In 1948, Richard and Maurice McDonald Watched Cars Pile Up Outside Their Restaurant: That Frustrating Delay Established the Foundation for McDonald’s

By the mid-to-late 1940s, Richard and Maurice McDonald owned a thriving drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, but beyond all the customers coming in through their doors, the owners faced an operational issue that was hard to ignore. They had a successful business, but their service method seemed to create unnecessary bottlenecks. They would take orders from carhops, cooking time was involved in preparing each meal, and their lengthy menu slowed down the entire process, reducing their throughput capacity at the busiest hours of operation.

As per research compiled and archived by Duke University into post-war American drive-in culture, the classic system of carhops would often find itself hampered in situations of high turnover since the order-making process required several manual operations that were difficult to circumvent just by hiring more people.

This was an issue of the system itself, rather than one of staffing. This would be a key step in changing the game.

The restaurant closed so the system could be rebuilt

During the autumn of 1948, the brothers took a step that appeared to be too daring for an already successful company.
They closed their restaurant. According to reports published by the University of Texas at Austin, Richard and Maurice McDonald closed their first restaurant, abolished carhops, greatly simplified their menu, and halved the prices on hamburgers once they reopened.

This was not just a small change. This was a radical rethinking of the entire process of cooking and delivering meals to customers. The brothers got rid of everything that might slow down the service. They eliminated plates and cutlery, reduced menu options, and redesigned kitchen processes so that each operation could be performed more quickly and efficiently.
As stated by the University of Texas, their purpose was obvious and pragmatic – to make a quick-service restaurant with affordable prices and high turnover. These characteristics were the basis for the McDonald’s brand.

The menu became smaller, and the process became faster

One of the biggest differences was the menu itself. A paper by scholars published in Penn State University’s journal states that the McDonald brothers offered only 9 basic products in their fast-food chain and implemented what was later called the Speedee Service System.

This change was based on a common-sense business idea. A smaller menu implied less variety of products, lower losses, easy training for employees, and speedy food preparation. The concept borrowed the ideas of industrial assembly lines, where every action was planned to eliminate all useless movements.

The preparation process was divided into separate actions. The same actions were performed by workers. This produced uniformity and efficiency. As mentioned in the above-mentioned paper from Penn State, this was probably one of the first instances of mass production in restaurant services. Consumers no longer paid for the social atmosphere of a drive-in restaurant.

They paid for efficiency.

The kitchen was redesigned like a production line

The change was much more than just a menu revision. A study conducted by the University of Michigan on McDonald’s business model explains the changes introduced in 1948 as a complete overhaul of the kitchen layout, method of food preparation, and workflow. Such an overhaul created an elaborate, meticulously planned, and highly systematic process.

There were designated stations for everything. There were timings for everything. There was purpose in every move. This was quite a different approach to food service compared to the casual drive-ins popular at that time. Rather than accommodating itself to individual orders, the fast food restaurant manufactured its meals using a process that was both rapid and replicable.
This increased the ease of scaling and replication, which became crucial considering the importance of consistency in McDonald’s subsequent franchise expansion.

The ability to replicate the same meal at different locations is rooted in this very 1948 transformation.

Why this small decision changed fast food forever

It is amazing how mundane the initial problem seemed to be. This wasn’t some grand idea of making a global brand. There was just an observation. The line was moving too slowly. The McDonald brothers analyzed the bottleneck, got rid of anything that hampered the progress of the process, and then redesigned the whole restaurant for efficiency.

Historical accounts from Duke University and Penn State state that such ideas were widespread at the time of WWII due to standardization and mass production of the era, having an impact on consumer businesses. The McDonald brothers simply implemented those principles in the food industry.

The choice they made gave rise to the model, which was instrumental in transforming McDonald's into one of the world’s most recognizable brands. The message is clear even today. It may take a small but overlooked thing like observing a line of waiting cars and then wondering what if the whole thing moved faster?