On November 27th, at the 2nd China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo, McDonald's China joined hands with supply chain partners to jointly release new achievements in the smart supply chain with the "one box, one code" project as the core.
Shi Yun, Chief Supply Chain Officer of McDonald's China, stated on site that the "one box, one code" technology developed by McDonald's China in collaboration with its supplier partners has been deployed in upstream factories, logistics centers, restaurants, and other locations, and has completed full product and full chain batch verification in McDonald's restaurants in pilot markets. The project was initiated by McDonald's China, combined with advanced IoT technology provided by Cainiao, and jointly promoted with suppliers such as Shunxinhui, Binbao, Zidan, Tyson, Cargill, Sunac, and McKinsey. Next, the project will enter the national deployment phase and is expected to connect to more than 100 supplier factories, accelerating the replication and promotion within McDonald's China supply chain system
It is reported that as the first large-scale digital practice of "one box, one code" in the domestic catering industry, McDonald's China has "assigned codes" to packaging through RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and other IoT technologies, giving products their own "digital identity cards". This enhances the digital collaboration and fine management capabilities of the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. For example, the efficiency of restaurant receiving and inventory can be improved by more than 30%, and inventory information can be visualized throughout the entire chain, empowering production and logistics processes to achieve more agile demand and supply planning and management. The full chain visualization and traceability of product data provide technological support for food safety and quality.
McDonald's China and its suppliers are driven by the 'three legged stool culture' to achieve long-term win-win development and build a smart supply chain for the future, which has become our consensus. 'One box, one code' has enabled us to manage our products from batch level to every box level, achieving full traceability of product information throughout the entire chain, "said Shi Yun.
Shi Yun also stated that "one box, one code" is the "golden key" in the smart supply chain. But the application of this technology in the catering industry requires breaking through a series of bottlenecks. The traditional catering industry has a long supply chain, complex categories, and many purely manual operation links. Most information relies on manual collection, and coupled with the lack of connectivity between the upstream and downstream systems of the supply chain, the entire chain information is in an isolated state. Secondly, the catering supply chain offers a diverse range of products, some of which are in liquid form while others are packaged in metal. This will significantly affect the accuracy of RFID identification.
We have been exploring the application of the latest RFID technology in the catering industry with our partners since 2022. After more than two years of exploration, the project team has completed the software, hardware, and process reengineering of the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. At the same time, end-to-end digital systems and IoT facilities have been deployed at core nodes, further improving the digitalization level of the supply chain and significantly optimizing and enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of product management, "said Shi Yun.
It is worth mentioning that McDonald's China's supply chain localization level is also continuously improving. In July 2024, McDonald's China, along with its four major suppliers Binbao, Shunxinhui, Tyson, and Zidan, announced the official launch of the McDonald's China Supply Chain (Hubei) Smart Industrial Park. The park is jointly invested by McDonald's China and its four major suppliers with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan, making it the first cluster industrial park in China to jointly invest in the Western style fast food industry chain. The expected annual output value is nearly 1.5 billion yuan, and the planned production capacity includes 34000 tons of meat products, 270 million breads, 30 million pastries, and 2 billion packaging products.
It is reported that this year, McDonald's China made its debut at the China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo. The McDonald's booth exhibition covers an area of nearly 200 square meters, focusing on smart supply chain and green agriculture. The exhibition content covers concepts and practices in the fields of smart supply chain, green agriculture, natural ingredients, food safety and quality. McDonald's China launches its green agriculture cultural and creative "Wheat Farm Calendar" at the exhibition site.