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Comment by raverbashing | Hacker News Reader

> It’s part of the problem because Taylor is incentivized to keep people calling in technicians, which means they deliberately update the machines with error codes even more difficult to understand. (Examples covered in the video too)

I do believe this happens but I'm also "skeptical" of the ability of a high attrition place with underqualified workers working under pressure to get themselves up to date in maintenance practices and manuals.

Edit: and yes, the franchisees are the ones who get the short stick. Franchises are thorny and usually not in the favour of the franchisee.

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It is very common for engineers to hypothesize (often with limited evidence) that the problem is “the users” rather than the technology and its support infrastructure. I think this can be true, but two points:

1. The high-attrition low-skill workforce at fast food restaurants is a fact of the industry. (I am not endorsing it either.) So if a solution is failing widely when faced with the reality of its users, then the system is flawed not the users.

Of course, you might argue that it’s impossible to build a system that works with this type of users, which leads to:

2. The video argues that failure rates at competing fast food restaurants are vastly lower. While I can’t verify this myself, if we assume it’s true then it’s strong evidence that the problem here is unique to McDonalds and therefore doesn’t represent some systematic impossibility.

I don’t care much about ice cream machines, but in the broader technological sense I dislike “users are the problem” arguments. The whole point of tech is to make users’ lives easier. When other people are doing that and you’re not, there is a problem.

While I understand this viewpoint and I don't necessarily disagree with it, this one piece of equipment is unique and that's why I think it is so often "broken".

No other piece of equipment has the mix of complexity and niche impact on the restaurant. Even the brand new at the time espresso machines are mostly self cleaning. There's no other object that requires this(minor IMO) skill level to operate. So it's just left undone. It's widely regarded that while it's a high profit machine most of the time you can run a highly successful business without it.

I agree with you, and I was not blaming the users/the workforce. As you said it is a fact of the industry.

McD is known for making their processes simple and repeatable and it seems the machine is failing that paradigm.

(And oh well, my comment was speculative and made before I saw the video, the users really can't do much when the company hides information from them - though we don't know exactly how the procedures are laid down in the manual and how they can be improved. it's one thing if the manual says "fill this up and press the button" another if it says "fill this up to this line and check A, B and C before pressing the button")

> McD is known for making their processes simple and repeatable and it seems the machine is failing that paradigm.

Which, coincidentally, is based on Frederick Taylor's theory of Scientific Management. Pretty sure Frederick Taylor and the Taylor making the ice cream machines aren't connected in any way though.

There is another bit in the vid I watched there was a dongle they could buy for awhile. It was telling them exactly what they did wrong and how to fix it. Basically taking the obscure error code and turning it into human with pictures. The franchise dudes were extremely excited for it.

That lends a decent amount of credence to a 'process' issue. If that many people are messing it up. Then something is wrong either in the physical or training realm or both. I usually have to have this conversation every few years when someone says 'oh we will just train the users'. Then I go 'dude I know how this should work and I am totally lost, do you expect someone who does not give much of a crap about it to pick it up?'.

One thing the vid misses though is the lockout rate could be coming from mcdonalds itself in a different way. They do not want to end up on the wrong side of a lawsuit and bad publicity. Remember the lady who spilt coffee on herself, and got 2nd/3rd degree burns. That cost them a lot of time, money and bad press. So they may have set the machines to be oversensitive.

I can imagine that it’s hard to keep up to date with maintenance practices and manuals when the manuals are explicitly unavailable, as is the case for McDonalds.

This isn't a high attrition work place!

Sure in general McDonald's is. However there are always a few people who have been around for years who know a lot more than the average worker. They are in management or maintenance. They have more training, and better wages. (not to be confused with the person who has been there forever but never advanced to such a position)

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