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Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by asdff on Monday April 26, 2021 @02:24AM (#26939822)
Why are they using such a complicated ice cream machine? I worked in food service in the 2010s and ours was pretty simple. One switch at the back for on and off and that was it. It took one person like 10 minutes to break it down and have it cleaned at the end of the night. The hardest part was wiping the exterior down. You basically just put a bucket underneath, ran the ice cream out, then ran hot water through it (forgot if we used some sort of sanitizer here), and hand washed a couple pieces. Other commercial icecream machines I've seen work like this. This mcdonalds machine is blowing my mind. I wonder why they opted not to use the bog standard ice cream machine every other fast food place uses.
Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by slantyyz on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:24AM (#26942815)
The video is not a complete story.

I suggest you read the Wired article that came out a few days ago, as it addresses a lot of the questions being asked here.

https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-...

It should be worth noting that the story in this video and the Wired article appears to have been initiated by the creators of the Kytch.

Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by LorenPechtel on Monday April 26, 2021 @01:04PM (#26944963)
And note that the very existence of the Kytch says there's a big problem with the UI of the machines.
Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by Cederfjard on Monday April 26, 2021 @03:36AM (#26940214)
It sounds like the idea is to only have to spend time manually cleaning it every fortnight instead of daily, and perhaps to limit waste of the product? But perhaps that gets offset by the fact that the increased complexity seems to make it so difficult to operate that it leads to constant interruptions and expensive service calls.
Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by ogurechny on Monday April 26, 2021 @05:29AM (#26940761)
Most likely, the real answer was given straight away: a worker from other company says they clean their machines daily. I'd expect that in common language that means they disassemble and wash them the old way without using any automatic maintenance programs. But then you wouldn't have a vaguely sensational video on a pop cultural topic with a million of views.

I guess it's a typical big company nonsense. Someone probably had an idea that daily cleaning is too time-consuming and expensive, and the task to solve that problem was introduced. Some lab made tests, and defined The Only True Way of keeping the product edible. (Side note: re-boiling a mix of fats and sugars each day for two weeks? Who would eat the result of that? Who thought it was a reliable idea?) The cleaning period could only be stretched to the maximum, for obvious business reasons. That resulted in tiny error margins (which maker can't voluntary change without spending money on new research). So presentations on clear financial gains were made, and the new option was proudly implemented. Some employee has probably been keeping eye on changes in cream composition, regulations, and related research, and issuing new checks for the machines. However, in reality this doesn't work that well (even indifferent part-time workers who don't give a damn after a shift are part of reality you can't simply rule out). But the goal of reverting or altering the process is not really important to McDonalds, as making it work is now pain in the store owner's ass.

You have probably noticed similar cases in computing, when some high-tech solution are introduced, and their gains are shared with lots of pathos, but the resulting system looks way too complex and unstable even from a distance.

Re:Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often... by asdff on Monday April 26, 2021 @01:12PM (#26945076)
It just seems like some vendor got the contract before a cost benefit analysis could be done. I mean 15 minutes out of a shift worker's time costs mcDonalds maybe $5. $5 for a day of ice cream sales seems like a cheap service contract to me.