LOS ANGELES - McDonald's Corp. may soon offer its breakfast menu all day long as a new restaurant layout will make it easier to prepare a wide variety of foods at once, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Bank of America 36th Annual Investment Conference in San Francisco, McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said the company was implementing a new restaurant operating system that would finally make selling breakfast all day possible.

"It's not compatible with our current operating system," Skinner said about offering its breakfast menu all day. "But with this system, that could be possible."

The so-called flexible operating platform will make McDonald's food preparation processes more transparent to customers and "offer more variety with greater ease," Skinner said.

Breakfast sales have been a key part of McDonald's three-year turnaround thanks in part to products like McGriddles sandwiches and a new, stronger coffee blend. But the restaurants stop serving breakfast late in the morning to switch over to burgers and other items for lunch and dinner.

The breakfast period has been the "strongest performer" among McDonald's three major meal segments in the last two to three years and remains "extremely strong," Chief Financial Officer Matthew Paull said during the presentation.

McDonald's shares edged up 21 cents, or 0.56 percent, to $37.79 early Wednesday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.