Incubatee Spotlight | Behind McDonald’s $60 Million Annual Savings—What “Invisible Brain” Makes It Possible?

In today’s business landscape, often more unpredictable than the weather, business leaders face a constant dilemma: should they rely on past experience for a strategic gamble, or trust the optimal solution revealed by data and algorithms?

This choice becomes critical when operations involve managing 40,000 raw materials globally, orchestrating the precise movement of giant vessels in congested ports, or ensuring lifesaving vaccines reach 2,000 destinations within 48 hours. In such scenarios, instinct and experience alone fall short.

Today, let’s talk about the force behind these “impossible missions,” known as “Decision Intelligence”.

From Singapore to Guangzhou: Innovation’s Homecoming Across Land and Sea

The journey of Optimization Analytics Technology Pte. Ltd. (OAT) maps a clear path of innovation: founded in Singapore in 2017, with subsequent expansion to Hefei, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taiwan...

Now, OAT has strategically entered the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It has established Guangzhou Youyang Technology Co., Ltd. in Guangzhou and joined BLOCK71 Guangzhou, the incubator at the National University of Singapore Guangzhou Research Translation and Innovation Institute (NUS GRTII).

This move is more than establishing a new branch. As a deep-tech company with Singaporean roots, OAT shares a natural innovative synergy with the BLOCK71 network. Setting up in Guangzhou allows OAT to leverage the formidable supply chain ecosystem of the Greater Bay Area and the international platform of BLOCK71 Guangzhou, continuing its core mission to find data- and algorithm-driven optimal solutions for complex business challenges.

So, what makes this new incubatee so exceptional?

Winning the “Nobel Prize” of Operations Research: A $60 Million Success Story

At the 52nd Franz Edelman Award ceremony in Orlando, USA—an award revered as the “Nobel Prize” of operations research—the global management science community’s attention was captured by a project from China. 

The finals in recent years have featured giants like Huawei, Alibaba, and JD.com. This time, OAT, in collaboration with Golden Arch and Shunxinhui, was awarded the Global Finalist prize for their “Supply Chain Network Planning Solution.”

It stood as the only Chinese project to reach the finals that year.

The results provide the most compelling evidence. 

Since 2022, this solution has helped Golden Arch’s supply chain achieve:

▪ Savings of over $60 million in capital investment

▪ A reduction of nearly $9 million in annual transportation costs

▪ A 10.6% year-on-year decrease in carbon emissions

This achievement transcends simple digitization. It involved using sophisticated mathematical models to identify the “Pareto optimum” balance among countless variables, effectively transforming latent data into substantial commercial profit by merging deep industry expertise with OAT’s cutting-edge optimization technology.

The Art of Mastering Complexity: Solving Real-World Headaches

Beyond the flagship McDonald’s case, OAT applies its algorithmic prowess to rebuild efficiency and solve critical pain points across various industries.

Scenario 1: The Port Facing $100,000 AUD Daily Losses

At Australia’s Port of Weipa, where ten large vessels manage 30 million tons of bauxite daily, any scheduling error due to tides, weather, or delays could incur demurrage charges of up to $100,000 AUD per day.

The Old Way: Dispatchers invested four hours daily in manual scheduling, yet errors and misjudgments were inevitable.

OAT’s Solution: A blend of mathematical optimization and AI decision-making. The system calculates the optimal vessel schedule within 30 minutes, ensuring precise, cost-efficient port operations.

Scenario 2: Overnight Scale-Up from 2 to 2,000 Clients

A pharmaceutical company confronted a sudden regulatory change, causing its client base to explode from 2 to 2,000 entities, all requiring vaccine delivery within a strict 48-hour window—paralyzing its existing logistics network.

OAT’s Solution: The approach was not to hastily build new warehouses. Instead, OAT simulated over 200 scenarios to fundamentally redesign the supply chain network. The resulting model not only reduced costs but proved so effective that it was successfully replicated for operations in Russia, Japan, and India.

Whether optimizing stringent safety inspection schedules for automotive parts or managing complex global inventory balancing for a lighting industry leader, OAT finds elegant, mathematical solutions for seemingly intractable business challenges.

Awards Follow Action, Innovation Drives Instinct: From the “Golden Chain Award” to INFORMS Sponsorship

In an era of abundant AI hype, OAT focuses on delivering tangible, implementable technology that drives real value. 

This commitment was recognized at the 7th Smart Supply Chain and Logistics Innovation Asia Pacific Convention & Exhibition (SSCL APAC 2024), where OAT secured the “Best Supply Chain Innovation Award” for its proven implementation capabilities. Simultaneously, OAT is honored to serve as an official sponsor of the 2025 INFORMS International Conference.

INFORMS represents the premier global society for professionals in operations research and management sciences. By sponsoring this flagship event, OAT is not merely supporting a conference but actively engaging with and contributing to the global community, underscoring that advanced Decision Intelligence from China is a significant force on the world stage.

Following its entry into BLOCK71 Guangzhou, Guangzhou Youyang Technology will operate as OAT’s strategic hub in Southern China. We are confident that BLOCK71’s extensive global innovation network and robust research translation capabilities will empower OAT to explore new frontiers in Decision Intelligence. This partnership will further enable OAT to assist more enterprises within the Greater Bay Area in making the critical leap from basic “digitalization” to true “intelligent” operation.

The goal remains steadfast: to transform data into measurable profit and guide businesses from merely “observing data” to proactively “making decisions with data.”

Ultimately, business is about efficiency, and the highest form of efficiency is intelligent decision-making.

In a world full of noise, OAT does not strive to be the loudest voice, but rather, the most precise and reliable calculator.

We operate on the conviction that within every complex system lies a discernible path to an optimal solution. Our mission is to illuminate that path with the clarifying power of mathematics and AI.

Data Driven. Decision Smart.