Burger King Operation Management

Burger King Operation Management 1
Business in operation management
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Burger King Operation Management 2
Burger King process
First, it should be noted that at Burger King, sandwiches are made based on the order.
The company makes sandwiches one at a time instead of batching them. For example, meat pies
will be kept on a steamer and baked until an order comes in. Based on the order, other
ingredients are added. Non-chopped products, such as onions, are fed from the refrigerator to the
cutting shop and chopped. But most vegetables are already fully prepared. Then comes the holy
of holies of the restaurant Burger King - grill machine. Frozen meat semi-finished products enter
it, and hot, juicy, rosy cutlets for burgers come out. In the event of a machine breakdown, the
standard for the arrival and correction of a malfunction by the repair team is 1 hour (Burger King
Corporation 2015). At this time, only deep-fried burgers are sold. Roasting occurs at a
temperature of about 400 degrees Celsius. Due to the rapid roasting of the meat surface with
open fire, juiciness is achieved, which distinguishes Burger King from other similar
establishments. Ready-made cutlets of various types enter the heated cabinets on the table to the
masters for the manufacture of burgers. Below in the trays are vegetables, cheese, bacon and
sauce. It remains to wrap and the burger is ready. Your burger is ready, but you probably still
take French fries. It is stored in such a freezer dispenser. The right amount of potatoes is poured
into the basket… ... and dipped in boiling oil. The same thing happens with the nuggets, only
they are taken from the freezer next to it. All food at Burger King is not salted !!!, the exception
is French fries, which are salted to a minimum (Burger King Corporation 2015).
The strategy is an action plan for the organization to achieve the task. Burger King
adopted a differentiated strategy to increase profits. "Your way" slogan encourages companies to
differentiate their products and services. Therefore, consumers have more choices. In addition,
efficient service also allows customers to experience unique dining methods. In addition, Burger

Burger King Operation Management 3
King is also responding to the competition. Promote customers' fast and flexible response
through and delivery services. Franchising strategy also helps provide customers with different
foods (Burger King Corporation 2015).
In terms of variety, Burger King develops different menus that meet different customers’
needs For example, Burger King has recently included menus for Vegetarians. This makes
Burger King one of the fast food restaurant to gather for the needs of vegetarians. Burger King
also offered BK Veggie. It also offers a drive service, which would make it easier for customers
to take their food away. It also helps companies operate more efficiently and effectively.
Burger King uses make-to-order approach. For example, meat pies will be kept on a
steamer and baked until an order comes in. Based on customer’s needs, the team can add the rest
of ingredients. This allows faster customization and reduces the wait time. Compared to other
fast food companies Burger King’s process is very unique and has a highly specialized
conveyor–broiler. For Instance, “Raw hamburger patties are placed on a moving conveyor that
runs through a flaming broiler. In exactly 90 seconds, the patties are cooked on both sides with a
unique broiler taste. Due to the fixed time for a patty to move through the conveyor–broiler, the
thickness of the patties must be the same for all the hamburger products. The buns are also
warmed on a conveyor." As a whole Burger Kings system results in a unique, highly consistent
product, customized individually for every single customer.
As a way of increasing efficiency and speed, Burger King has introduced a series of
innovative measures to help the company improve efficiency and profitability in its half century
history. For example, Burger King was the first company to initiate a drive-through service (A
Whooping Success 2008).

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To meet the demand, Burger King positioned its outlets strategically. In the United
States, Burger King ’s planner ’s favorite slogan for finding a place to expand their business is
“cross the lights to the right”. When choosing a location, Burger King's planners use
demographic and traffic patterns to carry out detailed analysis. The most important
considerations are the number of cars or passing cars and the population of a particular area. That
is why most of the Burger King outlets are found in busy streets, crowded areas and intersections
Burger King can dispatch employees of one outlet to another based on fluctuating
demand. In so doing, it is easier to save labor cost. During peak period, Burger King manager
increases the number of employees. This help reduce the wait time and at the same time save the
labor cost. The data from sales register also helps in determining the level of staffing at a
particular time. However, managers also consider current events such as the promotion activities
and their potential effects on sales. The impact of these strategies could be the reason why
Burger King is doing well as shown in graph below.
Source: (Duprey, 2017).

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Concerning inventories, Burger King has an innovative system that ensures that inventory
is kept under good control. It utilizes a point-of-sale register. This means that when some items
are sold, the store manager will know the remaining items and determine the amount of stock to
be replenished. In addition, with the system, it possible to count the number of hamburgers and
bread, bags and shelves of fries, and beverage mix boxes at the beginning or end of each shift.
With fixed materials or supplies in each box, employees can easily calculate boxes and
multipliers. As a result, managers can also quickly detect theft.
Concerning flexibility, the Burger King is one of the most flexible fast food restaurant. As shown
on the chart below, on scale of 5, Burger King gets 5/5 in terms of flexibility. Flexibility is
attributed to the fact that Burger King can switch employees based on peak hours and also due to
the fact that Burger King can customize the menu to each individual customer. The How’s and
What tool below shows the way of evaluating the designing for the customers in three main fast food
restaurants.

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From the matrix, it is apparent that the major problems faced by Burger King include the aspect
of nutrition, value and delivery. This means that although Burger King does well in many
operational processes, these three issues are rated poorly in comparison with McDonald and
Wendy.
Burger King Layout Design

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Recommendations
Based on the analysis, Burger King meet the 4V’s discussed during the course (Brandon-
Jones, 2019). First, the volume of sandwiches is high and is determined based on the demand.
The volume produced meets the current demand. Some of the factors that makes volume high
include systemization, high repeatability and specialization. Burger King also meet the
requirement of variety due to its ability to customize the sandwiches based on customer’s order.
That is why it has created sandwiches specifically for vegetarians as well as those who prefer
sandwiches and French fries. It is also apparent that Burger King is always ready to meet the
variation in demand. This is evidenced by the fact that it position its outlets at strategic location
based on demand. Lastly, compared to McDonald and other fast food restaurants, the visibility of
Burger King is high because the speed of sandwich preparations is very high (Meyer, 2017).

Burger King Operation Management 8
Evidently, Burger King does good in most of the benchmarking indices. First, its
sanitation is good. It should be noted that employees work with their bare hands, as it is proved
that less bacteria accumulate on cleanly washed hands than on latex gloves. Hand washing takes
place as it gets dirty, but at least once an hour. Hands are washed to the elbow with soap using a
special brush, followed by treatment with a disinfectant gel. Exactly the same gel is used by
surgeons before surgery. Second the speed of producing sandwiches is very high. In fact the
analysis reveals that Burger King surpasses the top fast food restaurants such as McDonald in
terms of speed. The wait time including your service time is about 4 minutes, 5 seconds for
Burger King. The setup is also good. Since most customers at Burger King tend to be in a hurry,
planners have decided to reduce space to continue growing and meet customer expectations, and
more customers prefer the convenience of getting off the car instead of eating. The restaurant's
dining area ranges from 4,000 square feet to one thousand. The reduction of the company's size
allows the company to enter once-expensive markets such as airports, central urban areas, and
even schools.
The key recommendation for Burger King is to improve the quality of service and
standards. In the brutal and fast-food industry, whoever can do a good job of products and
services can win customers, and who can stand invincible, and maintain the sustainable
development of fast-food benefits. As the top manager of a Western-style fast-food restaurant,
the manager must pay attention to the details of the service and put the mind on the guests
(Zelman, n.d.). What products and services do the customers need and how can they "service"
and improve customer satisfaction in order to make guests happy. As a store manager, you must
not only have the ability to find problems, but also have the ability to remediate, repair, solve
problems, and retain residents in a timely manner.

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Another recommendation is for Burger King to further strengthen service delivery.
A very important feature of fast foods is the service time (2-3 minutes) and the time spent by
consumers in such an institution (30 minutes on average). Therefore, the interior of fast foods, as
a rule, does not differ in complexity and an abundance of decorative details - clean, hygienic,
light, but nothing more. All this is done so that the visitor does not linger in fast food: the
turnover of one seat is one of the main criteria for the success of such an institution.

Burger King Operation Management 10
References
A Whooping Success (2008). Burger King food chain. Retrieved from http://www.foodchain-
magazine.com/article-page.phsp?contentid=4911&issueid=187
Brandon-Jones, A (2019). Analysing Operations Processes IDO Group
Burger King Corporation (2015). My BK Experience. Retrieved from:
https://www.mybkexperience.com/(X(1)S(rbsuqrh1nvuyotaq15rx1gqi))/Index.aspx?
AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Meyer, P (2017). Burger King’s Operations Management, 10 Decisions, Productivity. Retrieved
from: http://panmore.com/burger-king-operations-management-10-decisions-productivity
Zelman, K. (n.d.). Does healthy sell?. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/fast-
food-does-healthy-sell
Duprey, R. (2017). Why Is McDonald's Suddenly Losing and Burger King Winning? Retrieved
from: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/23/why-is-mcdonalds-suddenly-losing-and-burger-
king-w.aspx