A fast-food chicken issue

What would you do if you encountered something unusual about the food served in a fast-food restaurant? Maybe, you’ll act depending on your persona. If you’re still in the mindset of an aliping saguiguilid (a slave in pre-colonial Philippines), you’ll probably keep your mouth shut to maintain peace. But we’re in the modern world.

Food poisoning is not a small thing, even among us Filipinos who would complain about almost anything including the size and type of pizza toppings and the romantic relationships of people in the entertainment industry.

With that, let me tell you about my personal experience with a fast-food joint not frequented by people from a socially prominent class. I was waiting for my wife, who was inside a nearby bank, so I took the opportunity to have a late lunch. The problem became evident after only three small bites of my fried chicken.

It had fresh blood oozing out of the chicken bone. It appears like the chicken had just come out of the slaughterhouse, not from a frying pan. I called the attention of the manager who came in five minutes late as if she was in a different time zone. Without saying a word, she agreed there was a problem and attempted to take my plate.

I told her to simply give me the replacement piece in a separate plate, which she did without a hassle, not even a two-faced apology. After completing my meal, I noticed a man at an adjacent table. He went to the counter to complain about something. Being a bit nosy, I asked him about the problem. Same thing. He confirmed that the chicken meal given to him contained several streaks of blood oozing out of the bones.

Likewise, he succeeded in getting a replacement. I’m sure customers who are similarly situated would be treated the same way. But, that’s not the point. Still, there’s a problem even if we got only two sample cases. Even Michelin-certified restaurants make mistakes, including trivial ones like inconsistency about their ingredients and serving “very erratic meals.”

Hansei

A problem is a problem no matter how trivial it is. So, what accounts for this problem? The fast-food restaurant solved our problem without any debate. That’s admirable. Lightning-fast positive action defeats wrongdoing. It’s essential to customer service. After that, we’ve to reflect on something like what I’m doing now - writing about my experience.

The Japanese term is hansei. It means a personal introspection on what went wrong and how to avoid such bad incidents from happening again. Ideally, it should be the oppressor rather than the victim who must do the hansei. How do you think the restaurant plans to avoid the problem from happening again, assuming they want to correct a bad system?

To find out, maybe I should go back to the restaurant to order the same chicken meal, although I’m not sure if I want to take another chance. Maybe, I’ll be tempted to do that for academic reasons. Whatever the case, here are the specific measures that they can take.

Review of the work standards. I’m sure they’ve an established standard operating procedure that they’ve tested decades back. So, what makes this an issue, at least for the two related incidents that I described earlier? What went wrong? Was there a shortcut made in the cooking time due to volume orders? We don’t know.

Establish a mandatory daily reporting system. Mandatory means exception reporting. All branches must report anything unusual. The report must include details of near-miss accidents and other potential issues that could adversely affect product quality, health or safety concerns of the workers or their customers.

Implement an immediate countermeasure. It’s easy to replace a chicken meal to appease an unsatisfied customer. What can be done to avoid repeating the same mistake? Depending on the desired crispiness and size of chicken parts, maybe an additional minute or two of frying would solve the issue.

Study a permanent solution. This may require another set of experiments to determine a new standard of quality. What type of oil did they use compared to the established requirements? How about the size of the chicken parts? Were there any adjustments made by the commissary that were not communicated to the branches?

Monitor the implementation. If there’s a need to implement a new cooking standard, how long would it take for management to accept it as a new solution? What adjustments are to be made? Do they include retraining of kitchen personnel? How about using a different type of flour?

Revise the work standards. The sooner that management becomes satisfied with the new standards, this must be communicated right away to all stakeholders. What’s important is to have a defining standard that would govern the operations of all branches similarly situated.

The fast-food restaurant is a major player in the industry, I bet they know and fully understand the above-stated solutions. They may even have a better approach than these. So, what’s going on? Why have they committed a mistake, at least at the time when I was there when there were few customers?

In conclusion, understand that deviation from standards is not always evident unless someone complains about it. Therefore, don’t accept a product defect, no matter how trivial it seems.

Join Rey Elbo’s Kaizen Study Mission on April 20-26, 2025 in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. For details, chat with him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or email [email protected] or via https://reyelbo.com