The Taco Bell Drive-Thru and Pumping System Assessments

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Admiral H.G. Rickover 1900 - 1986

When I was a Lieutenant (jg) in the US Navy nuclear power program in the 1970’s there was only one admiral that mattered, that was Admiral H.G. Rickover. Some call him the father of the nuclear navy, but I thought of him as more of an all-seeing, all-knowing god, than a father. At that time, he had been the director of Naval Reactors for over 25 years and he knew everything that was happening on each one of his nuclear powered vessels. Every month the Admiral would send out a variety of magazine articles designed to make us well rounded naval officers. On the USS Jack (SSN 605) we kept the Admiral’s required reading in the officer’s head (bathroom for you non nautical types) so we could read while sitting. The Admiral’s suggested articles always provided interesting reading. I distinctly remember one article about the animal husbandry of cows and how semen is extracted from a 2,200 pound bull. I also recall an article about the science of honey. The Admiral’s topics would vary widely, along with the ever present transcripts of his annual testimony given to the US House and Senate on the state of the Nuclear Navy.

So last week I read an interesting article that I would like to share with you. You don’t have to read it in the head because I have provided a link. (Unless your Wi-Fi reaches the restroom and you happen to have a water-proof device.) In the May 5th, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I was fascinated by the article "Taco Bell and the Golden Age of Drive-Thru." It talked about how the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant - They don’t refer to it as fast food), has some of the most advanced operational thinking. Their aim is to enable their customers to place an order, have it filled accurately (over 93% of the time), pay and then be on their way with a hot meal in less than 164 seconds.

It turns out it hasn’t always been that way. In the 1990’s, when the drive-thru revenue only represented 50% of the stores business, order accuracy was a joke, the waits for food were painfully long, and it was often served cold. That is when management realized that they needed to get the drive thru right or they were going to miss out on millions in profit.

The folks at Taco Bell looked at every step of the process from how the order was taken and paid for, how the kitchen received and tracked the orders, the layout of the kitchen, how the “Food Champions” prepared each menu item, along with the menu items available. After years of hard work, performing a cost benefits analysis and time motion studies of every phase of the process, the industry made some serious changes. The QSR industry is now an example of American ingenuity and how a business can make quality products that meet the needs and expectations of their customers.

Drive-thru timer and efficiency clock.
Image Courtesy Techknow Inc.
gotechknow.com

Today a typical Taco Bell has a menu of over 400 menu items, while most restaurants work three shifts a day. Today everything is covered in great detail, when a new employee is hired they must successfully complete training on that position. As a “Service Champion” you learn there is only one way to greet a customer: “Hi, how are you today?” followed by “You may order when you’re ready.” Studies found that not only does this put customer first, it eliminates any stress they may be experiencing in their car (such as a 3 year old having a meltdown in the back seat). Each “Food Champion” is taught the correct way to make each item on the menu, along with the correct way to wrap tacos and burritos. This is done in order to make it easier for the customer to eat their item while minimizing the number of food wrappers a Taco Bell store must stock. It appears they have evaluated every detail to streamline the process and minimize costs. It is especially important because now in the Quick Serve Restaurant industry, over 70% of the revenue comes through the drive thru window.

Now how does this tie into the value of conducting Pumped System Assessments? I would consider the efficiency of the average pumped system today is where the fast food industry was in the 1990’s. These pumped systems are able to manufacturer products that the consumers want, but often there are too many unscheduled plant outages. Other outages and process inefficiencies occur while performing maintenance on certain items of equipment dominating the maintenance expenses, while training plant personnel, while maintaining a safe plant, while not causing an environmental problem. Not to mention the constant quest to increase plant reliability so the plant can produce more products, while reducing operating cost, maintenance cost and capitol costs.

The US Department of Energy has been the driving force behind the pumped system assessment standard. They hired a group of pump system consultants to conduct assessments at industrial plants in order to demonstrate ways of minimizing the operating costs for pumped systems. Much of what the DOE has learned while conducting these assessments has found its way into the official ASME Pump System Assessment Standard.

Fluid Fundamentals (an Engineered Software Business Unit) has developed our Pumped System Assessment and Optimization training class to show the piping and pumping system industry how to implement the ASME standard. The primary focus of the class is to show people how to determine the current annual operating cost of a pumped system and identify each cost in a Energy Cost Balance Sheet. With the current operating cost known, the plant can determine ways to improve the system operation to reduce the various cost items identified in the Energy Cost Balance Sheet. The final step is to document each assessment and determine the potential savings. Companies that have performed assessments have not only reduced their operating costs, but also discovered they can reduce their maintenance cost and increase the reliability of their pumped system.

The objective of the pumped system assessment program is to foster continued improvement with the plant. This is accomplished by evaluating each step of the process, looking for ways to minimize energy consumption, running the process more efficiently, and running the equipment around its best efficiency point. Taco Bell didn’t achieve their 164 second per order time, or 95% accuracy rate over night; it took hard work and a goal of achieving continued improvements to the process.

Thanks to all the efforts put into their process assessment and their inspiring goal of total efficiency, I now find myself thinking about ways to improve pumped system efficiency every time I order a Crunchwrap Supreme and diet soda at my local Taco Bell.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks!