Quality Control

Dunkin Donuts uses a continuous improvement method of quality control. Using quality control charts in this industry would not be practical because sampling takes up too much time. For example, how many people who stop in for a quick cup of coffee will willingly wait for the employee to test the temperature? Not many. In this type of fast paced business, the idea is to create efficiency in "reducing the variability in the process." If the workers follow exact instructions, there will be a decreased variety and variation in the process. The interaction with the customers is uniform and the preparation methods have been perfected. Each menu item has step by step directions to follow to prepare the food precisely. However, this system only works if accuracy is enforced. The corporate office and franchise owner monitors and evaluates the results from the "secret shoppers", who are inspectors posing as regular customers. These shoppers examine the food and beverages that were prepared for them, and compare it with the guidelines that were laid out for the employees.

Dunkin Donuts uses the attribute control when it comes to their product. Every item is fully inspected prior to being placed on display for the customers to see. For instance, the muffins, which are heated in the morning, are temped to ensure they are not frozen in the center. Also, any donuts that do not look to be in uniform shape are tossed in the garbage. Each product must be evaluated and approved by the staff member who prepares it. The extraordinary quality of Dunkin Donuts does not end at one routine inspection. The employees must always be aware of the freshness of the merchandise. All perishables on the front end have a specific shelf life. For example, coffee must be tossed after being on the burner for 18 minutes. This ensures every customer receives the highest quality beverage. Also, donuts, bagels, and muffins must be tossed at the end of the night, for their quality is not up to par the following day. A record is kept to ensure procedures are followed and all tossed items must be accounted for. Monitoring this aspect allows managers to find ways to reduce the amount of food being tossed and increases profits for the restaurant. For example, if at the end of almost every day the manager finds that there is an average of twelve extra strawberry frosted donuts, he checks the records and finds that Sunday morning he sells almost all of them. He could make a profitable choice of reducing the amount of strawberry donuts that are made on the week days. These records allow managers to reduce the shrink. Using Six Sigma is another means of providing quality control to the restaurants. The corporate offices use this means to improve specific issues that are seen across the franchises and works to find ways to improve and control them.

The corporate office uses a Cause and Effect diagram to improve business as a whole. They are constantly seeing what links in the chain can be improved. For example, if the office thinks that the weak link may be the customer service, they will send out a change in the initial process, which will improve customer service uniformly. For example, they may feel that customer service will improve if all employees are required to say the phrase, "thank you and keep running on Dunkin." This improvement is expected to bring a smile to the customers' face and in turn will make them happy with their experience and want to return. However, the individual owner may notice an increase in complaints about the coffee. These customers all insist, "at the other Dunkin Donuts they never have this problem." This proves that the problem is specific to that branch. The manager will then use the diagram to check for possible reasons and conclude that employees are not following the proper procedure of tossing old coffee.

One suggestion that could be made is for the corporate office to survey the store clerks. If they get a perspective on potential problems seen by those who actually deal with the processes that are designed, they may be able to locate issues that cannot be explained directly from the statistics that are on paper. For example, if all Dunkin Donuts actually wanted each employee to say "thank you and keep on running on Dunkin", the front end employees would be the first to recognize the overall customer opinion on the changes made. In turn, the internal staff has the best perspective on what the customers actually prefer as a group. Another suggestion is for each franchise to give incentives for customers to fill out surveys regarding the quality of the food and beverages. Hearing their feedback will aid in pinpointing quality control issues and in finding ways to get past them.