INTERVIEW
SUPPLY CHAINS ARE OUT. SUPPLY NETWORKS ARE IN “Supply chain is nothing but applying Common Sense to improve efficiency. While sales and marketing functions of organization drive top line, supply chain and operations drive bottom line of the balance sheet. More and more companies are realizing the importance of having an efficient and agile supply chain to increase profitability. Beyond this, having a reliable supply chain is becoming a key competitive advantage to increase market share. Customers and consumers are expecting faster and convenient ways of getting the products,” shares Sachin Gupta, Country Planning Manager, Shell. Your valued comments on the YEAR 2020 and what did it spell for the supply chain domain? 2020 was a real litmus test for supply chains and supply chain professionals. COVID 19 has wrought unprecedented disruptions in supply chains, ranging from longer lead times, highly fluctuating demand, high raw material costs, lesser vessel space, etc. It showed how important it is to build a robust and agile supply chain to keep a tap on bottom line performance. I would like to summarize it as SOAR... Shock – In March’20, COVID 19 evolved
6 CELERITY March - April 2021
as a Black Swan, which no-one could predict. Suddenly entire world came to a halt and started having significant impact on earnings. It took us good 2-3 weeks to digest and understand what is happening around us. Optimize – By April beginning, companies started realizing the impact of COVID. As companies estimated huge decline in sales. First and foremost, action was to reduce the cost and optimize the working capital to preserve the cash. Assess – In this phase, companies started assessing actual demand from market
Sachin Gupta is a seasoned Supply Chain professional with decade long experience of leading complex supply chains of large scale Multinational Companies like J&J, Philips and Shell. Sachin has expertise in setting up and driving effective S&OP processes in organizations. Sachin has done PGDIE in Supply Chain Management & Operations from NITIE and holds an engineering degree from IET Lucknow.
and tried innovative ways to serve the customers keeping cost minimal. Recover / Re-build – By Q4’20, most of the companies had started recovering the topline. Companies focused on rebuilding strong supply chains.
What are your views on demand planning & forecasting in the new normal? In Post COVID era, many companies will have to re-adjust their forecasting models. COVID has driven changes in consumer behavior. This impact on supply chains and the lockdown, necessitated
