Global Learning: Building the Value Chain for McDonald’s

How does the American fast-food giant McDonald’s Corporation manage its multi-million customer base? What is the key to the company’s success? Ala Mohammad – Senior Director, Global Supply Chain & SC Relationship Partner for Japan, Middle East & Africa at McDonald’s – answered these questions and more as he shared his experience of “Building the Value Chain for McDonald’s” with our students.

Ala Mohammad – Senior Director, Global Supply Chain & SC Relationship Partner for Japan, Middle East &
Africa at McDonald’s – shares his experience of “Building the Value Chain for McDonald’s” with our students

Mr Mohammad visited SP Jain School of Global Management’s Dubai campus on July 10, 2019, as part of the Global Learning Industry Voices initiative. He had started his career in 1994 as the Director of Operations for McDonald’s Distribution Centre in Saudi Arabia and has been associated with McDonald’s for over 23 years.

He highlighted that the efficient supply chain of McDonald’s is the centrepiece for its success. Keerthi Nutakki, our Global MBA student (May 2019 intake), shares some more learnings from Mr Mohammad’s session:

Managing Customers

McDonald’s serves 70 million customers every day. How does it manage such a vast customer base? The core stratagem is to have a robust Global Supply Chain, which further has the following dedicated divisions: Food Safety & Quality Systems, Supply Chain Services, Strategic Sourcing Food, Sustainability, and Food Management & Advisory Services.

Adapting to Change

McDonald’s beef and chicken suppliers are from Australia, North America, Malaysia, and Singapore. When the company moved from frozen beef to fresh beef, it changed its distribution process by changing freezer trucks to chilled trucks by modifying the temperatures.

Optimising Operations

To resolve the challenges of high real estate prices and low available space to set up freezers, McDonald’s tied up with gas stations and the supply is delivered daily.

Being Future-Ready

As part of its Supply Chain Vision 2025, McDonald’s plans to:

Besides sharing insights into McDonald’s Supply Chain Management, Mr Mohammad also discussed the company’s long-term vision which outlines their plans for maintaining nutrition levels in its offerings, packaging and recycling, climate action, youth opportunities and more.

About the Author: Keerthi Nutakki

Keerthi Nutakki is a Global MBA student specialising in Consulting Management (May 2019 intake). Before joining SP Jain, she worked as Senior Technologist for Oracle and Cognizant. She is a technology enthusiast with 8 years of experience in Information Technology and a specialist in providing IT solutions to customers. She loves travelling and lifestyle hacks.