P&SC LIVE Q&A: Howard Huang, CSCO at Yum China

Having obtained a bachelor’s degree in food quarantine and inspection from Anhui Agricultural University, Howard Huang initially joined Yum Restaurants China back in 1995. 

Over the years he progressed through the ranks in impressive fashion to become Chief Supply Chain Officer at Yum China, a role he assumed in November 2021.

An experienced executive, Howard previously served as General Manager of the Nanjing and Wuxi markets at KFC and Vice President, Pizza Hut Regional Operations.

Following his keynote address at Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE London, which explored strategies behind building an agile and resilient supply chain, Howard spoke to Supply Chain Digital about his bid to utilise innovation and adaptability to ensure Yum China's long-term supply chain success.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role

I'm Howard Huang and I’m CSCO at Yum China. Yum China is China’s largest restaurant company by system sales, with more than 15,000 stores in our network.

We are targeting to open 20,000 stores by 2026. We operate some of the well-known western food restaurants brands, KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and also the Chinese dining brands Little Sheep and Huang Ji Huang, across more than 2,000 cities and towns in China. 

I've held various management positions at KFC, later becoming a Market General Manager, then moved over to Pizza Hut as VP of Operations. I became Chief Supply Chain Officer in 2021. 

In my role, I oversee our overall supply chain strategy, including food safety, procurement, food innovation, logistics, supply chain investment and sustainability and Central Kitchen.

What inspired you to enter the supply chain space and how has your perspective evolved over time?

The special thing about Yum China’s supply chain is that it is very much related to agriculture, given the amount of agricultural products we procure every year, in poultry, beef and others.

My university degree was actually in agriculture. So my academic background and interests are naturally aligned. 

Additionally, when I was working on the operational side for the two brands, KFC and Pizza Hut, I was already deeply involved in supply chain management at Yum China.

From brands’ perspective, I worked hand-in-hand with the supply chain team to build and develop our infrastructure from ground up. And what do brands need the most? High efficiency.

We see our brand teams as our internal customers. Our brands rely on each function of the supply chain teams to support them. Why they like us even more is that we help them in achieving synergies with turnkey supply chain solutions.

So, for us, our goal is to continue providing the most efficient and cost-effective supply chain solutions, strive to exceed our internal customers’ expectations and try to be the best in the industry.

I often hold the view that supply chain is much more than just a cost-centre, as we work with both internal customers and external partners. I ask my team always keep a ‘profit centre’ mindset in each aspect of our operations.

This is the only way to compete and continue to win in this highly dynamic and complex market. 

What innovations or trends in the procurement and supply chain space are you most excited about?

Managing our procurement and supply chains with a ‘profit centre’ mindset. A ‘profit centre’ mindset means a laser focus on efficiency in every part of our workflow.

We're already doing that. For example, we use a lot of AI and automation in logistics, which really dries up the efficiencies in an unprecedented manner. 

We are working on a three-in-one supply model, where bun-making, fresh produce preparation and logistics centres are all located in one place. This will help us save a lot of inbound cost. 

We'll also explore the industry park model where the key leading suppliers set up their facilities alongside our logistics centres. In this model, we will not only lower the inbound transport cost, but also lower the inventory level.

And, in product development, we have developed a mechanism to promote healthy competition among teams. For each product concept, two or more teams might be working on it simultaneously.

Each team will consist of members from all parts of the workflow, including marketing, food innovation and procurement.

Products from all teams will be launched for testing, but ultimately there will be only one winner, based on the testing result, such as consumer preference, popularity or total product sales. 

Check out the latest edition of Supply Chain Magazine and sign up to our global conference series – Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE 2024. 

Supply Chain Digital is a BizClik brand.