The One Thing I Wish I Had When I Worked on McDonalds Supply Chain
A few weeks ago, I published an article on “The 5 Things I Learned in McDonald´s Supply Chain”.
Among several reactions, the one that struck a nerve was: “Is the McDonald´s Supply Chain really that perfect? What are some of their challenges?”
As I mentioned on the article, I had the privilege of working for McDonald's in several capacities:
Heading the Brazilian logistics services provider while the blueprint for the local Supply Chain was “under construction”
As a Regional Director for Northeast Brazil restaurant operations
As an “internal consultant” for the Latin American Supply Chain team and
Leading Latin America Business Development for a global Supply Chain Services provider
I still believe McDonald´s Supply Chain is in great part responsible for the Company´s continued success, but I must admit that the lack of end-to-end visibility is probably the main challenge they face. No Supply Network can operate optimally without knowing:
Where their goods are
Where their goods have been
Where their goods need to be
How and when their goods will get there
How their goods were treated along the way
In today’s world, this information must be gathered in real time so that insights can be generated and acted upon sooner than later.
Despite the complexity of McDonald's supply network and their excellent execution, they still rely heavily on manual labor-intensive manual tasks which can be time-consuming. Let´s take a look at what real time end-to-end visibility could mean for the different Supply Chain participants and stakeholders:
Distributors: among other things it is a Distributor´s job to track – one step forward and one step back – the flow of goods and trace them back whenever the Supply Chain teams need, such as in a recall situation. Real time end-to-end visibility would greatly simplify and expedite that function, creating administrative efficiencies and enabling much faster response time to potential - or real - crises. Additionally, real time exception alerts would improve and simplify quality inspections, and IA-based intelligence would significantly improve response time and better demand forecasting, allowing inventory reduction with no service levels impact
Restaurant Operations: from the Restaurant Operations point of view direct connection of demand signals to the Supply Chain would enable better ordering patterns and automated replenishment programs, releasing precious management time from administrative tasks
Suppliers: for the Supplier community direct access to demand signals would significantly improve production, raw material purchasing and inventory management as well as recalls management, increase efficiency and help firms fulfill their compliance needs
Supply Chain Teams: end-to-end brand critical information at their fingertips would provide them with reassurance about the products they serve as well as insights and suggestions on end-to-end process improvements
Any large QSR company and all stakeholders in its supply chain would greatly benefit from an end-to-end traceability solution. The highest value would be achieved with a solution that can be integrated with the company’s ERP system, such as our Wide Angle Visibility system. To provide Wide Angle Visibility, we collect, connect and secure all retrievable data into the Nazar cloud, and integrate Smart technology with supply chain intelligence to help you protect your brand. Our solution will provide continuous insights, ensure safety and help firms be compliant with constantly evolving local and international regulations.