DC Velocity - April 2013

QHow does the focus on the customer come into all of this? AWe absolutely know that one of the things our cus- tomers appreciate most about McDonald’s is that they get a great experience at a great value for their money, and that they can always depend on McDonald’s, not just for consistent quality and taste, but to have the product there when they ask for it. That takes a lot of work. It requires years and years of working closely with our supplier partners to make sure we have the right forecasting systems in place. We continue to work very closely with several suppliers around those types of projections.

One of the things we are also working toward is a lot more automation. We envision making much better use of technology so that the restaurant-level information is being fed to our key suppliers, which will allow them to use actual consumption data to get a better handle on demand. At the opposite end, the benefit to the restaurants is that managers don’t have to spend time counting inventory and projecting usage rates, which frees them to concentrate on running their operations.

QHow important a role have enabling technologies played in your continuing ability to achieve the corporation’s supply chain goals and objectives?

to meet
your diverse
requirements…

providing you with options…

On budget…

AThat is one of our largest investments of time and capital. We have suppliers who have really invested time and energy and sweat equity in building these programs in conjunction with us. It brings to mind a recent example. Last year, when the U.S. ran the McRib promotion, the improvement by using this new technology to forecast usage was so impressive that there was barely any stock left over at the end of the promotion.

QWhich of your personal skill sets do you draw on most heavily in your day-to-day job? AI’ve been told by many people that my strength is my people skills and practices. I am blessed to be surrounded by extremely smart, capable, intelligent, experienced professionals who build great teams around themselves. We all know that in business, any business, it is all about the people at the end of the day.

QWhat advice would you offer someone considering a career in logistics and supply chain management? AI would say whether it is supply chain or any other industry, profession, ordiscipline, lookfor whatyoulove to do. As the old Chinese saying goes, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” But also realize that you are responsible for your own success. Don’t leave it to others. ;

And on time, all the time.

Not a weak link in the chain

Meet some of the thousands
of supply chain professionals
at UTi with the experience and
professionalism to handle any
and all of your North America
distribution. Our single-source
solutions enable you to deliver
to your customers while we deliver
savings to your bottom line and
the assurance that on our team,
there’s never a weak link.