Lessons from McDonalds – What Labs Can Learn from Fast-Food

There is a lot that labs can learn from likes of a McDonalds.  It almost seems quite ridiculous to say it out loud yet alone read it but there is merit in it.

Think about your experiences when you have visited your favorite fast-food chain or coffee chain.  The likes of a McDonalds are blueprints for efficiency, and they have similar needs to labs such as versatility, consistency and speed.

How do they do it? How do they stay so consistent with such speed?

• They understand the need for ever improving productivity and efficiency.  Ever order a coffee or a meal from a kiosk or from your phone?  Well, that’s an automated solution and one that we can all appreciate.  There are even automated solutions you can’t see but are put into practice.  New bun toasters at McDonalds save 12 seconds each time which, when you calculate that over the course of a day, month, year + locations, adds up to quite a bit.  New cash registers are 50% faster allowing for higher throughput.

• They appreciate the need for consistency.  Think about each time you ordered your favorite meal or coffee from your local fast-food chain and how it came out the same every time.  Consistency is achieved through regular training and through the use of intelligent automated solutions.

• The “fast” in fast-food should rather be read as “unbelievably fast.” McDonalds typically takes under 2 minutes to fulfill your order from the time it is placed and that is not even the fastest (Taco Bell takes the crown here). Imagine if only manual tasks were involved.  I think we can all agree that it would not be quite as fast!   

What then, are the key takeaways here? Reproducibility, higher throughput, consistency and speed are just some of the outcomes you can realize by investing in & leveraging automation.  There are proven examples on the benefits of automation that we utilize each and every day and your lab can benefit too.

If you’re thinking about lab automation and wondering if your lab is ready, have a look at our 1 minute only quiz to help your decision making.

Remember, you don’t need to be the McDonald’s of labs either to leverage automation. Automation is accessible for all labs.  Get in touch with us and let’s discuss how we can help you leverage the power of automation.