1. McD HQ mandates franchises buy a special model Taylor-Made machine (not the same that like Chick-fil-a and others use). This is why McD machines stop working but other companies don't.
2. Every night there is a very specific maintenance routine that needs to be ran to clean and prep the machine for the next day. If it's not followed perfectly, the process will likely fail and the next morning workers will be greeted to a cryptic error code. Sometimes re-running the process will clear it, sometimes it wont. But this can take hours.
3. If re-running it doesn't fix it, then the franchise owner is stuck with the dilemma of bleeding money not having a working ice cream machine for customers, or calling an expensive hourly certified Taylor-Made repair person.
4. So they usually end up calling the repair person.
The idea is that McD HQ is working with Taylor-Made to make this problem happen so that franchise owners have to pay for expensive repair people.
Apparently the error codes have been reverse-engineered with a USB device that a third party created. But Taylor-Made is said to deny warranty and service etc if you try to use one.
Not sure if you knew this but it is actually explicitly asked in the HN guidelines: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."
> This is why McD machines stop working but other companies don't.
Is it possible that what goes into those machines at McDonald's is thicker than Chick-fil-A's mix, rather than the machine being to blame? Just like some kinds of motor oil are harder on an engine than others.
Well the question is why does McD franchising terms stipulate they have to buy a special model of the machine, but it seems that no other fast food places that use ice cream machines from the company have such a requirement.
I mean I guess there could be other reasons of features or quality or something, but it seems a bit strange. I mean, in the end, it's just McD machines that constantly break down, so if anything you would think HQ would want to improve this situation somehow, when it seems they are completely uninterested.
Maybe McDonald's has decided, their unique ice cream mix performs better in taste tests, or that it works better for McFlurries, or whatever... but the one downside is that it jams up machines much more frequently.
If you already anticipate that your ingredients are going to break machines quite often, and that you'll require a lot of repairs, it would benefit you to standardize on a single large-scale support contract rather than leaving it up to every independent operator for themselves. Kind of the same way taxi fleets usually mandate one single specific model of automobile despite thousands of independent medallion holders.
1. McD HQ mandates franchises buy a special model Taylor-Made machine (not the same that like Chick-fil-a and others use). This is why McD machines stop working but other companies don't.
2. Every night there is a very specific maintenance routine that needs to be ran to clean and prep the machine for the next day. If it's not followed perfectly, the process will likely fail and the next morning workers will be greeted to a cryptic error code. Sometimes re-running the process will clear it, sometimes it wont. But this can take hours.
3. If re-running it doesn't fix it, then the franchise owner is stuck with the dilemma of bleeding money not having a working ice cream machine for customers, or calling an expensive hourly certified Taylor-Made repair person.
4. So they usually end up calling the repair person.
The idea is that McD HQ is working with Taylor-Made to make this problem happen so that franchise owners have to pay for expensive repair people.
Apparently the error codes have been reverse-engineered with a USB device that a third party created. But Taylor-Made is said to deny warranty and service etc if you try to use one.