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McDonald’s Corporation announced its plans to open a new facility called the Speedee Labs, and it will be set up inside its global headquarters in Chicago. The move is said to be part of the company’s decision to relocate teams that will focus on innovation.
McDonald’s said that it would pull out staff from its offices and innovation centers and then bring them to the Speedee Labs facility to form a team that will work exclusively on Innovation and customer and restaurant team experience. The fast-food chain said they would all work together in a new innovative environment where they will create more opportunities for partnerships while developing restaurant solutions and technologies as well.
Market Watch reported that McDonald's Speedee Labs is expecting its initial opening phase to start in the second half of 2023. The plan is to move all jobs from its Innovation Center in Romeoville, Illinois, to the new hub at the HQ in Chicago. These details were announced by the company’s chief executive officer, Chris Kempczinski, last week
The current innovation hub has around 120 staff, and a source said they will be given the opportunity to relocate to the Speedee Labs. It was mentioned that it was only in 2018 when McDonald’s decided to move its corporate HQ back to Chicago, but the Speedee Service System already exists since 1948.
The founders of McDonald’s established the system in that year to lay out new kitchen processes and systematize crew responsibilities that will serve as a model for the quick service restaurant QSR industry. Today, the restaurant said the new Speedee Labs center would be forming restaurant solutions for the future.
"Our customers and restaurant teams’ needs are changing and meeting their expectations requires us to work together in new ways," McDonald's executive vice president and chief customer officer, Manu Steijaert, said in a press release.
He went on to say, "Just as the creation of McDonald's Customer Experience team brought key aspects of our business strategy together, the creation of Speedee Labs will enable more of our customers, restaurant teams, markets and global teams to contribute to our innovation while driving growth and creating more seamless and memorable McDonald's experiences."
