Celerity May - June 2019

SUPPLYCHAINTRIBE.COM May - June 2019 Volume 3 Issue 3 For private circulation only

SPECIAL STORY The Central Government recently unveiled National Logistics Policy draft and invited suggestions to make it the most comprehensive policy document. Read all about it with inputs from industry stalwarts.

A LOW HANGING OPPORTUNITY Uncovering the hidden potential of multimodal logistics in this cover story

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Create Value, Embrace Technology Dear Readers, Here’s to the new Financial Year 2019-20!

This year could be a watershed year for supply chain and logistics in more ways than one.

CTOs of more and more corporate users as well as logistics services providers will be deploying technology for growth, productivity and adding value. With technology and softwares, also comes the issue of data security. This is the year to re-evaluate the Cyber Security program in your company.

While the CTOs will look at technology interventions for growth, the CSCOs will also have to look at different ways of creating value at the ground level- whether it be consolidation of warehouses, revisiting the network strategy or looking at alternate ways of transportation.

Our Cover Story on multimodal logistics looks at how synergies can be made, and higher efficiencies attained by developing inter-connectivity across road, rail, air and waterways. Instead of looking at this in a piece-meal manner, making a strategic plan for effective linkages across the country and getting significant investments through the PPP model should go a long way.

Also, a look at how two home-grown companies have created an enviable distribution strength and disrupted the market. And lastly, who says, supply chain is dry and boring? One supply chain practitioner has launched a book successfully on word play and witticisms to counter the stress in our lives.

Let’s make work more fun!

Charulata Bansal Publisher Charulata.bansal@celerityin.com www.supplychaintribe.com www.supplychaintribe.com/40under40 www.30under30.in

Published by Charulata Bansal on behalf of Celerity India Marketing Services Edited by: Prerna Lodaya • e-mail: prerna.lodaya@celerityin.com Designed by: Lakshminarayanan G • e-mail: lakshdesign@gmail.com Printed by: Xposures, A 210, Byculla Service Industrial Estate, D K Cross Road, Byculla, Mumbai- 400027.

Logistics Partner: Blue Dart Express Limited

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CONTENTS

May - June 2019 Volume 3 Issue 3

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COVER STORY The Multiplier Effect For a growing economy like India, which has a total road network of close to 60L Kms, but only over 3L kms of national highways & state highways, over 1.3L Kms of rail network and total navigable length of 14500 Kms of Inland waterways, Multimodal integration is a low hanging opportunity towards improving the time and cost efficiencies of the logistics sector in India.

13 SPECIAL STORY Draft National Logistics Policy Industry veterans share their inputs on the long-awaited National Logistics Policy, which is set to take shape soon and catapult the fortunes of the supply chain landscape…

INTERVIEWS

6 Growing Naturally Patanjali established a huge distribution network in the General Trade fairly quickly, now it has entered into contracts with major e-commerce stalwarts, shares Samir Chaturvedi, AVP & Head of Supply Chain – Patanjali Ayurved Ltd.

18 Disseminate. Distinguish. Disrupt Organizations today have an opportunity to leverage their supply chains effectively to create business disruptions, enlightens Sourabh Raghuvanshi, VP & Head Supply Chain, Lava International Ltd.

34 A book to look out for Vivek Gaurav, Head – Planning, CS&L, General Mills India, about his maiden writing venture and plans.

30 PERSPECTIVE Technology 4.0 – The future is here!

A sneak peek into technological developments taking the centre stage and making waves in the logistics spectrum

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10 Cyber Security – Drive with an Effective Awareness Program Cyber security (and cyber security awareness) are critical to your survival in an industry dominated by growing virtual crime, writes Dharmesh B. Rathod, Independent IT & Cyber Security Strategist, Architect & Adviser.

32 Analytics in the Pharma Supply Chain Raniprasad Palod, GM – Global SC Strategy & Analytics, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., offers a direction to all supply chain practitioners in answering ‘Where can I apply data analytics in my supply chain?

Editor: Prerna Lodaya DISCLAIMER: This magazine is being published on the condition and understanding that the information, comments and views it contains are merely for guidance and reference and must not be taken as having the authority of, or being binding in any way on, the author, editors, publishers who do not take any responsibility whatsoever for any loss, damage or distress to any person on account of any action taken or not taken on the basis of this publication. Despite all the care taken, errors or omissions may have crept inadvertently into this publication. The publisher shall be obliged if any such error or omission is brought to her notice for possible correction in the next edition.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private/professional capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the publisher. All trademarks, products, pictures, copyrights, registered marks, patents, logos, holograms and names belong to the respective owners. The publication will entertain no claims on the above.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only.

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INTERVIEW

Growing Naturally “Strong foundation of meticulous planning, well-entrenched distribution network and a strong logistics network is one of the core areas in this competitive world, which is where Patanjali has scored on to build a strong supply chain,” highlights Samir Chaturvedi, AVP & Head of Supply Chain – Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., during an exclusive interview…

Patanjali is a true FMCG ‘Made in India’ brand to reckon with.

What have been the USPs of the brand?

Patanjali brand is having its halo illuminated by the grace of Swami Ramdev ji and Acharya Balkrishna ji. Patanjali FMCG brand is having a wide range of products across food & non-food category. It is the only Indian organization having such a wide variety of Swadeshi & herbal products under one umbrella. USP of the brand lies with the innovation/product creation process while finalizing the products. E.g., there is a wide variety of products consisting of unique blends in specific categories which were not existing in the organized Indian Markets but were prevalent at an unorganized level, like physically refined oils, Atta-based Biscuits, Cow Ghee, Aloevera Juice, Giloy Juice, Dant Kanti, Amrit Rasayan, etc.

How did you take on your competitors in a space where there is no dearth of MNCs? The latent Indian Market was deprived of Swadeshi Products, which Patanjali as a Brand tapped at the right time and fulfilled it in due course by providing herbal, cost effective/value for money products which was instrumental in building trust amongst the Indian consumers. This is where Patanjali as a Brand scored over MNCs, which were

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existing over the decades. This gave Patanjali a competitive advantage over MNCs as it created its own market acceptance. However, to support reach of these products to consumers and, that too, in a cost-effective manner, a careful planning and distribution strategy was envisaged. This approach was also modified time to time to build past learnings.

What makes supply chain a rock solid foundation for Patanjali?

Strong foundation of meticulous planning, well-entrenched distribution network and a strong logistics network is one of the core areas in this competitive world, which is where Patanjali has scored on to build a strong supply chain. This is all the more important due to vagaries of the products, seasonality and multi-channel supply base while catering to a vast geographical customer base pan India.

Your business model is the major source of rural FMCG marketing research. What are the elements that have helped you in establishing such a strong supply chain network?

We have various formats for reaching out to end customers. It includes our exclusive stores in two different formats, namely Ayurvedic Kendra and Ayurvedic Chikitsalaya. These initial

formats helped us reach the various parts of the Urban and Rural markets.

However, to fill the gap, general trade retailers played a vital role. To support a bigger customer base in specific areas, mega stores were also initiated. Then there are exclusive tie-ups with other government/non-government agencies, which are predominantly very strong in rural sectors. There was a different kind of supply chain setup created for these tie-ups.

How do you plan to take on omni-channel retailing?

While Patanjali has established itself in General Trade through big distributors and exclusive retail outlets in the offline space, it has entered into contracts with major e-commerce stalwarts like Amazon, Big Basket, Grofers, Flipkart, etc., to establish itself in the online platform. To further strengthen the brand in the online space, Patanjali has also launched its own home-grown

INTERVIEW which are equipped with technology and automation with the flexibility to expand. Hence, service partners should also be matching the pace with us.

What are the USPs of Patanjali’s supply chain?

website www.patanjaliayurved.net, thus marking its omni-channel presence so that no customer is left out. In order to grab wider range of consumer network, a 24-hour customer service desk is already in place for addressing consumer query regarding their order tracking and traceability. In this model, consumers can place direct orders through websites for home delivery for which an integrated software is underway to synchronize all channels for establishing single-window information flow.

How have you been able to build and grow such an impeccable network of dealers and partners across the country?

As they say, “Rome was not built in a day”, likewise Patanjali network was not built overnight. A lot of brainstorming sessions were organized to establish an evaluation process in assessing and selecting dealers, distributors and franchisee partners. The clinching factor in assessment/selection of the partners has been their strong belief in Swadeshi

and their willingness to spread the same within the network. This journey is still continuing in the quest for change and building an impeccable network with improvisations.

Patanjali’s responsiveness to customers’ demand fulfillment has ensured endto-end solution. Our major forte is network designing, consistency in leadership, effective planning and technology implementation since we started expansion exponentially and have never looked back. We focus on achieving efficient fulfillment of demand, drive outstanding customer value, enhance organizational responsiveness, build network resiliency, and facilitate financial success. It is the ease and efficacy with which it fulfills demand for all formats, like dedicated exclusive stores, Modern Trade, e-commerce, Arogya Kendra, Chikatsalaya & Mega Stores, general trade and retailers.

What are the basis on which you select a 3PL?

Are there any technology tools being implemented by you?

3PL is the backbone for any business to run smoothly through hub & spoke model for scalability in operations.

3PL’s infrastructure strength, their experience in handling FMCG clients, service span encompassing all the areas related to warehousing and distribution, processes quality adherence, inclination/ adaptability for technology, quality of manpower, adherence to service levels and last but not the least is cost control, optimization and effectiveness.

As we indulge ourselves in different channels of sale, it is a prerequisite that prospective service provider has versatility in operations. Post GST, a lot of consolidation is ongoing to match the pace of business as we are moving towards mother warehouses/hubs,

SAP is the ERP tool that is being used to enable physical flow as well as information flow for supply chain effectively. A SAP integrated WMS is also under implementation. Transport management system tool is up and running. Apart from these soft tools, an integrated distributor management system is already under implementation and has been successfully put in place in the Iast leg. This is going to be extended up to distributors’ levels and all the information would be flowing back in real-time. This will ensure that all primary and secondary data is completely synchronized. For e-commerce delivery tracking, there is a separate software, which is already operational. This is being used for

3PL is the backbone for any business to run smoothly through hub & spoke model for scalability in operations. As we indulge ourselves in different channels of sale, it is a prerequisite that prospective service provider has versatility in operations. Post GST, a lot of consolidation is ongoing to match the pace of business as we are moving towards mother warehouses/hubs, which are equipped with technology and automation with the flexibility to expand.

Hence, service partners should also be matching the pace with us. supplychaintribe.com

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INTERVIEW

Patanjali’s responsiveness to customers’ demand fulfillment has ensured end-to-end solution. Our major forte is network designing, consistency in leadership, effective planning and technology implementation since we started expansion exponentially and have never looked back. We focus on achieving efficient fulfillment of demand, drive outstanding customer value, enhance organizational responsiveness, build network resiliency, and facilitate financial success. route planning, its optimization and tracking the consignments. Business Intelligence (BI) is available but would be implemented in later phases.

Managing a large number of SKUs is a daunting task. How challenging has the journey been and how have you overcome those challenges?

We at Patanjali manage a plethora of SKUs based on certain principles.

While 80:20 rule, based on the Pareto principle, is applied to focus on the fast-moving SKUs, which means ABC analysis of the inventory being in place keeping in mind the previous sales history and seasonal trends. Basis the dissection of stocks into ABC, production planning and inventory control with safety stocks in place helps in addressing variation / spikes in demand resulting in minimal stock

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outs has been the major forte of SCM. While managing the SKUs has been challenging, dissecting of the inventory into different categories like Food, Non-Food, Biscuits & Confectionery, oil and Ghee, Pooja Samagri range and deploying the inventory principles like ABC analysis as well as managing the forecast better coupled with PPIC, has helped to overcome the challenge.

How does the demand planning happen? What are the inventory management strategies being implemented by you?

Accurate Sales Forecast plays a vital role in managing demand planning keeping in view stocks at all the mother hubs and finished goods warehouses.

Supply chain uses its own assessment before manufacturing the stocks. Major factors to be considered are: demand variability, manufacturing variability and

lead time basis the market demography.

Cycle count is the most important tool for any Inventory management.

Other strategies involve keeping track of company's stocked goods through batch management, FMFO marking for outbound movement making sure that the right products are in the right place at the right time. Patanjali keeps striving to ensure that the best inventory management practices are being benchmarked for replication to improve stock availability across the channel for uninterrupted sales.

You are the role model for Indian companies who want to set up their base and flourish on the back of such a strong supply chain network. What message would you like to share with them?

Strong belief and uniqueness of the

INTERVIEW products has been the hallmark of Patanjali. Be adaptable and open to challenges and changes to be aligned to business at any given point in time.

Patanjali, as known to all, has been growing at a scorching pace in various channels where supply chain has been an integral part of the changes, thus never losing sight of business. So, the message is that Supply Chain is the backbone of any product-driven business to respond faster to business cycles. Last but not the least, keep reviewing supply chain at regular intervals in context of the business, address failure/gaps, improve and move on.

What do you think are the enabling policies that are good for the growth of supply chain in India and vice-versa?

In last two-three decades, lot of benefits were initiated for the manufacturing sector in specific areas.

The purpose of this exercise was the growth of backward areas. However, it has changed the balance of logistics in an unnatural way and, in many cases, the raw material was made to move to far off places and again finished goods were moved back. In that scenario, major producing states were neither supplier of ingredients / raw material nor there was significant demand of the final products. Moving back to natural business growth across India is helping supply chain to grow in a significant manner. Load balance of logistics is normalizing a bit. Apart from that manufacturing is now being planned not keeping in mind the tax benefits but basis availability of raw material, demand of the product, ease of operations and infrastructure of the state. This would also motivate states to create good infrastructure and to implement industry friendly policies.

Government policy of improving infrastructure, particularly highways has really helped in the overall development of transportation. The transit time has also reduced significantly. This has increased the efficiency of the logistics sector. The thrust given to various sectors for introducing technology is helping in various areas to build a stronger supply chain. It is more visible in hi-technology products, e.g., RFID usage, tracking using GPS, etc.

GST has been a major gamechanger

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as far as supply chain is concerned. It has given a bigger thrust for creating bigger warehouses and consolidation of services. This is surely going to make supply chain setups more versatile and robust. One of current issues is that warehouse infrastructure is not very good mainly in tier II and tier III towns.

The consolidation exercise is giving a big boost for construction of bigger warehouses or warehouse complexes having all required amenities at one place. Major 3PLs have already initiated setting up bigger warehouses to suit future demand.

How has been the impact of GST on your business? How do you plan to work on the weak links and emerge victorious yet again?

GST has affected many organizations partially or significantly. As initially, the overall sentiments of traders/ manufacturers took a beating, but this was a short phase, which is over now. Keeping benefits of GST in mind, consolidation process of warehouses is continuing. Initiation of this process was started even before GST came into existence; however, this was not done overnight and the entire process change took time. Basis consolidation working, logistics setup has improved. This will give its return in due course of time. It has already made our system more agile and cost effective.

Please enlighten us on your supply chain transformation story‌ Since the inception of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, the supply chain was largely product driven, which means there was a push of the products, which were produced or manufactured. The supply chain is now aligned to the current market requirements and hence it is consumer driven and not product driven.

There is a thrust working for value added services so that customers can get a real value of the products.

What are the disrupting change agents in the supply chain?

To err is to change where change is continuous as explained in Kaizen theory. Following are the change agents, like market demand, SKU rationalization, change in pack size, technology, digital, sensor and automatic identification, predictive analytics as an input for

demand forecasting and planning, automation in production, inventory and network optimization tools, driverless vehicles, deliveries using drones, etc.

What are your ambitious plans for growth?

Apart from continuing with a faster growth, we are also planning to diversify in range of products. Hence, to suit those specific requirements, new additions / improvements are being made to planning, distribution setup & logistics as well as warehousing.

Recently we have concluded a network optimization working. The results of the same are under implementation. These are being carried out in phases.

Where do you see Indian supply chain taking shape from here onwards?

Indian supply chain would be seeing a lot of inclusion of technology in various areas. This would include software to help supply chain optimization, automation of processes in manufacturing and web portals helping improvement in logistics.

Apart from this use of RFID, bar coding etc., will automate a lot of operations across warehouses. Current warehouse operations are labour intensive and keep on getting affected due to local factors as well as during festivals. The technology will surely change this process significantly. Turn over vs manpower ratio will be significantly up in future.

Samir Chaturvedi comes with a solid three decades supply chain background with diversified experience in various FMCG majors including Dabur India Ltd., EMAMI Group & Amway India. Having handled outbound supply chain for more than 19 years, his expertise lies in establishing process for sales and operations planning & pan-India distribution. He has also made significant contribution in network improvement by optimizing warehouse and logistics setup. His experience spans across manufacturing support operations including productivity enhancement, process optimization, technology finalization & its implementation for automation, projects and system improvement activities.

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Cyber Security DRIVE WITH AN EFFECTIVE AWARENESS PROGRAM Did you know that as per a globally leading research, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error? On top of that, only 38% of global organizations state that they are prepared to handle a sophisticated cyber attack. And worse, as much as 54% of companies say they have experienced one or more attacks in the last 12 months—this number rises every month. In lieu to this, cyber security (and cyber security awareness) are critical to your survival in an industry dominated by growing virtual crime, writes Dharmesh B. Rathod, Independent IT & Cyber Security Strategist, Architect & Adviser.

W

e are witnessing the most challenging and interesting phase of global industry currently. Big organizations globally have witnessed rapid and progressive business expansions since last few decades and continue to grow towards aiming for greater goals for coming times. As we excel towards business excellence and embrace digitalization, more and more of our business functions and processes are getting dependent on information

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technology domain, thus resulting into huge load of digital data.

With a very heavy past of industrial revolutions, paradigm shift in terms of automation across all industry segments and the way next generations are poised to witness the technology drift, it certainly makes sense for all of us to understand the imperatives with adverse impacts as well. In the context of Information Technology, we would in this article further experience the overall impact of Cyber Security, a domain that at times appears to be always seen

as if on Big Brother mode when any prospects of IT are being talked about or worked upon.

While such dependency on digital data is evident, it calls for adequate protection of data and the way it has to be handled, maintained and sustained in a secured way. I have had served major global business houses as their Group CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) in my past tenure and have experienced varied cultures when dealing with the adoption of, or taming cyber security for the organization. I have led the journey

FOCUS of Cyber Security in close conjunction with CEOs, Group CIOs, business CIOs and entire IT teams across all businesses.

Talking about the supply chain industry, I learnt the mammoth quantum of collaborative multi-way engagements between companies, partners, OEMs, authorities, etc. This fuels up making the ecosystem much more extended beyond the source organization(s) and hence the cascading effect over to all service functions like IT. Imperatively, Cyber Security also finds its way almost boundless when we take about big enterprises through such enormous supply chain ecosystems and makes the complexity at times challenging for CISOs to ensure a secured end-to-end environment.

Nevertheless, simple when said, but utter complex though when practically dealt with, I had profound Cyber Security partner ecosystem(s) that ensured the desired outcome in my past professional experiences.

Awareness is the first step One of the various streams that are directly driven by me is “Cyber Security” awareness and I am going to explain a bit about this for better understanding and easy acceptability across daily engagements within your business organizations/functions. Before that, let’s understand few trends within Cyber Security and the prevailing wrath across the industry in the past 1-2 years. The 2017 Cyberthreat Defense Report yielded dozens of insights into the challenges faced by organizations today. Key findings include:  Held hostage by ransomware: 61% of respondents indicated that their organization was victimized by ransomware last year. Of those affected, 33% paid the ransom and recovered their data, 54% refused to pay but successfully recovered their data anyway, and 13% refused to pay and subsequently lost their data.  Microsoft leaving the door open? One in five respondents is not satisfied with the protections Microsoft provides to secure Office 365 environments, leaving the door open for third-party security solutions.  Rising attacks are the new norm: The percentage of organizations

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affected by successful cyberattacks has risen for the third-consecutive year – from 62% in 2014, to 70% in 2015, to 76% in 2016, and now to 79% in 2017. Today, three in five believe a successful cyberattack in the coming year is more likely than not.  Now hiring: An astounding 9 out of 10 respondents indicated their organization is suffering from the global shortage of skilled IT security personnel. 51% of respondents are leveraging external vendors and contractors to fill the void.  Cyber insurance reaches critical mass: Three-quarters of respondents rate their organization’s level of cyber insurance investment as adequate. Less than 9% of respondents expressed concern over insufficient coverage.  Network deception technology excites: Of 16 network security technologies depicted in the survey, honeypots / network deception technology (41%) is the one most sought after in the coming year, followed by next-generation firewalls (39%) and user and entity behavior analytics (38%).  Database and web application firewalls reign supreme: When asked which of 11 application and data-centric security technologies are currently deployed by their organizations, respondents ranked database firewalls and web application firewalls (WAFs) highest, each with a 65% adoption rate.  Underinvesting in the human firewall: When respondents were asked what’s inhibiting them from securing their employers’ networks, “low security awareness among employees” was the top response for the fourth-consecutive year, followed by “lack of skilled personnel” and “too much data to analyze.”

Worth to note that not all but most of them point to the lack of sensible and cautious participation of all stakeholders/employees’ active involvement in securing the digital ecosystem. Eventually the scenario is no different across all industry segments, and hence found to be similar in supply chain related domains/industry segments as well.

Another report says – 84% NET of

Indian businesses are expected to make security a higher priority over the next two years, major drivers being:  Change in IT operations (e.g. cloud, mobility)  Internal security breach or incident  Change in business operations or client base  Reports of security breaches at other firms  Knowledge gained from training/ certification

So how are organizations dealing with Cyber Security?

At the strategic level, an organization should have a clearly defined Cyber Security program that deals with the domains of People, Processes and technology. This means there has to be necessary and sufficient Cyber Security technology controls/programs to safeguard the overall organization IT Landscape, necessary processes to manage the functions of IT and its systems and finally people with the right skill sets to drive the overall Cyber Security program. Overall, Cyber Security is also everyone’s responsibility – this emphasizes the vital fact that everyone’s contribution towards securing the organization’s data/information through due adoption/adherences of Cyber Security best practices. IT/ Cyber Security department alone cannot ensure entire organization’s Cyber Security posture without due involvement of every employee as active participants and in order to achieve this, every participant should be well aware of cyber Security concepts, roles & responsibilities towards adhering to Cyber Security policies/procedures to safeguard data/information and contribute to the overall organization’s Cyber Security Program. This can be made possible by the Cyber Security team or the department through a well thought Cyber Security Awareness program organization wide and run that yearly through appropriate checks and review methods.

“The best way to protect data security is to get rid of all humans. Plan B is to train them” Majorly Cyber Security is driven through a structured program – a year-long progressive campaign each year. Fundamental thumb rule – “Cyber Security is everyone’s responsibility” and ensure the enabling all employees

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Cyber Security is driven through a structured program – a yearlong progressive campaign each year. Fundamental thumb rule – ‘Cyber Security is everyone’s responsibility’ and ensure the enabling all employees understand all around Cyber Security – Organization’s policy, Compliances, Security management thus making sure proper integration of ‘People, Process & Technology’ embedded with Cyber Security for the organization. understand all around Cyber Security – Organization’s policy, Compliances, Security management thus making sure proper integration of “People, Process & Technology” embedded with Cyber Security for the organization.

Let’s look at various areas of Cyber Security campaign, their means and way for inculcating Cyber Security principles, policies, compliances & regulations and few measurement tools for gauging the effectiveness...

Cyber Security Awareness Course An interactive video animated streaming course content for all employees available. Typically, this course outlines the below:  Cyber Security fundamentals – CIO Triage: Confidentiality, Integrity & Availability  Cyber Security policy and its guidelines  Emphasis on major policy contents  Key areas of focus on end user (employee) Cyber Security aspects  Animated demonstration explaining end user security pointers such as maintaining confidentiality of business data, access control, avoidance of social media for business data etc.  A short and crisp test to refresh the learning of this course content  Finally, certificate to mark successful accomplishment of this course All end users/employees must be made to undergo this course and submit the certification successfully. This course should be mandatory across the organization. All leaders / department heads are also required to ensure this course is mandated to all their new joinees through their induction program.

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Awareness through email fliers & digital posters Email fliers and posters with welldefined themes targeting cyber security are released to all employees. Few of the widely involved themes are:  Data Leakage Preventions/ Protections  Clear Desk/Screen  USB Disk/Pen Drives security  Ransomwares, Malwares  Access Control  Security while using Social Media  Phishing  Major Cyber attacks  Security for Internet of Things  Cyber Security across travelling/ journeys, etc.  Workplace security

Awareness through physical posters Almost all of the digital posters can be utilized for poster based campaigns across major locations such as admin boards within major buildings, canteen where maximum focus of the employees can be obtained, plant buildings, etc.

Training sessions Extensive classroom based training needs to be conducted at location(s) across the organization. While CISO team cannot reach out to all locations, “Train-the-trainer” trainings for all business IT team InfoSec SPOCs will ensure extended coverage.

External speakers (outside-in) Several renowned & well-known speakers from the industry can deliver speaking sessions across various topics through different forums.

Every year the themes should change based on industry threat vector’s

changes. This helps us conduct the Cyber Security Awareness Program more effectively. Senior management across most of the organizations are very recently found to be much focused over Cyber Security considering its strong hold across various IT driven business ventures – be it internal as well as with external partners. With growing IT landscape, and the way we are leaping with full scale towards digitalization, it makes it imperative for all of us to embrace Cyber Security – Compliances and Best practices, thereby making the organizations collaboratively secure and safe.

Overall, the entire awareness campaign should be assessed through a thorough Cyber Security Maturity Measurement program that will gauge the effectiveness and efficiency with which the awareness program was built for.

Finally, Cyber Security is Everyone’s Responsibility.

Dharmesh Rathod is a Senior IT & Cyber Security leader having 22+ years of experience in the Information Technology & Cyber Security domain. He has served as Group CISO for India’s top 2 major conglomerates with diversified industry segment experience in ports & logistics, power plants, renewables energy business, coal & mining, steel manufacturing, oil & gas refineries, CGD business as well as country’s leading Demat Depository. He possesses wide experience across niche domains such as cyber security architecture, regulatory compliance, IT & OT/ICS/DCS/IOT/ Critical infrastructure, artificial intelligence/ machine learning /IOT cyber security, strategic partnerships, information security awareness campaign, risk assessment & management, infrastructure/applications & security architecture & integration.

SPECIAL STORY

Draft National Logistics Policy With a view to support growth and steer the supply chain wheels in the right direction, the Central Government recently unveiled National Logistics Policy draft and invited suggestions and comments from the industry stakeholders to make it the most comprehensive policy document. Pitching for an all-inclusive growth, we reached out to the experts to share their expertise and experience on the much-awaited policy that will shape the course of the logistics industry in times to come. This is essentially an opinion piece brought together by veterans sharing their inputs for the long-awaited National Logistics Policy …

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OGISTICS is currently valued at $160 Bn and is poised to hit $215 Bn by 2020-21, on back of development of logistical infrastructure such as dedicated freight corridors, logistics parks, free trade warehousing zones and container freight stations among other initiatives like GST, investments in road infrastructure, development of inland waterways and coastal shipping. This sector has also become the darling of all major global investors. The start-ups playing in the digitally-driven logistics and supply chain space in India have attracted investments worth $1.89 billion in 2018, according to a data provided by start-up research platform Tracxn Labs.

The government is also working overtime to create friendly policies for this sector. The Centre recently unveiled the draft for National Logistics Policy, aimed at promoting seamless movement of goods across the country and reducing high transaction cost of traders. Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, addressed the first stakeholder consultation on the draft logistics policy being prepared by the Department of Logistics of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in New Delhi in February 2019.

Speaking on this occasion, the

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Minister of Commerce said that India is now aiming to become one of the most efficient logistics providers in the world. The vision of the policy is to ramp-up economic growth and trade competitiveness through an integrated, seamless, efficient, reliable and costeffective logistics network. The Hon’ble Minister informed that logistics is a very important component of ease of doing business as 80% of ease in business relates to logistics. The Ministry is working on several steps, including the development of a national logistics portal to boost both domestic and foreign trade.

N Sivasailam, Special Secretary (Logistics), Department of Commerce, informed that in order to drive these objectives, 18 thrust areas have been detailed in the policy. These include optimizing modal mix in the country and development of logistics infrastructure, enhancing transport and rolling stock infrastructure, strengthening the warehousing and agri-logistics sector, streamlining key logistics processes – EXIM and interstate movement, facilitating first mile and last mile connectivity, and easing logistics for MSME, e-commerce and all other key sectors in the economy.

The National Logistics Policy is slated to be rolled out soon.

Challenges faced by the industry There are prevailing issues that are hampering the effective functioning of logistics in the value chain. An industry expert on the condition of anonymity, shares the below mentioned challenges being faced by the industry at large: Logistics sector is dominated by Unorganized players: India is largely served by small and marginal fleet owners, each having a fleet of less than 10 vehicles. These players are fragmented all across India. The logistics market is highly unorganized with very limited large players. This opens up many challenges like:  Strong local influence – Small players will have better influence within their locality whether it comes to knowledge of the topography, acquaintances with local authorities or influencing the decisions of companies / individuals for placing their vehicles.  Too many middlemen – Since small and marginal fleet owners will have limited reach, they usually depend on middlemen / agents / consolidators for getting better utilization of their vehicles, leading to value loss in the supply chain.

This usually leads to adopting various malpractices to augment

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SPECIAL STORY Key objectives the policy aims to achieve in the next five years:  A national logistics online marketplace to simplify trade documentation  Incentivize logistics to make it more efficient  A data and analytics center for monitoring key logistics metrics  A center of excellence to drive innovation  An Integrated National Logistics Action Plan for all logistics related development

profitability. On the other hand, demand is mainly driven by small and medium enterprises. Due to lack of information and reliability, they also fall prey to unorganized players.  Non-uniform practices – Since there are millions of logistics service providers, it leads to non-uniform practices in the market, as everyone would like to follow their own practices, most suitable to them.

This leaves no room to implement international best practices.  Unreliability and no clear accountability – Once goods are handed over to the transporter, it is highly unreliable in terms of delivery in time, delivery in good condition and safety of the products. There is no clear accountability and visibility.

In case of untoward incidences, this always led to dispute.

UNTRAINED DRIVERS: Driving is unpleasant and not a celebrated job. Pay scales are not very good.

Drivers are not treated well by all the stakeholders – logistics service provider, organization who hires the vehicle, organization who receives the product or even government officials. They also

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do not get better sanitation facilities, food or working conditions. They are often deprived from proper sleep in expectation of early delivery. This leads to drivers indulging in unscrupulous activities, which is not good for the sector. As the industry is flooded with unorganized players, this is also one of the reasons for deployment of untrained drivers for the vehicles. These drivers ply billions of dollars’ worth of goods every day on the road. Drivers are very important stakeholders in the entire logistics service. They need better training to handle special situations, en-route facilities, sanitation, working condition and food. It will be beneficial for the sector, if their basic needs are being taken care of.

POOR ROAD CONDITIONS: Road condition in India is not very good.

About 37.5% of total road network is unpaved. Paved roads are also not in good shape, due to lack of timely maintenance. Highways have many intersections, which leads to unwanted traffic jams. All these challenges cause 1) higher lead time during the journey; 2) increased maintenance of the vehicles; and 3) low mileage and

increased fuel consumption.

In India, average distance covered by a truck is about 400 – 450 kms per day. This has improved over the last few years, due to implementation of GST, reducing check-points and development of expressways. However, it is still way below average of more than 1000 kms in many countries. While steps are being taken to improve road conditions in India, there still is a big room for improvement in this area.

Radical actions are required to be taken to improve the situation.

What does the Draft policy include?

By improving logistics, the Ministry hopes to provide an impetus to trade, enhance export competitiveness, improve India’s ranking in the Logistics Performance Index to between 25 and 30, reduce losses due to agri-wastage to less than 5%, and bring down logistics costs to 10% of GDP from the current levels of 13-14%. To encourage startups bringing in new technologies in the logistics space, particularly in areas such as market aggregation, freight forwarding, cold chain, and telematics, the draft suggests setting up a start-up

SPECIAL STORY acceleration fund to help incubate such ventures.

The logistics wing will work with the respective ministries for identification and development of terminals/ logistics parks next to specific rail sidings to optimize freight movement for key commodities. This would result in reduction of first-mile and last-mile costs, drastically bringing down the logistics cost. Expedited clearances will be facilitated for infrastructure projects. For example, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, provides single window environmental clearance through the “PARIVESH” platform. It will also identify key corridors that can be developed as ‘model logistics’ corridors connecting major clusters, the draft said.

Doubling employment in the logistics sector by generating 10-15 million jobs, focussing on enhancing skills in the sector and encouraging gender diversity will also be on the anvil, the draft stated. The policy has further proposed setting up of four committees/councils, namely — National Council for Logistics, Apex inter-ministerial Committee, India Logistics Forum, and Empowered Task Force on logistics.

Bridging the gap Industry experts have expressed their positive sentiments towards such a great stance being taken by the government as it will ultimately streamline the entire supply chain network in the country. These are some of the suggestive measures for the government’s kind consideration: PROMOTE LARGE INVESTMENT IN THE SECTOR: Recognizing the need of the industry, logistics sector has been granted Infrastructure status in Nov 2017. However, the government needs to do lot more to attract large investment in this sector. While many large players have entered into the market in the last decade, due to many regulatory and operating challenges, which are typical to India, large players are still skeptical to put big investment in road transportation. There is enough room for growth in the sector. With adequate support from the government, large players will bring investment and best practices in the sector. This will be good for all the existing players, and sector in large, as they will have access to the best practices of the industry.

BUILD BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE: Government has invested heavily in creating large infrastructure in the last 2 decades. They have built road infrastructures and expressways to increase connectivity and reduce travel time between destinations. However, large part of the country is still struggling with bad road infrastructure.

The government needs to make structural changes to their policies to improve road infrastructure and connect every village with better roads, thereby reducing travel time for logistics players.

This is one of the biggest hindrances for large logistics players to invest heavily in India, as average utilization of truck (by distance travelled in a day) is very low as compared to international standards.

DIGITIZATION TO REMOVE MIDDLE MEN: Since the industry is fragmented on demand as well as supply side, it is important for the government to come forward and enable all the stakeholders digitally. This will help to reduce transaction cost in the entire supply, bring transparency in the sector, and help small businesses to grow.

Industry Voice  Shamsher Dewan, Vice President & Sector Head - Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd The draft national logistics policy released by the government is comprehensive and it has defined 14 objectives and 18 policy thrust areas, with the target of driving India’s economic growth and trade competitiveness by having an integrated, seamless and cost-efficient logistics network enabled with technology and with an optimum modal mix.

Establishing an integrated logistics network across the country is likely to be the key focus area for the government.

The government will draw lessons from other countries like Germany, which has a single ministry overlooking logistics and transport. It is responsible for developing an integrated logistics action plan and implementation of strategies to boost interconnectivity of the various modes of transport. In this regard, the government should take concrete steps to give sufficient power to the department of logistics under the ministry of commerce so that it can take similar actions.

The second area of importance will be to boost interconnectivity of the various modes of transport. This would entail significant investments into multi-modal logistics

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park (MMLP), warehouses and CFSs. While the government has indicated development of an integrated policy for development of MMLPs, it will be imperative for it to identify key locations by assessing several parameters such as freight flow assessment, connectivity to nearby industry clusters, type of commodities to be handled and proximity to consumption zones.

The proposed National Logistics e-Marketplace is the third area of importance. The draft policy mentions the creation of a single window logistics e-marketplace, which will onboard various logistics service providers, customers and regulatory agencies. Such a portal will lead to increased transparency in the sector, which will reduce costs associated with malpractices and fasten clearances and other regulatory approvals. Given the dominance of the unorganized segment in the logistics sector, the policy should enable small fleet operators to take advantage of this e-marketplace. This will be critical to ensure success of the national logistics e-marketplace.

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SPECIAL STORY  Yogendra M Bhatt, Pharmaceutical SCM Professional - Consultant Firstly, I would like to appreciate the government for taking the initiative for such people-friendly measures not only ensuring ease of business, but also preventing national wastages during logistics operations.

The major hurdle for logistics in national transportation is prevailing due to Road permit system of different states. There are inter-state and intra state Permit, entry tax, check post, all have own state wise different rules & procedures. It not only creates complexity but encourages waste of time, involvement of mafia, due to too many paper work less educated drivers have to be on the mercy of officials and agents. There is a huge waste of extra money and time. It is suggested to have one policy, procedure, rule and working system for all states.

Permit should be for end-to-end destination. It would be best to have One Country One Permit.

Normally, highways are focused on and they are tended to with more emphasis and promptness to keep in order, but various connecting roads to highways- be it from town, sea port or air port- are not up to the mark. There should be a policy in place to have standard road sizes, quality and a system of operation for connecting roads to highways. It will be a great relief for all if this is taken care of positively as it will improve the per-day running times of trucks.

I would also like to focus on one of the most crucial elements, that is the training & accreditation of driver, cleaner and associated staff. For operating logistics functions, major role lies in the hands of vehicle drivers. Unfortunately, in India it is still 90% or more governed by the unorganized sector. If we bring in basic compulsory training, it will have a positive impact on the performance of logistics operation. There should initially be basic training covered for: Road discipline Highway rules & regulation Goods & Transport Administrative paper work Awareness on digital process, functioning of related mobile apps  Safety & hazardous requirement  Right & responsibility of driver  Truck condition & compliance need as per goods carried by the carrier.

   

When we talk about “N form”, I would like to emphasize that all formalities need to be digitalized under one platform covering all concerned agencies i.e. Air, toll naka, check post, municipality, Rail, etc., to record automatically as soon as physically goods are passed through said point. It will function in real-time without human interference, thereby eliminating delays, corruption and bad practices observed by owners of goods. It is a known fact that if you have everything digital, then there is less one-to-one interaction, which reduces chances of malpractice.

It is imperative to have CCTV Cameras at fix distances across the length and breadth of Indian highways. Currently it is at many places like toll naka or at main junctions but not

in symmetry across the country. It will enable authorities to closely monitor the movement of traffic and taking corrective action in time for any untoward incidents on highways with a high security mechanism. With such a real-time information of highway, authorities will be in a better position to determine time limit to clear hurdles on highways due to various reasons as well as in fixing service level timelines for clearing obstacles i.e. accident, potholes and road damages, etc., so that it ensures timely action and seriousness in attending task.

By giving accreditation /certification to truck attending staff, they will get motivated and inspire others to join the profession. To start with, it may need soft approach on implementation. Once inducted, they should be elevated with improvised education & implementation standards. There should be awareness programs conducted on a timely basis about various government facilities for storage, cold storage, bonded warehouse, AEO, etc., as people are unaware about the new age practices.

 Dhiren Vora, Vice President – Commercial, Godrej & Boyce While the National Logistics Draft policy has factored into the concerns of the logistics industry at large, I would like to mention 4 aspects that desire attention from the Logistics Committee to make it one of the most welcoming policy for the betterment of the industry…

INFRASTRUCTURE: The country needs better railway infrastructure, good docks and railway platforms with roofs for protection from rain. The passage from Railway Goods Yard to Road needs to be wide/well-built and needs to be suitable for movement of large vehicles.

COSTS: As far as cost is concerned, I feel that the government needs to bring fuel under GST and permit input tax credit to transporters. There needs to be the elimination of goonda tax. Truckers union is quite prevalent in the northern states, which creates a great havoc in the effective transportation of goods and

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also there needs to the elimination of Warai, Mamool, Hattimari, etc. This could bring the logistics cost down by one percentage point.

LAWS: RTO rules are different for different states. Even though GST is implemented, there is no uniformity in this aspect. Road permit for vehicles should also be eliminated. Container sizing for high cube vehicles should be increased. Rules should not be different for scooter bodies and others. They should be industry specific and permit high volume carrying vehicles, however the weight carrying capacity should not exceed.

TECHNOLOGY: Time taken at tolls is excessive and the time saved by faster travel due to improved roads is lost at the toll naka. Tolls should be digitized with fast tags, which should be made mandatory at the time of vehicle purchase.

SPECIAL STORY  Sushil K Cherian, Independent Logistics Consultant India has the 2nd largest road network and therefore assets deployed on them requires its road transport to be given an Industry status so that large business houses enter into it with owned assets. This will encourage larger and soft funding available to it from Financial Institutions. Currently funding is short term and costlier to this industry and the lending institutions require minimum 200% collateral besides personal liability guarantors. Further the user Industry is rather too happy to sign up contracts for transportation with companies who have nil or scarce assets. These super brokers or middle men (to put it blatantly) source vehicles at lower costs from these unorganized asset owners. Thus, the profit to the actual asset owner diminishes through use of middle men and higher finance costs.

Moreover, drivers who are engaged in the movement of cargo are prey to the so-called authorities engaged in various regulations the cargo and vehicles are required to observe as the temporary custodian of the vehicle & goods in transit. In case of non-compliance, the vehicle of the poor truck owner and his driver gets detained. The owners of goods refuse to take the responsibility as they take the signature of the illiterate driver while handing over the consignment. It appears

that the drivers should take up this profession only after a post-graduation to be able to comprehend such commercial law.

The reason why the strength of drivers is depleting day by day is because of the poor upright remuneration (without engaging in theft) and ill treatment by one and all while behind the wheels.

Around 90% of vehicle ownership still lies with individuals with up to 1 to 8 vehicles who have to play into the hands of brokers, authorities and companies and have no voice to give a decent livelihood to these unsung heroes who ferry the Indian economy without respite to their own woes.

The present action of the government is definitely a baby step towards improving the conditions of the Road Transport.

However, only a big bang approach such as giving it an Industry status and urging large business houses who can influence larger investment and use volumes of scale to bring down logistics costs can remedy the situation permanently.

Too little and too late may see a huge shortage of drivers in the days to come.

 Mihir Parekh, VP, Nilkamal BubbleGUARD The policy aims to bring down logistics cost to 10% of GDP benchmarked with western nations. The first step to achieving this would be to standardize the freight vehicles and then the packaging & pallet sizes, which would significantly optimize the load during each trip. Incentives should be given to adopt greener practices like the use of reusable packaging, pooling & return logistics as well as switching from wood or paper to packing materials with a

lower carbon footprint and high recyclability. For example, Nilkamal’s Pallet Sleeve System is engineered for over 1000 usage cycles, delivering 5x freight and space savings on return logistics and is fully recyclable. Combine this with data obtained from the proposed e-marketplace portal, we can develop innovative custom-made packaging solutions to further improve freight optimization.

 Mayur Tolia, Former GM-Logistics, ACC Limited Road transport industry is and will be facing more and more driver shortages in the times to come. Reason is quite simple: substandard quality of work life, social status and health & safety issues. With this, the risk increases of novice ‘helpers/ Khalasi’ becoming self-learned truck drivers. The logistics policy needs to address the “driver community” holistically in terms of:  Driver skill development program  Structured training and certification of new drivers before they get a HVC license  Programs around Health and Safety, Health & Life coverage especially designed around risks and exposure to the truckers  Promote setting up of well-equipped rest house at every 150 km, which will help reduce fatigue and improve road safety  Include road safety initiatives / programs under CSR category for corporates to encourage more corporates to come forward to spend and invest on road safety  Give driver training companies a Start-up Industry status as a separate category to infuse new funding and newer entrants in this space  Standardize driver safe driving parameters based on

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commodity and vehicle type, which should clearly specify driving hours and resting hours.

While the draft policy talks of setting up logistics parks at strategic locations, the reality of small time make-shift warehousing facilities, which typically are traditional godowns with 4-walls and a roof (asbestos/ tin/ RCC...) cannot be ignored. These warehouses will continue for years to come and the policy needs to focus on guidelines around them and upgrading them:  Guidelines on structural safety and lay-out: levelled floor, multiple entry-exit, basic amenities, H&S  On the lines of Annual Road Safety report published

by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, safety incidences reporting for warehouses need to be looked at  Programs around Health and Safety, Health & Life coverage specially designed around risks and exposure to the truckers  Incentivize mechanization and automation  Give warehousing sector a Start-up Industry status as a separate category to infuse new funding and newer entrants in this space.

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INTERVIEW

Disseminate.

Distinguish.

Disrupt.

“The Customer is more demanding today than ever, resulting in shrunken lead times and more agile & responsive supply chains. Businesses are challenged, resulting in leaner and more efficient supply chains. Last mile deliveries and reverse logistics have gained much more importance today specially with the maturing e-commerce ecosystem. With these transformations, supply chain is no longer a support function, in fact, organizations today have an opportunity to leverage their supply chains effectively to create business disruptions,” enlightens Sourabh Raghuvanshi, VP & Head Supply Chain, Lava International Ltd., during an interview…

What distinguishes Lava from the already established brands in the country?

Lava has a single layer distribution system, which is unparalleled and penetrates deep across the country.

We work with 1300+ distributers who in turn serve 1.6 lacs + retailers. On the after-sales front, we have a strong network of 1000+ customer service centers. We have our own design house and manufacturing plants. Then there is supply chain as the strong backbone of the organization stitching together all these facets. To sum it up, endto-end control across the entire value chain has helped Lava in carving out an established name for itself in such a fiercely competitive marketplace.

How have you designed your supply chain strategy in line with the company’s strategic vision?

We are a customer centric organization, which attempts to add value in the lives of our customers with every

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action. Supply chain design, both on upstream as well as downstream side, is built keeping in mind this philosophy to fulfill the need of providing the customer a reliable and useful product at an affordable price with ease of availability. On the upstream side, we have strong strategic sourcing abilities to procure raw material both for import and indigenous items, which gives a competitive edge to the company.

On the downstream side, we attempt to exist as close to our customers as possible with our 22 fulfillment centers spread across the country. Additionally, a well-knit web of 70+ national and regional logistics partners serving customers at jet speed is another arrow in our quiver. Over time, we have also invested in and developed strong demand forecasting & analytics capabilities, which help the organization plan ahead.

You have a nationwide network of 1.65 lakh retailers in the country. How do you instill the

spirit of trust and transparency to enhance business?

If you visit any retail shop in the country, you will realize that the biggest cost of running a business is inventory.

It can be physical inventory at his shop, his account receivables against the inventory sold or his account payable against the inventory procured on credit.

We attempt to help retailers manage

INTERVIEW this cost in 2 ways: 1. We don’t burden them with large inventories from our brand. This is contrary to prevailing psychology where brands generally want to push their inventories into the retailer’s shop. On the basis of the daily sales and market demand, we attempt to keep just the right inventory with the retailer. With effective supply chain control, we are able to replenish stocks fast and hence sustain business for retailer as well as for brand with lean inventory levels.

2. Through our “MyLava” application, which is designed specifically keeping in mind retailer and field force usability, we are enabling retailers on the technology front too.

Through this App, a retailer has the ability to trace his entire inventory and related payments, returns, etc., which enables him to carry out his business better and more efficiently.

What are the criteria on the basis of which you select a 3PL? Lava is known to create entrepreneurs and also support small entrepreneurs to grow bigger. We work hand in hand with such small entrepreneurs and help them create more jobs to boost the nation’s economy further. At Lava, we believe in creating partners and not vendors. So, long term association and mutual trust is key when we select a 3PL. While selecting a 3PL partner, we do look for mutually converging thoughts on culture and vision on the way we want the partnership to flourish.

Secondly, past performance and industry record of 3PL is obviously important.

Thirdly, the financial capability to put in required capex and to run operations seamlessly also forms an important part.

What are the aspects that you feel 3PLs in India are lacking and demand attention?

I believe there is still so much scope with most 3PLs standardizing their services. There is too much variability in performances across geographies and performances across different times of the year. The solution lies in the right investment in technology. In India, automation in warehousing and logistics with 3PLs will go a long way in giving 3 benefits: consistent service levels, increased efficiencies and transparency across the value chain. Such a scenario will be a win-win for both 3PLs and their clients.

What has been one of the most challenging projects managed by you at Lava?

We are trying to build an automated replenishment system for retail ecosystem in the mobile handset industry. This has never been done before. The ask is simple: Right inventory at the Right time and at the Right place. The right place happens to be 1.6 lacs+ retail shops in the country.

There are obvious supply chain as well as technology-related riddles to solve while we implement this. But the reason I rate this as the most challenging part is because of the numerous external factors involved such as huge demand variability, credit system prevailing between retailers and our distributors, creating trust with retailers that we will replenish only the right amount of inventory and also the changing competition scenario in the country. In a way, riding on our supply chain and technology backbone, we are aspiring to change the way sales and distribution happens in this country.

Please enlighten us on the innovative supply chain strategies implemented by you…

We are continuously putting in efforts to make our supply chain more agile and responsive with each passing day.

All our destinations are connected through all modes of shipment – air,

road (normal as well as express mode) and rail. We switch between modes every day on the basis of the demand and supply gap at that location.

To bring in even more cost efficiencies, we are continuously evolving our network design, devising milk route runs and increasing FTL turns. We build our supply chain strategy in a way that we are able to react and absorb fluctuations in capacity requirements in almost no time. This is also a key focus area.

How is the rural supply chain network being designed and sustained by you as this is one of the biggest markets in the country?

Rural market comes along with inherent problems due to the depth and width of distribution that a player like Lava operates in. We tackled this problem with a two-pronged approach: First one is “Go Local” and second one is “Enable Local”. We don’t rely solely on national logistics partners when it comes to the rural market. We decided to “Go Local” and our team has done exceptionally well in identifying local players who help us extend our supply chain in rural areas and tier 3 towns.

However, scouting local partners alone in not enough. Second step for us is to “Enable these local partners” by integrating them with our technology platform, providing trainings and enabling them with best practices and processes. Significant work has been done in this area with tangible results.

But I believe we still have a considerable path to cover in our efforts to achieving excellence in rural supply chain.

How do you ensue customer satisfaction on the back of an impeccable service?

Best mantra I believe is to have a mechanism for “Continuous feedback” from your customers and then ensuring “Continuous improvement” on the basis

We are continuously putting in efforts to make our supply chain more agile and responsive with each passing day. All our destinations are connected through all modes of shipment – air, road (normal as well as express mode) and rail. We switch between modes every day on the basis of the demand and supply gap at that location. supplychaintribe.com

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INTERVIEW

To bring in even more cost efficiencies, we are continuously evolving our network design, devising milk route runs and increasing FTL turns. We build our supply chain strategy in a way that we are able to react and absorb fluctuations in capacity requirements in almost no time. This is also a key focus area. of the feedback received. At Lava, we have a well-established mechanism to seek feedback from our internal and external customers on a regular basis.

We measure and compare ourselves regularly on the customer satisfaction index and take actions to improve further. It is important here to keep your ears open for feedback and keep ourselves open to criticism and learning.

What are the technology tools deployed by you?

Lava, as an organization, has always believed in the benefits of continuous technological advancements and has made regular investments in technologies. On the supply chain front, we recently adopted JDA solutions and integrated it with our SAP systems to make our demand and distribution planning system far sharper and more robust.

All our inbound supplies including import shipments are tracked on a SAP integrated “vendor portal” whereas we are in the process of rolling out a “transporter portal”, which will bring all our outbound customer supplies on a single platform, creating transparency and generating efficiencies.

On the after-sales side, spare parts’ demand generation and allocation is completely automated having no human intervention.

What would be your advice to the younger talent in supply

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chain who are wanting to join this most exciting stream?

“Get your hands dirty”. There is no substitute to learning by doing it yourself. During my formative years in the industry, I still remember to accompany and sit beside the truck drivers at times in the entire journey from the vendors’ end to ensure shipment reaches overnight to our production factory. My tea breaks used to be with blue collar workers on warehouse floors and I never hesitated to do and learn what they were doing.

Learning through such experiences is always immense and stays with you for a lifetime.

Secondly, we have entered in an era where one’s skills are likely to become obsolete every few years. Hence, continuous investment in upgrading your skill sets and keeping yourself updated on changing industry knowhow is absolutely critical.

Supply chain over the years has witnessed tremendous transformation. Your views on the same…

Industries behave in line with changing customer expectations and business needs. Supply chain domain is no different to this rule. The customer is more demanding today than ever, resulting in shrunken lead times and more agile and responsive supply chains. Businesses are challenged, resulting in leaner and more efficient

supply chains. Last mile deliveries and reverse logistics have gained much more importance today specially with the maturing e-commerce ecosystem.

With these transformations, supply chain is no longer a support function, in fact, organizations today have an opportunity to leverage their supply chains effectively to create business disruptions.

Where do you see the future of supply chain, with lot many policy changes in the offing, in the times to come?

Simplification of the taxation structure has helped. Modification in waybill rules as well as transition to electronic waybill system nationally also was a welcome step. No doubt, with these changes, transportation is more hassle free and quicker today. Industry needs more such positive changes.

Sourabh Raghuvanshi is a seasoned leader in supply chain solutions, warehousing, logistics and demand planning. He possesses vast experience in operations management and the customer service domain with a rich 11+ years’ experience in various industries such as telecom, retail and automobile, having worked with organizations such as Lava, Walmart, and Tata Motors. He has done his MBA from ISB Hyderabad and BTech from NIT Rourkela.

COVER STORY

The

Multiplier Effect

Speed and efficiency are the name of the game in the coming years for the supply chain and logistics industry. Multimodal logistics facilitates the movement of goods by using different modes of transport- road, rail, air and water, boosting the efficacy of the traversal of goods. The wheel of fortune seems to be turning for India as the economy is seeing an uptick along with the highest ever FDI being witnessed in the country in recent times. This certainly calls for a supply chain network, backed by multimodal transport to help every facet of this growth keep up with the surge. But are we prepared to ride the multimodal growth story amid inherent challenges? This special story covers it all‌ pros & cons and how a close co-ordination between government and private players can reap the benefit in the interest of the Indian economy‌

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21

COVER STORY

I

N over two decades, India is seen to be getting more foreign investment than China. According to a report published by the Economic Times, in 2018, India has seen over $38 billion of inbound deals as opposed to China’s $32 billion thanks to the fresh opportunities presenting themselves in the sunrise sectors. To sustain this momentum, the country needs an environment that can effectively complement it. Logistics and supply chain are the cogs of the same wheel which if steered in the right direction can tremendously benefit the entire value chain. The transportation industry effectively shapes the economic health of a country and the overall quality of life of its citizens. The performance of the transport systems also has a direct impact on public policy concerns. Additionally, its effects make themselves known on important environmental factors as well.

According to a Deloitte – Assocham Report, transport modes in India, typically operate as isolated entities, with a skewed modal mix that relies heavily (about 60%) on the already congested road transportation. The Indian coastline and river network has historically remained under-used despite its multiple benefits. Cost for coastal shipping is INR 0.15-0.2 per tonne km compared to INR 1.5 for railways and INR 2.5 for road. Addressing these anomalies alone provides a huge potential to lower logistics cost in the economy by INR 21,000-27,000 Cr by 2025.

Offering insights into the dynamics of multimodal transport, Anand Sen, VP – Temperature Control & Express Logistics, FSC, expresses, “With a steady growth in the trade of manufactured

Shantanu Bhadkamkar, President, Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India (AMTOI)

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goods, textiles, FMCG products, etc., robust growth in e-commerce and an increased demand for containerization, there are multiple opportunities for the use of multimodal logistics. In Express, for example there is scope for the use of multimodal logistic parks as points of aggregation, transportation and other VAS such as customs clearance and bonded storage yards. There is also the opportunity for the use of airways in temperature-controlled logistics for primary movement of small volume shipments along with roadways for last mile delivery. Multimodal logistics are most ideal in international logistics where a combination of ocean freight, rail roads and roadways are used for import of products.”

Aptly defining the essence of multimodal transportation, Prashant Bhatmule, Head – Outsourcing, JK Paper Ltd, explains, “Multimodal transport makes use of trucks, trains, ships, airplanes, etc. Even though the shipment is broken up into different modes of transport, it still falls under a single contract/bill of lading. Companies that choose multimodal shipping can handle all shipping delays and interactions through one provider. Some of the main advantages here are faster deliveries and proficient tracking.”

The quandary of choices Giving insights on the age-old practices being followed in India, Shantanu Bhadkamkar, President, AMTOI, shares, “India has been among the two largest EXIM trade economies for over the past two millennia until the mid-eighteenth century. It was a natural consequence of high-quality goods & services supported by the highly evolved, reliable & globally competitive logistics, trading, regulatory and banking infrastructure. The riverine

transport network and coastal shipping were vibrant as the goods moved across the country. However, since the first passenger train in India ran between Bombay and Thane in 1853, there has been an explosion in the growth & goods movement by rail, which led to decline in coastal and inland waterways transport. With the increase in National Highways and state highway network, industrial clusters & trading market yards were developed in the proximity of road & rail network. As a result, the importance of riverine transport diminished with time.”

Considering the timeline since the pre-independence era, rail transport has changed significantly. In the past, goods transport by rail was heavily subsidized in the interest of British trade. It was meant to facilitate the movement of raw material exports and maintain sales in India at competitive rates. This situation has reversed in the post-independence scenario- passenger trains were subsidized, which resulted in a massive surge in the number of passengers and cargo trains got lower priority. This resulted in rail congestion and traders moving cargo via the road carriers.

On this note, Sukanta Das, Chief Logistics Officer, Hindalco Industries Limited, comments, “The domestic logistics movement has pre-dominantly seen higher dependence on road transport over Railways. These are mainly the reasons for preferring road: • Higher Rail Freight • Long & Uncertain Railway transit times • Poor Railway terminal handling infrastructure • Overall improvement in Road infrastructure Similarly, Alok Gautam, Director

It is encouraging that the Draft National Logistics Policy will be soon followed by an action plan to meet the Policy objectives. It is equally heartening that even the State Governments are engaging with Logistics Service Providers for the State Logistics Policy. All these initiatives are longterm measures and will take time to materialize but the beneficial effect will be significant and for a long time, provided the capacities created are big enough to meet with the requirements of at least next 15 years.

COVER STORY

Octavio Sanchez, President, Managing Partner and Director, TIS Consulting Group

– Supply Chain and Logistics, Dow Chemical International Pvt Ltd., highlights, “The dependency on road transport is tremendous in India. For years, road transport has contributed to around 60% of freight movement and it has grown yearly. The incremental addition of network is not able to match the pace at which freight movement is growing. Adding to this is the delay in creating the dedicated rail freight corridor & limited coastal movementsall of which is resulting in congestion on the roadways.”

Offering an insightful perspective, KK Kaul, SCM Consultant, Sterling Enterprise, remarks, “The first and foremost reason is awareness about alternate models and route of transportation. Road transportation provides point to point service, reducing the hassles of customer. If you find alternate arrangements of transportation besides air, which is very costly, then it comes down to Rail and Sea. Awareness of Rail transportation is good, but because of damages and storage issues, they are not preferred, apart from the high cost.”

Anand Sen comments, “Surface transport has traditionally been the preferred mode of transport for movement of cargo across India. The high cost of air transport and the lack of options in rail for refrigerated containers has been a constraint on exploring multi-modal options. With the growing demand from time-sensitive industries like pharmaceuticals and dairy, multi-modal options are being explored. Pharmaceutical products such as vaccines, blood, serum, for example are extremely temperature sensitive and they sometimes need to be delivered to remote locations across the country as part of a government health program and that too within a very short time

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As globalization keeps ‘opening doors’ to global trade and while consumers keep requiring a better price for their products, multimodal transportation will keep its rank in the top priorities. From commodities to electronics to fresh produce, the best logistics networks are the reason behind the success of products from all around the world being available and accessible to a reasonable share of the planet.

frame. A combination of air and road will hence need to be used for such situations.”

Harnessing the advantage of choice As has been explained by experts, depending on one mode of transportation will never be helpful to any organization. With regards to this, the logistical planning needs to have a mix of all modes based on the frequency, connectivity, and cost along with the transit time. Holding time at Rail yards and sea port is important, which is required to work out while taking a decision on the transportation mode.

Prashant Bhatmule highlights that multimodal transport can benefit many businesses that ship large amounts of cargo. Using multimodal transport for your shipments can save you money while providing faster transit.

Multimodal shipments are broken up into different modes of transport that all fall underneath a single contract/bill of lading. Other than saving money and time, there are many reasons to choose multimodal transport: Easier Communication: Shipping companies handle updates through a single provider and contract. This makes it easier to facilitate communication.

Provides Faster Transit Options: Due to new restrictions on truck drivers on driving hours and other regulations, some longer shipments are not as fast as they could be. Giving companies more options for their shipment gives the shipper control and flexibility and can help shippers find the best, most efficient way to ship their goods.

“Currently our domestic transport mode mix is distorted with road, rail and water holding 60%, 31% and 9% share respectively. This is nowhere in

line with the international benchmark of 25-30% for road, 50-55% for rail and 20-25% for water. The Government, through its National Logistics Policy, plans to promote the development of multimodal infrastructure. Once all these are implemented successfully, it will be easier to leverage all modes effectively,” quips Sukanta Das. KK Kaul stresses, “As a company who is in the business of manufacturing & sale and whose life line is distribution, all modes of transportation need to be considered. The mode of transportation depends on the distance, route, cost & lead time. Now a days, inventory carrying cost is very high, so nobody would like to keep material in stock for long, hence shortening of lead time is also important. To ensure timely movement of material, we need to look into the ultimate modes of transportation. During high seasons, one can use all the modes depending upon the urgencies and availability. Long distance transportation can be managed by train, and short distances by road.”

Offering a global perspective, Octavio Sanchez, Managing Partner and Director, TIS Consulting Group, states, “The essential aspects in utilizing multimodal logistics are reliability, a true cost advantage, and low variability. Bottom line, logistics is all about the cost. One common metric of this cost is what is known as the Total Landed Cost, which can include different components but most usually must consider: • The actual transportation cost, • The financial cost of the inventory in transit, • The safety stock cost resulting from the supply chain getting protected against variability.

There’s always a trade-off in using different modes of transportation based on the actual product being distributed.

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COVER STORY For example, a very cheap product will be more affected by the transportation cost, while an expensive one will be more affected by the inventory in transit cost.

In the end, variability is the most feared concept. If a logistics service takes 10 days but only 5-hour variability, is much better than a service that takes 5 days but with a 3-day variability. The latter will have an impact on safety stock levels and hence in the overall average inventory.

While designing a new multi-modal service, everything must be done to ensure variability is kept at the lowest possible. Depending on the maturity of the market, there might be a stronger necessity to evangelize the potential users, run pilot programs, and provide incentives for the first users of new modes or services.

The many wins of the multimodal transport “Countries that are intelligent about developing multimodal and logistics advantages can take a share on the global logistics markets even with products that they don’t produce or consume. A great example are top countries of the Logistics Performance Index of the World Bank. On the other hand, countries that don’t develop strong multimodal infrastructure are lagged behind competitively,” remarks Sanchez.

China is using different means of transportation for reaching its final destinations. They have developed both sea and rail connectivity to reach to many distant areas. The government is supporting and encouraging companies to use alternate methods to reduce road transportation load. Railways are improving connectivity for internal movement. The best example is rail

Sukanta Das, Chief Logistics Officer, Hindalco Industries Limited

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connectivity of China with Europe. In Europe and America, rail transportation plays a major role beside road. India has large land and waterways available.

India has one of the world’s largest network of railways, hence, it will be easy for India to develop a multimodal link. Only focus is required.

Alok Gautam says, “We have seen successful implementation of intermodal operations in Europe, including usage of inland waterways through Rhine network Europe and North America uses rail as mode of transport to a significant extent. While these markets are very different from India, these are good examples of regions that have effectively leveraged multiple modes of freight transportation and created greater efficiencies.”

Giving an apt example, Sukanta Das comments, “The US cement industry is organized in 350+ railway integrated terminals which provide storage and handling infrastructure for bag & bulk and also provide value added services.

Similar could be a much needed development of commodity-specific interventions in India.”

Challenges under the looking glass The new challenges for the global multimodal landscape are related to the usage of new technologies for traceability, security and safety.

The usage of sensors to monitor the transportation of goods, IoT, and technologies like blockchain to provide more reliability to transactions are the new focus areas. According to Sukanta Das, India’s logistics sector is highly de-fragmented and ranks 44th in the latest edition (2018) of the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI). LPI is an evidence on how easy or difficult it is to transport general merchandise within

a country.

Alok Gautam adds, “The industry is open to the government’s steps to support the transport sector.

Implementation of GST has been very helpful to logistics partners. However, I believe that the policy implementation to encourage technology adoption has to be done alongside the implementation of Bharat Stage (BS) norms. We understand that the government is prioritizing infrastructure development. In parallel, the focus should also be on expediting the rail freight development. Measures that can minimize supply chain costs should be actively sought.” One more area, which has caught the attention of the industry, is standardization. This would include warehousing, packaging, and including standards. A liberal publicprivate partnership ecosystem will boost the development of the logistics sector and the government should focus on this.

According to KK Kaul, the bottleneck that needs government’s attention mainly is the frequencies of trains and offering direct connectivity to major cities. Besides, there has to be additional drop-off & pick-up points, enroute to any final destination. Handson staff training could improve.”

Transportation cost plays a very big role in profitability of any industry.

It has been observed that many-atimes, transportation cost exceeds product cost. Government must look into the rail transportation cost so that industry and people can afford it. Similarly, for sea transportation, connectivity between inland and the sea port needs improvement- it has to be well-connected. To develop this mode of transportation, government can provide incentives on investment by lines and improve connectivity on the

Logistics mode selection is a function of availability of an optimal modal mix and enablement of first mile and last mile connectivity while keeping the cost optimal. Therefore, an integrated Multi Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) with a single window resolution for all administrative, regulatory, certification and compliance needs, can be a substantial aid towards making a cultural shift to a multimodal transportation.

COVER STORY

Alok Gautam, Director – Supply Chain and Logistics, Dow Chemical International Pvt Ltd.

We, in India, have significant potential to integrate and grow our multimodal operations. It can be enabled by consolidation of volume for movements between west coast to east coast by coastal movements. India also has a fair advantage of developing inland waterways. The availability and development of partners supporting coastal movements by feeder vessels is also important in creating an efficient multimodal logistics ecosystem. Under implementation are two of the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), once completed they will aid multimodal movement of freight. Government in 2018 has also announced 4 additional DFCs, which will help increase share of rail freight movements in the country.

domestic internal transportation so that the people utilize sea transport more and more.

Anand Sen highlights that the constraints of the current modes of transport do not allow for the right mode of transport to be used for the category of product. For example, Raw materials need to ideally be transported

by Rail, Pipeline or waterways and Consumer goods by road. But due to over utilization of the rail and lack of inland waterway options, almost all products are transported by road. Even in this mode, there are challenges related to the quality of highways and high fragmentation. Last mile connectivity is a major challenge for airways for which again rail or road have to be used.

He adds, “One of the major bottlenecks in railways is the high congestion on tracks since both passenger and freight traffic use the same rail lines, thus saturating the existing infrastructure and increasing risk. The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCC) was set up under Indian Railways in 2006 to address the issue but the implementation has been plagued by delays. 432 kms of the western corridor and 343 kms of the eastern corridor are expected to be completed this year and the entire project by 2020.

Once completed the corridors will see increased load capacity, track length and speeds.”

Government interventions With the Government of India taking significant steps to strengthen the logistics sector, we are witnessing significant investments in Railway Lines, Inland waterways or Varanasi Port, an Inland river port on the Ganges

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river built under the government’s Jal Marg Vikas project, stresses Shantanu Bhadkamkar. The port has provided a direct link with the Port of Kolkata & Haldia Port and Coastal shipping (Sagarmala Programme). It will improve the reliability, safety & security of movement of goods while reducing the logistics cost in particular and transaction cost in general, improving the LPI. KK Kaul says that the government needs to engage in a lot of activities to see the growth in multimodal transportation. First is rail transportation. Railway is owned by the government, but we have not seen any initiative from the government’s side to encourage the industry for using it. There are private agencies who hire basically the route and then they are going to the private suppliers for collecting material, but there is nothing from the government’s side.”

He adds, “If government owns the train, I think it should develop a logistics department in railways, which will perform logistics business with all the industries. Since they control both, the rail and the track, they can run special trains on defined routs depending upon availability of loads. They can manage transshipments and leverage the infrastructure available on every part of India. This will not only provide the much required transportation network, but also will help reduce cost.”

Second is the waterways and sea transportation. Development of Inland waterways is surely government’s responsibility. Hence, a survey is required to identify the waterway routes, mode of connectivity and development of inland ports with the facility of loading and unloading.

Government should encourage the

investment from business groups to invest in barges and ships for inland waterways and sea routes. They should be given long-term loans on investment and subsidiary, enabling to organize pick to drop facility. An awareness programme from the government is important for the industry to encourage waterways for transportation, which will help people test the alternate methods.

Alok Gautam believes, “The government understands the urgency of developing other modes of transportation. But there are factors that are limiting this development – the delayed implementation of dedicated rail network and the increased passenger traffic resulting in lower priority for freight. However, the recent formation of the department of Logistics under the Ministry of Commerce is a welcome step in this direction and we hope to see positive developments, such as the proposal to set up integrated logistics parks. We believe it will help to decongest movements and provide better interconnectivity.”

For Sukanta Das, “The Indian Government’s policy initiatives like Make in India and the nation-wide implementation of a uniform indirect tax system hold promise for an efficient, integrated and buoyant economy.

Logistics industry would be a critical enabler and facilitator on this journey towards achieving the envisioned growth potential – with better stakeholder coordination, increased infrastructure investment and improved operational efficiency.”

Making Logistics a part of the Harmonized Master List of infrastructure Subsector is sure to aid the sector a lot. It would ensure credit flow through longer tenures and reasonable interest rates. Further, it would ensure the

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COVER STORY simplification of approval processes for constructing multi modal logistics parks with capabilities of facilitating both storage and transport infrastructure.

Anand Sen remarks, “Developing an infrastructure for multimodal supply chain calls for coordination from multiple governmental agencies, which on the face of it increases the cycle time of investment. Nevertheless, there has been an increased focus by the government on developing multimodal logistics capabilities since it contributes to the GDP. Case in point are the 34-mega multi-modal logistics parks, which was approved in 2017 with a heavy investment. These parks are to act as hubs for freight aggregation and distribution thus reducing the overall costs.”

Charting the multimodal route The decision of choosing the best mode of transport for your shipment is derived from many different variables.

Leaning towards multimodal transport provides shippers with alternatives that are timelier and save shipping resources. Multimodal freight is preferred also because it is easier to manage on account of its facilitation through a single contract, as opposed to intermodal freight which generally goes through various contracts. Multimodal and Intermodal transport, both can contribute towards environmental sustainability, improved lead times and inventory costs.

The essential aspects that aid in utilizing multimodal is mainly availability, then frequency and price. In India, the frequency of rail transportation to every location and every destination is not available.

Same is with sea transportation. The frequency is once in a week as far as

KK Kaul, SCM Consultant, Sterling Enterprise

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cargo movement by train is concerned, explains KK Kaul. Frequency and availability play a major role in deciding alternate route of transportation. Then comes the price. At present, frequency and connectivity of rail transportation is not available for all cities, as far as consumer products are concerned. If the frequency increases, volumes will automatically increase. With this, the railway business goes up which may also result in lowering of rates. There has to be daily movement of cargo trains, and government must look into these services.

Giving an example, Sukanta Das adds, “Inland Waterways can be used for transportation of key commodities by developing commodity specific interventions. For example, for iron ore, most economical mode of transport beyond 300-400 km is inland waterways. Therefore, it is critical to identify the key origin to destination pairs where movement of goods can be facilitated through inland waterways for each commodity. Subsequently focus can be placed on identifying and implementing key infrastructure interventions in coordination with the relevant ministry (for example, handling infrastructure for the specific commodity at the respective port)”.

Offering insights into measures being followed by Dow, Alok Gautam shares, “At Dow India, we have explored the usage of multimodal movement from Kandla and Mundra ports to North ICDs. The next natural step for us would be to push volumes by multimodal movements from Greater Mumbai Region (GMR) to North if frequency and availability of rakes is improved. It would also be interesting to see how we can connect Kandla with Chennai through coastal movements to ensure safer freight movements.”

Agrees Sukanta Das, “Enhanced multi modal infrastructure would support in improving first mile and last mile connectivity to expand market access of farmers, MSMEs and small businesses. Availability of MMLP infrastructure would enable seamless multimodal freight transfer, provide world-class storage and handling as well as delivering value added freight services. Further, it will enhance logistics efficiencies for e-commerce players.”

For Shantanu Bhadkamkar, hinterland terminals, particularly Multimodal Transport Hubs catering to more than two modes of transport will play a significant role in the development of reliable logistics solutions. Switzerland is a landlocked country; however, by investing in high-quality logistics infrastructure such as Trimodal Transport Shipment Terminal at Basel, it has overcome the imitation of being landlocked. The Terminal being at the intersection of Rail, Rhine River and Road network has become Switzerland’s Freight traffic hub. The cargo can be transported from the gateway port to the terminal for either onward carriage by any of the connecting modes or delivered to the consignee with last mile connectivity transport. The Terminal facilitates the consolidation of volumes with operational efficiency of fast transit times and reliable last-mile connectivity.

As a result, there will be beneficial implications for total logistics cost, entire transport time and high reliability.

Well planned and immaculately executed logistics solutions give opportunities for development of manufacturing and trading clusters not just in the vicinity of the Terminal but also on the arterial transport networks.

Offering the perfect modal mix, Anand Sen states, “Last mile

For any multimodal transportation, there is always a road connectivity required because through neither railway nor waterways, we can pick the material directly from the source of generation. It is actually multimodal transportation in India, where the first leg and last leg has to be done through road transportation. The first demand from the company is connectivity of pick up till drop. Hence, the logistics service provider should have a facility of picking up goods from the source and also dropping material at the final destination.

COVER STORY

Prashant Bhatmule, Head – Outsourcing, JK Paper Ltd.

Multimodal transport often saves shippers money through lower freight rates and lower cargo insurance costs. Multimodal is a great option for shippers when a certain route or mode is too expensive for their shipment. Multimodal transport helps guarantee consumers on-time deliveries and true cost savings. Whether you are shipping by air, rail or barge, multimodal shipping can be a solution for you.

connectivity is one of the most vital links of the supply chain but also the costliest, with some reports suggesting that up-to 40% of the total supply chain cost is taken up for last mile delivery. Matching the right mode of transport based on the industry, location and expected point of delivery is vital to ensure that this vital cog in the supply chain is efficient and cost effective. Surface transport for last mile is the most flexible since it provides the option of delivery to the point of customer’s choice but it also increases the cost since there are chances of missed delivery, repeat delivery etc.

Have pick-ups at dark stores, collection points or directly from the warehouse is an option that is also being explored and is ideal where the primary mode of transport is air, sea or rail. Technology and Data Analytics are also very important tools that a lot of companies employ to increase the quality of deliveries, operational efficiency and service levels of last mile deliveries.

With promising growth havens in sight, Shantanu Bhadkamkar concludes, “For offering good logistics solutions to meet the (small, middle-sized & big) customers’ needs with the flexibility

Anand Sen, VP – Temperature Control & Express Logistics, FSC

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they require, it is as important to engage with the small and middlesized logistics service providers as with mega-operators who are willing to invest in large infrastructure projects. It is encouraging that the Draft National Logistics Policy will be soon followed by an action plan to meet the Policy objectives. It is equally heartening that even the State Governments are

engaging with logistics service providers for the State Logistics Policy. All these initiatives are long-term measures and will take time to materialize but the beneficial effect will be significant and for a long time, provided the capacities created, are big enough to meet with the requirements of at least next 15 years.”

Success stories

Smart port communities: To cope with increasing traffic volumes (up to 40,000 truck arrivals daily) and no possibility of expansion, Hamburg Port Authority leverages a logistics platform that consolidates data from various sources (e.g., vehicles) to communicate with the port’s various stakeholders, resulting in shortened driving times (up to 5,000 hours saved per day) and better planning for port stakeholders.

Predictive maintenance: Operating a fleet of nearly 30,000 moving assets that move over 2 million passengers each day, Italy’s railway operator Trenitalia has established a dynamic maintenance model that analyzes sensor data and monitors equipment behavior remotely to decrease maintenance and service costs (8% to 10% reduction expected), while boosting availability and reliability of service for passengers.

With the focus of the government on developing multimodal logistics parks across the country, there are numerous opportunities seen in freight consolidation, specialized warehousing within the parks satisfying requirements of different commodity groups and valueadded services related to bonded storage areas of imported cargo.

The development of dedicated freight corridors along the golden quadrilateral also paves the way for the use of railways as the primary mode of transport for long haul movements. Railways is also showing keen interest in developing containerized refrigerated infrastructure for the movement of temperature sensitive cargo along the DFCs especially in the dairy, pharma and frozen food sectors.

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COVER STORY

SERVICE COMBINATIONS Choosing the best transportation mode is a crucial step in shrinking time and cost of moving freight between a shipper and a point of purchase. There are pros & cons to each mode of transportation, depending on the type of freight being moved, and there is an optimal route for every shipment.

Shippers are now turning to intermodal transport for their freight because of intermodal’s advantages. Some shippers are even locating or relocating their DC sites near railways for easy and cheap access to intermodal transport. If you are unsure what the best method, or combination of methods, for your shipments, here are some pros & cons of each:

ROAD PROS: Broad and flexible road network enables point-to-point service and connects specific activities  Relatively small capital cost, especially on short distances  Quick implementation of new technologies into industry infrastructure  High competition creates low prices and many carrier options  High speed of vehicles enables same- or next-day delivery option CONS: Noise and environmental pollution  High probability of accidents and breakdowns  Growing driver shortage and stressful working conditions for drivers  Limited capacity due to size and weight restrictions imposed by government and technical limits  Congestion, often hard to forecast, which results in delivery delays  Probability of freight damage due to careless transportation that depends greatly on each carrier/driver liability

RAILROAD Ideal transportation mode for bulky freight and long distances.

PROS: Environmentally friendly

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(compared to other modes)  Long-distance routes are costeffective  Strict timing schedule with minor congestion probability  Suitable for bulky freight and raw materials, carrying capacity is high and elastic  Safest form of transport, highly protected from bad weather impact CONS: Lack of flexibility due to limited routes that cannot be adjusted quickly and easily  Not widespread enough to provide full coverage across country  Cannot provide door-todoor delivery, which requires intermediate loading & unloading, amounting to increased time and labour utilization  Lack of competition and monopoly ownership due to huge costs of creating construction and maintenance

AIR The fastest yet most expensive type of transportation.

PROS: Quite Fast  Small possibility of freight damage due to airport handling and storing regulations  Ideal for perishable goods with strict expiration date  Often is used for quick 24hour or 48-hour delivery, and additional costs are passed to consignee CONS: Capacity is small, resulting in high transportation costs  Unsuitable for vast majority of bulky and heavy freight types due to custom, security or capacity restrictions  Strictly limited routes and timetable  Additional costs caused by loading/unloading, handling, airport taxes and intermediate delivery  Environmental pollution and dependence on fuel prices

OCEAN Effective for large freight amounts

of non-perishable goods and for enterprises within cities with water access.

PROS: Less expensive than other modes, especially for large cargo volumes  Cost doesn’t fluctuate greatly depending on size and shape of cargo  High capacity lets shipper spread costs among other numerous shippers  Can service large amounts of bulky freight at once CONS: Inflexible routes and timetables  Very slow and not suitable for perishable goods or fast delivery  Limited number of ports  Possible delays due to bad weather

INTERMODAL Intermodal transport can be effective for just about any large shipment.

PROS: Secure and quick delivery thanks to standard container usage for all transportation modes  Combine benefits of different types to create best-suitable solution for specific type of freight and delivery  Less labour for handling of loading and unloading  Reduce air pollution and transportation costs CONS: Possible delays due to factors from each mode and loading/unloading setbacks; shipment cannot be time sensitive  Not suitable for small shipments  Sometimes, dock dues can be applied that increases total cost of transportation  Unable to provide consistent service level Demand for intermodal transportation is on the rise. WalMart, Home Depot, and many other large companies have relocated their massive DC centres to nearer intermodal hubs. As trucking capacity shrinks, shippers are trying to avoid the high prices of motor freight carriers.

COVER STORY

Gaining Muscle “Though road movements still have major share in freight movements in the country, we see a definite shift especially in large corporates, MNCs and companies dealing in commodities opting for multimodal shipments,” informs Ajit Singh, CEO, TCI CONCOR… What are your strategies to leverage on multimodal opportunities?

I believe, sooner or later, there will be no way around offering environmentally friendly and economical alternatives to road freight transport. The future belongs to multimodal logistics.

For this to take shape, you need sound transport management.

Many issues have to be resolved in advance, including volume of goods and requirements such as routing times. It is then possible to determine which consignments would benefit from a modal split with regard to economy. The pressure on companies to address multimodal logistic options is growing, but the concepts must be intelligent. Therefore, it makes sense to develop these with specialized partners.

At TCI, we spotted this gap and hence the opportunity few years ago. We started offering our customers solutions through rail – both container and normal rakes (TCI CONCOR), Coastal Ships (TCI Seaways). Also, we have nearly 5000+ containers of our own for dry and liquid bulk.

What are the gaps that exist today?

The sector faces major hurdles that continue to weigh it down.

Some of them are: • Acceptance of multimodal options and making a conscious effort to move towards these modes and experience the benefits thereof • Investments in ships, containers, logistics parks at the right locations • Minimize the inventory storage time and transit times • Enable higher and more efficient participation in rail movements • First mile and Last mile connectivity bottlenecks to be reduced • Proper MTO ACT enabling single consignment with insurance being a component to be added.

How are your clients demanding a mix of multimodal options? What are the peculiar demands you receive from your esteemed clients?

Though road movements still have major share in freight movements in the country, we see a definite shift especially in large corporates, MNCs and companies dealing in commodities opting for multimodal shipments. Clients’ demands, of course, are always diverse. But what lies common between all is customized, flexible, faster and value-added services. Enhanced real-time tracking and control of the goods has also become an important aspect since digitalization and automation have come into place. Along with these, the customers also demand

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sustainability in logistics. At TCI CONCOR, we use the most efficient, safe and fully integrated combination of road, rail and coastal transport solutions. We arrange dedicated freight services in accordance with the given budget of clients, which frees them of their logistics related worries and allows them to focus on their core business.

What’s your take on enhancing the last mile connectivity by efficiently utilizing each mode of transport?

Last-mile connectivity is critical in any logistics solution; more so, with the use of multimodal transport system as it lessens the risk of loss and time; pilferage and damage to the goods at trans-shipment points, specifically the chemicals. TCI CONCOR runs dedicated rail services on all major train routes in the country and are linked to the existing CONCOR scheduled services and hubs. Rail side or port side warehousing eliminates the need to create a separate hub and thus reducing the cost.

This acts as a node for a hub-and-spoke network. In addition, technology for last mile deliveries plays a big role. We, at TCI, CONCOR have an app-based solution to ensure that cost and operational efficiencies are passed on to our customers.

Are the dedicated freight corridors a distant dream or a poised reality for future?

Dedicated freight corridors are definitely not a distant reality.

In fact, on November 30, 2018, the railways completed 194km section from Bhadan to Khurja in Uttar Pradesh of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), and 306-km section between Madar (Ajmer) in Rajasthan and Kishangarh (Rewari) in Haryana in the western segment in December 2018.

Railways’ freight operations will see a fundamental change by operationalization of these corridors. Ideally, railways should be the preferred mode for long-distance transportation since rail transportation not only reduces costs due to economies of scale, but also reduces fossil fuel consumption. It’s, in fact, a big step towards Green Logistics mitigating environmental pollution, and also help railways regain its freight transport market share, which has been continually falling due to competition from other transport modes.

The DFCs will allow much shorter transit times from freight source to destination, which means it will reduce the time by up to 50% in some cases. Freight trains on DFCs will be capable of attaining speeds of 100 kmph as against the current maximum speed of 75 km/h on Indian Railway network.

Additionally, DFCs will lead to the construction of industrial corridors and logistics parks along the routes.

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PERSPECTIVE

Technology 4.0 – The future is here!

The continual improvement in technological developments that are flooding the market have taken centre stage and are making huge waves in the industry today. Each challenge faced by supply chain professionals is being identified and addressed, and tech-enablers are introducing gamechanging advancements to ensure a boost in efficiency. Let’s peek into the future with these industry experts who share their experiences with prominent issues and the corresponding tech-enabled solutions.

Mr Bharat Ramanath, Director & Industry Principal, ShipX Technological advancements will continue taking place in a bubble, and these do not need to happen with an end of solving business problems. It is tech application/ product developers who have the responsibility of building solutions to specific business problems. Often, these tech application developers get caught up in the frenzy and hype of new technology and start to build ‘cool solutions’ using these new technologies, which are then force fitted to business problems. This is unfortunately a case of a ‘solution’ seeking a problem and is thus a perversion of means and end! Thus, as Supply Chain practitioners, we need to be cautious as to which technologies we implement solutions with. We need to be grounded in reality and adopt technologies that enable building meaningful solutions to real problems. We must lead with the problem and not with the technology. Technology is truly only an enabler in this context. If this isn’t done with care, one would end up over-investing in technologies which would barely be of practical use. And always remember that in any solution, the ‘product’ is only one-third the recipe. It is vital to align the ‘processes’ and the ‘people’ in order to build the complete solution. In my experience, not enough time and effort is spent on the latter two ‘P’s’, and solutions consequently do not have the impact that they should.

Mr Prasad S R Akshintala, VP & Head - Center of Excellence, Future Supply Chains Solutions Ltd Integrated Supply Chains are Enabling Organizations to Deliver Value to the Customer and the Organization in a Seamless manner by marrying demand to supply in the fastest and most optimum possible manner. Automation and Digitization are becoming more and more affordable thanks to scale. Service Providers who are able to integrate supply chains with effective processes which could be monitored to deliver scale and efficiency through digitization and automation initiatives would be emerging as partners of preference for customers by offering them clear competitive advantages and scalability.

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PERSPECTIVE

Mr Naveen Rajan, Global Business Transformation Consultant, HPE India The world of supply chain has evolved greatly in the recent years. Many of the order to cash processes need to step-up into a more pull-based customer centric flow, that focuses on customer value, speed, predictability and zero defects. In today’s interconnected world of supply chain, the transformation needs to be hinged around cross functional areas of Plan, Source, Make and Deliver. Each of these areas have innovations of their own that bring in the technological advancements required to speed up tactical/operational and strategic metrics. These innovations mostly come in the form of digital enablers that are implemented by technologists to ensure the removal of possible bottlenecks. For instance, the digital trend of using 3D printers is catching on fast to manufacture spares & NPI prototypes in MAKE space; Integrated e2e control tower across partners ecosystem in the PLAN and so on and so forth.

Mr Pratap Singh Chauhan, Vice President – Logistics, Trident India Over the years, an evolution has taken place when it comes to goods delivery with regards to the visibility of the product that they are expecting. This has been a dramatic change and has brought in a plethora of new technologies which are implemented to enjoy numerous benefits. There is now a high demand of detailed visibility among the patrons who order items from online delivery portals and more.

The client expectation is now to have total visibility of the product as it traverses from its designated dispatch point to their doorstep. Considering this major change, the evolution of the supply chain industry has to incorporate traceability as one of its constant features. The industry has to evolve in the direction of including track-and-trace features at every interface that a patron interacts with to cater to their demand of visibility.

Mr Milind Majali, Sr. General Manager (Corporate Logistics), Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. The growth in the Indian Economy in the coming decade will be driven by manufacturing, Infrastructure development, government policy reforms and the service sector. The supply chain sector will have to employ an integrated approach to provide value propositions in logistical solutions. The key verticals for integration will be Human Capital, Technology, Investment, Automation, Procedural simplification and Intermodal Transport Mix. To ensure the success of this integration, I strongly feel that there is a need to impart the special skills, required for the logistics sector, through educational curriculums. The challenges and expectations in the near future will be consistent and to perform upcoming challenging tasks and implement technology efficiently, the industry needs a systematic educational back-up. To cope with the need of talent in the industry, private logistics players have established their own training institutes. I believe these players should join hands with well-established educational institutes by adopting the partnership approach and help the industry to face upcoming challenges in the service sector.

Mr Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye Delivery tracking has become commonplace in the supply chain and logistics industry.

Every party expects delivery to be made with every single stop accounted for, right till the end-customer’s doorstep. This trend has been more popular in B2C environments than B2B, but the latter has been catching up very fast. B2C tracking is relatively a lot simpler in terms of implementation because of the straightforward nature of data availability. The details that are expected by the customer are simplistic in nature and do not need to go through filters of customization. On the other hand, in a B2B environment, priorities are highly fragmented. Each stakeholder who has access to the system expects to only receive information that is relevant to them. This is the kind of digital ecosystem that needs to be created in B2B that connects all logistics stakeholders on a single platform and provides them with information collected from all the available data sources at the right time with an added layer of predictive intelligence. This enables businesses to make datadriven decisions and pro-actively manage supply chain transportation.

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FOCUS

Analytics in the Pharma Supply Chain

Supply Chain Leaders and Practitioners are eagerly looking out for ways to adopt new age technological solutions into specific supply chain problems, which can address specific issues and bring real value additions into the balance sheet of the organization. Through this article, Raniprasad Palod, General Manager – Global SC Strategy & Analytics, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., offers a direction to all supply chain practitioners in answering ‘Where can I apply data analytics in my supply chain?’

D

EMANDING customers, emerging technologies, global supply bases and ever-changing market landscapes require companies to continuously adjust their supply chains to stay competitive. Relying on traditional supply chain execution systems is becoming increasingly difficult, with a mix of global operating systems, pricing pressures and everincreasing customer expectations.

Recent economic impacts such as rising fuel costs, the global recession, supplier bases that have shrunk or moved offshore, as well as increased competition from low-cost outsourcers add to the complexities. All these challenges potentially create some or the other kind of waste in the supply chain.

With the advent of technology in the past few years, we are hearing more and more about the use of new advanced analytics machine-learning platforms and technology enabled solutions in supply chain and logistics which are aimed at reducing cost and improving service levels. Supply chain is a great place to use analytic tools to look for a competitive advantage, because of its complexity and also because of the prominent role supply

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chain plays in the cost structure and profitability of a company.

Let’s look at the generics pharma supply chains, which are complex and almost vertically integrated.

As against FMCG industry wherein planning, sourcing, manufacturing and distribution is under the umbrella of supply chain, generics supply chain doesn’t have control on the manufacturing of formulation plants.

Formulations plants are governed by regulatory standards, quality compliance and so the manufacturing vertical has its own identity and ownership. These formulation plants are global plants; they manufacture formulations for all the markets in which products are being sold. They are, in turn, dependent on various vendors to seek required ingredients to produce formulation drugs. Pharma companies prefer to have their own API factories, which is a vital source of raw material to their formulation plants and additional business to drive top line. Non-core formulations are outsourced and manufactured from Contract Manufacturing Sites.

Procurement organization plays vital role in collaborating with the contract manufacturing sites and

collaborating with the vendors to supply all ingredients required for the manufacturing of formulations and APIs.

Challenges faced by Generics Pharmaceutical Supply Chains Supply Chains for Generics face various challenges, to name a few: Demand Variability & Penalties: Forecasting of formulation demand is a greater challenge due to little or no visibility of the distributors’ inventories.

Distributors are customers for almost all generic pharma companies. In developed countries like the US, distributors like McKesson and Cardinal charge penalties to parent pharma companies for untimely delivery of formulations. These penalties are huge and parent pharma companies supply chain needs to be agile to mitigate this risk.

Cost of Manufacturing: Manufacturing plants are designed for large scale production. These plants manufacture volumes for various markets. Volumes of orders from the distributors are far less than a single batch of manufacture.

Many a times, pharma companies decide not to manufacture a batch due to its non-profitability.

FOCUS Agility in Manufacturing: Ability of manufacturing plants to meet demand variability is a big challenge.

Manufacturing constraints like higher batch sizes, product robustness and higher quality checking times lead to delayed delivery to customers.

Additional Logistics Cost: Due to operational delays, supply chains incur significant air freight charges, in ideal situations such consignments should travel via the cheapest sea route.

Availability of Ingredients: On the procurement side, availability of all ingredients at right plant in right quantity is a challenge. Non-availability of any ingredients delays timely manufacturing of formulations which, in turn, results into delayed delivery to distributors and additional burden of penalties from distributors for lower service level.

Complexity in Contract Manufacturing Sites Network: Many non-core products are manufactured by contract manufacturing sites. Ensuring timely manufacturing from these contract manufacturing sites is an uphill task and a significant bandwidth of procurement teams goes into managing urgent formulations.

Innovate to Reduce Cost: In addition to all above challenges, there is an additional expectation to find newer and better ways to reduce supply chain cost without compromising on service levels.

Technological advancements at play We spoke about various challenges earlier, let’s see how analytics can play an enabling part in addressing these challenges: Demand Variability & Penalties: To mitigate this concern requires usage of deep learning techniques to forecast products, which are high volume and high variability in nature.

One can expect significant forecast accuracy improvement using this nontraditional method of forecasting. Using specific machine-learning models to predict sales loss for each business, and then integrating them in S&OP planning cycles will provide visibility to manufacturing plants. This will help prioritize the manufacturing of products

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wherein penalties are expected from the distributors in the future.

Cost of Manufacturing: To address manufacturing challenges, there is an urgent need to develop long range planning models, which will provide visibility to bottlenecks expected in the future for all manufacturing plants.

These bottlenecks could be then resolved by taking appropriate actions like outsourcing or capacity expansion.

On the operational front, simple tools like total SC cost v/s Sales loss can be provided to plant planning teams whenever they are facing a dilemma over producing a particular batch. These tools can be integrated in planning systems.

Agility in Manufacturing: There is a need for MES systems for capacity constraints in all manufacturing plants.

This MES system will provide tracking of critical metrics such as system reliability, system utilization similar to FMCG industries and will bring rigor on identifying significant root causes, contributing to major productivity loss.

Additionally, cost benefit tools, which will compare sales loss v/s incremental cost in quality teams, cost to reduce batch size extra, have to be developed.

These tools will provide operational decision-making support to planning teams.

Additional Logistics Cost: Cost benefit tools like additional air freight cost v/s sales loss are to be developed here and handed over to logistics planning team. This will provide decision makers adequate information and rationale to send a consignment via sea route or air route.

Availability of Ingredients: On procurement side, there is a need to define scientific inventory norms for raw material, packaging material and other ingredients. These norms will take into consideration all kinds of variabilities and will stock the items as per criticality to sales loss. Items, which are critical to sales loss, will have to be assigned higher service levels.

Complexity in Contract Manufacturing Sites Network: To reduce complexity in Contract Manufacturing Sites Network, there is a need to develop supply chain

network models, which will enable scenario planning. Scenarios such as closing contract manufacturing sites and transferring few products to parent company manufacturing plant, reassessing the overall network for better service levels, etc., can be responded to once these models are built.

Innovate to Reduce Cost: To reduce overall cost, supply chains need to be modeled for total delivered cost. These models will provide avenues to carry out scenario planning and provide levers to focus on in reducing the overall supply chain cost vis-Ă -vis incremental improvements in pockets. There is also a need to develop strategic supply chain analytical capabilities like costto-serve analysis. This analysis will help supply chains segment products based on net contribution margin and then assign differential service levels to these segments. Applying scientific inventory norms to these segments will define right inventory levels in the supply chain and will improve service levels and reduce penalties raised by distributors.

In the end, there is an immense opportunity to use technological advancements in any supply chain.

Availability of data in the organization, having easy access to it and also having dedicated analytics / data science teams is a prerequisite. Within a span of 2-3 years, these teams will evolve and will start adding value, which is well beyond one could even imagine.

In his current role, Raniprasad Palod is responsible to drive global supply chain strategy and analytics across various businesses for the ever growing and complex pharma supply chain of Sun Pharma, which spans across more than 150 countries worldwide. He has completed his Management Development Program from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, MBA in Supply Chain Management from National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai and Mechanical Engineering from Pune University. He has distinction of being Gold Medalist at NITIE and university ranker at Pune University. He is a certified six sigma black belt from Indian Statistical institute and has mentored and completed various high impact multi-million dollar saving initiatives in manufacturing domain at Bosch, in e-commerce domain at Amazon and in FMCG industry at General Mills.

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INTERVIEW

A Book To Look Out For A supply chain practitioner-turned-author, we spoke to Vivek Gaurav, Head – Planning, Customer Service & Logistics, General Mills India Business, about his maiden writing venture and plans ahead.

Tell us a little about your book.

What would you like our readers to know?

Through this book, I am attempting to inspire my readers to be winners by providing them with a lens for looking at life and its elements from a different perspective through my versions of one-liners that carry playful yet deep messages. I have attempted to put across my messages through punchlines and satirical humour. I like to call it ‘Philosophy made easy.’

What was it that drove you to make this book happen?

I very keenly observe everyone and everything around me. I am passionate about wittily articulating details related to people, behaviour, relationships, food, technology and more. I believe my book can help readers find happiness and can empower them to win at every step.

What kind of impact do you think the book will have on the readers?

I believe there will be a unique connect between this book and its readers. It is normal for readers to be exposed to quotes from famous personalities, but to read about life through wordplay and wit from the guy next door offers a different experience altogether.

I have also tried to create an easier reading experience by classifying the quotes into discrete sections.

How did your corporate life help mould the book?

The impact our work life has on our thought process starts years before the beginning of work life itself. Since

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childhood, we are exposed to the question of what we want to become when we grow up. That, coupled with observing the work life of people around us, pushes us into imagining our work life in the future.

The book is all about life seen through metaphors and expressions.

Over the 14 years of my corporate journey, I have gathered my own little treasure of reflections & observations which I have tried to articulate in a light-hearted and funny manner.

Since I spent a few years in the beauty industry, the following quote from my book comes to mind: “Those with weak ‘Foundation’ tend to get ‘Exposed’ the moment they face a ‘Rainy’ day in life!”

Corporate life is also an on-going journey- full of challenges, thrills and satisfying moments. I have gone through a range of emotions as a professional. Like any professional, I have had my fair share of successes, failures, insecurities and proud moments. There is also a huge amount of cross learning that has taken place between my work life and my personal life. This quote, again from my book, is something I practise personally as well.

“Would like to sleep over an Issue instead of losing sleep over an issue!”

The wit and the fun underlying these quotes may help my readers deal with their worries and pressures. In the end, they should be able to laugh them off as they move on. This quote surely fits the bill.

“Beyond a point, it’s not worthwhile to centre your happiness around salary & calorie!”

Have you commented on any specific elements of a work life through your playful observations?

Certainly. There are a lot of very specific phenomenon, events and facets which are important and critical links when it comes to work life. Performance appraisals, meetings, work-life balance, leadership and interpersonal relations are very important elements of work life.

“Normal distribution curve seems to be used as a scientific justification for abnormal distribution of everything!”

The above quote is my fun tribute to the folks who love analyzing their performance appraisals and annual pay revisions very critically.

“Perhaps, our workforce will start working more intelligently, once we change our parlance from ‘Headcount’ to ‘Braincount’!”

Through the above one-liner, I have tried to sum up my observations about People Management and setting up our work-force for success.

According to you, what makes your book unique among others like it?

Most books based on ‘quotes’ in the market are a collection of quotes from only famous people. There would hardly be any books wholly dedicated to quotes from the ‘guy-next-door’. Also, the overall theme is about life, so all the quotes are connected, yet discreet and touch unique aspects of life itself.

Lastly, since wordplay is a driving force behind this book, people will learn how to have fun with words and be creative with language.