportunities are there to be seized. This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, current thinking and development in the application of manufacturing excellence to other business is summarized. Then, a case example from McDonald's in the fast-food industry is given to illustrate how manufacturing excellence can lead to success in fast-food operation. Finally, on the basis of the findings, a model of excellence for effective fast-food operation and recommendations for the implementation of manufacturing excellence in fast-food chains is suggested