Song Shiqiang’s brief talk about standardization of catering industry

Hello,  everyone! I’m Song Shiqiang from Slkor and Kinghelm Company, today I’d like to share you this topic "Brief Talk about Standardization". Standardization is the foundation and main feature of industrialization and electronic informatization. The origin of modern standardization is the assembly line mode firstly created by the Ford Motor Company in the U.S., which required the same standard of all vehicle parts, and efficiency was improved a lot by repeating a fixed simple action in each process. There are three preconditions of the assembly line mode: manufacture, standardization and process. That is to say, if the number of products reaches a certain scale, standardization and process operation can improve work efficiency and greatly reduce costs. I invested in the restaurants before and lost a lot of money, but I still focus on this field, especially the standardization of chain stores.  Professor Hai Peng was respectfully called "fat brother", who opened a chain restaurant called "Jin Mu Yuan", engaged in instant-boiled meat business in Tianjin, and he urged me to exchange ideas, so today I discuss about it with all of you here in terms of the catering industry combined with standardization and the perspective of an experienced man, just in order to throw out a minnow to catch a whale.

Song Shiqiang, General Manager of Slkor and Kinghelm   

In my impression, standardization already existed in ancient times, but no one summed it up and made it prominent. For example, after Qinshihuang(the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty) unified the six states, in order to strengthen the centralized management, he carried out the policy " same track, same book", which was handed down to the later generations. Meanwhile, he also unified the standards "Du, Liang and Heng"(ancient Chinese diction of length, volume and weight). In addition, he unified the currency, which was actually the earliest standardized management. In the museum, you can also see the weight in Qin Dynasty, called "Qinquan", which is the same quality and shape across the country, and it’s also a symbol of imperial power and state authority. The standardization of currency does not only benefit to the conversion, transaction and circulation of commodity and currency but also promote social development and improve the management efficiency of centralized power. In our daily life, the mandarin we speak is also the product of standardization, which is mainly used throughout China. Chinese, Koreans and Japanese learn English for the sake of standardization as well, because English is the most widely circulated language in the world, and it’s the official language in many countries. Chinese people should learn English well if they want to communicate and cooperate effectively with the world. Of course, with the increase of China's national strength and influence, there are many people learning and using Chinese, and more and more people will follow it in the future.  And the conversion between metric units and British units belongs to this category as well.

The website page of Slkor（www.slkormicro.com）

I always believe that Chinese civilization is more advanced than other ancient civilizations, which deserves my boasting. Although Chinese civilization has gone through trials and tribulations, it still has a long history and a strong ability of self-repair and feedback, which is related to the standardization of Chinese characters. Chinese descendants will be in tears when they can use different dialects to read the same letter from home, they may be impassioned when they can recite the works of ancient Chinese literators thousands of years ago such as Confucius, Qu Yuan, Li Bai and Su Dongpo, and they can appreciate the wisdom what Sakyamuni perceived under the Bodhi tree in ancient India 2500 years ago. Therefore we can talk with the ancient sages, "the grace still pats the ancients on their shoulder". This is the charm of Chinese culture and characters, and the core value is due to the standardization of Chinese characters!

The premise of standardization implementation is to define a reference point, and then get everyone's recognition and extensive execution. For example, the temperature of ice is defined as zero degree Celsius, and the temperature of boiled water at atmospheric pressure is defined as 100 degree Celsius, which comes from the life and nature where we are. As for the unit of length, there were meter, Zhang, inch, kilometer, mile, and the length of a king's elbow, etc. Later, in order to standardize the whole world, the length of "meter" was originally defined as 1/10 millionth of the distance of the meridian passing through Paris from the equator to the North Pole, and the international prototype metre was made of platinum alloy. In 1983, it was revised to "the distance light traveling in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 seconds", and the whole world strictly followed this standard. “The hamburger coefficient”, as we'll talk about it, it’s the accepted elementary numerical value of calories that an average adult burns for basic physiological activities, and it's an acknowledged datum point. There are more similar units which can be converted to each other, such as weight, volume, speed, electric current, heat and so on, and everyone may remember the conversion formula between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature. In the field of IT, these all belong to the international standard, such as software TCP/IP protocol and wireless Internet IEEE802.11 protocol! In addition, universal Java, C++ and other languages are also for the standardization of communication.

The slogan of Slkor "to become the leader of  China's semiconductor industry"

I went to work at 8:30 this morning, and I received an email in my mailbox, which was sent by an engineer from SLKOR Company in South Korea, who wanted to communicate with us about some technical problems. As you can see, there's a lot of standardization involved in this thing. Firstly, we communicate with each other in English that everyone can understand. Secondly, Seoul time in South Korea is one hour earlier than Beijing time. It is the rule that we make for the standardization of international time, meanwhile POP3 and SMTP protocol are also adopted in mail transmission. POP3(Post Office Protocol 3) is the third version of the Post Office Protocol, which defines how to connect a personal computer to the mail server on the Internet and download emails. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a set of rules which is used to transmit mails from source addresses to destination addresses, controlling the transfer mode of mails. So the message they sent in the morning was available to me at work. My phone can have access to Wi-Fi internet, which is also the utilization of these related protocols. We discussed some technical issues like current (Ampere A) and voltage (Volt V), and I comprehensively understood the meaning of mail through standardization. So this is the great synergy with our world by means of standardization.

At Kinghelm, we have a team developing Beidou intelligent hardware (OBD and T-Box) which is applied in new energy vehicles, as well as smart logistics platform combined with them. This platform has a database connected with another database of the customer's ORECLE/SAP system through the WEB/XML protocol, getting through the MES system database of the production and manufacturing link, which can be associated with the API/AIS system to realize the whole process tracking of ocean freight. Besides, the scientific management of upstream supply chain can be connected with the VMI system of downstream manufacturing customers, so as to achieve the monitoring of commodity data and real-time financial settlement, saving a lot of manpower and material resources for large enterprises and speeding up their management efficiency. It can be achieved due to the standardization followed in various fields. This Logistics information management system of Kinghelm Beidou was independently developed by us, which will become the first in China in the next five years. To be NO.1 in the field, it has been my style!

The website page of Slkor（www.slkormicro.com）

Looking back on the example of standardisation, the standard gauge in China is 1435mm, which is about 4 feet and 8 inches, the U.S. track is 1435mm, and the UK track is still 1435mm. Why do we choose this size uniformly? Some may think that this is a scientific measure determined by engineers, but the real reason is that it followed the standard of tram derived from the wheel track of the traditional carriage, which is derived from the wheel base of the ancient Roman chariot. There is also a legend that this is the wheel track of the chariot of Athena, the God of war in Greek myth. In fact, this size comes from the width of the buttocks of two war horses, which is the source, inheritance, circulation and popularization of standardization!

Nowadays the cost competition is fundamental between companies and countries. In the era of industrialization and electronic informatization, standardization is an important part and complements process and systematization. It can not only reduce personnel and increase efficiency, improving efficiency and speed, promoting standardization, ensuring scale and consistency of products, but also greatly reduce the costs and strengthen their competitiveness. Large international companies are actively involved in the formulation and promotion of industry standards, in order to promote the development of industry, grabbing the first opportunity in the competition.

The standardization can reduce quality risk, operational risk, and over-reliance on core employees. For example, traditional catering enterprises rely on chefs so much that if there is a problem in the kitchen, the restaurant will be shut down in general. When the chef's job was disassembled by the standardised operation, they become more replaceable, the boss doesn’t need to worry about the chef’s arrogance and disobedience, and costs can come down. IN my opinion, if thee standardization of an industry is not convenient or promoted, it will be difficult for its development only by the accumulation of work experience. The reason why our traditional Chinese medicine can not be promoted abroad in the world is that it’s stuck in the bottleneck of standardization. I talked to Cheng Yimu about this issue, who is the president of Shenzhen Electronic Chamber of Commerce, and he truly believed my point of view.

There is a chain restaurant called "Little Potato" which used to be very popular in northern China. I asked them that year, "This restaurant is such popular, but there are only a few dishes repeatedly, what if I get tired of eating them?" They said, "This is the result of our standardized management. Because we have lots of chain stores, if there are too many dishes, it will be hard for us to control the quality and manage the supply chain. So the dishes must be less and better, which is good for our brand, quality and food safety management." Later I seriously reviewed, the problem was that I dined in "little potato" too many times, so I decided to go to another restaurant, the problem would be absolutely solved! Our colleagues said that there aren’t many dishes in the Chu Sao Dang Jia(name of another restaurant), and the same is true. I always take them to eat here because I want them to experience the standardization.

Hamburgers of McDonald's are the same everywhere, including the recipe, weight, appearance, packaging, color, heat, and production process, etc. The "hamburger coefficient" of economics can measure the price level of a country or region, and hamburger can be used as a reference benchmark to measure the price. The production and processing steps of McDonald's potato chips can be decomposed into the following links: firstly, find a suitable place for planting in China according to the potato varieties identified in the U.S., including soil, climate, transport and other elements, then plant eligible potatoes; Secondly, determine the size of a potato and its cross section length, then grasp the oil mixture proportion, oil temperature and frying time during the frying link, finally you can solidify the data. Even if a new staff who is simply trained does as the operation procedures of the guidance book, the taste of McDonald's potato chips can be guaranteed. This kind of product is called a big item in consumer markets, and now it is called hot style in e-commerce. All of these following products are cheap, good and popular, such as nutrition express of Wahaha, ice tea of Master Kong, socks of Decathlon, 520 charger of Xiaomi, of course chicken legs and cola of KFC. Good duplication of the products can be applied to large-scale manufacture, this is the standardization is we are most willing to see.

McDonald's

How does the standardization work? In my perspective, I think it is about the following five aspects: the first is task decomposition, the second is data extraction, the third is process optimization, the fourth is data solidification, and the fifth is majorization, if possible, mechanization will emerge or directly be replaced by robots. 

Let's take the process of McDonald's fries as an example. I’d like to start with task decomposition! First, remove the mud of potatoes and peel them. Second, cut into strips in accordance with the specified size, then sieve the unqualified away, and the link of flushing needs no further elaboration. Third, frying at the set temperature of oil and time, then get them out, all finish at this moment! In order to guarantee the taste, there is a rule that the staff have to throw away them if the fries weren’t sold out in about 7 minutes. When I was young, I read the newspaper that McDonald's would throw away fries if they could not sell out. As a matter of fact, it was part of their standardization, and the reporter just didn’t know how to introduce it better.

 As for the data, its premise here is that the variety of potatoes and the size of French fries have been confirmed, so it is necessary to make these data clear such as frying time, oil temperature. To record these data and strictly carry out at work is to solidify the data flow. As long as ordinary employees strictly follow the procedures, there will be no problems. I observed that McDonald's trainees can quickly master these skills. If not standardized, these have to be controlled by the arrogant chefs overcharging on their salaries, who observed the degree of boiling oil, the color of chips to manage the process, this is the skill someone can completely get only by means of oral teaching and accumulated experience from the old master. Just like the prescriptions of TCM doctors, they can not tell the way themselves, so it is hard to copy. I have read an article, saying that in order to ensure the taste of rice, some university dining halls did this experimental result is the best when they add a catty of japonica rice to 2.5 catties of water with steamer. This is also the process of data solidification, of course, it may be completed after many tests, and the scale inside the household rice cooker is also used for this purpose. I had lunch with Professor Liu in the canteen of Tsinghua University the day before yesterday, he said that the Hunan special restaurant of a female schoolmate was going to close because the chef had left. As you can see, it will be a big problem if this kind of special cuisine can not be standardized.

The products on Slkor's website（www.slkormicro.com）

The third step is process optimization. During the implementation process, you should constantly review if there are some parts of the process can be optimized? Which sequence of process will more appropriate after adjustment? Could motion decomposition be simpler and more practical, meanwhile improve stability and efficiency (reference to Max Weber's statement on organizational behavior)? Furtherly, is mechanization able to replace manual labor? After these steps are finished, the data flow is solidified and operators get targeted training, it is basically accomplished.

I want to add something about process. Now the process of some newly-rising restaurants is very fabulous, like "Jia Le Yuan" fast food, whose model comes from Taiwan's "blue and white". In terms of food display, " Jia Le Yuan " is developing very fast due to these reasons, such as the classification of meat, vegetable, rice and soup, taking into account nutrition collocation and price label specifications, and  considering consumers' ergonomics, behavior habits and consumption psychology. "IKEA Household" also adopted this principle, which is a famous household company, its design of "moving line" is quite good that customers can walk and shop! What "Chu Sao Dang Jia" did best is to let several old women cook the dishes, which not only reduces the wage cost but also reduces the dependence on the chef. "Green Tea" did a good job of process and intensification, which improved the table turnover rate and the gross profit of products. 

"Chu Sao Dang Jia" restaurant

The fourth step is data solidification. After the link above is finished and verified stable and reliable repeatedly, we can shape these records like the text charts and images, then we begin to copy on a large scale. Training new employees and opening new stores is very simple, fast, safe and controllable.

  Finally, we must think about, which links should be done artificially and which process mechanically. For example, a lot of pepper are used in Sichuan restaurants, there is a pepper which is like the horse ear, it’s a kind of dry pepper cut into the bevel mouth which is about 2.5 cm. It is very choking when cutting the pepper, so a machine can do this job. McDonald's potato chips are cut and selected by machines. Of course, there are more places where robots can replace the labour, which can not only improve the working environment of employees, but also speed up the efficiency and reduce costs!

IKEA

The fourth step is data solidification. After the link above is finished and verified stable and reliable repeatedly, we can shape these records like the text charts and images, then we begin to copy on a large scale. Training new employees and opening new stores is very simple, fast, safe and controllable.

  Finally, we must think about, which links should be done artificially and which process mechanically. For example, a lot of pepper are used in Sichuan restaurants, there is a pepper which is like the horse ear, it’s a kind of dry pepper cut into the bevel mouth which is about 2.5 cm. It is very choking when cutting the pepper, so a machine can do this job. McDonald's potato chips are cut and selected by machines. Of course, there are more places where robots can replace the labour, which can not only improve the working environment of employees, but also speed up the efficiency and reduce costs!

The website page of Slkor（www.slkormicro.com）

After the completion of industrialization and standardization, the output of goods is larger and its cost is lower, and people can enjoy a better material life. However, not all the industries are suitable for standardization. I hope that some small and beautiful stuff can be retained, so that the world will be more colorful. For example, there are lots of special snack bars in the alleys of old Guangzhou, the history of whose snack is about several decades, and the whole family have done a good job! Everyone really likes these so-called "fly diners" in the small alleys of big Shanghai. There are a lot of small sushi restaurants on Japanese streets, whose facade is about two or three meters under the management of brothers or couples, their sushi is very delicate and delicious, and they are still working at the age of 70 or 80, so happy they are! They are not standardized and assimilated, and their characteristics remain original. No matter how the society develops, these good things that embody the craftsman's spirit must be reserved, which will be rejuvenated with new vitality. 

 Since the establishment of Kinghelm company, while striving for better products, knowledge engineering, branding and channels, we have vigorously carried out standardized process in our study and work, laying a foundation for the company's large-scale development. My speech is about to end today, as for the last conclusion, I hope that the implementation of standardization will make our life more beautiful! You can follow our Wechat official account "Kinghelm Beidou Expert", and there will be more wonderful information to share with everybody! Thank you all!   

About the Author

On top of being a private economic researcher of the Economic Development Center of the State Council, Song Shiqiang is also a member of the electronic information expert database of China Association for Science and Technology, and a commercial research expert of Huaqiang North. Mr. Song was the former CEO of an international real estate listed company. He has invested and managed a list of companies such as Shenzhen SlkorMicro Semicon Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Kinghelm Electronics Co., Ltd., building the "Slkor" and "Kinghelm" brands. Both "Slkor" and "Kinghelm" are national high-tech companies and they have obtained dozens of invention patents and software copyrights. In addition, Slkor is one of the fastest-growing semiconductor companies in China, and its vision is to become "the leader of China’s semiconductor industry".

The company Kinghelm has registered a WeChat official account called "Beidou Expert" to publicize BDS, popularize Beidou knowledge and disseminate Beidou information. Song Shiqiang also finds time to write some popular science articles about BDS, which are published on the WeChat official account "Beidou Expert". In addition, a column of "Beidou Expert" has been opened on the website of Kinghelm (www.kinghelm.com.cn) to publicize the meritorious deeds of Beidou experts such as Lu Mingquan, Cao Chong, Xu Qifeng and Xu Ying, as well as some professional technical literature on BDS, and to fly the flag for the development of China’s Beidou industry. Another company Slkor also registered a WeChat official account called "SiC expert"!

The corporate culture of SLkor (www.slkormicro.com)

Shenzhen SlkorMicro Semicon Co.,Ltd., whose technical elites are from Tsinghua University in China and Yonsei University in South Korea, masters the international leading third generation semiconductor technology of SiC power device, therefore three factors made the company: new materials, new technology and new products. Slkor’s products can be divided into three major IC series: diode and triode, power device, and power management chip. Slkor has developed from a single IP design company into a national high-tech enterprise covering the design, R&D, production and sales service, now "Slkor" Its brand is gaining good reputation in the semiconductor industry. And its official website has gradually become one of the most important platform for collaborative development of the semiconductor industry , which not only promotes Slkor’s products and publicizes "Slkor" brand, but also carries out the industrial technology and information exchange, collision of ideas, and data query, etc.

Products of Slkor are increasingly abundant, which can be applied to the industrial and military field, including SiC diode, SiC MOSFET, IGBT, the 5th generation ultra fast recovery power diode, etc., which can meet the needs of high-performance products in these fields, such as new energy vehicle, high-end equipment, communication & electric power equipment, solar photovoltaic and medical equipment and so on. Consumer products include high and low voltage MOS, SCR, rectifier bridge, Schottky diode, ESD protection diode, TVS diode, general-purpose diode and triode, power management ICs, Hall sensor, high-speed optical couplers , etc., which are widely applied to smart phones, laptops, intelligent robots, smart home appliances, IoT and IoV, LED lighting, 3C digital products and other fields. Slkor will launch more digital and analog IC products in order to provide more professional and comprehensive service for customers. 

Not only does Slkor revolve around its corporate culture consisting of “integrity, progress, tenacity, and detail”, but also it adheres to the principle which can be defined as “sincerity, progression, perseverance, and meticulousness”. In addition, Slkor attaches importance to corporate ethics, advocates mutual development as well as win-win cooperation, and constantly promotes the brand awareness and reputation of "Slkor" to create value for employees, customers and the society. Slkor strives for innovation and stability in technology, pays close attention to details in management, focuses on excellence in quality, takes market oriented and customer’s satisfaction as the result, and forges ahead with determination and sustainable development. By means of the east wind of "domestic substitution" and with the mission of strengthening the semiconductor industry and the country, Slkor is determined to become "the leader of the domestic semiconductor industry" and contribute to the strength of China’s semiconductor industry and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.     Song Shiqiang has been working in the electronic information industry for many years. He has been studying Huaqiangbei to publicize Huaqiangbei and make continuous efforts for a better business environment in Huaqiangbei. Mr. Song hopes Huaqiangbei will continue to be brilliant and become the window of China's reform and opening up and the business card of Shenzhen's economic development.

Shenzhen Kinghelm Electronics Co., Ltd., a national hi-tech enterprise, is a member of "GNSS and LBS Association of China", "China Information Industry Chamber of Commerce" and "Guangdong Connector Association". It has, moreover, obtained many patents and software copyrights pertaining to the Beidou brand. Kinghelm specializes in the technology research, product design and manufacturing and sales service of microwave RF signal transceiver, micro electronic connector and interconnection system products. Kinghelm’s technical team is from Tsinghua University, UESTC and expatriates with R&D capability of high-quality and high-performance products. Kinghelm has obtained ISO9001 management system certification, and IATF16949 automobile quality system certification, UL, TUV, RoHS, REACH certification are in the application.

Kinghelm’s brand products KH series include Beidou GPS antenna, RF connector, electrical data signal connector, terminal, plug-in unit and the three categories: customized automobile and motorcycle wiring harness, industrial medical connector as well as military special antenna connector. "Kinghelm connects Beidou", it’s the slogan of the company and Kinghelm grows with the development of Beidou. Kinghelm begins with providing Beidou GPS dual-mode antenna, IPEX terminal and RF connector for auto factories involved in the national project "Two kinds of buses and CDG vehicles", and its product categories have expanded a lot, such as series antennas for WiFi, Bluetooth, NB-IoT, LORA, Zigbee, UWB and GSM communication antenna, RFID tag, RF patch cord, GJB RF connector, microwave antenna, auto SMA and SMB, FAKRA RF connector, and coaxial cable.

Kinghelm has a manufacturing base with automatic production lines, which is located in Tangxia, Dongguan. The manufacturing base is equipped with automatic wire-cutting machine, terminal machine, dispenser, cable assembly machine and other equipment, experienced engineer team and well-trained workers can complete mass product delivery on time with quality and quantity guaranteed. In addition, Kinghelm has a complete range of these testing instruments, such as microwave full-wave anechoic room, network analyzer, high-speed oscilloscope, salt fog testing machine, high and low temperature testing cabinet, which are capable of the debugging of high and low temperature, double 85 test and intelligent hardware antenna signal. Kinghelm added all kinds of connectors such as data electrical signal transmission connector, precision connector, connector terminal, including board end, wire end, micro terminal, wire to board, wire to wire, board to board and Insulation displacement connector. Besides, there are SIM socket, USB C, Type-C, HDMI, RJ45 interface, plug-in unit, PCB board connection terminal, pin header, female header, plug and unplug parts, thimble spring, crimping terminal, etc.

Kinghelm undertakes the customization of non-standard ceramic antenna, signal amplifier board and cable. Moreover Kinghelm has provided navigation and positioning antennas and wire harness for automobiles and motorcycles, and dust-proof, waterproof and explosion-proof connectors for industrial medical customers. As a private high-tech enterprise, Kinghelm actively participates in the "civil-military integration". In addition, Kinghelm launched Beidou B3 RF military antenna and special connector, which have been awarded by the superior for their high quality and excellent guarantee. And Kinghelm's "Three Military Certificate" qualification is in the application!

The products" of Kinghelm are applied to many fields such as high-speed railway, new energy vehicle, wireless intelligent terminal, IoT, IoV, smart city, smart home, industrial equipment, industrial Internet, scientific research, military and national defense and other fields. Adhering to the corporate culture of "integrity, progress, tenacity and detail" and the corporate ethics of "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you", under the leadership of Mr. Song Shiqiang, Kinghelm takes root in the Beidou industry and contributes to the development of the society and the prosperity of the China!