It's mentioned in the article, but much of what drives McDonald's profitability is their supply chain and logistics, and r&d around food prep/meal production.

It's mentioned in the article, but much of what drives McDonald's profitability is their supply chain and logistics, and r&d around food prep/meal production. There are huge dollar volumes there at very low margins and it is an area of great advantage (not only in cost, but in what it's possible to do product-wise) if done well. It's a perfect area for data science / ML type applications.