Most facility managers who maintain multiple sites located great distances apart will easily recognize the three key challenges of information management—collecting and storing information centrally to ensure accuracy and availability, finding and retrieving that information easily to ensure productivity, and sharing information effortlessly to promote collaboration and timeliness. However, solving these challenges isn’t easy. Even with the advent of e-mail and FTP sites, facility information management has been hampered by a lack of central storage and version control, slow transmission rates for high-resolution files, lack of security and more.
But McDonald’s Restaurants in Australia cooked up a better plan. By opting for an online information management system, the company was able to streamline communications, foster collaboration, make store redesigns more efficient and reduce costs.
The information flow battle
McDonald’s Restaurants has 730 stores across Australia. The stores are redesigned quarterly, ranging from minor upgrades for a new product or piece of equipment to large-scale remodels—such as integrating a McCaf.
Every McDonald’s redesign requires effectively communicating large volumes of documentation among internal teams and up to 50 external consultants such as architects, surveyors, interior decorators and designers. This documentation includes restaurant layouts, design guidelines, operating procedures, style guides for internal imagery, high-resolution photographs and graphics libraries.
If the physical challenges involved in this communications process weren’t enough, the store upgrades must be accomplished to exact specifications and company standards. In other words, any delay in securely transferring complete and accurate information likely extends a project timeline and increases costs.
Traditionally, McDonald’s Restaurants in Australia managed its information flow using a combination of paper documents, files on CDs, couriers, file archives in multiple locations, e-mail and fax. Major signage updates were communicated at an annual or semi-annual conference.
Not surprisingly, everyone involved in the information management process found it time consuming, expensive and difficult to control, which constantly jeopardized the completeness and accuracy of the information. In addition, the infrequent conferences for signage updates meant that a significant amount of information was distributed only once or twice a year instead of continuously.
Searching for a solution
When McDonald’s decided to search for a facility information management solution, its top objectives were to increase control over information, reduce administrative time and costs, and streamline collaboration with consultants. In addition to ensuring accuracy and ease of information retrieval, the solution needed to facilitate the sharing of information across Australia and between Australia and the U.S. Finally, given the number of people who would use the solution, it also needed to be easy to implement and use.
After a thorough review of its options, McDonald’s focused on the possibility of using an online information management service. In choosing such a service, the company looked for the following features:
- Online storage of all documentation. This includes storing high-resolution photos on a single, secure site. The goal was to provide both internal and external McDonald’s teams with instant access to the same information and let them view, track, search and share documents in real time. Storing and sharing documents online would also significantly reduce costs for filing, printing, packaging and postage.
- Full search capabilities. This would make it easier to find required information and increase productivity.
- Automatic tracking of documentation with a full revision history. This would ensure complete control over the information and eliminate the possibility of information loss.
- Fast downloading of large files. This would enable the transfer of high-resolution photographs and ensure users would always have access to the most recent documentation.
- Easy-to-use transmittal function. This would allow for quick distribution of updated documentation throughout the company and automatically alert participants of any updates. Automation would also eliminate a time consuming, manual update process and the risk of work being based on outdated information.
- Unlimited training and 24/7 support. This includes all project participants—McDonald’s employees and third-party vendors. It would ensure that all teams—including new employees and new vendors—could quickly learn the system.
A system in action
McDonald’s Australia opted for an online information management solution and within two years had stored more than 150,000 documents on the system—all of which could be accessed instantly by both internal and external team members. The system has saved McDonald’s time and money while fostering greater collaboration and ensuring more timely upgrades.
Streamlined communications
Anne Love, McDonald’s development director of design, was responsible for running McDonald’s design department.
“With our manuals, rather than producing a massive binder of documents that has to go out to 30 people around the country, we can now just update a chapter and publish it directly on the online system—then the consultants receive it straight away,” Love said.
“This means we are able to change things more often than previously because of the reduced costs and labor involved, compared with physically publishing the manuals and documents. In the past, to communicate and explain updates to our signage library, we would have done a conference or event on an annual or semi-annual basis. But now we can convey that information in real-time. So we’re more-or-less drip-feeding changes rather than doing a big chunk.”
The system also made it easier for McDonald’s to collaborate between international offices. Due to the size of files and reliability issues with FTP sites, the previous way to transmit large files between Australia and the U.S. was by mailing discs. With the online service, files—including large documents and high-resolution images—could be quickly uploaded in Australia and then immediately accessed and printed in the U.S.
More efficient remodels
A recent significant store remodeling program was the rollout of McCafs across Australia. When McDonald’s began using the online information management system, there were 28 McCafs. Over the following three years, this figure increased to 315—an average of eight openings per month.
“I don’t think we would have been able to manage and control the growth of McCafs if we hadn’t used an online information management service. Everything we do is designed to make things quicker and easier for our consultants and for our internal construction people, so that we just keep churning out upgrades for new stores,” Love added.
“With the online system, consultants can now pull down documents themselves and then, when they do a remodel and the documents change, they just put up the new version. We have the latest set of drawings for every store as soon as they’re ready.”
Reduced cost
In addition to greater efficiency, the ability to transfer large files electronically through the online system, has led to significantly reduced costs and administrative labor.
“Previously when doing a store update project, one of our employees had to print and post the documents to all those involved. So there were four days leading up to the project where she would be completely out of action,” Love said. “With the online service, it’s instant. There is no printing or packaging or burning discs, which enables our employees to work on more productive projects and saves a great deal of cost.”
The system was particularly beneficial when McDonald’s launched a new product menu across Australia.
“We did a significant equipment rollout for the menu which required every store to be audited and measured. If we hadn’t used the online system, we would have had to download the kitchen layout 750 times, and send it to the consultant for them to update,” Love continued. “It would have been an incredible amount of work for us. This would have taken us at least three to four weeks for two people full-time. With the online system, the only time it took was about 10 minutes for the users to download the documents.”
By using an online collaboration system for its facility information management, McDonald’s Restaurants in Australia has solved three key challenges of facility information management. The system has dramatically improved the company’s ability to collect and store information, easily find and retrieve that information, and then effortlessly share it anywhere in the world.
As a result, the company has increased its control over the store redesign process and eliminated expensive and time-intensive process choke-points.
The system has made teams more productive while significantly reducing administrative costs. FMJ
