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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]

#81

Post by praptak »

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.

Was it at McDonald's? The article specifically says that it's McDonald's machines that require (edit:excessive) maintenance and not the ones used by other companies.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

nomilk wrote: post #69

What a brilliant and intelligent expose. I look forward to hearing the collective response of the 16000 US McDonald Franchisees owners :) Afterthought: since franchisees are locked into the C602's I wonder if they could do anything about this even if they tried. Sigh.

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by alpb »

Fezzik wrote: post #59

This seems crazy... I worked at Dairy Queen for 4 (5?) years through high school and beyond, often 6 days a week, and our soft-serve machine never once broke. This was between 97 - 2001+, so 20 years ago soft-serve machines were a solved problem. It seems insane that McDs franchisors would tolerate this sort of nonsense.

That was my reaction to the video: Aren't there franchisors with many stores in a large metro area that can actually carry a lawsuit or get together with other franchisors to start a class-action lawsuit?

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

#85

Post by parineum »

evil-olive wrote: post #79
parineum wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there any reason why I, if I'm a McDonald's manager, couldn't take the training myself, and be the person who does the every-two-weeks maintenance? I'd go out on a limb and say that it's McDonalds corporate that doesn't trust the franchise owner with the machine, not the manufacturer trying to swindle franchise owners.

Sure. But replace "franchise owner" with "shift manager" or whatever other job title you want. The question remains - what's the barrier to entry to becoming "certified" as an ice cream machine cleaner? Is it legitimately a difficult cleaning process that requires an extremely specialized skill-set that only the High Priests of Ice Cream Machinery are able to perform? Or, as seems likely to me, cleaning the machine i…

I think the barrier of entry isn't training, it's trust. McDonalds corporate signed a contract with Taylor with the caveat that only Taylor maintain the machines because they trust Taylor to do it correctly and, because the contract with McDonald's is probably enormous, Taylor has a lot of incentive to make sure nobody gets listeria from McDonalds.

It's "artificially restricted" in the same way that I could give anyone a key to my house (duplication is trivial) very easily but I don't.

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

#86

Post by ogurechny »

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…

Add to this a lot of overacting, and video clips repeating 20 times, and you'll have a half an hour program mostly about nothing.

One can easily see that YouTube (as a platform) became just a shitty television when the host unironically flips through stacks of papers exactly the same way it was done in the classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128IR21ZQa0

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

#87

Post by Broken_Hippo »

evil-olive wrote: post #63
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…

> Every two weeks the machine must be torn down and cleaned. It’s slightly complex but all well documented. Once the 14 day marker has been passed the machine is inoperable. It must be cleaned for food safety reasons. If your “cleaner” is out or you just have poor operations you’ll end up placing service calls out of confusion. This seems entirely reasonable to me. I've heard horror stories about bacteria & mold grow…

It has been 20 years, and surely the machines have changed. But it wasn't difficult to learn to tear the machine down. Considering this is a company that often has picture instructions for employees and tends to make things easy to understand, I can't imagine it has gotten more difficult. The store I worked at did this every night after running disinfectant through the machine: The parts we took off were cleaned every night. There were trays to keep the parts organized. These were organized in a way that made them easy to grab for proper assembly in the morning. Occasionally the morning staff had some problems, but those were usually fixed in time for there to be ice cream at lunch.

In other words: Store employees can do all of the basic stuff necessary with the machine.

Again, though, the machines have likely changed (Though they probably work similarly). And if the current machines need cleaned and sanitized less often, employees probably don't do it as often. I'm gonna guess instructions can fix this, though.

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

#88

Post by mrweasel »

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…

That would explain why the ice cream machines a never broken at some location, but frequently at others. It depends on how the franchise is managed and run.

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

#89

Post by scyzoryk_xyz »

Fezzik wrote: post #59

This seems crazy... I worked at Dairy Queen for 4 (5?) years through high school and beyond, often 6 days a week, and our soft-serve machine never once broke. This was between 97 - 2001+, so 20 years ago soft-serve machines were a solved problem. It seems insane that McDs franchisors would tolerate this sort of nonsense.

I too, like, apparently many others here, have worked a soft-serve machine.

My understanding is that the McD one is different and tries to remove the need for disassembly and cleaning at the end of the day. I imagine McD making so many different things with so many different machines requiring all sorts of different maintenance this is a useful optimization as opposed to a Dairy Queen.

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

#90

Post by Cederfjard »

asdff wrote: post #71
wronglebowski wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

Why are they using such a complicated ice cream machine? I worked in food service in the 2010s and ours was pretty simple. One switch at the back for on and off and that was it. It took one person like 10 minutes to break it down and have it cleaned at the end of the night. The hardest part was wiping the exterior down. You basically just put a bucket underneath, ran the ice cream out, then ran hot water through it (…

It sounds like the idea is to only have to spend time manually cleaning it every fortnight instead of daily, and perhaps to limit waste of the product? But perhaps that gets offset by the fact that the increased complexity seems to make it so difficult to operate that it leads to constant interruptions and expensive service calls.
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