McDonaldization

INTRODUCTION

The American sociologist George Ritzer has attracted wide attention with his concept of

"the McDonaldization of society" (expounded in his book of the same names). In his book,

Ritzer analyses the particular ways in which the success of the American hamburger chain has

impacted upon not only economic patterns, but in particular on a multitude of facets of social life

in general. Basing his analysis on Max Weber's theory of rationalization.

What in Ritzer's view is responsible for McDonalds' revolutionizing effect, is the fact that

its model offers four "alluring dimensions" to producer and consumer alike, namely efficiency,

calculability, predictability and control. Naturally all of these have led to beneficial and

irreversible changes which are not to be denied. Equally undeniable, however, is the negative

consequences: the ecological impact, the dehumanizing effect of ever more automation, and the

inescapable mistaking of quantity for quality.

McDonald's revolutionising influence on the fast-food industry not only in America, but

increasingly across the globe, has led to the establishment of dozens of clones in just about every

branch of the retail industry and has led to other social institutions adapting McDonald's

principles to their operations. The process by which these principles are coming to dominate

more and more sectors of society, is perceived by Ritzer to extend to education, work, health

care, travel, leisure, dieting and many more fields.

In essence, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization, albiet taken to extreme

levels. Rationalization is a sociological term that simply means the substitution of logically

consistent rules for traditional (or illogical) rules. One of the fundamental aspects of

McDonaldization is that almost any task can (and should) be rationalized.

The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This

is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The resulting

tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for completing each task. All

other methods are then deemed inefficient and discarded.

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The result is an efficient, logical sequence of methods that can be completed the same way every

time to produce the desired outcome. The outcome is predictable. All aspects of the process are

easily controlled. Additionally, quantity (or calculability) becomes the measurement of good

performance.

The process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in which "the principles

of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as

well as of the rest of the world.”

Since Mcdonalds standardization is a root cause of ritzer’s analogus comparison to

society focus would be put on such practices after understanding the dimension of

Mcdonaldization.

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Dimensions of McDonaldization

Ritzer’s theory consists of four dimensions that are typical for fast food restaurants:

1. Efficiency:

Always choosing the optimal and fastest way to accomplish something,

e.g. to make a burger. It is an advantage for the consumers who can get what they

need quickly and without effort.

Efficiency means the choosing of means to reach a specific end rapidly, with the least amount of cost

or effort. The idea of efficiency is specific to the interests of the industry or business, but is typically

advertised as a benefit to the customer. Examples are plentiful: the drive-up window, salad bars, fill your

own cup, self-serve gasoline, ATM's, Voice Mail, microwave dinners and supermarkets (versus the old-

time groceries where you gave your order to the grocer). The interesting element here is that the customer

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often ends up doing the work that previously was done for them. And the customer pays for the

"privilege." We end up spending more time, being forced to learn new technologies, remember more

numbers, and often pay higher prices in order for the business to operate more efficiently (maintain a

higher profit margin).

2. Calculability:

The idea that quantity is more important than quality. McDonald’s

equals quantity with quality and wants to make the impression that a large amount of food,

prepared in a short amount of time, is the same as a high quality product. The costumer gets

more food, but its quality and uniqueness are low.

Perhaps it is in its dimension of calculability that the character of the McDonald's model

is best revealed. Exactly so many patties have to come from a pound of meat, the buns must be

of a certain exact size and the patties again have to have a certain limited fat content so that, after

being cooked, it will still have a larger diameter than the buns, the fries must be of a certain

thickness and the bags must never be too full or too empty. It is easy to see how seemingly

neutral measures, meant to ensure standardization, eventually lead to the reduction of the

processes of production to a game of numbers. Even though this may not be too harmful in the

case of hamburgers and fries, the spread of an attitude like this will in the case of the majority of

industries of necessity lead to depersonalisation of both customers and workers. Another facet of

calculability is the accent that is being put on size. In the case of McDonald's the very example is

the Big Mac, but a multitude of examples can be gathered from just about every type of business,

whether in America or elsewhere. This inevitably leads to quantity being mistaken for quality.

3. Predictability:

The consumer always knows what kind of service and product he will get, because taste

of the burger and behavior of the workers towards customers are standardized worldwide.

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Predictability is maybe the one dimension of the McDonald's setup that is most directly

aimed at how it is perceived by its customers. It is imperative that the products must be the same

everywhere, so that being in Moscow or Peking (or Johannesburg, for that matter) wouldn't be

that big a problem if you get homesick: at least McDonald's would be the same as it is back

home. Naturally this would preclude any possibility of cus- tomers expecting anything else than

the standard McDonald's fare (in any case, why should they?) and, more important, of any

McDonald's employee showing a tendency towards innovation or initiative.

4. Control:

Employees of a McDonald’s restaurant have to follow strict rules for food

preparation, they have to dress uniformly and they need to smile when receiving orders from

customers. A lot of their work is replaced by machines that they can operate in only one way.

The McDonald’s corporation controls the franchisee of the restaurant.

He has to follow the corporation’s rules, like getting the materials only from

specific suppliers. This includes bread and meat, but also cleaning agent and toilet

paper.

The dimension of control, in so far as it has not been implied by the foregoing, is attained

"...especially through the substitution of nonhuman for human technology..." (Ritzer, 1996, p.

11). This tendency, by far not unique to McDonald's, enable the company to far better control the

uniformity of production and to at least partly eliminate the hassles of having to deal with human

beings. Even the implied threat of replacing human with other technology enables further control

over employees. But it is not only the employees that need to be controlled, but also the

customers. This is ac- complished by a range of subtle measures, among which not the least is

the restriction of menus to a limited number of items, the utilization of customers to do work

them- selves, such as carrying food to the tables and litter away from it, and of course the

availability of hard chairs which certainly does not encourage customers to linger.

There are other dimensions of McDonaldization that Ritzer didn't include with the main

four, but are worthy enough for prime attention. They are:

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Irrationality - A side effect of over-rationalized systems. Ritzer himself hints that this is

the fifth dimension of McDonaldization. An example of this could be workers on an

assembly line that are hired and trained to perform a single highly rationalized task.

Although this may be a very efficient method of operating a business, an irrationality that

is spawned can be worker burnout.

Deskilling - A work force with the minimum abilities possible to complete simple

focused tasks. This means that they can be quickly and cheaply trained and are easily

replaceable.

Consumer Workers - One of the sneakiest things about McDonaldization is how

consumers get tricked into becoming unpaid employees. They do the work that was

traditionally performed by the company. The prime example of this is diners who bus

their own tables at the fast food restaurant. They dutifully carry their trash to friendly

receptacles marked "thank you." (The extreme rationalization of this is the drive-thru;

consumers take their trash with them!) Other examples are many and include: ATM's,

salad bars, automated telephone menus, and pumping gas.

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Supply chain –the cause to the term ‘ Mcdonaldization ‘

Supply Chain is one of the critical factors for the smooth functioning of any business.

And when we are talking about fast food business with McDonald’s as the subject of the study it

can expected a Supply Chain model of one of the highest precisions. It is this unmatched Supply

Chain Structure, which not just ensures on time delivery of raw materials and supplies to

McDonalds but also enables it to cut down on its cost and maximize profitability along with

maintaining highest quality standards of its products. The level of commitment of McDonalds

can be gauged from the fact that even before it set up its first restaurant in the country it infused

Rs 400 Crore to set up its delivery mechanism. McDonald’s initiative to set up an efficient

supply chain and deploy state-of-art technology changed the entire Indian fast food industry and

raised the standards of performance to international levels.

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McDonald's is committed to providing quality products while supporting other Indian

businesses. And so, we spent a few years setting up a unique Supply Chain, even before we

opened our first restaurant in India.

A Supply Chain is a network of facilities including - material flow from suppliers and

their "upstream" suppliers at all levels, transformation of materials into semi-finished and

finished products, and distribution of products to customers and their "downstream" customers at

all levels. So, raw material flows as follows: supplier - manufacturer – distributor – retailer –

consumer. Information and money flows in the reverse direction. The balance between these 3

flows is what a Supply Chain is all about.

When there is a balance in the finished product ordering, the Supply Chain operates at its

best. Any major fluctuation in the product ordering pattern causes excess / fluctuating

inventories, shortages / stock outs, longer lead times, higher transportation and manufacturing

costs, and mistrust between supply chain partners. This is called the Bullwhip Effect.

Depending on the situation, the Supply Chain may include major product elements,

various suppliers, geographically dispersed activities, and both upstream and downstream

activities. It is critical to go beyond one’s immediate suppliers and customers to encompass the

entire chain, since hidden value often emerges once the entire chain is visualized. For example, a

diesel engine manufacturer may be able to integrate a GPS locator system into its engine control

system. Its immediate customer, a heavy truck manufacturer, may see no need for this

functionality. However, the downstream customer, a trucking company with a large fleet, may be

very interested in a locator system. Understanding the value to the downstream customer is part

of the supply chain management process.

McDonald's had been working critically on its supply chain part. Considering, an

international brand trying to make inroads into the Indian consciousness, its Indian supplier

partners were developed in such a manner that made them stay with the company from the

beginning. The success of McDonald's India is a result of its commitment to sourcing almost all

its products from within the country. For this purpose, it has developed local Indian businesses,

which can supply them the highest quality products required for their Indian operations." As per

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today's standings, McDonald's India works with as many as 38 Indian suppliers on a long-term

basis, besides several others standalone restaurants working with it, for various requirements.

McDonald's entered its first distribution partnership agreement with Radha Krishna

Foodland, a part of the Radha Krishna Group engaged in food-related service businesses. The

association goes back to July 1993, when it studied the nuances of McDonald's operations and

requirements for the Indian market.Better facilities and infrastructures were created along with

new systems by them to satisfy McDonald's high demands, which finally culminated into an

agreement with McDonald's India, for Radha Krishna Foodland to serve as distribution centres

for our restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai." As distribution centres, the company was responsible

for procurement, the quality inspection programme, storage, inventory management, deliveries to

the restaurants and data collection, recording and reporting. Value-added services like shredding

of lettuce, re-packing of promotional items continued since then at the centres playing a vital role

in maintaining the integrity of the products throughout the entire 'cold chain'. The operations and

accounting is totally transparent and is subject to regular audits.

McDonald's had worked aggressively to attain the right suppliers and systems that

ensured that 90 per cent of yield was indigenous before the doors were opened to consumers.

The only products that we used to import were oil and fries, for which we have had made

arrangements to manufacture the oil in India. We ensured that the products developed locally

abide by global McDonald's standards,"

Over the last 10 years, the company has gained experience and adopted procedures that

helped in maintaining a continuous supply of food products irrespective of the climatic

conditions.Our logistics and warehousing system is robust that prepares us to deliver products at

the same temperature throughout, without a single break in the cold chain."

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Two Task orientated strategies

The general approaches followed by Mcdonalds for purchasing and logistic

• Purchasing

– “The 3 legged stool”: Corporation – Franchisees – Suppliers

– Exclusive, certified facilities

– Handshake agreements, Trust

– Long term win-win partnership, risk sharing

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– Rigorous product and service specifications

– Strong focus on quality, product specification and environmental audits

– Decentralized supplier structure, zone consolidation for multinational suppliers

– Distributor is wholesaler for Restaurants

• Logistics

– ~100 sales items in the restaurant

– ~400 SKUs in the warehouse (Hubs: up to 1,500)

– ~200 restaurants per DC (~180 DCs globally)

– Delivery frequency: ~3/wk, higher in urban areas

– 2-3 stops per route

– Exclusive distributors (3PL)

– Freight consolidation (via freight forwarders)

– Long term partnerships with service providers, risk sharing

– Strong quality focus (Cold Chain, HACCP, QIP)

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McDonald’s Logistics Standards

DQMP (Distributor Quality Management Process)

For over 50 years, McDonald’s has been serving customers its famous sandwiches, fries

and salads. Thanks to its stellar food safety program, McDonald’s delights each day over 50

million global citizens from young to old with confidence. In order to boost the level of

assurance in its food safety program, McDonald’s Europe decided to outsource its supply chain

auditing. More specifically, McDonald’s Europe targeted certification bodies to audit its food

suppliers against own standard SQMS (Supplier Quality Management System) or distribution

centres against DQMP (Distributor Quality Management Process). The company required an

unbiased view from certification leaders capable of evolving into veritable partners for

McDonald’s and its suppliers. As a result, McDonald’s Europe provided its suppliers with a

short-list of pre-approved certification bodies from which they could select one to conduct

required audits.For a certification company to make it onto the list, it had to undergo a stringent

six-month approval process.

Key steps in our certification process are:

• Definition of certification scope

• Pre-audit (optional): audit of your current position against the standard’s requirement

• On-site audit: including a traceability test

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• Central review of audit report and shipment to

McDonald’s Re-audit according to SQMS or DQMP frequencies.

• Quality Control (HACCP / QIP)

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a systematic approach to food

safety that emphasizes prevention within our suppliers' facility and restaurants rather than

detection through inspection of illness or presence of microbiological data. Based on

HACCP guidelines, control points and critical control points for all McDonald's major

food processing plands and restaurants in India have ben identified. The limits have been

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established for those followed by monitoring, recording and correcting any deviations.

The HACCP verification is done at least twice in a year and certified.

• Cold Chain standards

Cold Chain was one of the unique concepts of McDonalds supply chain in India,

on which it had spent more than six years to get the system into place. This system

brought about a veritable revolution, immensely benefiting the farmers at one end and

enabling customers at retail counters get the highest quality food products, absolutely

fresh and at great value. Through its unique cold chain, McDonalds has been able to both

cut down on its operational wastage, as well as maintain the freshness and nutritional

value of raw and processed food products. This has involved procurement, warehousing,

transportation and retailing of perishable food products, all under controlled

temperatures. The following list of suppliers, who build up the major supply chain of

McDonalds, reveal how this ‘Cold Chain’ works and contributes towards the efficiency

of McDonalds.

Setting up extensive cold chain distribution system forms the lifeline of any fast

food business. In this regard, McDonald's incorporated state-of-the-art food processing

technology along with its international suppliers to pioneering Indian entrepreneurs, who

are today an integral part of the cold chain. and have imparted technical training to all our

suppliers on how to operate the imported machineries, educated them on the McDonald's

philosophy of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (QSCV) in order to provide

standardised food to our customers."

The 'cold chain', on which the QSR major has spent more than six years for

setting up the same in India, has brought about a veritable revolution, immensely

benefiting the farmers at one end and enabling customers at retail counters. McDonald's

finding the factor of cold room being vital ensured that even before vegetable from farms

enters the refrigerated zones, they are locked in a pre-cooling room to remove field heat.

Vegetables are placed in the pre-cooling room within half an hour of harvesting where

rapid cooling decreases the field temperature of vegetables to 2ºC within 90 minutes.

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Then a large cold room (a refrigerated van) is used for transportation to the distribution

centers. In the van, the temperature and relative humidity of crop is maintained at 1-4ºC

and 95 per cent, respectively and the flavours and freshness are locked at -35°C.

Hygiene regulations

All suppliers adhere to government regulations on food, health and hygiene while

continuously maintaining McDonald's recognised standards. As the ingredients move from farms

to processing plants to the restaurant, McDonald's Quality Inspection Programme (QIP) carries

out quality checks at over 20 different points in the Cold Chain system. Setting up of the Cold

Chain has also enabled us to cut down on operational wastage

Conclusion

Mcdonalds had a strong homogeneous effect on the culture in its home country the same

cannot be said about the countries be said about the countries it expanded to. There its

localization process was rather about the countries it expanded to. There its localization process

was rather about assimilating into the cultural than to suppress it.

On the one side, Mcdonald’s leads to a standardized and homogenous global consumer

culture, but on the other side , it brings variety ,diversity and innovation to many parts of the

world. It contributes to the creation of a hybrid global culture ,especially as we saw in asia .

When the localization process of Mcdonald’s is viewed out of the customer , the risk is leading

towards a homogenous culture is smaller than the theory of Mcdonaldization suggests.

The expration of mcdonalds into Germany did not earse local traditions, because it was

something completely new and thus needed its own category . anyway ,it changed publics

eating habits in Japan and replaced the traditional parks and teahouses as places for old people to

meet.

The spread of the fast food culture also bars some risks. Even though it did not lead to a

homogenous global culture yet, it could lead towards what is the case in the USA now in just

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some decades. I think this is possible because the whole world is becoming more hectic and

because the values of family and having a home-cooked meal together are declining.

Other than culture, the spread of fast food corporations can lead to many economical

risks when they become a dominant factor in the local economy. As usual when it comes to

globalization, the average person will be the looser of such monopolies.

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