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Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

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Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#41

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

valuearb wrote: post #37
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any attempt to self repair or hire someone else will void the warranty and is disallowed by McDonald’s corporate. And from McDonalds point of view this makes sense and is ethical. The minute you start letting the franchise people make these repairs, they will inevitably cut corners (and get away with it 99% of the time). However, at McDonalds’ scale that would likely result in dozens of people dying at a minimum an…

No one is dying from repairing a milk shake machine. McDonalds is concerned about poorly mixed shakes hurting their brand, which they regard as nearly as bad.

No one is dying from actually repairing a machine. However, the soft-serve mix is very conducive to bacterial growth. People messing with the sterilization or the self-checks for sterilization could easily result in bacterial food borne illness which can be deadly.

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#42

Post by noahtallen »

wronglebowski wrote: post #36
boatsie wrote: post #3

Tldw: the machine throws obscure error codes (too viscous, failure to heat to proper temps, etc) and can “lock out” the operator, who has to then call an authorized service technician that bills hundreds of dollars for repair. Any attempt to self repair or hire someone else will void the warranty and is disallowed by McDonald’s corporate. The ice cream maker company, Taylor, reports 25% of their revenue is service an…

As someone who worked in stores for years, this isn’t entirely accurate. The machine isn’t just being an asshole to drive up service calls. The machines are filled with a dairy product which makes the “ice cream”. This is boiled nightly to keep the mixture free of bacteria. If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling…

> If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling for service even if it’s a operations error(not enough product to boil successfully)

This example is covered in the video. ;) The thing is, at least according to the reporting, even these operations errors are not clearly defined by the messages given by the machine. So, according to franchisees they talked to, all roads lead to the service technician, even if the problem doesn’t need one. That obviously leads to more downtime.

It’s part of the problem because Taylor is incentivized to keep people calling in technicians, which means they deliberately update the machines with error codes even more difficult to understand. (Examples covered in the video too)

Additionally, the video covers that many other chains, such as Wendy’s, use machines from Taylor with no problems. Supposedly, this is something specifically wrong with the model given to McDonald’s, because franchises don’t have a choice to use other models.

When the video came out, about 14% of machines in the US were “broken”, which is pretty terrible for an industry application regardless of the cause!

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#43

Post by wronglebowski »

noahtallen wrote: post #42
wronglebowski wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who worked in stores for years, this isn’t entirely accurate. The machine isn’t just being an asshole to drive up service calls. The machines are filled with a dairy product which makes the “ice cream”. This is boiled nightly to keep the mixture free of bacteria. If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling…

> If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling for service even if it’s a operations error(not enough product to boil successfully) This example is covered in the video. ;) The thing is, at least according to the reporting, even these operations errors are not clearly defined by the messages given by the machine. So,…

I always had access to a Taylor manual and a Taylor technician via phone at no cost. Even with machines that were far out of warranty. Troubleshooting was never an issue for me.

I never worked anywhere else with a Taylor machine. Perhaps other companies have better deals or easier to use equipment. I would like to know if Wendy's and others machines operate using the same food safety standards.

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#44

Post by dang »

Some past related threads:

The Reason McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26932344 - April 2021 (3 comments)

The Real Reason McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26922378 - April 2021 (1 comment)

ArsTechnica has retracted the story about McDonald's Icecream - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26918415 - April 2021 (8 comments)

McDonalds' Secret Ice-cream Menu [censored?] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26894406 - April 2021 (2 comments)

They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines–and Started a Cold War - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26874436 - April 2021 (3 comments)

I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24861623 - Oct 2020 (420 comments)

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#45

Post by megameter »

wronglebowski wrote: post #43
noahtallen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling for service even if it’s a operations error(not enough product to boil successfully) This example is covered in the video. ;) The thing is, at least according to the reporting, even these operations errors are not clearly defined by the messages given by the machine. So,…

I always had access to a Taylor manual and a Taylor technician via phone at no cost. Even with machines that were far out of warranty. Troubleshooting was never an issue for me. I never worked anywhere else with a Taylor machine. Perhaps other companies have better deals or easier to use equipment. I would like to know if Wendy's and others machines operate using the same food safety standards.

"Food safety standards" would not result in downtime rising from <1% to over 10%.

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#46

Post by dang »

joezydeco wrote: post #6
tamaharbor wrote: post #5

You can’t really call it ice cream (too much edible plastic). On the menu it’s named ‘cone’, ‘shake’, and ‘sundae’.

Cut it out. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/

Please don't do that like this. If someone else is wrong or you feel they are, providing accurate information neutrally is sufficient. Swipes aren't needed, and add poison.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#47

Post by sverhagen »

wronglebowski wrote: post #43
noahtallen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling for service even if it’s a operations error(not enough product to boil successfully) This example is covered in the video. ;) The thing is, at least according to the reporting, even these operations errors are not clearly defined by the messages given by the machine. So,…

I always had access to a Taylor manual and a Taylor technician via phone at no cost. Even with machines that were far out of warranty. Troubleshooting was never an issue for me. I never worked anywhere else with a Taylor machine. Perhaps other companies have better deals or easier to use equipment. I would like to know if Wendy's and others machines operate using the same food safety standards.

> I always had access to a Taylor manual and a Taylor technician via phone at no cost.

Was that technician for free? Or did your franchise owner pay for it, out of (your) sight? The claim isn't that they do a poor job with technicians, just that they are perversely incentivized to profit from it.

The video also explains there was a (very limited) owner manual, while all the secrets were in the service manual. Which of those did you have access to?

I find it potentially a bit of a low blow to question Wendy's and others' food safety standards.

Did you see the video?

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#48

Post by throwawayboise »

wronglebowski wrote: post #36
boatsie wrote: post #3

Tldw: the machine throws obscure error codes (too viscous, failure to heat to proper temps, etc) and can “lock out” the operator, who has to then call an authorized service technician that bills hundreds of dollars for repair. Any attempt to self repair or hire someone else will void the warranty and is disallowed by McDonald’s corporate. The ice cream maker company, Taylor, reports 25% of their revenue is service an…

As someone who worked in stores for years, this isn’t entirely accurate. The machine isn’t just being an asshole to drive up service calls. The machines are filled with a dairy product which makes the “ice cream”. This is boiled nightly to keep the mixture free of bacteria. If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling…

I worked at McDonald's in the 1980s. The machines weren't so fancy then. They didn't have a self-santizing heat cycle. We broke them down and cleaned and sanitized them every night after close. The next morning they were put back together and turned on. Once a week we discarded any remaining dairy product to break the cycle of any bacteria that might be present. Same with the milkshake machines.

In several years of working there I cannot recall any breakdowns of these machines.

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#49

Post by sverhagen »

wronglebowski wrote: post #40
miked85 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any insight into why the machines are broken so often then?

They aren't "broken". It's operations failures. The basic fact of 1. Keeping the machine full of the right amount of product to complete it's nightly heat cycle 2. Have someone trained to fully clean the machine every 14 days Is a burden too great for many franchisees to bear. The turnover is too high and investment in people too low to keep them operational. Nothing about them is "broken"

Poor UI is also a bug. And why do other fast food chains not have this problem then? I appreciate that McDonalds tries to safe money on training of new staff, but I just can't imagine that they do so much of a worse job at it than the competition.

Did you see the video?

Re: Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken [video]

#50

Post by ping_pong »

noahtallen wrote: post #42
wronglebowski wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who worked in stores for years, this isn’t entirely accurate. The machine isn’t just being an asshole to drive up service calls. The machines are filled with a dairy product which makes the “ice cream”. This is boiled nightly to keep the mixture free of bacteria. If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling…

> If the nightly heat cycle fails to complete for one of a dozen reasons the machine locks out. Those unaware of the process usually end up calling for service even if it’s a operations error(not enough product to boil successfully) This example is covered in the video. ;) The thing is, at least according to the reporting, even these operations errors are not clearly defined by the messages given by the machine. So,…

Are you mansplaining about how the ice cream machine works after watching a video, to someone who actually used and maintained the ice cream machine?
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