News

McDonald's joins LONMARK International board

September 16, 2010

McDonald's Corp. has become a sponsor member, and board of director member, of LONMARK International, a non-profit international association that has been recognized for the certification, education, and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking.

McDonald's is partnering with LONMARK to help create and manage interoperability standards for networked kitchen equipment and to build automation systems. Interoperability standards ensure effective network communication between kitchen and building equipment.

For the past several years, McDonald's has been working with various suppliers on its Smart Restaurant initiative. The initiative incorporates equipment that communicates and shares information utilizing a common network infrastructure, which allows for operational and energy-efficiency improvements in its restaurants worldwide.

"LONMARK International has long history of supporting multi-vendor interoperability standards, making it the ideal organization to administer this program for us," said Glenn Schackmuth, director worldwide equipment systems with McDonald's Corp. "By working with LONMARK, we will be able to leverage an international standard and allow for open access to the standards for others to adopt in their kitchen and building equipment networking efforts."

As a Sponsor Member, McDonald's joins the LONMARK Board of Directors, along with other companies, including Distech Controls Inc.; Echelon Corporation; Honeywell International Inc.; Philips Lighting B.V.; Siemens Building Technologies; Schneider Electric; and Trane.