Case Study: Online Purchasing at McDonalds

1. Getting franchisees to adopt the online ordering system is a major challenge. What techniques would you use to encourage adoption?

In this world where IT is dominate, digital is the thing that everyone uses. The dependence on all things technology based is so massive; companies cannot just keep avoiding this change. A change in the desired direction is for progress, the success of all IT systems has been seen by many. It is extremely important to adopt these systems so that speed, accuracy and transaction smoothness would be the positive outcome. When you adopt such a system it will enhance your business, yes it is a challenge at first but the need for this new system is a must to keep up with the changing technologies. Some incentives would be as follows: an automated system would be put in place when order levels are low, Automated ordering instead of the manual in which often times are lead by human error, and of course the many benefits that are available through online workshops, tutorials, and seminars that are open for all users.

2. Draw a supply chain map that shows the various parties in McDonalds supply chain: Food Growers, manufacturers, distributors, corporate headquarters, & Restaurants. Describe the type of information that needs to be exchanged between the partners in each pair of partners. What is each organization looking for in its information systems?

1. Food Growers & Manufacturers Food available, Expected time of delivery, and expected price.

2. Manufacturers& Distributors: finished goods, availability, market demand & margins.

3. Distributors & Corporate Headquarters: Analysis, available units, availability times.

4. Corporate Headquarters & Restaurants:  Goods required, time of requirements, scheduled time for delivery.

Some basic requisites of every company for IT is: when is data available, data needs to be accurate, data needs to be readable, data needs to be secure, needs to be able to keep good records, generate reports as needed, and be able to track financial operational information.

3. Describe the differences in how McDonalds should handle information and planning regular food items and nonfood items and promotional one time items?

Planning for food items: There should be legal contracts in which the distributors work off of.  (Always have a back up supplier if needed) There needs to be a plan before anything can happen. Quality inspections and distribution of these items, properly planning is the next step.  There needs to be a way to check the status of everything. In the today world of everything digital information, all these steps can be keyed into a system which keeps on checking on all the needed steps. If this is set up then there were be alerts when the process has any sort of snag, this way it can be fixed sooner rather than later.

Planning for non food items like wrappers and napkins: The brand image here is the logos on the packaging.  The packaging is important due to the logos and such which add to the brand image. Even down to the napkins yes it is just something to wipe dirt or debris, but it is the trademark "M", and I do think it would be frowned upon if the napkins were plain in design. You can't find this sort of napkins or wrappers at your local food store, so the companies in which produce this product are very aware of how important it is for McDonalds to get there product on time. Another thing to think of is that McDonalds keeps these napkin makers and wrapper producers in business.  If these companies lost McDonalds as a customer they might just fail as a company.  So they know it is important to keep McDonalds happy.

One-time Items: This needs to have accurate forecasting and planning. Without the accuracy of the forecasting charts, the company might end up making too many or too few excessive products (like toys) which could turn out to be fatal for the promotion teams and work against the company. We all know that a good customer is a happy customer. If a customer or consumer is unhappy then these customers may choose not to come back, this is not a good outlook. Therefore the company needs to ensure that the correct equations are set in plan for making the most accurate forecasting available.  If by some chance there are too many toys and the company needs to get rid of the excess, then in the past they have donated then to needy children and third world countries.