j.mcclay
drive thru of the future
breaking through convention to unlock throughput

70% of my Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) client's revenue came from the drive thru, yet long lines turned away hungry customers and they couldn’t figure out how to get more cars through per hour.

Over the course of 16 weeks we dove deep into the design, operations, and customer experience of the drive thru. Our proposed solution increased throughput capacity by over 200% while reducing speed of service and introducing new metrics and transparency into the core of the fast food business model. Our output also included a 3D simulator, physical model, voice ordering prototype, roadmap, and much more to build confidence in the holistic solution. After seeing the impact of the new design, the COO stated, "Holy shit."

Open Simulator

Quick service restaurant | business designer | 2020

As the business designer I conducted research, identified the bottlenecks, designed and modeled the new layout, defined new metrics, and built a 3D simulator. The simulator was the most critical component of my contributions – I wrote the algorithm, conceptualized the deliverable, and produced the end product.

PHASE 1
Research
  • Interviewed stakeholders across Operations, Digital, Architecture, Industrial Engineering, etc
  • Conducted customer research including dscout surveys and on-site intercepts
  • Conducted on-site interviews and observational research
PHASE 2
Concepting
  • Conducted 2-day collaborative workshop with over 15 stakeholders
  • Developed initial hypotheses for bottlenecks and solutions
  • Designed 3 drive thru layouts to be tested, as well as numerous other complementary solutions
PHASE 3
Validation
  • Designed agent-based algorithm to model current state (using real data) and concept layouts to calculate theoretical impact
  • Executed at-scale test of prioritized layout in client parking lot with employees.
PHASE 4
Launch & Evolve
  • Designed and led development of interactive 3d simulator to test proposed drive thru design with ability to manipulate critical variables
  • Contributed to design and build of website that included research output, 3d models, simulator, AI voice ordering demo, and more

Artifacts

simulator

This interactive simulation was built to enable visualization and manipulation of the proposed drive thru layout. Controls enable the user to pressure test various configurations, scenarios, and assumptions to see the impact to key metrics and utilization.

The simulation is built on an algorithm I created to model the drive thru, using the company's data to create distributions and validating the approach against real-world performance.

The project did not have defined deliverables – in my role I identified the need to mathematically test our designs, and the opportunity to create an 3D experience to bring our solution to life. I designed the tool and collaborated with a Unity developer to realize the concept.

Open Simulator

Exhibit model

Working physical model of the drive thru for an interactive experience at events

  • Car is pulled by a magnet on a belt to follow the drive thru path built with 3d printed wheels
  • Interactive display designed in Axure, triggered by the car location to share features
  • Building, kiosks, and parking lot 3D printed to scale
  • Motor, functioning pickup window, and tablet driven by Arduino
  • Lasercut box with holes for building and electrical components