Here's how the drive-thru works: A pad near the menu board senses if a car pulls up and alerts the server's headset. A timer starts. The server takes the order via headset and punches it into the POS, which relays it to the team on the hot line, who adds that order to the normal flow of customers.

From there, those to-go containers are picked up, turned around, and bagged at a little station just behind the hot line. The ticket is returned to the bag so drive-thru server can eyeball it against the physical order.

As long as everything moves smoothly, there are no issues. The biggest challenge comes when hot line runs out of items, and the drive-thru has to send cars to wait in the parking lot. Then the whole process slows down, because the workers have to figure out which car gets which order and run it out there. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep drive-thru moving, because if not it gums up the hot line with ticketed orders, drives down their timing totals for everyone for the day, and means more hands doing more manual stuff out of the normal flow of customer orders.