Supply chains in Indian are experiencing a continuous flow of challenges. First, the trade war between China and the US led to a ripple effect on the Indian manufacturing sector. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to driving countless businesses into debts and shrinking the economy's GDP last year.
However, the Government of India's Make in India, Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI), and the Atmanirbhar sentiment, along with the recent stimulus relief for the manufacturing sector in the Union Budget 2021, renewed the industry’s spirit in a positive way. The 2011 National Manufacturing Policy's objective of pumping the manufacturing sector's contribution from 14.2% to 25% (by 2025) to the national GDP and creating 100 million jobs now holds grounds to come true.
While these statistics sound reaffirming, the challenge to maintain an agile, flexible, and responsive supply chain is the greater need of the hour—specifically for companies to be better prepared for the uninvited set of internal and external uncertainties, like this pandemic the world is currently living in. The International Research Institute for Manufacturing (IRIM) has stepped up its game plan to leverage the strength of effective supply chain management for cutting costs and bringing better returns for their clients.
Bridging the gaps with powerful strategies and impressive results
IRIM began with identifying the gaps in the supply chain paradox, from unfulfilled sales (despite high inventory) to low productivity and high lead time with available production capacity. They came up with a unique approach of assigning key indicators to different geographies and departments that integrates the supply chain productively. These indicators were designed in ways that are easy to review and facilitates decision timelines.
For example, IRIM strategised on innovative methods for planning and executing orders in the Pharmaceutical industry. The strategy helped a leading organisation find the hidden capacities in their system and build the ability to produce more high gross contribution products to push them in the markets to earn better ROI.
Adding to this list is IRIM's impressive work with a leading pharmaceutical equipment supplier for 80% of the firms working on COVID-19, where they aligned a faster supply chain for the organisation. The supplier reported a 60% reduction in their lead time to the customer and are now a proud setup for ensuring faster supplies. IRIM's assistance promptly helped the organisation rejuvenate after experiencing operational disruptions for two months.
Other companies working in the heavy equipment and automotive industry have seen similar benefits as they have been able to consolidate their procurement process under IRIM's guidance. Specifically, they experienced an inventory reduction while ensuring an adequate supply response to the market demand, despite seasonal challenges. An impressive win, indeed!
Revolution in supply chain management is the way forward
IRIM has accurately identified the spikes affecting the current supply chain management. They point out the industry's obsolete dependency on manually-dependent procedures and how important it is to scale up the game by adopting the new wave of digital offerings.
Deepankar Shree Gyan, Head of Consulting Services, IRIM, believes that the future of managing the supply chain is not by spending more and more time on reviews as per old procedures, but to build new processes of planning and execution enabled by real-time data and digitised systems.
“It will be important for organisations to digitally transform the supply chain in such a way that the feedback from the systems unearth the inherent paradoxes in the supply chain and enable the discussion and decision making by the top management on the chronic issues rather than mere symptoms,” he concluded.
This is a partnered post.
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