Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 36


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why do you not put what you have particularly
     3        in mind, because if you have a specific point in mind, put
     4        it, otherwise I just think you are enquiring for more
     5        information on his statement which may or may not be
     6        relevant to a point in issue in the case.  It helps me if
     7        I know that it is directed at a point in the case and what
     8        it is.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL (To the witness):  For example, to give an extra
    11        margin of safety, you could cook the burgers for longer,
    12        could you not?
    13        A.  Yes.
    14
    15   Q.   But when the Quality Assurance department comes to you and
    16        says:  "Well, what is your view of this?" do you say:
    17         "Yes, well, we could do it longer but if we do it that
    18        much longer then that could interrupt the flow of serving
    19        customers" and things like that?
    20        A.  Not really.  We would have evidence on the current cook
    21        time that we are using which has been based on test and
    22        facts to show that that works.  If there was a proposal, it
    23        would normally be a new piece of equipment came along, so
    24        we change the type of grill, we would test whether that
    25        worked or not.
    26
    27        The implications that we would take into account if they
    28        were to suggest to me to extend the cooking time -- if we
    29        are talking about meat, well, if we cooked it for another
    30        30 seconds, just to be sure, then the quality of the
    31        product would deteriorate.  It also might burn the crew
    32        members' fingers when they are taking it, you know, from
    33        the grill.  With any change there is always
    34        some consequence.  It would be incident specific as to what
    35        we would consider.
    36
    37   Q.   Does the crew now have equipment to take the burgers off
    38        the grill?
    39        A.  They do, yes.
    40
    41   Q.   They do?
    42        A.  You take the burger on the spatula and then you have to
    43        take it off which you have to touch.
    44
    45   Q.   You have to do it with your hand?
    46        A.  You have to touch it with your hand, yes.
    47
    48   Q.   But say something more moderate like an extra 10 seconds,
    49        or something like that, where it would not burn, would you
    50        still make an input into that decision in terms of the 
    51        effect that that would have on the efficiency of the 
    52        operation? 
    53        A.  I think in a specific instance increasing it by 10
    54        seconds would have no impact on the efficiency of the
    55        operation.  I say that because when we change from our
    56        original flat grills to clamshell grills, the cooking time
    57        was reduced dramatically.  It was reduced from 120 seconds,
    58        I believe, for a piece of regular meat down to around about
    59        40 or 44 which we use now.  So, to add another 10 seconds
    60        on there would not make much difference to the efficiency

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