Dairy Reporter requested Dr Yun about Yili’s innovation technique and digitalization observe.
What’s Yili’s innovation technique?
Dedicated to the thought of “no innovation, no future,” Yili has been upholding and selling its innovation technique, focusing carefully on the important thing R&D fields within the worldwide dairy trade, integrating R&D assets at residence and overseas, laying out a worldwide innovation community overlaying the world’s main R&D establishments from a worldwide perspective, and facilitating innovation cooperation throughout the entire industrial chain.
Innovation results in a wholesome future, which isn’t solely the path of the trade, but in addition the fixed observe that Yili has been sticking to. Through the years, following a “consumer-centric” philosophy, Yili has produced its innovation technique: empowering entire chain innovation by way of digital transformation, constructing an innovation system by way of ‘twin integration’, and driving product innovation with technological R&D, which have been enhancing the innovation ecosphere and actively advancing the conclusion of the “World Integrally Sharing Well being (WISH)” dream.
Contemplating innovation because the core kinetic vitality for progress has pushed Yili’s regular growth.
Might you share some examples of Yili’s digital transformation for the complete provide chain – from the farm to packaged milk/dairy merchandise?
As rising applied sciences make progress, digital transformation has develop into an vital a part of enterprise technique for enterprises. As an trade chief, Yili has been quickly training its digital transformation technique and established an impartial empowerment division for that matter – the Digitalization Heart – to effectively promote the deep integration of AI with the true financial system, deepen the appliance of AI within the higher, center and decrease reaches of the economic chain, and allow the high-quality growth of the dairy trade.
Within the higher sector of the economic chain, Yili has launched video surveillance AI recognition techniques into its pastures, the place applied sciences like picture recognition and joint recognition, along with AI algorithms, are used to research if farm employees feeding cows within the manufacturing course of is compliant in actual time. Clever and visualized operations additionally enable Yili to comprehensively improve the accuracy and breadth of identification throughout the milk high quality administration course of.
As well as, Yili has additionally pioneered the appliance of AI in pastures, as an example, utilizing AI to research the well being, train, eating regimen, and milk manufacturing knowledge within the cows’ ear tags earlier than drawing up exact and nutritionally-balanced feeding formulations, thus forming a extra scientific and environment friendly farming and administration mannequin that ensures each drop of milk is of top of the range.
Within the center sector, Yili has actively constructed “good factories” to digitalize the provision chain, so the complete operation might be extra environment friendly. In Yili’s good factories, manufacturing effectivity is extraordinary, due to the seamless coordination amongst automated manufacturing traces, clever packing robots, palletizing robots, and wrapping robots. As an example, palletizing robots, that are clever and outfitted with an auto-sensing, identification system, can concurrently management a number of manufacturing traces. In warehouses, Yili adopts an clever warehouse administration system to mechanically determine incoming merchandise and document gadgets, date of manufacturing, and warehousing time, thus making warehousing successfully correct.
Within the decrease sector, Yili gives an end-to-end massive data-based intelligence perception platform, to study demand, gather suggestions, enhance the standard of services and products, and serve prospects. To raised take heed to customers, Yili has established a giant knowledge radar, which captures new client wants and developments by way of Pure Language Processing (NIP), which predicts product flavors and dietary features which may be fashionable sooner or later, and follows suggestions from totally different individuals in numerous areas in actual time, thereby serving to us optimize product and repair high quality.
Are you able to give me an instance of how digitalization applies to Yili’s dairy merchandise?
With the intention to create a really future-oriented digital group, Yili has utilized digital applied sciences in all procedures, together with breeding, transportation, manufacturing, circulation, and consumption, to empower the entire industrial chain and speed up its progress towards its imaginative and prescient – “Be probably the most trusted world wholesome meals supplier.”
Yili continues to empower revolutionary merchandise with digital expertise, for instance, the NOC, a Yili product inflicting a web based sensation. It is an ice cream extremely wanted on-line. An clever semantic evaluation based mostly on public opinion knowledge signifies that customers talk about much more in regards to the “crust” of ice cream, and the “carrot” taste is extremely rated. On this case, we marketed a “smooth crust,” optimized the manufacturing and distribution of the carrot taste, and elevated gross sales. On account of this new expertise, which customers get pleasure from, the ice cream received the Finest Ice Cream Award on the 2020 World Dairy Innovation Awards.
The place does most of Yili’s R&D happen? Are there every other new merchandise or applied sciences Yili has developed not too long ago on account of this R&D?
On the one hand, we’re exploring in depth the innovation mannequin converging world intelligence and strengthening world intelligence integration. Yili established and upgraded its European Innovation Heart in Holland; constructed its Innovation Heart Oceania, collaborated with Lincoln College in New Zealand; and performed revolutionary cooperation regionally in Japan, Indonesia, and different areas. Yili can higher serve world customers by pooling world intelligence to construct a worldwide knowledge chain and higher serve prospects all around the world.
Alternatively, we’re growing the development of world manufacturing and processing bases to assemble the perfect world assets. In New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and different areas, Yili has arrange abroad manufacturing bases, together with ODL, Westland, and Chomthana, in addition to the Yili Indonesia manufacturing unit, which is below building.
Right this moment, Yili’s companions are distributed in 33 international locations throughout 5 continents. Yili is ready to pool optimized assets throughout the globe and may present higher-quality services and products for world customers. As of the tip of 2020, Yili’s whole variety of world patent purposes and whole invention purposes ranked third among the many high 10 dairy corporations throughout the globe.
Pushed by technological R&D, Yili is energetic in making revolutionary breakthroughs to offer customers with new experiences. In 2020 alone, Yili launched a number of new merchandise, together with Ambrosial cheese bubble yogurt, Satine contemporary milk, Changqing Fiber low-temperature yogurt, QQstar kids-formula milk powder, Yili XinHuo Anti-diabetes method milk powder, Yili drinkable kids’s cheese, Miaozhi bar for adults, Yiran milk mineral glowing water, and “Plant Chosen” excessive protein plant-based milk, which contributed to 16% of the gross sales income of recent merchandise.
One other instance, Jinlingguan Ruihu Milk Powder is a product arising from New Zealand’s gold milk supply and China’s analysis findings on breast milk. It’s produced within the Yili Oceania Manufacturing Base. Ruihu Milk Powder is produced from high-quality milk sources in New Zealand; technologically, Jinlingguan is a results of 19 years of adherence to Chinese language breast milk analysis, which covers greater than 94.1% of China’s inhabitants, generates hundreds of thousands of breast milk knowledge on greater than 1,700 totally different constituents, develops Chinese language patented formulations corresponding to α+β protein mixture and nucleotides, and creates the primary breast milk database in China. Jinlingguan has been properly acknowledged because it appeared in the marketplace.
