McDonald's serves up high-tech tills
New technology is on the menu at fast food chain
Fast-food chain McDonald’s is replacing tills in all its outlets to cope with the introduction of new technology-based projects.
The company has already installed new till systems at 270 outlets and will have them in place at all of its 1,225 restaurants by May next year.
Steve Tiley, McDonald’s head of information systems, says the company is changing its philosophy and cooking food to order.
‘Rather than cooking items to be held for up to 10 minutes, we now cook more often to customers’ needs. To accommodate this, orders are transmitted to NEC screens in the kitchen that alert staff when to prepare the food,’ he said.
The previous system was 15 years old, incompatible with planned initiatives such as cashless payments, and unable to link with wireless devices.
‘We tried to link it to the old till hardware but it proved unreliable,’ said Tiley.
McDonald’s has invested in 3,000 Panasonic touchscreen tills running Torex Retail software.
The PC-based till system offers reliability while adding functionality and increased speed, and could be adapted to offer elearning to staff, says Tiley.
‘We could introduce interactive training videos through the tills, teaching staff how to put together new products,’ he said.
Datamonitor analyst Martin Atherton says it is rare to wait 15 years to replace tills, as bolting on new IT is unreliable.
‘PC-based touchscreen tills will offer McDonald’s greater speed and usability,’ he said.
‘It can also fit new products and promotions on to the tills from a central point.’
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