March 09, 2004Kiosks make fast food faster McDonald's Corp.'s new restaurant kiosks are part ATM, colorful as a video game and central to the chain's efforts to sell its food faster and fresher. By Warren Moulds McDonald's Corp.'s new restaurant kiosks are part ATM, colorful as a video game and central to the chain's efforts to sell its food faster and fresher. After tests in Denver and Raleigh, N.C., the kiosks have made their first Illinois appearance in St. Charles, at the McDonald's at Illinois Highway 64 and Smith Road near the Charlestowne Mall. With four touch-screen devices mounted on the counters, customers entering the store can see right away that this place is different. The touch screens display every item McDonald's offers, allowing customers to place their orders and pay at the terminal in a system that the restaurant chain hopes will deliver faster and more customized food. Ken Koziol, vice president of worldwide restaurant innovation, expects it will lead to little or no waiting in line. Early customer feedback indicates good results, restaurant manager Terry Polk said. "Customers and employees really like it," Polk said. "It's really helped [speed up] my service, and customers like not having to wait in line." There are two versions of kiosks: those mounted on front counters and stand-alone models in the restaurant's indoor playground area. The playground kiosks are designed to let parents bring their children to the play area while they place orders. For customers, the kiosks are simple. Under each screen are two slots, one for money and the other for a receipt that shows what was ordered, the cost and how much change should be returned. Behind the counter is the new system's cooking apparatus: its automated "vertical grill," which seasons hamburgers as they cook between two conveyor belts, and a robotic arm that packages french fries. All the pieces are designed to work together, with input from the kiosk setting the cooking process in motion. "We call this the continuous cooking process," Koziol said. In developing it, the idea was to replace batch cooking, with its stops and starts and intermittent grill-cleaning routines. In addition to delivering a "fresher product than batch cooking," he said, the new system should improve kitchen safety. Koziol said that while the kiosk and kitchen environment will make production more efficient, it should not reduce restaurant staffing. McDonald's officials said workers will deliver food and change and spend more time interacting with customers. The St. Charles restaurant was chosen for the test because of its proximity to McDonald's Oak Brook headquarters and because of the restaurant's layout and volume of business. "We have a long list of test criteria and we were looking for a typical store close to home so we could keep an eye on it," Koziol said. Customers appear to be responding well, said Bridgman, pointing to two mothers standing in front of a touch screen ordering hamburgers and drinks for their kids in the restaurant's noisy indoor playground.
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