e-spaces

June 19, 2008 Edition 4

Louise Flanagan

If you want to make burgers at McDonald’s, you need to pass 14 tests within three months.

If you want to talk to Sello More, who works on the line at McDonald’s in Ghandi Square in central Joburg, you have to be quick about it. More said it’s not hard to learn the speed and efficiency expected.

“You only need to be committed to the job,” he said, in between making beef burgers.

More must pick up each new order within five seconds of it flashing on the computer screen above his head and it must be ready for the customer within 25 seconds.

He has worked at McDonald’s for four years. “I enjoy it very much.”

This is one of 111 McDonald’s outlets that set up in South Africa since 1995.

“When we started in the country it was for us a big challenge to get standards that McDonald’s internationally would recognise,” said McDonald’s supply chain director Karin Freeman.

The first tests for new crew are health, safety, hygiene, customer care, and how to make French fries.

Quality is an obsession. Every product must be instantly traceable from exactly where it is in an outlet back to its point of origin, even the specific herd of cows, to the point where it must be possible to recall a specific batch within two hours.

McDonald’s executive director Greg Solomon said it’s “a McDonald’s efficient global system applied in local SA”. He said the company was positive about the opportunities in SA. By the end of this year there are due to be 125 outlets in SA.

On August 6, the Ghandi Square outlet will open the country’s first McCafe offering speciality coffees.

Efficiency is hard work and each outlet is set up to be able to pull statistics on its progress every 15 minutes if necessary. Employees compete during a “super hour” each week with other outlets to see who can serve the most customers.

How does McDonald’s keep global standards of efficiency in a country renowned for inefficiency?

Training, said Freeman and operations director Chris Green.

That explains the 14 mini-exams for new crew. More senior staff must do more, to become a restaurant manager means two years of part-time training plus seven formal classes, the last in Australia.

So what could a place like the Department of Home Affairs, notorious for its inefficiency and lengthy queues, learn from the fast food experts?

Training and belief in the brand.

“It’s training and hiring talented people to start off with,” said Freeman.

“Train, train, train. If you’re hiring puppets and don’t invest in them, what do you expect?”

Back on the line, More sums it up.

“The customer is the most important person. You have to serve them quickly.”