Amidst pandemic situation, the agility of supply chain & logistics became one of the most crucial point of planning keeping in view the parameters of cost effectiveness.
Umesh Madhyan from coca- cola believes, one of the biggest impact on FMCG has been on Inventory, and effective planning of SKUs. The changing of channels due to govt. regulations led to the redesigning of supply chains. In order to effectively plan SKUs, rationalisation upto 40-50% became necessary at the start of the pandemic. Also, focusing on key SKUs and how they’ll reach every source and not on more range of products is to be kept in mind. He also discussed about the idea and importance of palletisation.
In order to be successful, Sanjeev Yadav from Nestle believes, that planning of supply chain for uncertain demands is vital. And to achieve the successful planning, there are certain steps to be kept in mind. Sanjeev highlighted that it is important to take the following measures.
- 1.Redesigning the agility of products by categorising the SKUs according to priorities.
- • Portfolio management
- • Ramping the number of SKUs.
- 2. Relook at the horizon, activity and different channels.
- 3. Crisis planning tool.
For efficient distribution during lockdown, railways served as the great help. Also, availing self-pickups for customers was found helpful. Most importantly, boosting the moral of the team, staying connected with them and making them believe that they are being taken care of is the key to success. He also discussed about how his team dealt with cost efficiency.
To manage the demand quantity, Saurabh lal from Kellogg’s introduced the idea of faster forecast on frequent basis. However, to manage the supply quantity, he believes in demand based replenishment.
The forecast should not only be used for the purpose of business and financial planning but also for operational purpose. Also, moving towards daily production planning rather than weekly plans was helpful.
He also shared his idea of Human assisted algorithms and going back in the era of TPM.
Since pandemic lead to the problem of transportation, Neeraj Goel from General mills took some of the following initiatives to overcome the barriers:
- 1. Directly reaching to customers.
- 2. Collaboration with distributors.
- 3. Making products easily available to consumers.
He also covered the importance of digitalisation in today’s era and why Technology investment is crucial.
Shrinivasan Muthukumaran from Vmart discussed the issue of apparel being a discretionary spending, which led to downfall in the apparel industry. V-Mart team focused on scenario planning and methods to liquidate the current stock, keeping in mind the upcoming demands of customers. Moving towards e-commerce and focusing on the upcoming horizon rather than the long term objectives.
Pushkar Singh from Let’s Transport discussed the idea of ensuring safety to the drivers by providing them with insurance, masks and sanitizers even the food packages, which helped them in providing work to 70% of their drivers in this situation.
He also mentioned the factors like maximization of trust and transparency, proper training to employees helped them gain the confidence of their team.
Anil Mishra from Pladis Global shared his view about consolidation of route planning, collaboration with the supply chain ensuring safe delivery of goods served as the key to immediate management.
Read MoreThe webinar ended with the India’s most prestigious BFSI awards ceremony where the top Industry leaders of India got awarded.