/PRZWT/On October 30th, Lotte's Shanghai factory held an Open Day event with the theme of "Quality as the Foundation, Green for the Future". Many well-known media outlets visited this modern factory covering an area of over 100,000 square meters with an annual production capacity of nearly 4 billion yuan, and gained an immersive understanding of its digital and intelligent quality management system and the green practice achievements under its environmentally friendly business philosophy.
Upon entering the workshop, the guests were first stunned by the production scene that caught their eyes: from ingredient preparation to shaping, from baking to packaging, from palletizing to warehousing, nearly twenty production lines were operating fully "automatically", with robotic arms operating precisely and conveyor belts flowing in an orderly manner, continuously producing Lotte pies, many fish, and more! Star products such as Tudou, Shuyuan, Langli Gelang, and Guoziguoxin.
However, what impressed the guests even more was the digital and intelligent quality management system hidden behind the production line. After years of exploration and practice, Lotte has established a Total Quality Management system (TQM for short) from raw materials to production and then to the market. TQM defines the core value of products based on the consumer feedback system, confirms the core quality characteristics that meet customer needs, formulates key parameters and process flows that affect product taste, flavor, etc., and conducts dynamic real-time monitoring.
When visiting the production line, the staff showed the guests the real-time status of the products on the spot. The implementation of TQM is equivalent to establishing a digital quality file for the product, achieving full traceability of raw materials, production and circulation, which can effectively prevent food safety risks. Meanwhile, the system will also conduct intelligent analysis and processing of historical data to identify the differences among factories and the directions for improving products and services, thereby continuously enhancing consumer satisfaction, said Yuan Yongli, senior manager of quality and safety, who accompanied the visit.
The digital and intelligent quality management system, along with global selection of raw materials and international certification, have become three key measures for Lotte to strengthen its quality management. Together, they build a solid defense line to safeguard consumers' food safety and facilitate the innovative upgrade of quality and safety.
Lotte's core ingredients are globally selected. The flour raw materials are selected from high-quality imported whole wheat, and are custom-processed by well-known domestic enterprises. The entire process is stored and transported at a constant temperature. The milk powder is made from high-quality milk sources from France and New Zealand, which are safe, nutritious and have excellent flavor. In 2006, Lotte Confectionery officially entered the potato chip market. To ensure the supply of raw materials, Lotte has further extended its industrial chain upstream and set up potato farms in Inner Mongolia, Guangdong and other places. The commissioning of the snowflake whole powder production base in Shenbei New District in 2024 will make Lotte the first international snack brand in China to own its own potato farm and achieve a full industrial chain layout of potatoes.
In addition to controlling the quality of raw materials at the source and digitally managing the production process, Lotte Confectionery has also introduced international food safety management system certifications such as AIB(American Baking Institute) and FSSC 22000. In the AIB annual review, Lotte Confectionery China once set an industry record. Four domestic factories stood out among over 600 food factories worldwide and all ranked in the top six. The Shanghai factory even ranked third with a score of 985 out of 1000. It is precisely because of its outstanding performance in the comprehensive quality management system and food safety innovation leadership over the years that Lotte has been awarded the China Food Health Seven-Star Award for three consecutive years.
Chen Lihua, the factory director of Lotte Confectionery Shanghai, said, "Quality is the foundation for the survival and development of food enterprises." Keeping pace with The Times and constantly innovating, the transformation and upgrading from automation to digitalization and intelligence have endowed the Shanghai factory, which has been in operation for over two decades, with a new core.
In parallel with quality and safety, the Shanghai factory has always firmly implemented the group's environmentally friendly business policy and achieved remarkable results. As a green factory, the Lotte Confectionery Shanghai factory actively introduces new energy, new technologies and new equipment to achieve a win-win situation in production and environmental protection, allowing deliciousness and greenness to go hand in hand.
Up to now, the factory has achieved full coverage of photovoltaic power generation. The anaerobic sewage treatment system introduced last year has comprehensively upgraded the original sewage treatment process and methods. It efficiently decomposes organic matter by utilizing the metabolic principles of microorganisms, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 500 tons annually and significantly enhancing the sewage treatment capacity. The biogas produced by this system can also be used to make production steam, saving over 160,000 cubic meters of gas annually. Meanwhile, Lotte's Shanghai factory is also steadily advancing the construction of the "Energy storage power station" project, aiming to achieve a two-way optimization of energy consumption costs and grid load through peak shaving and valley filling. For this reason, Lotte's Shanghai factory was awarded the title of "Water-saving Enterprise of Shanghai in 2024" and "Advanced Collective in Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction of Shanghai". Moreover, due to its active participation in the construction of Shanghai's "Zero-waste City" and its practice of the "zero-waste" concept, it was also recognized as a "Zero-waste Cell" of 2024.
Having been rooted in China for three decades, Lotte Confectionery has always adhered to the philosophy of "Lotte Confectionery, Good Friend", embedding quality commitment and social responsibility into the brand's DNA. At this Open Day event, the meticulous supply chain management, continuously updated digital and intelligent quality system, and consistent environmentally friendly business policy of the Shanghai factory left a deep impression on the attending guests. Factory Director Chen Lihua stated, "In the future, we will continue to rely on technology as support to promote the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing, green production practices, and the collaboration of the entire industrial chain, and offer consumers more innovative products that are safe, healthy, and delicious."
