Uniformity

       Uniformity is"overall sameness, homogeneity or regularity"(dictionary). It means something the same such as same quality, same image, or same function. It is a significant part for a franchise company. According to the Eric Schlosser, the author of "Fast Food Nation", uniformity is the key to a successful franchise. "franchises and chain stores strive to offer exactly the same product or service at numerous. Customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown."(Schlosser 5) ". "Uniformity" as the key of a franchise chain makes sure to offer customer same products. This lead to another question- How to make sure that the products are exactly the same? One of the effective way is to limit suppliers. For example, McDonald's Hamburger, Chicken McNugget, and Fries are all same taste wherever the restaurant is. This is because McDonald's limited its suppliers. The suppliers use the same way to raise cattles to make sure the beef has the same taste, so is the chicken. Also the way they cook are same. They regulate every step and separate them to make it easy to operate. It is called “Assembly line system”. Every worker should follow the rule to cook and make sure every store has the same taste products. For instance, McDonald’s long, crisp and golden brown Fries is come from J.R Simplot Company. After adding chemical flavor and oil with beef flavor, the frozen fries are taste the same in all McDonald’s restaurants. In the mean time, the suppliers are developed biger and biger. For winning other suppliers, they tried their best to drive the potato price down. “The fast food companies purchase frozen fries for about 30 cents a pound, reheat them in oil, then sell them for about $6 a pound.” (Schlosser,117). The potato farmers became the most miserable part in the chain. The same situation happened on cattle rancher. and chicken ranchers. “The growth of the fast food chains has encouraged consolidation in the meatpacking industry”(Schlosser, 136). Also, they secretly fixed price and make the ranchers received the lowest possible price for their cattle. However, the franchise chain won’t be affect. “Uniformity” kind of changed American’s economy.

Throughput

Business historian Alfred D. Chandler has argued that a high rate of “throughput” was the most important aspect of these mass production systems. “Throughput” is the speed and volume of its flow. This idea is important in production systems because a high rate of “throughput” means high efficiency. For example, since assembly line systems adopted by McDonald’s, a small number of employees can produce an enormous amount of foods cheaply. In the mean time, because the assembly line systems makes work simple. For employees, work becomes easier and less skill. The employers save a lot of time and money to train employees. It also means, employees are easy to replace, so usually they got minimum wage. For employers, it makes them easily control the employees. A high rate of “through put” is the key of McDonald’s success.   Thus, the way to increase “throughput” is important to a company.