In April 2000, Domino's introduced a common toll-free number in all the 16 cities it operated in. Said Bhatia, “If an executive travels 15 days a month, he is hard pressed for time. So his meals are usually quick affairs and chances are he'd call for a pizza.” That's where the service, which had been branded as the Hunger Helpline, would come in handy. But once the service was put into operation, local residents also started using it. In fact, at some outlets, a majority of the calls were routed through the Helpline. Operated through MTNL's toll-free 1-600 service, the service was manned by Easy Call, which set up the 20-person call center in west Delhi's Janakpuri locality. Domino's officials felt that the helpline would ultimately become a source of valuable consumer data. Said Bhatia, “We plan to become a micro-managed home retailer through customization. So at the back end, this data is tremendously important.” The way it worked seemed simple: each time a customer called, his location was identified and the order was transferred to the nearest Domino's outlet, which then took on the task of delivering the order 30 minutes.

1990

 2.6

1993

 2.4

1994

 2.5

1999

 3.36

2000

 3.54

In India, McDonald's chose Mumbai-based Radhakrishna Foodland Private Limited (RFPL) as a distribution agent which acted as a hub for all its vendors. The iceberg lettuce from Ooty, the mutton patties from Hyderabad or the sesame seeds buns from Punjab were all brought to RFPL's distribution centre (cold storage) in its refrigerated vans. RFPL then stored the products in controlled conditions in Mumbai and New Delhi, and supplied them to McDonald's outlets on a daily basis.

By transporting the semi-finished products at a particular temperature, the Cold Chain^[5] ensured freshness and adequate moisture content in the food. This temperature was maintained inside the storage chamber of the specially-made trucks throughout the journey. Drivers were instructed specifically not to switch off the chilling system to save electricity even in case of traffic jams.

McDonald's built another cold storage with equipment worth about Rs.7.5 million^[6] in Delhi in 1998. RFPL was responsible for McDonald's inventory management. It had to anticipate future requirements and contingencies and plan for the optimum utilization of the refrigerated vehicles.

There were 30 suppliers across the country. Trikaya Agriculture supplied iceberg lettuce, Vista Processed Foods Ltd. supplied chicken and vegetables, Dynamix Dairy supplied cheese, Amrit Food supplied milk and milk products, and Ramakrishna Foodland acted as the distribution centre for Delhi and Mumbai. The restaurants were not supposed to stock inventory for more than three days.

This required round-the-clock monitoring of pick-ups and truck movements. Using Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)^[7], McDonald's had set standards for all of its processing plants and its outlets. Since most of the items were perishable, these standards covered the entire delivery schedules. For in-city delivery, the truck was monitored from the time it left the distribution centre till it reached the restaurant.

The products were transported from the suppliers'end to the distribution centre in refrigerated and insulated vehicles. RFPL was also responsible for cleanliness (including the personal hygiene of the drivers), and packing and temperature control of the food (digital probes were inserted into items selected at random) it transported. There were data logs to track the movement of each batch. This meant that in case of a complaint from a restaurant, the batch from which the food item came, could be identified, isolated, and dumped.

McDonald's insisted on standardization by its suppliers. Vista Processed Foods & Kitran Foods, which supplied pies, nuggets, vegetable, and chicken patties, commissioned a new facility for the purpose in 1996, complete with insulated panels, temperature control, and chill rooms.