A cow living in a "digital pasture" will wear an "electronic ear tag" from birth, and its birth, growth and other information will be recorded in real time; Breeders can keep abreast of the cow's condition and take care of them efficiently through a mobile phone; When the cow enters the milking parlor, the cow's identity is scanned by a special instrument to accurately monitor the milk quality; Enter the "digital factory", and the 24-hour online milk powder production "housekeeper" realizes the quality control of the whole industry chain; In major shopping malls or counters of mother and child stores, consumers can trace the source with one click, and enterprises can capture and accurately predict market demand in a timely manner to achieve flexible production......
This phenomenon is not uncommon in China's dairy enterprises. Behind a drop of "digital milk" is the evolutionary journey from "grassland cow" to "digital cow", and it is also the road to digital and intelligent upgrading of Chinese dairy enterprises. Now, with the in-depth development of a new round of industrial transformation, China's leading dairy enterprises are accelerating the digital transformation of the whole region, and with the empowerment of artificial intelligence technology, they are exploring more innovative application scenarios and business models, so as to promote China's dairy industry to move towards "new" and "quality".
Digital intelligence strategy engraved in the genes
Starting from a 53-square-meter rental house to being among the top eight in the global dairy industry, Mengniu has achieved leapfrog development from "Chinese cattle" to "world cattle" in the past 25 years. In the infant formula market, Feihe has set the No. 1 sales volume in China for five consecutive years and the No. 1 sales volume in the world for three consecutive years...... This is a commendable report card handed over by China's leading dairy enterprises.
Exploring the password for the rapid development of these enterprises can find that "digitalization" has become one of the key words.
"The digital transformation of Chinese dairy enterprises is an inevitable choice for the entire industry to adapt to the market demand in the new era and enhance its competitiveness. Transformation is not only a process of improving the efficiency and capability of enterprises, but also an important opportunity for enterprises to reconstruct their business models. The relevant person in charge of Mengniu Group told reporters.
As early as 2002, Mengniu embarked on a digital strategy. In 2021, Mengniu incorporated digital intelligence into one of the five dimensions of the Group's "FIRST Strategy". Its digital intelligence strategy is divided into three stages: the 1.0 strategy "The Digital Journey of One Drop of Milk", where each cup of Mengniu milk condenses up to 170 trillion pieces of data to achieve full-link digitalization with products as the core; The 2.0 strategy is "personalized services based on the same consumer" and 220 million "homo recognition" to achieve consumer-centered global digital intelligence; The 3.0 strategy of "AI-driven double flywheels" promotes a comprehensive intelligent upgrade with AI capabilities as the core.
According to the relevant person in charge of Mengniu Group, Mengniu has also built the world's first dairy full intelligent chemical plant - Mengniu Ningxia Factory, the first dairy process system to cover all digital intelligence, and can achieve "three hundred" after full operation, that is, 100 people create an annual output of 1 million tons and an annual output value of 10 billion yuan.
Coincidentally. As one of the earliest dairy enterprises in China to start digital transformation, Feihe began to deploy the factory-side information system in 2010, and began to promote comprehensive digital transformation in 2018, establishing a "3+2+2" strategic layout, that is, relying on three IT projects such as intelligent manufacturing, ERP system construction, and smart office, and with the unified support of the two middle platforms of data and business, to support the realization of the two core business goals of new retail and smart supply chain.
At present, Feihe Group has 11 ranches and raises more than 100,000 cattle. The digitalization of the farm covers the whole process of breeding, calf, feeding, veterinary, milking and so on. Feihe also extends digital technology to upstream pasture milk sources and downstream warehousing and distribution, realizing the whole chain of intelligence from milk source to production to warehousing and distribution. "Digital transformation not only meets the urgent needs of business in the current fierce competitive environment, but also provides the foundation for new challenges and changes in future business models." The relevant person in charge of Feihe Dairy told reporters.
Continue to deepen the new retail channel
With the vigorous development of the digital economy, online consumer behavior and digital retail have become prominent features of the consumer field. Many leading dairy companies adhere to omni-channel expansion and construction, not only maintaining the existing advantages of their brands in offline channels, but also conforming to the trend of channel change and deepening new retail.
According to the relevant person in charge of Mengniu Group, Mengniu continues to promote the reform of RTM channels, while consolidating the advantages of in-depth distribution of offline traditional channels, actively exploring new online retail channels, and achieving effective reach to consumers and promoting business growth through new scenarios and new channels. For example, in the field of ambient liquid milk, Mengniu's new retail membership has grown steadily, with a total of more than 74 million people. Mengniu has also used digital tools to deepen the sinking market, covering more than 26,000 townships and more than 800,000 township outlets by the end of 2023.
"In recent years, Feihe's online business has shown double-digit growth. Through digital means, we help dealers better understand the terminal sales situation, so as to do a good job in fulfillment and customer service. The relevant person in charge of Feihe Dairy said.
With the awakening of consumers' awareness of nutrition and health, the demand is becoming more and more segmented, and how to better understand consumers and provide them with more accurate products and services has become the top priority of enterprises.
To this end, Mengniu has built a marketing middle platform, using the underlying graph model and large model capabilities to identify public and private domain consumers, and stitching together the consumer behavior data originally scattered in different channels, which not only realizes the "fan-person identification" of 220 million consumers, but also builds a global consumer knowledge graph based on one ID, produces 360° consumer feature tags, realizes more accurate consumer insights, and provides decision-making basis for product iteration and upgrading, new product research and development, and market strategy.
"Feihe's core business is infant formula, and its customer base and business characteristics determine that it needs to interact more with end consumers. Through digital user operations, consumers can be provided with a more personalized service experience. The relevant person in charge of Feihe Dairy said that the WeChat ecology is one of the best platforms and tools to serve consumers, and Feihe serves consumers through official accounts and enterprise micro-accounts, so that they can have a better consumption experience.
For example, in response to the parenting pain points of many families, combined with the advice of professional pediatricians, the Feihe R&D team provides parenting knowledge about babies at different stages and periods on the user service platform represented by WeChat, expert online communication and Q&A, and personal services of nutrition consultants. Feihe has the "Star Mother" official account as the core user pool, and as of mid-2024, the number of members of "Star Mother" will exceed 70 million.
AI empowers digital and intelligent upgrades
It is worth noting that in the wave of the digital era, AI technology represented by large models is empowering Chinese dairy enterprises to continuously upgrade their digital intelligence.
According to the relevant person in charge of Mengniu Group, Mengniu observed the development trend of AIGC technology at home and abroad in the second half of 2022, and the digital intelligence team conducted a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the general large model technology and its various capabilities.
Since then, Mengniu has done three things: first, it has upgraded its technical base and loaded two core engines, the "enterprise brain" and the AI-friendly "knowledge bank", which have the linkage of large and small models, the ability to connect AI single points and intelligent orchestration business interfaces, on the "AI infrastructure" with multi-model scheduling capabilities and security assurance capabilities; Secondly, it solves problems in in-depth scenarios, classifies various scenarios in the enterprise according to business value and capability characteristics, and explores and practices through external cooperation or independent research and development. Finally, through the construction of a talent echelon of "ten, hundred, and thousand", AI capabilities will be armed to all employees.
At present, the application of AI technology is in full bloom in various scenarios in Mengniu. In the supply chain domain, the self-developed AIOT platform is applied to real-time monitoring, production process management, automated scheduling, cost statistical analysis, quality management, smart laboratory and other scenarios of the factory, achieving a comprehensive annual production cost saving of more than 2 million yuan per factory. In the channel domain, the terminal store activity agent provides core strategy capabilities to store owners in the form of a combination of large and small models. In the marketing domain, the advertising agent realizes the closed-loop delivery business, outputs users, media and delivery strategies based on product feature analysis, and returns data, and the delivery response rate is increased by 12% compared with the traditional manual delivery method. In the consumer domain, the "WoW Health" platform based on MENGNIU.GPT, the industry's first nutrition and health field model, provides personalized, long-term, and multi-member companion health services for millions of users.
In the world's advanced dust-free intelligent milk powder production line and laboratory, Feihe pioneered the application of "online near-infrared" equipment, which can scan more than 10 indicators in milk powder more than 20 times in one second, and output the test results within 3 to 5 seconds to achieve "second-level monitoring". Recently, Feihe has launched the "Thousand Eyes System", which is the first time in the world to creatively realize millisecond-level online monitoring of the whole process of milk powder production, making the product fresher, more uniform and safer. "The explosion of artificial intelligence technology has profoundly affected the dairy industry. Through the application of digital intelligence technology, enterprises can achieve the deep integration of online and offline services, and provide consumers with a richer and more convenient shopping experience. In the future, Feihe will make full use of the capabilities of large models to provide consumers with more accurate products and nutritional suggestions. The relevant person in charge of Feihe Dairy said.
Looking to the future, many leading dairy companies also said that the global digital transformation will play a key role in the high-quality development of the dairy industry.
"Compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States, China's dairy market still has a lot of room for improvement." The relevant person in charge of Feihe Dairy said that in the future, on the one hand, Feihe will develop high-quality nutritional products from infant milk powder to children's milk powder, adult nutrition, and health food, and on the other hand, further build digital and intelligent system capabilities to better serve the more accurate nutritional needs of consumers at all stages.
The relevant person in charge of Mengniu Group said that Mengniu has been committed to the practice and innovation of digital intelligence. Embracing digital intelligence not only improves Mengniu's own operational efficiency and market competitiveness, but also provides valuable experience and models for the transformation and upgrading of the entire dairy industry. In the future, Mengniu will continue to deepen its digital and intelligent transformation, explore more innovative application scenarios and business models, and contribute to the high-quality development of the dairy industry.
丨Source: Economic Information Daily reporter Ban Juanjuan
丨Editor of this issue: Dong Xianhe
丨School reading: Dong Xianhe
丨Producer: Zhang Yao Feng Bin
丨Director: Zhao Min
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