Fast food giant McDonald's will equip workers at outlets across the world with handheld PCs to improve staff efficiency.

The company will replicate a successful UK pilot in other countries, giving Pocket PCs to assessment staff who carry out quality checks.

In April 2004, McDonald's provided 200 regional operational consultants with Pocket PCs, loaded with assessment information and a 500-question form concerning product quality, customer service and cleanliness.

Instead of having to write down information and manually transfer it to central systems, staff can enter all the details they need directly into the handheld devices. The information is then automatically uploaded to a central database.

Keith Frimley, McDonald's business relationship manager and mobile assessment project leader, says inputting information into a mobile PC saves two and a half hours over each two-day assessment period, another two hours in processing that data, and a matter of days in responding with an action plan.

'Before, the consultant would hand the paper review to an administrator, who would key in the data at a summary level,' said Frimley. 'The time taken to complete the survey was an issue and we wanted to drive cost out by removing the duplication of data.

'The main advantage is getting better assessment results and a commonality of approach across all areas of performance,' he said.

Assessment data is uploaded using GPRS or Wap connections, and automatically synchronised with central databases when there is network coverage.

McDonald's built the mobile assessment system using products from iAnywhere, including a security management tool to protect sensitive data.

'We can stop the device being used by anyone else by wiping it of data,' said Frimley.