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.
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.
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 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.
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:
- 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.
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.
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 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."
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
– 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)
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.
Ø 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
• Central review of audit report and shipment to
•
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 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.
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 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.
