Operations in practice Fast-food drive-throughs

The quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry reckons that the very first drive-through dates back
to 1928 when Royce Hailey first promoted the drive-through service at his Pig Stand restaurant
in Los Angeles. Customers would simply drive by the back door of the restaurant where the chef
would come out and deliver the restaurant’s famous ‘Barbequed Pig’ sandwiches. Today, drive-
through processes are slicker and faster. They are also more common. In 1975, McDonald’s did
not have any drive-throughs, but now more than 90 per cent of its US restaurants incorporate a
drive-through process. In fact 80 per cent of recent fast-food growth has come through the
growing number of drive-throughs. Says one industry specialist, ‘There are a growing number of
customers for whom fast-food is not fast enough. They want to cut waiting time to the very
minimum without even getting out of their car. Meeting their needs depends on how smooth we
can get the process.’ The competition to design the fastest and most reliable drive-through
process is fierce. Starbucks drive-throughs have strategically placed cameras at the order boards
so that servers can recognize regular customers and start making their order even before it’s
placed. Burger King has experimented with sophisticated sound systems, simpler menu boards
and see-through food bags to ensure greater accuracy (no point in being fast if you don’t deliver
what the customer ordered). These details matter. McDonald’s reckon that their sales increase
one per cent for every six seconds saved at a drive-through, while a single Burger King
restaurant calculated that its takings increased by 15,000 dollars a year each time it reduced
queuing time by one second.

Menu items must be easy to read and understand. Designing ‘combo meals’ (burger, fries and a
cola), for example, saves time at the ordering stage. Perhaps the most remarkable experiment in
making drive-through process times slicker is being carried out by McDonald’s in the USA. On
California’s central coast 150 miles from Los Angeles, a call centre takes orders remotely from
40 McDonald’s outlets around the country. The orders are then sent back to the restaurants
through the Internet and the food is assembled only a few metres from where the order was
placed. It may only save a few seconds on each order, but that can add up to extra sales at busy
times of the day. But not everyone is thrilled by the boom in drive-throughs. People living in the
vicinity may complain of the extra traffic they attract and the unhealthy image of fast food
combined with a process that does not even make customers get out of their car, is, for some, a
step too far.