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One of the most important strategic decisions made by a company like McDonald's is where to locate their operations. Location options include maintaining current sites while adding another facility elsewhere. (Heizer, 2001) Their facilities are located all over the world due to their franchising system. In the early 1990's, McDonald's began working with major oil companies to pioneer a new format for developing a restaurant, convenience store and fueling facilities on a single site. By co-developing sites, fueling facility operators and McDonald's could offer the busy consumer the ultimate in convenience ? one stop shopping for great food, branded fuel and convenience store items.
According to Operations Management, McDonald's has revolutionized the restaurant industry by inventing the limited-menu fast-food restaurant. Some innovations it has made are the introductions of indoor seating and drive-through windows, which were strategic issues of facility layout. By adding breakfasts to the menu, they incorporated a product strategy. Another layout decision was the addition of play areas. McDonald's continues to improve their operations by innovating a new layout to facilitate a mass customization process. Some of the restaurants now have the "Made for You" kitchen system, where sandwiches are assembled to order and production levels are controlled by computers. This new layout is intended to both improve the taste of food by ensuring that it is always freshly made, and to facilitate the introduction of new products. Total production process time was shortened and other adjustments were made to save even more time and to wo ...