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summary: McDonalds only allows their franchisees to use one specific machine for ice cream, from one supplier. Most of their other equipment they have more tha

by fouc 6y ago

summary: McDonalds only allows their franchisees to use one specific machine for ice cream, from one supplier. Most of their other equipment they have more than one choice for suppliers but not for the ice cream machine. The supplier is Taylor, which supplies ice cream machines to many other restaurants which do not suffer from the same problem. The Taylor-made machine for McDonald's is deliberately designed to have a secret menu that only “authorized service personnel” are allowed to use and the main menu only throws obscure & unhelpful error messages and the Owner manual is not helpful at all. This forces franchisee owners to pay thousands of dollars a year these service people to come and “fix” the issue with the machine.

m00dy 6y ago
Is this automated ?
- fouc 6y ago
  Sorry, is what automated? The machine doesn't call for a service technician automatically if that's what you meant.
  - m00dy 6y ago
    I meant your summary. Did you pull the transcript from the video and run through text summarisation model ?
    - fouc 6y ago
      I wish.. I wrote it manually after watching the video at 2x speed :D
gruez 6y ago
> The supplier is Taylor, which supplies ice cream machines to many other restaurants which do not suffer from the same problem. AFAIK the difference is that the other restaurants machines don't self sanitize. >The Taylor-made machine for McDonald's is deliberately designed to have a secret menu that only “authorized service personnel” are allowed to use While I can see this being nefarious, I can also understand why they did it: they don't want franchisees to mess with the machine in a way that could compromise the sanitation cycle. For instance, one reason why cleaning fails is that because the target temperature hasn't been reached. If there was a temperature calibration in the secret menu, you could add a +20F degree offset to the thermometer, which would almost guarantee the target is met, but would introduce risk of food poisoning if the temperature is actually too low.
- fouc 6y ago
  Apparently the secret menu gives better error codes / feedback so that users are more informed and know how to avoid problems like "putting too much mix in the tank". Rather than being a means of just faking the parameters.
  - gruez 6y ago
    >Apparently the secret menu gives better error codes / feedback so that users are more informed and know how to avoid problems like "putting too much mix in the tank". Where was this mentioned? The part about the secret menu is around 19:47 (from skimming the transcript), and it only mentions "critical operating parameters".
    - fouc 6y ago
      I think it was mentioned later in the video, or implied at some point.. I also read the wired article too [1] [1] http://archive.is/xzYL8 http://archive.is/xzYL8
slantyyz 6y ago
According to the related Wired article, this isn't true: "(McDonald’s agreement with franchisees also allows them to use an actual Italian machine, sold by Bologna-based Carpigiani, that McD Truth describes as much better designed. But given that its replacement parts can take a week to arrive from Italy, far fewer restaurants buy it.)" [1] https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-...
- frankfrankfrank 6y ago
  Unless it is an accidental oversight, since the video does not really go over the franchise agreement that much, if what you are saying is true, it highlights an issue that bothered me. Even though the clear conflict of interest with Kytch is addressed, what is not addressed is that if owners simply buy the Italian machine or McD is sued for the clear corruption and conspiracy to commit fraud, the whole startup essentially becomes worthless over night; so the video does not address that other machines can be bought or that the clear conspiracy to commit fraud should be investigated and prosecuted, or at the very least the owners should join forces to sue McD for fraud. I wish the McBroken site kept track of performance metrics, i.e., which specific machines were down the most. The dataset would surely clearly show proof of the difference in the machines? This is conspiracy to commit fraud if I have ever heard of one; especially with McD coming out guns blazing to scare owners about adding a totally unobtrusive device to the machine that in no way tampers with anything? That alone could bury McD in court as it shows clear collusion and conspiracy.

by fouc 6y ago

m00dy 6y ago

Is this automated ?

fouc 6y ago
Sorry, is what automated? The machine doesn't call for a service technician automatically if that's what you meant.
- m00dy 6y ago
  I meant your summary. Did you pull the transcript from the video and run through text summarisation model ?
  - fouc 6y ago
    I wish.. I wrote it manually after watching the video at 2x speed :D

gruez 6y ago

> The supplier is Taylor, which supplies ice cream machines to many other restaurants which do not suffer from the same problem. AFAIK the difference is that the other restaurants machines don't self sanitize. >The Taylor-made machine for McDonald's is deliberately designed to have a secret menu that only “authorized service personnel” are allowed to use While I can see this being nefarious, I can also understand why they did it: they don't want franchisees to mess with the machine in a way that could compromise the sanitation cycle. For instance, one reason why cleaning fails is that because the target temperature hasn't been reached. If there was a temperature calibration in the secret menu, you could add a +20F degree offset to the thermometer, which would almost guarantee the target is met, but would introduce risk of food poisoning if the temperature is actually too low.

fouc 6y ago
Apparently the secret menu gives better error codes / feedback so that users are more informed and know how to avoid problems like "putting too much mix in the tank". Rather than being a means of just faking the parameters.
- gruez 6y ago
  >Apparently the secret menu gives better error codes / feedback so that users are more informed and know how to avoid problems like "putting too much mix in the tank". Where was this mentioned? The part about the secret menu is around 19:47 (from skimming the transcript), and it only mentions "critical operating parameters".
  - fouc 6y ago
    I think it was mentioned later in the video, or implied at some point.. I also read the wired article too [1] [1] http://archive.is/xzYL8 http://archive.is/xzYL8

slantyyz 6y ago

According to the related Wired article, this isn't true: "(McDonald’s agreement with franchisees also allows them to use an actual Italian machine, sold by Bologna-based Carpigiani, that McD Truth describes as much better designed. But given that its replacement parts can take a week to arrive from Italy, far fewer restaurants buy it.)" [1] https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-...

frankfrankfrank 6y ago
Unless it is an accidental oversight, since the video does not really go over the franchise agreement that much, if what you are saying is true, it highlights an issue that bothered me. Even though the clear conflict of interest with Kytch is addressed, what is not addressed is that if owners simply buy the Italian machine or McD is sued for the clear corruption and conspiracy to commit fraud, the whole startup essentially becomes worthless over night; so the video does not address that other machines can be bought or that the clear conspiracy to commit fraud should be investigated and prosecuted, or at the very least the owners should join forces to sue McD for fraud. I wish the McBroken site kept track of performance metrics, i.e., which specific machines were down the most. The dataset would surely clearly show proof of the difference in the machines? This is conspiracy to commit fraud if I have ever heard of one; especially with McD coming out guns blazing to scare owners about adding a totally unobtrusive device to the machine that in no way tampers with anything? That alone could bury McD in court as it shows clear collusion and conspiracy.