The fast food industry is facing a critical period of transformation, with digital technology empowering and pressing the “fast forward button”

With the increasing income of Chinese people and the increasing frequency of dining out, the catering industry is flourishing and the scale of catering revenue continues to expand. Due to the fast-paced lifestyle and the increasing number of single people, the fast food industry has grown rapidly in recent years. Today, with the continuous progress of technology, digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and 5G have been applied in various industries and fields such as catering. Of course, the fast food industry is no exception.

Food is the top priority for the people, and the demand for food has shaped the trillion dollar market size of China's catering industry. In addition, with the improvement of people's consumption level, the frequency of dining out has increased, and the catering industry is maintaining a stable growth trend. According to relevant statistical data, the market size of China's catering industry was approximately 4.7 trillion yuan in 2019, with a turnover of over 655.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%. It is expected that the market size of China's catering industry will exceed 6 trillion yuan in 2022.

However, in recent years, in terms of enterprise management, standardization, scaling, and industrialization have led to weak economies of scale. At the same time, Chinese cuisine is a labor-intensive industry with low added value, difficult personnel management, high talent turnover rate, thin net profits for catering enterprises, and high costs due to high rent, manpower, raw materials, and other expenses. Therefore, in recent years, the growth rate of the number of Chinese catering chain stores has been increasing year by year, and the process of Chinese catering chain is accelerating.

Nowadays, the Chinese catering industry has initially formed a new development pattern characterized by diversified sub sectors, distinctive brand construction, and chain operation of catering. It is transforming from traditional labor-intensive industries to modern industrial production. With the post-80s and post-90s generation becoming the main consumers, and the increasing number of single people living alone and fast-paced lifestyles, fast food has become a sub category of the catering industry, with a very wide and rapidly growing catering industry.

According to relevant data statistics, in 2019, the total operating revenue of China's top 50 fast food enterprises exceeded 150 billion yuan, with nearly 40000 stores, accounting for nearly 49% of the national catering industry. Fast food's position in the overall catering industry is becoming increasingly strong. Faced with the trend of market development, many enterprises have entered the fast food industry, and large restaurants have also ventured into small restaurants, joining the fast food industry and intensifying market competition.

In recent years, with the rapid development and expansion of new generation technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, the traditional thinking of the catering industry is no longer the way to operate, and the fast food industry is also in a critical period of transformation and upgrading. Especially with the rapid development of domestic 5G technology, more and more 5G applications are beginning to land, and the country is also vigorously promoting the layout and promotion of the 5G industry. At present, there have been projects in the fast food industry that are beginning to undergo digital transformation through 5G technology.

It is reported that the signing ceremony for the 5G digital unmanned fast food factory project was recently held in Chongqing. The author understands that after the completion of this project, it will become a very large central food factory intelligent production base that integrates processing and distribution in Chongqing and even the southwestern region.

More noteworthy is that the project is mainly based on the current generation of advanced technology, empowered by digital technology, utilizing new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing to comprehensively improve traditional fast food production equipment, digitize food production processes, collect distribution details through big data, accurately optimize distribution paths, and assist cold chain logistics technology to quickly deliver products to market terminals, It will greatly improve the safety production level and quality control ability of the factory.

With the rapid development of Internet information technology, the era of big data has arrived. The integration and development of big data, Internet of Things, 5G and other technologies with the fast food industry can effectively promote the transformation of the traditional catering industry towards data. To this end, enterprises have adopted 5G technology for digital transformation, which not only improves the level of food safety production and quality control capabilities, but also reduces operating costs and improves efficiency. To a certain extent, it has also pressed the "fast forward key" for the digital transformation of fast food.

Prev: The Art of Paper and the Scientific Instruments of Paper Technology and the Paper Around Us