McDonald's Food Chain

McDonald's convinced its suppliers to set up two separate production lines for chicken and vegetable patties, keeping in the mind the link between food and religion in India. This was in sharp contrast with its global practice, where McDonald's suppliers produced all types of patties from the same line. These two production lines were housed in two different rooms and the only way a worker could cross over from one line to the other was by passing through the shower room. This eliminated all chances of contamination. However, from a supplier's point of view, more lines meant a reduction in capacity utilisation and high cost of production. To minimise costs, McDonald's helped Vista & Kitran Foods produce derivatives of chicken and vegetable nuggets (not based on McDonald's recipe) for Indian hotels and restaurants and thereby reach new markets. Vista & Kitran's higher margin and higher capacity utilization for non-McDonald's products helped it remain cost competitive. McDonald's philosophy had been 'one world, one burger' i.e. the McDonald's burger should be consistent in terms of cost and quality throughout the world. To ensure this, all of McDonald's suppliers followed the internationally acclaimed HACCP systems wherein both inputs and finished goods were subjected to chemical and microbiological tests.