OPINION
LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES
AND SOLUTIONS The current pandemic impact clearly shows that the long-awaited structural reforms to make logistics a formal, streamlined sector have become more necessary than ever. The pandemic has exacerbated the sector’s long-term problems, write Dr. K. Ganesh, and Ramanath KB, Consultants, India.
Dr. K. Ganesh is a supply chain consultant with more than 16 years of experience. He has graduated in Production Engineering from Annamalai University with the university first rank. He pursued his post graduation in Industrial Engineering at NIT Trichy and secured college first. He then moved to IIT Madras where he obtained his doctoral degree in Supply Chain.
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HE COVID-19 pandemic continues to hamper business operations in every sector and every part of India. Logistics is hit hard, and without logistics, only cottage industries can function—and not even all of them. So far, the pace of recovery is not entirely clear. It is predicted that India’s logistics sector would expand at a CAGR of more than 10%, from $200 billion in early 2020 to at least $320 billion in 2025. The sector may still reach this level in four years’ time, but that is more uncertain now. The picture is constantly evolving,
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Ramanath KB is a supply chain consultant with more than 7 years of experience in the field. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Anna University and post graduation in Supply Chain from SP Jain School of Global Management.
but now, as always, there are things that we know and things that we do not know. The known unknowns, such as the pace of the recovery, will become less opaque over time. No doubt the sector also faces unknown unknowns, but that is always true, so that should not prevent Indian companies from assessing the problems and acting to correct them.
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 AND THE NEAR-TERM PROGNOSIS One thing we do know is the pandemic’s immediate impact on the key functions
of the logistics sector: warehousing and transportation. Times are still hard for both these functions. In the near term, estimating demand, allocating capacity, and distributing products across sectors and regions are difficult challenges.
WAREHOUSING Even in good times, very sophisticated and difficult inventory management decisions are needed to manage inventory in warehouses effectively. Ordering and maintaining appropriate quantities at warehouses is harder than ever because traditional forecasting techniques are
