3 ms·

> ...frees up all of the hamburger line cooks... Frees them up for what? Unemployment?

Einstalbert 13y ago
One special McDonalds ticket to machine-repair college, let's replace the workers with technicians and then make THOSE jobs minimum wage. That'll be the future. People groaning at minimum wage jobs for repairing current-day minimum wage jobs.
- joezydeco 13y ago
  Having actually worked on McD's kitchen tech, the corporation is extremely specific about their technology design including the amount of repair calls allowed per machine per year. I can guarantee this machine would never make that metric. And I'd really like to see what this machine looks like after making 40 burgers, much less 400 or 4000. 40,000? Forget it. Cooking and handling animal protein is a very messy job. Letting semi-skilled workers load raw beef into a hopper? That's a non-starter right there for a company like McDonald's.
  - malandrew 13y ago
    Disposable meat hoppers changed daily. Specialized cleaning machine with high pressure water and autoclave temperatures for blasting the disassembled grinding mechanism and sterilizing it. All that is left is cleaning the cooking surface, which is already normal in every diner.
    - joezydeco 13y ago
      So let's simplify the process by adding more equipment and expense? It doesn't make sense at all. A group like McDs has had half a century to figure out the most effective way to make this stuff, make it cheaply, and make it safely (for both crew and customer). This is not a direction anyone like them would take.
      - malandrew 13y ago
        Disposable paper hoppers are hardly an expense worth worrying about considering the costs it helps replace (salaries, health insurance, other benefits, other liabilities). Once the machine proves effective, they are likely to identify impeding factors like labor cost of cleaning and figure out how to minimize those costs. A simply food-safe inner-laminated (possibly PTFE) non-woven material would be perfect for these machines. Easy to package and ship in collapsed form to McD's around the country and extremely cheap to manufacture, especially at McD's scale. The main factor preventing McD's from adopting this is the cost of ingredients. This machine most likely requires all beef chuck, without fillers to achieve the desired quality level.
        joezydeco 13y ago
        No, the main factor in this is asking McDs to change their distribution from frozen patties (safer to handle and easier to work with at the kitchen level) to refrigerated raw product, which increases the risk of contamination, cross-contamination, and spoilage to extremely hazardous levels. The HAACP requirements alone would be staggering. It doesn't matter what's in the beef.

One special McDonalds ticket to machine-repair college, let's replace the workers with technicians and then make THOSE jobs minimum wage. That'll be the future. People groaning at minimum wage jobs for repairing current-day minimum wage jobs.

joezydeco 13y ago
Having actually worked on McD's kitchen tech, the corporation is extremely specific about their technology design including the amount of repair calls allowed per machine per year. I can guarantee this machine would never make that metric. And I'd really like to see what this machine looks like after making 40 burgers, much less 400 or 4000. 40,000? Forget it. Cooking and handling animal protein is a very messy job. Letting semi-skilled workers load raw beef into a hopper? That's a non-starter right there for a company like McDonald's.
- malandrew 13y ago
  Disposable meat hoppers changed daily. Specialized cleaning machine with high pressure water and autoclave temperatures for blasting the disassembled grinding mechanism and sterilizing it. All that is left is cleaning the cooking surface, which is already normal in every diner.
  - joezydeco 13y ago
    So let's simplify the process by adding more equipment and expense? It doesn't make sense at all. A group like McDs has had half a century to figure out the most effective way to make this stuff, make it cheaply, and make it safely (for both crew and customer). This is not a direction anyone like them would take.
    - malandrew 13y ago
      Disposable paper hoppers are hardly an expense worth worrying about considering the costs it helps replace (salaries, health insurance, other benefits, other liabilities). Once the machine proves effective, they are likely to identify impeding factors like labor cost of cleaning and figure out how to minimize those costs. A simply food-safe inner-laminated (possibly PTFE) non-woven material would be perfect for these machines. Easy to package and ship in collapsed form to McD's around the country and extremely cheap to manufacture, especially at McD's scale. The main factor preventing McD's from adopting this is the cost of ingredients. This machine most likely requires all beef chuck, without fillers to achieve the desired quality level.
      - joezydeco 13y ago
        No, the main factor in this is asking McDs to change their distribution from frozen patties (safer to handle and easier to work with at the kitchen level) to refrigerated raw product, which increases the risk of contamination, cross-contamination, and spoilage to extremely hazardous levels. The HAACP requirements alone would be staggering. It doesn't matter what's in the beef.