By Julie Jargon 

Steve Easterbrook has made several big announcements in his first two months as chief executive of McDonald's Corp. But on Wednesday he said the success of his plan to revive the fast-food giant will hinge on many small things--like how its restaurants cook burgers and buns.

Offering new details of the turnaround at an investor conference in New York, Mr. Easterbrook and Chief Administrative Officer Pete Bensen said McDonald's is toasting its buns longer and changing the way it sears its beef so that its hamburger patties are juicier. Restaurant operators also will build more side-by-side drive-through lanes to speed up service, and they will train employees to increase the accuracy of orders.

But investors will have to wait until the end of each quarter to determine whether those changes are making an impact, as McDonald's also said Wednesday that it plans to stop disclosing monthly sales figures beginning July 1.

The company has been struggling in its critical U.S. market, where Mr. Easterbrook said it has failed to keep pace with shifting consumer tastes. He has rolled out several major initiatives, including structural changes aimed at reorganizing the business along geographic lines, selling more company-owned restaurants to franchisees and eliminating management layers.

Mr. Bensen said at Wednesday's conference that customers increasingly expect higher-quality food, but McDonald's can't stray too far from its roots, since 40% of sales come from such core menu items as Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.

Still, he added, McDonald's can improve the quality of food for which it is known. Mr. Bensen said the milk in its children's Happy Meals will be free of artificial growth hormones starting this summer. That follows other moves to appeal to consumers seeking options perceived as healthier. In March, McDonald's said it would stop selling chicken in the U.S. made from birds raised with antibiotics that are important to human health.

"Some of the challenges we've had in the U.S. have been somewhat self-inflicted," Mr. Easterbrook said, explaining that the company must provide better value offerings and a simpler menu.

The Oak Brook, Ill., company plans to offer a new value promotion this summer, but didn't disclose details. The company also plans to launch a mobile app later this year, and the data McDonald's will be able to collect from it will help the company better understand its customers, Mr. Easterbrook said.

Some analysts have speculated about whether McDonald's should spin off its vast real-estate holdings into a real-estate investment trust, or REIT.

"It is something we continually look at," Mr. Bensen said during the conference, adding that "this would be a complete structural redo of the business model."

Mr. Bensen said tax laws wouldn't allow the company's world-wide properties to be structured in a REIT.

"There's no such thing as a global REIT," he said, explaining that such a possibility would only apply to the U.S. market.

Write to Julie Jargon at julie.jargon@wsj.com

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