McDonald’s sells millions of sandwiches each day. Consumers are handed their food in a paper bag – the food goes down the hatch, the paper in the trash. The customers might have a general end-user idea about how the sandwich came to be – especially if it’s "two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – all on a sesame seed bun” – but they think nothing of the packaging it came in. Even though the average McDonald’s patron may not know it, the process that brought that bag to fruition is just as intricate as the layers of a Big Mac.
It involves the corporate office, owner-operators and suppliers working in a collaborative effort to produce the best product for the lowest cost, and that process delves deeper than just the food itself. The customer might not eat it, but that bag factors into the price of the sandwich, too. To keep the price tag low for the consumer, McDonald’s, and subsequently its suppliers, has to keep its overhead low. Businesses around the globe know this simple concept, but it can take different forms. For some, automation or employee cross-training have been the solutions because they allow employers to get more done with less manpower.
Read more: McDonald’s

Franchisees must be prepared to navigate a vastly different real estate market
than they did 12 or 18 months ago.
By Brian Bern and Samantha Berk
Lack of space, ever-increasing rental rates and increased competition from corporate tenants and new concepts are squeezing franchisees out of prime locations. But franchisees can navigate these critical stages of the real estate cycle by acting fast, demonstrating value and negotiating smart terms.
Read more: Real Estate