16 JUNE 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® The Right to Repair . . . Ice Cream Machines? by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC While surfing the net recently, I stumbled across this article having to do with the now legendary McDonald’s ice cream machine which, so the story goes, always seems to be in a nonworking state. See: https://townhall.com/columnists/bradslager/2024/03/22/the-legitimate-reason-for-the-governmentto-involve-itself-with-broken-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-n2636860?recip=20272765 In fact, I heard a comedian say: “It was so cold the McDonald’s ice cream machines started working!” First of all, I wonder about any business which would keep any piece of equipment that wasn’t working, wasn’t working right, or wasn’t working consistently. And, McDonald’s isn’t your average mom-and-pop restaurant either, as they are a multibillion dollar corporation with stores worldwide. If anyone would have the resources to fix something, they would. But I digress. Basically, this article is about the right to repair - with this case being ice cream machines - which is a topic I’ve written on before with the subject being farm equipment. All of those steps detailed in the article regarding how the ice cream is made and dispensed are not difficult for a microprocessor to perform. In fact, it’s what their current ice cream machine is using right now. So why not just bypass [the ice cream machine maker] Taylor entirely? I know there are legal and contractual issues here which I’m not qualified to comment on, but my guess as to why McDonald’s hasn’t done this yet is the decision makers at McDonald’s are all wrapped up with dealing with “the system” instead of being concerned about getting results. Trying to take on the system doesn’t do anything for getting good results which, in this case, is having a reliable ice cream machine. And it’s an incredible waste of time. I’ve encountered this “get all wrapped up in the minutiae and ignore the big picture” attitude in a number of different areas. A friend of mine works for a water treatment plant and they have fancy computer screens everywhere with a picture(s) of a water pump(s) on them with some information below them like pump pressure or rate of flow. The pump picture turns various colors to reflect the status of the pump. Why do we need a picture of a pump on a computer screen? All it does is increase the cost and complexity of the system and make it more difficult (and expensive) to troubleshoot and repair. An alphanumeric (letters and numbers) display would work just as well, be more reliable, and be a whole lot less expensive to implement. I can think of all sorts of things to illustrate this concept to absurd levels. What about your bathroom scale? Does a computerized bathroom scale need to ask you a lot of questions before it gives your weight? All you want to see is your weight at the time. That’s it. End of story. I can think of a lot of things a computer scale could do which could be a much better use of time resources - like logging your weight on a day-to-day basis and things like that. But until a significantly large number of people start pushing back against this attitude, nothing much is going to change. Until these costs (both time and money) become unbearable and the tipping point - wherever that is - is reached, not much will happen. But time will tell. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com July 27-29, 2024 ~ Look for the WWDR Team at Booth #610 at the South Atlantic JUBILEE at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Visit www.jubileewatershow.com See more events at worldwidedrillingresource.com online issue. Are you planning to go? WorldWide will be looking for you!
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