siliconindia | | APRIL 20199trends can indicate future demand. SCM can ensure the QSR chain's preparedness based on data analytics, which can reveal customer prefer-ences, demand on different days, and how frequently different menu items are ordered. Besides order management, stock replenishment and shipment process must be integrated like a well-oiled machine to respond to QSR needs. Traceability is another aspect that is vital in a QSR chain's success, as restaurants can respond to customer feedback on the quality of ingredients and if need be, change the vendor. SCM helps in identifying the right suppliers and weed-out others if there are quality issues. In the long run, both the supplier and the QSR chain benefit as they have better visibility about each other's requirements and plan accordingly. Once the relation-ship stabilizes and the chain is work-ing automatically, it will be a win-win for all parties. Using SCM, forecast accuracy will increase, wastage will reduce, costs will be in control, overall per-formance will improve and restaurant can focus on new introductions, ex-periment with different cuisines to help attract new customers as well. Continuous, real-time evaluation can be done besides intensive mar-ket research to plan for the longer term. SCM is continuously evolving with the use of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This will lend itself to bet-ter forecasting and take-out guessti-mates, improve real-time demand & inventory management and overall better accuracy. QSR chains work with multiple partners in diverse locations. Sourc-ing of raw material is key to their suc-cess. Today's technology tools help achieve that goal and it is an invest-ment that will definitely lead to posi-tive payoffs. In fact the overall goal of SCM is to result in better customer experience, which translates into im-proved profits for QSR chains. It is impossible to imagine building large-scale modern restaurant chains with-out the effective use of a smart SCM. A solid backend driven with deep analytics will add to a QSR's knowl-edge base, eliminate wastages, help restaurants achieve improved profit-ability and scale their businesses. Anurag Mehrotra
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