As the largest restaurant chain by revenue (>$22b) and second by number of outlets (>37,000), McDonald's is a market leader. To maintain its market success, the company pays close attention to customer preferences and regularly updates its menu.
One of the most popular menu developments was the All-Day breakfast, a move that lifted the morning-only restriction on breakfast items for a select few items. It was a success, boosting revenue by as much as 3.5%, and the company resolved to further expand availability. They would seek to increase both the number of All-Day Breakfast items available and the number of restaurants offering them. This would require overcoming several difficulties.
To implement the expansion, McDonald's needed to purchase additional equipment, optimize kitchen space, and hire new employees. Furthermore, the implementation of these changes across a whole nation would not be straightforward. As a result, McDonald's sought to make informed decisions and consulted with HAVI, AnyLogic specialists.
HAVI modeled a typical McDonald's restaurant and made allowance for the proposed changes. The flexibility of the model allowed engineers to change the layout, the type and size of the new equipment, as well as customer demand volumes. This meant the developers could simulate the different restaurant configurations throughout the country and qualitatively evaluate the changes. Built-in metrics included: customer service time, product freshness, wastage, and more. Together, these metrics influence a restaurant’s financial performance and are included in the model’s statistics.
Based on the simulation results, the engineers made recommendations for each restaurant in the country: how to reduce costs and optimally balance staff and equipment while introducing the changes.
Find out more about the project in the full case study.
HAVI explain the simulation model
⭐ There are more videos, check out the AnyLogic YouTube channel, there are how-to videos, webinars, and many others.
❔ While simulation modeling oriented comments should definitely be made, please indulge our curiosity: McDonalds offers many regional variations — What are the best you have found?
