Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru Process: Learning from Lean Game Film
The Chick-fil-A drive-thru process offers a useful example of studying work before choosing a fix. A March 2025 Wall Street Journal article described teams reviewing “game film” to find delays and uneven workloads. The problems included a veteran employee carrying too much of the work and Wi-Fi that did not reach the outdoor ordering team.
What interests me is how the observations led to questions about the process. The article below is the source for the restaurant examples; the Lean connections are my interpretation.
Drones and ‘Game Film': Inside Chick-fil-A's Quest to Make Fast Food Faster
Their strategies read like a Lean playbook:
- observe the process,
- identify bottlenecks,
- experiment, and iterate.
They even call it “game film”–a term borrowed from football–that's now being used to break down every step of the customer experience.
On one level, Chick-fil-A is using drones to do it. But improvement is really driven by the people–those who watch the film and those who do the work.
By the way, the technology company KaiNexus uses the phrase (and approach) of “game film” to review key meetings with prospects and customers — not for punishment, but for coaching and improvement.
Studying the Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru Process
According to the article, at a Rockford, Illinois location, franchisee Philip Everett and Chick-fil-A's central team reviewed footage of a record-breaking Friday lunch rush. Kitchen cameras and aerial drone views helped the team examine where flow broke down.
What did they learn? A single veteran employee was shouldering too much of the work. The Wi-Fi didn't reach far enough to support the outside team members taking orders. Those observations gave the team specific problems to address.
“We hadn't understood half of what our different challenges were,” [store operator] Everett said.
You can't solve a problem that you don't know about.
Their approach is classic Plan-Do-Study-Adjust (PDSA). And it's worth emphasizing the “Study” step here. Chick-fil-A didn't just look at the data–they observed and studied the actual process. They didn't blame the workers. They asked why there were barriers to flow and customer service–and then why again.
Respect for People–In the Parking Lot
One of the more striking aspects of the article is how Chick-fil-A treats its frontline workers. When they moved order-taking to the parking lot (long before COVID made that a trend), the company didn't just send people out with iPads and hope for the best.
They designed climate-adapted uniforms, added shading and heating elements, and even partnered with clothing companies to create cooling vests.
This isn't just operational design–it seems like Respect for People, a key pillar of Lean. It's acknowledging that the best service design is meaningless if your people are cold, overheated, or overwhelmed.
Working conditions belong in the improvement discussion. A faster handoff is not enough if the design leaves employees overheated, cold, or struggling with equipment.
But back to the use of video… it's possible to do observation, time study, and improvement work in ways that are engaging and respectful, as I wrote about here:
Do improvement with people, not TO them.
Innovation Without Silver Bullets
There's no “magic bullet” in Chick-fil-A's approach. No AI tool that instantly solves everything. No dashboard that makes improvement automatic. It's small, continuous changes driven by studying the work and empowering local operators.
Some changes are capital-intensive (like a new McDonough, GA site with an overhead kitchen and four drive-through lanes). But others are deceptively small: spreading responsibilities more evenly, adding a side door for food handoff, repositioning a canopy.
I've seen one of those doors that drive-through workers exit through–handing the items to you more face-to-face than through a window where you both have to reach.
One might call these “low-hanging fruit.” But that term often undersells the real effort it takes to notice what's hanging in the first place.
Try This with a Recurring Delay
Choose one handoff that regularly creates waiting or rework. Observe several cycles with the employees involved, and ask what the observations miss. If you use video, explain its purpose and how it will be used. People need to know that identifying a barrier will lead to help.
Test one change, such as redistributing a task or moving supplies closer to where they are used. Check the result across multiple cycles, including busy periods. My discussion of mobile order timing and arrival signals looks at another way to study the gap between placing an order and receiving it.
Related Podcast:
A 2019 podcast with David Reid, an industrial engineer who discussed Lean and kaizen at the company:
I heard about many of these innovations (such as the drive-thru-only locations with the kitchen being above the drive-thru lanes) when David gave a keynote talk (and extended breakout session) at the 2024 Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference.
As he said, this is all a “triple win” for:
- Customer Satisfaction
- Operator Opportunity
- Business Health
Read a sample before deciding
Healthcare Kaizen explores how teams make daily improvements with the people doing the work. Read a chapter to see how these ideas apply beyond restaurants.
Hi Mark,
Very interesting read, I did not realize how much Chick-fil-A cared for their employees by offering uniforms based on the climate. What stood out to me the most was how the company balances technological innovation with deep respect for their words. Chick-fil-A’s approach of studying the actual workflow, by watching “game film” helps them identify bottlenecks and help make practical adjustments- like ensuring the Wifi reaches outdoor employees. Chick-fil-A’s commitment to continuous improvement without putting blame on anyone is what impacts efficiency and overall employee satisfaction. My question is how does “respect for people” relate to being a key pillar in lean? How does the respect for people affect the overall process of continuous improvement?
Hi Samuel – Please see this post about “respect for people” and Lean.
A comment that was emailed to me:
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This is a great article. And yes, I love waiting in these long lines for a couple of reasons, 1.) long line doesn’t equal long wait. And, we (my family and I) sometimes discuss what we are observing as we wait – employees working together, communicating, etc. 2.) the friendly staff. I worked at a McDonalds when I was 14, and I remember the frantic panic when 3 cars would pull into the drive through at once – Chick-fil-A is often 10, 15, 20 cars deep and the associates are taking orders with a smile and friendly attitude.
There was one instance where they caught an error with our order before we left the pick-up window. The associate helping us was making light conversation as we waited when I noticed a virtual metric board in the drive thru. When I asked the associate about it he got excited to share what the team was working on and what their focus was for the hour – he walked me through his gemba board and was excited about it!! I’ll never forget that.
We had a local restaurant (major restaurant chain) try the same approach – multiple people standing outside taking orders. And I give them kudos for trying. But something stood out to me. The workers were standing in Wisconsin January temps without heating elements, we came up to the window only to get a number on a post-it to park in the parking lot to wait, only to have a parking lot of waiting cars and associates walking around the parking lot trying to find the right car to deliver the order to, again in WI January temps.
Now, I’m clearly not behind the scenes, but on the outside it looked like a copy and paste attempt of Chick-fil-A. I have not see this restaurant go back to that process. A good reminder to not copy and paste, but use the simple “lean playbook” strategy in your post to determine the best improvement approach for your organization.
Sorry for the long response. Just loved this post!
Thanks Mark.