Ashwamedh Magazine by X-Ops Opsession

CONTENTS Page No. Vice Chancellor‘s Message ………………………………. Faculty‘s Message ………………………………………… Editorial…………………………………………………..... Flashback of Ashwamedh 2014……... ………………….... Ashwamedh 2015 ……………………………….…. …….. Introducing the Speakers ………………………………….. From White Papers: Backbone to Amazon-India: Strong SCM Model by Abhijeet Prabhu and Mamta Gupta (SIMSREE)………….. Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations & Supply Chain Management by Swagatika Sahoo and Basudev Basak (XIMB)................................................. Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations & Supply Chain Management by Pinaki Prasad Mohanty and Abhinav Modi (XIMB)………………………………... From Team X-OPS: Transforming ―Manufacturing value chain‖ with Internet of Things …………………………………. ……… Is India Post as a logistics partner the future of e-commerce success in India?……………………………… Supply Chain Visibility: A key to competitive advantage…. Last Mile Logistics – The Mantra for Competitive Advantage in Retail Business …………………………….... Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Is it profitable?……………………………………………........... Managing Supply Chain Disruptions……………………….. Fun Ops:

3 4 5 6 7 8

31 34 36 39 41 44

Crossword Time…………………………………….............. 2 States – A Strategic Managerial Acumen…...……………. Art of Operations or Operations of Art……………………... X-Ops – We Rock ………………………………….............. Fun Facts……………………………………………............. Luminary of Operations Management………………............ Answers to the Crossword…………………………………..

48 49 50 51 52 55 57

About X-Ops………………………………………………………………...

From the Vice Chancellorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Desk With a much ardour I welcome Ashwamedh 2015- the platform to instill the spirit of learning facilitated by the Operations community of XIMB (X-OPS).The goal of XIMB is to combine academic preparation with fostering traits and skills such as curiosity, initiative and integrity. XIMB with its vision of pursuit for excellence and perfection strives to inculcate the values of accountability and the vision of goal among the students. Events like Ashwamedh steer the generation and promulgation of knowledge and serves as a gateway towards learning the intricacies of the corporate world through papers, debates and real life simulations. The event strives to enable technology and organizational learning and prepares the students for the multipolar world. Ashwamedh 2015 has decided on the theme of â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Managementâ&#x20AC;&#x2013;. With the rise in global competition and new technologies, managers are expected to make judicious decisions surrounding product development investments. It is therefore critical to deliberate how supply chain techniques combined with operations management can strengthen the approach, and implement and operationalize the solution. Multiple internal processes such as purchasing, procurement and inventory management by external stakeholders can be coordinated through appropriate analytical concepts. I am sure that Ashwamedh 2015 will be a great source of learning for all the participating business schools as well as the students of XUB. I wish the Operations Committee all the success in their endeavor to generate and disseminate knowledge. I wish X-Ops the very best and hope that it comes up with more such initiatives and create a pinnacle in learning opportunities for Operations Management in the future. God Bless You,

Prof. Dr. Fr. Paul Fernandes, S.J Vice-Chancellor

From the Faculty’s Desk With the broadening of the competitive horizon, companies today are ceaselessly putting in their best efforts for getting a competitive edge over the rest by chalking out the right strategies and getting the best out of the available resources. As the firms approach parity in terms of access to technology and resources today, the only point of differentiation is making the most efficient utilization of their resources with an effective operations and supply chain management strategy. The companies that have shown excellence in their business today are known for their innovative supply chains and operational efficiencies. Operations management is the amalgamation of all the tools and methods that can be used at a strategic, tactical and operational level for deriving the solutions for issues ranging from location and layout to equipment selection and designing the sourcing and distribution networks. Today, supply chain management involves streamlining supply-side activities of businesses to maximize customer value and to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It deals with the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally. The topic for Ashwamedh 2015 is ―Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Management‖ which is extremely relevant and crucial given the heightening competition in every business segment. I am sure that this year‘s Ashwamedh Conclave and the magazine will provide a deep insight into the various efforts that companies are adopting to stay ahead in the race for all-round excellence in their business. I wish X-Ops the very best in its efforts. Dr. Manimay Ghosh, Area Coordinator, Operations Management

The Editorial Long gone are the days when Operations Management was restricted to the shop floors and was merely a fancy term for the rest. Today it finds numerous applications in every aspect of business, be it core manufacturing or the service sector. Unraveling the success stories of the companies that have proven their mettle as world leaders in their business would reveal a strong backbone of right operational strategy and efficient supply chain management. As X-Ops, the operations committee of XIMB gears up to present its flagship annual business conclave – Ashwamedh‘15, we bring forth the eponymous annual magazine Ashwamedh on this occasion. Ashwamedh has always been a platform for the student community to engage with distinguished panelists who have been contributing to the field of Operations Management immensely and sets the stage for a stimulating discussion on various contemporary issues. In this edition, the focus of X-Ops is to bring out the competitive edge which paves the way to remain profitable and transform business processes and functionalities towards sustainability in different sectors through the right Operations and Supply Chain Management strategy. The magazine encompasses views of the industry

professionals, academia and management students across the country in an effort to address this burning issue. The magazine is a collection of ideas and views of the budding managers presented with an essence of the theme of Ashwamedh‘15- ―Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Management‖. It starts with a recap of Ashwamedh‘14 and the introduction of Ashwamedh‘15 and its esteemed speakers. The magazine covers various thought provoking topics and issues that are poised to shape the competitive landscape in the near future. It also features the winning entries from the White Paper Writing Competition that was conducted across various B-Schools of India as a prelude to Ashwamedh‘15. Apart from scholarly articles, the magazine explores the creative side of the student members of X-Ops with a fun-filled section called ‗Fun Ops‘. This magazine is a testimony to the relentless efforts put in by the editorial team with the support of the members of X-Ops and the guidance of our esteemed faculty. With these thoughts, we introduce the Ashwamedh magazine in its 11th edition and wish it provides an insightful reading for all. - The Editorial Team

Flashback of Ashwamedh’14 X-Ops, the Operations Committee of XIMB conducted its flagship event Ashwamedh‘14 – the annual business conclave with great zeal and fervor on 2nd August 2014. As always it did set the stage for an enriching discussion by stalwarts from various fields of industry and academia on different avenues of Operations Management with its fiery theme ―Enhancing the Supply Chain through Business Analytics‖. The occasion was graced by eminent speakers Mr. Yogesh Antad, Senior GM (Supply Chain Functional Excellence) at Cummins India Ltd, Mr. Milind Phadke, Director, Product Management at Oracle Corporation and Mr. Mohammad Ashraf, the VP – US Senior

Manager from Deloitte consulting India Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Antad provided valuable insights on the use of Big Data in supply chain and tapping its potential with effective ERP system and other tools. Mr. Milind Phadke discussed the different dimensions of Big Data analytics and its process flow in supply chain while Mr. Ashraf shared his thoughts on various issues like security and affordability associated with the storage of high volume data. The event marked the addition of another feather to the cap of X-Ops with the launch of the X-Ops app on Android and Windows platform, a first of a kind initiative by any B-School Committee ever.

AshwAmedh’15 “Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Management” The concepts and applications of Operations Management are not new. As per the online encyclopedia- Wikipedia, the initial applications of Operations Management date back to around 5000 BC, when Sumerian priests developed ancient systems of recording inventory, loans and other business transactions. Since then many pioneers of Operations Management have contributed to the development of concepts like lean manufacturing, theory of constraints and Total Quality Management to name a few that have changed the face of the competitive landscape across every business domain in recent times. In this age of cut-throat competition, companies find it really challenging to maintain their edge over the rest. Dwindling margins and net working capital, have forced the top management of organizations today to look for chalking out strategies that will help them survive and stand out in the already crowded market. The Apples and Amazons of the world paint a new success story everyday with their unique and efficient Supply Chain and Operations Management practices. Managers today are not just focusing on achieving cost leadership among their competitors, but rather aiming for value creation by fine tuning their operational efficiencies. Since its inception, the business conclave Ashwamedh has provided a platform for eminent panelists from various walks of industry and academia to share their valuable thoughts with the students. With an effective Operations and Supply Chain Management Strategy being the need of the hour, X-Ops, the Operations Committee of XIMB brings forth this fiery issue in the 12th edition of its flagship event, Ashwamedh’15, with the theme ―Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Management‖ on 30th August 2015.

Ashwamedhâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Introducing the Speakers Mr. Vinay Singh Kushwaha (Vice President, Supply Chain, Britannia Industries Limited) Mr. Vinay Kushwaha defines what leaders ought to be. Known among his colleagues for his strong work ethics and decision making ability, this alumnus of IIT Delhi from the class of 1986 has made an indelible mark in the field of Supply Chain Management. Before taking over the reins of Supply Chain at Britannia Industries Limited, he has held many important positions at Dabur India Limited and Unilever.

Mr. Subhankar Mahapatra (Associate General Manager, Logistics, Adani Ports and SEZ Limited) An end to end Cost effective, Reliable, Responsive Integrated Logistics Solution Provider in multiple modes is what defines the expertise of Mr. Subhankar Mohapatra in the domain of Logistics. He has served as the General Manager (Logistics) at Jindal Stainless Steel Limited and has also held notable positions at the Essar Group of Companies and Tata Projects Limited prior to joining Adani Port. He is one among the noted alumni of XIMB from the class of 1995.

Mr. Ramesh V S (Associate Vice President, Business Excellence, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Limited) Mr. V S Ramesh has over 18 years of industry experience with 13 years in the domain of Marketing & Sales in various capacities. This alumnus of XIMB from the class of 1996 has been spearheading Kaizen and TPM movements along with co-leading the TOC solutions initiative at Godrej & Boyce. Rising higher with every position that he has held at the Godrej group of companies, he has gained expertise in the areas of Business Strategy, Incubation & Development and General Management.

Mr. Soumyakant Dwivedy (Supply Chain Manager, Becton, Dickinson and Company) Mr. Soumyakant Dwivedy is a senior professional in the domain of Operations and Supply Chain Management. His career spanning more than 16 glorious years has seen his expertise in Planning, Logistics, Transportation, Inventory management and Customer Fulfillment in several industries like FMCG, FMCD, Healthcare and Engineering. Before joining Becton Dickinson, he has headed the divisions of ‗HCL Account Operations‘ and ‗Demand & Availability Management‘ at Nokia among others. He is also a noted alumnus of XIMB from the class of 2002.

Mr. M. S. Harinath (General Manager, Procurement, Mylan Laboratories Ltd) Mr. Harinath has a rich experience of 30 years in diverse areas of Procurement, Inventory, Stores and Logistics across industries like Paper, Packaging and Pharmaceuticals in both domestic and international markets. He has served as the General Manager (Purchase) at Medreich Limited and Dy General Manager at Aurobindo Pharma Limited among others prior to joining his current position as General Manager (Procurement) at Mylan Laboratories Limited. He is also an alumnus of the class of 1997 of XIMB.

Mr. Baldeep Singh (Vice President, Operations, Snapdeal) With a career goal of pursuing a challenging role in a company, this expert in Lean, Project Management and Six Sigma has held many notable positions in his illustrious career. Before being at the helm of affairs for Operations at Snapdeal, he has worked as the General Manager (E-commerce) at Walmart India, Director, Operations at Jabong and Program Manager (Asia Pacific PMO) at Caterpillar Logistics Services Inc. This alumnus of IIM Calcutta and Certified Black Belt in Six Sigma is known for the unparalleled motivation he provides to his co-workers that guides them to achieve the unthinkable.

FROM THE WHITE PAPERS

Backbone to Amazon-India: Strong SCM Model - Abhijeet Prabhu and Mamta Gupta (Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education) THE PROBLEM The intense competition in the domain of supply chain management is leading to a significant and incremental shift in what is expected from these supply chain functions. One cannot let the element of complacency set in by simply matching supply and demand at optimal cost and service levels. Contemporary business leaders are demanding much more from their supply chains functions including competitive advantage. In addition to this, India's unique operational challenges make it extremely difficult to gain and maintain this competitive advantage. Yet, there are few examples of organisations in India that overcame these barriers to develop effective supply chains that led to competitive advantage. One such example is the entry of Amazon in India It was 2012 when Amazon tried to enter the Indian market by taking over Flipkart. But since the deal didn‘t work out, they decided to enter the Indian market on their own in 2013. But an online retail giant in USA entering the Indian market had only one question in the minds of its strategic planning body– “Will the structure used back in USA execute perfectly in India?” The question was genuine but the answer was equally easy – ―NO”. A simple reason for this was that India was way different in demography 11

and geography as compared to the US. Moreover the infrastructure availability in India is far more inefficient as compared to where Amazon turns up from. Large amounts have been invested in setting up its own logistics and there still stands a major hurdle, when this money could have been otherwise utilized for better purposes such as building technology like recommendation engine. Not only this but poor quality of roads in India result in an intense hit on techniques like JIT. This not only results in limiting reach to customers but because of this the dissatisfaction quotient in customers rises up resulting in decreased revenues. The poor quality of roads also leads to increase in handling costs as well as transport time which increases an overhead for the service provider. The Amazon model which is based in US was solely on basis of

good internet connectivity but internetâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s reach in India is still not as efficient as it is in the west which creates a shortfall in the existing model of Amazon. The conveyer belt technique which exists in Amazon's warehouses in the US (as in Picture) will certainly not work in India. Permission for opening a production or a storage facility in India comes with a clause for generating a fixed number of employments based on the space utilized by the facility. This not only reduces efficiency but also gives rise to

human error. OVERCOMING SHORTCOMINGS In midst of all these shortcomings, there were some advantages in favour of amazon like the mind-set of Indian consumer had changed and E-commerce also helped them avail different offers pushing them to go for online shopping more than outlet shopping. Although internet had not reached the corners of India yet but the exiting users had gone up from 7 million in 2001 to approximately 137 million in 2012. Travel and retail over the years had proven to be a success and product specific sectors had been 12

a boon to variety of customers since different types of goods are available at a mere button click. The existing competitors like Flipkart or Myntra were way below par in terms of capital as compared to Amazon. Despite of all these factors plus a brand name supporting Amazon; they took some fair amount of time before thinking to enter India. What was this time actually needed for? SHORTCOMINGS IN WAREHOUSING IN INDIA AND AMAZONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SOLUTION FOR IT Logistics and supply chain management was the reason why Amazon took some time before thinking of entering Indian market. This is because the warehouse structure in India is way different from that in USA The warehousing storage estimate (by DNA India survey) is current covering around 101,750 tonnes of procurement which is expected to reach close to 200,000 tonnes by 2015 end and this gap in storage of warehouses not only increases the per square feet usage cost but also increases cost of building a warehouse. Another problem is the local political pressure which forces you to employ local people in your warehouse wherever you open it. Amazon successfully set up its fulfilment centres on the outskirts of Bengaluru and Mumbai and is on the verge of opening 5 more centres in cities like Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Tauru (on the outskirts of Gurgaon). This will not only help Amazon to divide India into zones but also help in the company's future plan of opening warehouses in every state. What they think of is to set up different divisions in different states so as to divide India into different zones and handle the zone level orders. What they further think of is to convert these pre-set warehouses

delivery-on-its-own criteria that they look out to cater clients with in the long run. The base for all these thinking is proper SCM strategy of divide, distribute and reach which Amazon is thinking of in the long run.

Picture: Amazon Karnataka Warehouses

into central warehouse for the zones and creates sub-warehouses that would be able to cater to the local needs. This will not only ensure a proper distribution channel for Amazon but will also increase the reach as well as reduce the time required to reach different corners of the country. This was possible for Amazon and not for Flipkart or any other competitor in the same industry because of the capital that Amazon entered India with. With this, they would also try to ensure something called as JIT (Just-In-Time) principle in India when roads won‘t be as big a hurdle as they are now. With inclusion of close to 32 central warehouses and another approximately 25-50 (depending on zone size) smaller warehouses to support the central warehouse by end of 2018 (Source: Amazon), Amazon actually is trying to take over the ‗delivery‘ part of supply chain management on its own so as to ensure that the item is not only delivered in time but also with proper care and handling. They may even come up with free delivery across India which would be a completely new concept for E-commerce where delivery till date is outsourced completely or partially and this also creates a drawback of ‗Reach‘ which is another factor Amazon is fighting against with this 13

The current warehouse structure that Amazon has in USA is the conveyer belt mechanism technique in which the items are RFID tagged and items are called in and called out by one handler according to RFID assigned to these items. The items are stored as they come in and while calling out, the FIFO (First In First Out) principle is followed. Amazon wants to implement the same technique in India in the long run and to deploy its workers in the delivery chain business. The current products in Amazon warehouses are also graded by RFID tags but the stocking in and stocking out technique is still done manually which may have human error attached to it. Although multiple quality control checks are ensured to see if the proper item is stocked at proper place, Amazon will always try to move towards mechanized optimization of stocking so as to completely eliminate human involvement in stocking. The thinking behind this lies in the poor infrastructure of Indian roads and poor transport facilities which would need a lot of human involvement. With this, Amazon will not only maintain its employment structure but will also ensure that the parcels are delivered on time and in the most optimized format. A lot of manpower is needed for Amazon's strategy of reaching out to the farthest corners of the country. Although this startegy will take a lot a lot of time and money, it will not only increase Amazon‘s efficiency in delivering its product on time to the customer when it is needed but will also give them an

edge over other competitors in terms of efficiency and reach. FUTURE SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT Another Japanese technique which they can then think of implementing is ‗Kaizen‘ which would not only make them overcome their own loopholes in due time but will keep on improving their efficiency. The problem of unskilled labour being a major issue in India; Amazon will not only look out to train its labour but also ensure that the local labour that they employ bring them not only the local market but also the best means to reach those markets. There are places in India where reaching by rail is much easier than road transport and there are places where buses are not allowed where the material should be transported either in a van or a 2 wheeler. These are the things that will keep on getting better with experience and will help the company in reaching out to tier 2 and tier 3 cities after all tier 1 cities in India have been covered efficiently. The challenges in these cities are different at different locations and thus, Kaizen can help Amazon in reaching out to customers in small and far flung areas in an efficient manner. Improvement in supply chain management will require good transport trucks which can handle delicate material on Indian roads. This can also be ensured with proper packaging of the items which will ensure that they don‘t get damaged during transportation. In the long run, they can look out for using techniques to reduce holding cost by procuring material when it is needed in the local warehouse nearest to it and deliver it then and there. This will ensure that delivery happens in the quickest possible time as well as minimum amount of transport facilities and 14

(Picture: Amazon warehouse in USA)

storage space is required for the same. There would be a lot of challenges given the difference in topography of different regions in India which they need to overcome with time. The Amazon model is a major threat to the Indian E-commerce industry since the company is currently working at a zero-profit zero-loss business and is looking to grasp hold of the Indian market. By customizing its supply chain techniques for India, Amazon is aggressively trying to outdo its competitors in the E-retail business. A lot depends on the type of roads and infrastructure that India offers but given the size of the Indian market and the amount of capital that Amazon has entered India with, the usage of technology for betterment of supply and transportation will most likely work in their favour. The advent of zonal warehouses has reduced the problem of coverage, helped the company cover almost all tier 2 cities and is helping in the next big plan to cover tier 3 cities. The placement of these warehouses has been strategically thought and in the long run, usage of Japanese techniques like Muda-Mura-Muri or Poka-Yoke or Kaizen won‘t be much of a problem for

Amazon. Looking at the progress rate of their warehouse placements and the way they are managing their transport, it won‘t take them long to be self-sufficient in transport and use the six-sigma technique to perfection in E-retail business which has still not been ensured by any other retailer available. Technology is available but it is costly; optimum use of technology for handling and for transportation should be a prime factor in Amazon's blueprint for developing its future SCM techniques. The reason behind the gradual success and the increase in profit margins from previous year is a well-designed technique of warehousing products that are needed than to ask the vendors to supply the product on their own. Working at a zero-profit margin was possible only because Amazon had the pre-capital with them and customer acquisition is possible with efficient delivery of items, mostly before time. The plan ahead for Amazon just symbolizes that JIT which was earlier called as an impossible event to occur in India seems much likely in near future due to proper positioning of their warehouses and proper technique to deliver the goods where needed. CONCLUSION

The Amazon example has not only changed the face of Indian e-retail business but has also given the other companies an insight into their existing SCM problems. Although the warehouse buying costs and rental expenses have gone up subsequently with increase in demand, a proper strategy is needed to ensure that the minimum holding cost, which is only possible if the material ships out of the warehouse as soon as possible. Although infrastructure in India is still a major hurdle in ensuring effective transportation, it can be overcome by positioning the warehouses closer to the customers thereby eliminating the need to travel to long distances for the last mile delivery. SCM strategies will improve and they will keep getting better as technology progresses but the Amazon example is an answer to existing problem of lack of connectivity and poor infrastructure in India – ―Reach where the need is first and then deliver than to deliver from where you are based.‖ REFERENCES 1. www.amazon.com 2. www.itvoice.in 3. www.allthingd.com 4. https://www.atkearney.in

Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations & Supply Chain Management - Swagatika Sahoo and Basudev Basak (XIMB) INTRODUCTION Today the customer is considered as king in the market and it is the customer who dictates the market and makes the enterprise run. The customer wants better products, lower prices and faster supplies of goods and services. Meeting customer's wants has never been simple and marketers and industry professionals have been engaged in evolving ways to gain competitive advantage over the years. In fact, the process of innovation and invention has become, of late, the new mantra in modern marketing to possess an edge over other competitors. Earlier logistics was used as a differentiating factor but today effective supply chain management has become a source of competitive advantage where most organizations around the world are facing problems of poor infrastructure, unstable customer demand and rising costs of logistics and inventory. Thus an enterprise can become Suppliers/Servic e Providers Producers

Distributors

Retailers

Consumers

A TYPICAL SUPPLY CHAIN STRUCTURE

more competitive by efficiently managing and re-engineering its supply chain. Several studies have found that supply chains play a critical role in helping companies achieve growth objectives. Today companies are constantly challenging their supply chain on various dimensions like cost reduction, risk management, customer service and increasing flexibility of business. Thus, supply chains have no doubt become a source of competitive advantage for meeting short-term and long-term goals. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT In operations management we try to ensure that the transformation process is performed efficiently and the final value received from the output is greater than the total value of inputs. Whereas, a supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution channels that procures materials, transforms these materials into intermediate and finished products and distributes these finished products to customers. Thus Supply Chain Management involves various links involved in customer order fulfillment which involves supplier, transporter, manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and the consumer; and its goal is to transform the business process that brings products and services to the marketplace. Supply Chain Management is the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Supply chain solutions help in getting the right things at the right place at the right time. Essentially three things flow

through a supply chain - materials, information and money.

Supply Chain Strategy & Planning

Assets Management

Logistics Management

Supply Chain Management

organizational efficiency and in gaining customer satisfaction. It manages the critical issues of businesses such as rapid growth, global expansion and environmental concerns which directly or indirectly affects the corporate strategy and focuses on achieving process excellence from intra-organizational and interorganizational point of view. Some of the benefits of supply chain management are that it:  

Information Management

Procurement Management

The major objectives of SCM are: 1. To provide an uninterrupted flow of material and services required to operate the organization. 2. To keep the inventory investment at a minimum level. 3. To improve and maintain quality. 4. To find and develop competent suppliers. 5. To purchase the required items and services at the lowest possible cost. 6. To improve the organizations competitive position. 7. To accomplish the purchasing and marketing objectives at the lowest possible level of cost. HOW IS OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT HELPING BUSINESSES? Operations & Supply Chain Management (OSM) plays a vital role in achieving

            

Reduces the cost of inventory and enhances inventory management Improves productivity and business operations Enhances collaboration with suppliers and vendors Enhances service delivery and minimizes delay time Improves customer service and satisfaction Promotes better information sharing among partners Provides efficient production and manufacturing strategy Improves process integration Improves the bottom line by decreasing fixed assets in the value chain Improves quality of products manufactured Enables automated processing of orders Enables greater visibility into the order fulfillment flow Reduces transportation and warehouse costs Minimizes environmental impact by incorporating better processes Provides greater security for investors

 Gives higher profit margins and ROI CHANGING TRENDS IN OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Virtual

Operations and Supply Chain Management has experienced several changing trends over the years. In the 1980s, Just In Time had become popular followed by supply chain collaboration and outsourcing of logistics in 1990s. In the 20th century, internet practices have revolutionized the supply chain activities. Nowadays, the design of supply chain management and operational activities has become more central to organizational effectiveness than ever before.

Market Sensitive



Process Integration

Network Integration



Value-Chain Network Strategy: More and more companies are expanding their value chain either by becoming vertically integrated by acquisition of their suppliers or by managing extensively outsourced trading partners adopted by many firms like Microsoft and Cisco. Extended collaboration has emerged in the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) that include both upstream and downstream value chain partners. Thus, companies are aiming for better control of end-to-end value chain. Organization as Value Chain: Supply chain is no longer limited to inbound logistics management. Organizations have redefined their supply chain responsibilities to move from functional silos towards an end-to-end perspective moving backwards from the consumer end to the supplier base and new product launches from the producer‘s end. The role of supply managers is changing with more emphasis on supply market intelligence, use of technology, and integration and collaboration with the suppliers. Lean Operations and Supply Chain Management: Many companies are incorporating lean manufacturing to reduce

Agile Supply Chain



wastage of resources. Lean operations is a business system where organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations requires less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products with fewer defects to precise customer desires, compared with the previous system of mass production. E-Supply Chain Management: Supply Chains are moving from the traditional method to E-Supply chain concept where the recent advancement in Internet technology has transformed the way the supply chains are managed. It has enabled more real-time analysis rather than focusing on past trends. Agile Supply Chains as the new concept: Agility in supply chains is needed when demand is volatile and requirement for variety is high. Agility therefore can be defined as ability of an organization to react rapidly to fluctuations in variety and volume in demand. To be agile a supply chain needs to be market sensitive i.e. sensitive to real demand. Most organizations are driven by forecasts and predictions made on past trends and figures rather than actual demand. This is because of the inability of a direct feed-forward system from the marketplace by way of data on actual customer requirements from inputs through point-of-sales or point-of-use. But the breakthroughs in the last decade on Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) and

use of Information Technology have enhanced the organization‘s ability to hear the voice of the market. The use of Information Technology to study the product flow from suppliers to buyers is in fact creating a virtual supply chain which is more information based rather than inventory based. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Internet have now enabled partners in the supply chain to act upon real data rather than distorted data. This kind of supply chain is best to maximize service levels in order to fulfill demand, manufacture customized products and provide excellent customer service. These supply chains have more flexible supplier contracts that enable them to change order quantities, destinations or even cancel the orders altogether if the demand falls unexpectedly. 

Total Quality Management: It is a management approach with the aim of improving the quality of products and services through continuous improvement process. It aims at improving the assembly line productions and reducing losses due to resource wastage. TQM principles can be applied to all industries and has been successfully implemented in companies like Toyota Motors, Ford Motors, SGL, Motorola, IBM, Ritz Carlton group of hotels to name a few. Some direct and indirect advantages of implementing TQM in business processes: - Strengthened competitive position in the market - Higher Productivity - Better cost management through reduced costs - Improved and innovative business processes - Elimination of defects and wastage of resources 

Six Sigma: It is a systematic approach of eliminating defects in any process. Its

statistical representation indicates the performance of a system and its efficiency. To achieve Six Sigma a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Now the concept of Lean Six Sigma has also emerged combining lean concept with quality management. 



Just In Time Production: It is basically a ‗Pull‘ system of production where actual orders determine the quantity to be produced. It enables a firm to produce only as much quantity as is required therefore, the correct quantity at the correct time. It therefore reduces wastage of resources and also the stock quantity can be kept at a minimum level thus saving inventory costs. Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM): It is the use of computer based software that assists engineers in manufacturing or in prototyping product components. Using CAM, we can design real life versions of components designed with a software package.

SOME SUPPLY PRACTICES

CHAIN

BEST

Apple: Considered a Supply Chain Master today, it has been named as World's Best Supply Chain according to Gartner's ranking of top 25 supply chains for seven consecutive years. Known for its highly innovative products, attention to details in design and providing exceptional user experience, Apple constantly takes steps to manage its global supply chain. Few people know that the way Apple handles its inventory is a major factor that has led to its success. Managing Suppliers: The Company established a formalized set of expectations from suppliers and quickly moved to creating exclusivity agreements in return for volume guarantees. Managing Inventory: Tim Cook, the current CEO believes when it comes to technology related products like laptops, smartphones and

tablets, the inventory depreciates very quickly causing the company 1-2 % loss in value. He considered inventory as a fundamental evil. Their mantra is always to slash inventory, reduce number of warehouses and make the suppliers compete between themselves. This reduces overstocking and costs of warehouses. Apple always has the least unable to sell inventory and in 2011 sold every ipad 2 it made causing zero wastage on unable to sell inventory. Forecasting Demand: Forecasting demand not only in terms of the products consumers will buy but also in terms of the technology that will be in demand in coming years allows the company to develop products which will be in constant demand from the consumers' side. Foreseeing sales level accurately and not having excess inventory is extremely crucial in computer business where new products cannibalize the old constantly. Apple also does not believe in having too many SKUs which helps in correct forecasting. Longer Product Life Cycle: One more facilitating factor is having a longer product life cycle which is more than 12 months for its kep products. P&G: Considered a Supply Chain Master and constantly ranked among Gartner's top 25 Supply Chains. It is one of the first companies to develop and characterize a consumer-driven supply chain. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment: P&G has deployed CPFR to enable creation and integration of the consumer demand data which manages the entire product flow from manufacturing plants to distribution centers to retail store shelves and finally to the end consumers. This program mainly focuses on improving inventory and reducing out of stock costs. Demand Forecasting: P&G constantly tries to improve the accuracy of its demand forecasts. It has incorporated Terra Technology's Multi20

Enterprise Demand Sensing (MDS) in 2013 which incorporates consumer behaviour into forecasting models and utilizes data from all sources channel inventory, warehouse withdrawals, distributor data, retailer forecasts and POS for predictive analysis. Coordination across Supply Chains: While planning a network design or a new facility, in addition to studying the concentration of the consumer demand, P&G also monitors and analyzes other logistics requirements such as manufacturing costs, supplier availability and transportation reliability. Since logistics costs have increased today, they are building smaller facilities rather than having fewer bigger facilities. Monitoring Internet Activity: It also monitors internet activity to predict current trends and trends in the immediate future. Amazon: This year Amazon has topped the list of Gartnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top 25 Supply Chains in the world. It is considered one of the best retail sites on the internet and is regarded as the most successful business model for online retailing. Strong Customer Fulfillment Network: It has built a strong network by obtaining products directly from the distributors rather than stocking it in warehouses. It has a reputation of shipping goods within the estimated time leading to satisfied customers, increased market share and repeat business. Automated Inventory Management: Its inventory consists of millions of items 1000 times more than that of a physical store. Its inventories are fully computerised and automated. The bar codes used during online purchase in the website are the same as that maintained in the warehouses causing a series of automated events to initiate whenever a purchase is made. Robust Customer Service: It carefully records data on consumer buyer behaviour which enables them to offer individual specific items

or bundles of items based on preferences according to the purchase made or items visited. Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart has been history's one of the greatest operational and logistical triumphs. This retail giant operates in more than 27 countries around the world across 11,000 stores, stocks products made in more than 70 countries and manages an average $32 billion in inventory. The entire organization follows a business model of driving costs out of supply chains in order to provide products at low prices to its customers. Fewer Links in its Supply Chain: Walmart's supply chain innovation began in 1980's when it started directly working with the manufacturers to cut costs. It started a supply chain initiative called Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) where manufacturers themselves became responsible for managing their products in Walmart's warehouses. As a result, it was able to close 100% order fulfilment on merchandise. Strategic Vendor Partnerships: It embarked on strategic sourcing to find products at best prices from suppliers and who were in a position to meet the demand in a stable manner and then established long-term partnerships with the vendors for high volume purchases in exchange for lowest possible prices.

impact on the way business functions and it should be made a prerogative whether it is an entrepreneurship venture or a small business as it is a source of incredible competitive advantage over the competitors. ď&#x192;&#x2DC; Strengthen Risk Management Processes: To reduce supply chain disruptions and build stronger capabilities it is important to plan and prepare for risk aversion techniques in this highly volatile market which is subject to continuous risks such as price fluctuations of raw materials, fuel prices volatility, currency fluctuations, market changes and environmental hazards. It has become more and more important to invest in supply chain risk reduction processes with the supply chain becoming more global. Companies should continuously benchmark their ability to respond to risks and increase their capability maturity by adopting risk governance. The figure below shows how companies who incorporate supply chain risk management practices reflect stronger operations performance than their counterparts.

Technology: Its state-of-the-art technology allows accurate demand forecasting, tracking and predicting inventory levels, creating efficient transportation routes, managing customer relationships and service response logistics. RECOMMENDATIONS ď&#x192;&#x2DC; Even small businesses should incorporate SCM: It is witnessed that small businesses often do not have a supply chain strategy and neglect its importance. Supply chain management however has a tremendous 21

Source: http://sdm-blog.mit.edu

More Mature Companies are the ones who have integrated their supply chain management operations and risk management. Less Mature Companies are the ones that do not have a well-built risk management process in place.  Use of IOT (Internet of Things) in Supply Chain Integration: Information Systems, Internet and supply chain software have now become the key drivers in the SCM process. IOT expands information sharing and integrates the information flow, material/service flow and capital flow. Effective use of IoT will further serve the demand for speed and customization by enabling manufacturers and retailers to tailor their operations to real-time market conditions, delivering high levels of operational excellence to customers.  Cloud-based systems and software can be incorporated to reduce costs and achieve shown operational efficiencies.  Use of real-time dashboards for analyzing and monitoring can help to track the supply chain activities which can be easily installed on mobile platforms like Android, iOS, Windows & Blackberry.  Integration with ERP Systems like Oracle E-business R12 and Oracle ASCP (Advanced Supply Chain Planning) will help in managing the complexities of the business processes from design, planning, procurement to management and order fulfillment providing a complete solution to enable information-driven supply chains.  Establishing Supply Chain Metrics can help supply chain managers to avoid disruptions and leverage on market opportunities.  To minimize costs and inaccuracies and improve efficiencies latest technologies can be utilized like RFID, mobility, voice picking, warehouse automation systems, etc.  SCM Training For Personnel: Employees must be trained in the concepts of SCM and 22

Logistics. Individual roles and responsibilities should be made clear with respect to the overall processes to ensure smooth operations and a positive impact on the bottom line. Employees must also be made aware how their decisions impact the customers. CONCLUSION: Effective Operations and Supply Chain Management constitutes almost 90% of the success of the businesses today. Intense competition among the global organizations and global value chains have led to a substantial shift in the attitude towards supply operations and chain management beyond managing logistics and traditional cost of capital. Companies are increasingly focusing on improving their supply chain operations to maximize returns. Big and successful organizations like Apple, Dell, Wal-Mart, Amazon, McDonalds have achieved edge over their competitors by building a strong supply chain competency and strategic sourcing. Operations & Supply Chain Management addresses major issues including rapid growth of multinational corporations and strategic partnerships to sourcing and inventory management. It boosts customer service and improves the bottom line. OSM has seen several trends over the years from logistics improvement to use of smart technologies and growth of dedicated supply chain management professionals. The quest for dynamics leads time driven pricing and cycle time reductions has renewed the focus on increasing visibility of end-to-end supply chains. Now latest technologies are being used as tracking solutions to monitor supply chain activities such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The agile supply chains are becoming more popular and effective to meet global challenges. With the introduction of artificial intelligence and

cloud, supply chain logistics has become a lot easier to manage. However, companies need to constantly review the trends and consciously make efforts to improve their supply chains to increase productivity and thus create a sustainable competitive advantage for themselves. REFERENCES Books: Essentials of Supply Chain Management by Michael H. Hugos Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning & Operation by Sunil Chopra Advanced Supply Chain Management: How to Build a Sustained Competitive Advantage by Charles C Poirier Research Papers:

Supply Chain Management as a Source of Competitive Advantage: A case study of three fast-growth companies by Toni Henriksson and Tom Nyberg Service Supply Chain as a source of competitive advantage: How businesses are creating value from the service supply chain by PWC Websites: www.ftpress.com www.industryweek.com www.ibm.com/supplier-mgmt-solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x17D; www.supplychainbrain.com www.gartner.com/technology/supplychain/top25.jsp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_man agement

Gaining Competitive Advantage through Operations and Supply Chain Management - Pinaki Prasad Mohanty and Abhinav Modi (XIMB) Competitive Advantage is all about how your organization is being different from your competitor. Firms these days, whether small or large or be it new age companies like Amazon, Ola or age old Firms like the Tata group, the Godrej Group or Maruti, they all want to gain competitive advantage. Firms can gain competitive advantage through many ways, be it cost leadership or catering to niche markets. With the advent of Digital Age, even digital technology has been used in almost every field to harness its power to gain advantage. Operations and Supply Chain both play an important part in any organization. Firms stand at a very crucial stage today. For one, they need to make themselves respond quickly to the change in the needs of customers. Moreover they also need to adapt to new product and process development and new technologies. This essay focuses on how Firms can use Operations Management and Supply Chain Management to gain competitive advantage. The ways in which competitive advantage in operations management can be achieved are explained with special focus on game-changing trends in operations and supply chain management. Cost Leadership Cost reductions can be achieved by eliminating waste. Various techniques have been used by 24

Firms to reduce or eliminate waste. The concept of Lean Management has been built upon complete elimination of waste. Lean has described waste as any non-value added activity in the process. 5S Management System is another way to reduce or eliminate waste. It focuses on identifying, eliminating and preventing waste. Lean manufacturing also emphasizes on Just in Time. By getting the material just before its use in production or consumption helps reduce cost by not having to store it. An example here can be given of Heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s factory in Gurgaon, where outsourced material are received just a couple of hours before they are being consumed in production. Removing variability is another area where Lean Management focuses on. The more the variability in the system, the more is the waste. Removing variability allows managers to move material on schedule which in turns adds value at each step of the production process. JIT technique is used to reduce variability. â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Inventory hides problems, which are then hard to findâ&#x20AC;&#x2013; Better scheduling helps drive down inventory in the process. Level scheduling and Kanban are paramount to help reach JIT goals. Level scheduling requires producing in smaller lots frequently rather than in a few larger batches. Kanban is basically a signal that moves

production parts via a ‗pull‘. For example, Kanban has been used extensively in Harley Davidson‘s plant to reduce inventory. Reliability In simple words, reliability can be defined as producing or providing consistent quality of products or services over a period of time. In every field of management, Quality has implications on a company‘s reputation. Not keeping quality in check results in huge losses as products get recalled. In service organization, loss may be in terms of loss of customer share or loss of customer loyalty. Apart from Quality, an organization can become reliable if it can forecast very well. The chief of Disney‘s theme park daily receives only 2 numbers, one is the forecast of yesterday‘s attendance at the park and the second is actual attendance. The forecasting team does a whole lot of work. The team also provides daily, weekly, monthly and annual estimations and based on these numbers they plan their activities, labour requirement etc. Distribution channels also play a very important role in making an organization reliable. A happy distributor apart from selling their products also helps in identifying which products are being sold at a greater pace, which products have low demand etc. Flexibility For any organization, there are always some customers, especially in B2B area, who give order at the last minute, and these customers are too important to decline. Also the major chunk of profit for any organization comes from such customers. So, it becomes very important for any organization to be agile enough to 25

accommodate these customers and change production schedule accordingly. Short Throughput time There is no denying in saying that with decrease in throughput time and cycle-time the production rate and the efficiency of the system increase. By employing all the above discussed techniques, any organization can reduce its throughput time and thus gain competitive advantage. Supply chain trends in modern business environment-Giving Competitive Edge to firms A game changer can be a process, a product or simply a strategy that completely changes the way something is done. What is a game changing trend in supply chain? Game changing trends are the trends that  

Have a very big impact on a firms economic profits and shareholder value Are difficult to implement to implement successfully

There is a massive shift in the way companies are approaching supply chain today from what they did few years back. This change in approach has set quite a few game changing trends on track in the years to come. The following literature some of the game-changing trends in supply chain that can give a competitive edge to firms. Customer Relationship Management The first trend talks about customer relationship management. Keeping all the customers satisfied and still improving the firm‘s economic profits is a very tough job and that‘s where prioritizing customers comes in to picture.

Customer relationship management talks specifically about that. Customers are prioritized to maximize the firm‘s revenues and profitability by targeting the available resources. According to the earlier approach, standardized services were provided to all the customers irrespective of how big or small the customer is. But the new approach manages each customer or customer segment as a unique service relationship. A supply chain based on close customer relationships has the greatest potential to generate unique solutions that combine elements of timeliness, availability and consistency to exactly match desired values at prices customers are willing to pay. The success of the tailored service relationships depends upon the firm‘s managers‘ understanding of their strengths in comparison to the differing needs and desires of each customer or customer segment. Once the specific needs of each customer or segment are understood, the customers or the segments must be prioritized based upon their strategic importance. This approach has its own challenges as well. Marketing and sales Firms are normally reluctant to classify any paying customer as less important. The second challenge is a lack of implementation tools. Collaborative Supply Chain The second game changer is collaborative relationships with suppliers and customers. It is about developing win-win situations with suppliers and customers. These types of collaborations can help firms in the following ways  Increase in in-stock fill rates  Reduction in lead times  Improvement in forecast accuracy  Increase in inventory turnover 26

The facilitators to collaborative relationships are as follow  



Both parties should address the collaboration‘s negative aspects To have a good collaboration both the parties should share the risks and rewards and to do that they must develop supporting organizational and inter-organizational structures Mutual trust has to be there for trust and mutual integration.

Transformational Agile Strategy Agility can be defined as a firm‘s ability to quickly adjust tactics and operations within its supply chain to respond to changes, opportunities and threats in its environment. Very few firms today have a clear cut supply chain strategy, let alone transformational agile strategy. Firms must have a lucid strategy to achieve game changing supply chain. A transformational agile strategy may lead to    

Reduced Inventory levels High service levels Reduced costs Improvement in customer satisfaction

Most firms lack an agile transformational supply chain strategy. To develop an agile and transformational supply chain, firms must identify the total cost-to-serve as a framework based on multiple scenarios and not limited to historical solutions. For situations outside the norms of current business, business analytics and modeling skills must be developed. Finally, firms can use decision support and IT tools to identify trends if any, assess potential performance and manage new processes. The features of an agile supply chain are as follow-

    

Alertness-Ability to quickly detect changes, opportunities and threat Accessibility-Ability to access relevant data Decisiveness-Ability to use the available information to make decision resolutely Swiftness-Ability to implement decisions quickly Flexibility-Ability to modify the tactics and operations to the extent needed.

Cross-functional integration is perhaps the most challenging task because of the following reasons 



Process Integration In today‘s scenario, when companies are looking to get the best out of the available resources, process integration is what they are looking for. Supply chain professionals, instead of asking for more resources, are looking for partnerships with companies where silos don‘t exist.. Focusing on the next level of crossfunctional integration will require companies to make a move from the traditional view-salesmarketing and supply chain integration-(designplan-buy-make-move)-to the new and progressive view that integrates sales and marketing, supply chain, finance, regulatory and customer services. Such a move will depend upon certain factors; the important ones are listed below:    

Decision making should include crossfunctional participation There has to be transparency, data visibility and information sharing between the parties Functional cost optimization has to give way to total cost or margin optimization The parties must be able to assess trade-offs holistically, respond to each value chain segment and manage profitability through the product and customer lifecycle.



Operating model- It‘s quite a challenge to change the existing operating model. It may require significant changes in the structure and culture of the organization Metrics alignment-Firms normally have functionally oriented metrics and given the cross-functional nature of supply chain business processes these functionally oriented metrics can lead to conflicts between different functional areas. Supply chain strategy alignment-The supply chain strategy should be devised in such a way that it enables the corporate strategy but it seldom happens. Most of the times it is not aligned with the firm‘s core competencies or strategy to compete Tools-The business tools for important processes don‘t enable cross-functional integration and involvement.

Relative Value for customers There is a need of a new metrics/goal settings systems aligned with a transformational strategy to change the supply chain game. Today firms are moving from the supplier scorecards of the 80‘s and the balance scorecards of the 90‘s to the masses of data from multiple sources that are usefully organized in data warehouses to link outcomes with drivers and turn data into true insight. The right supply chain KPIs along with the right accountabilities to help the firm to deal effectively with trade-offs and proactively drive the right behaviours to support the supply chain strategy. The metrics framework can be established using four key principles



Creating the right cross-functional accountabilityShared accountability between the supply and demand sides of the organization for inventory, forecast accuracy and product availability Establishing a driver based metric framework-A framework needs to be established so that the individuals in the organization can clearly see how every submetric flows into shareholder value Setting appropriate goals-Too many companies use internal comparisons and feel good about achieving those. This may lead to complacency. Ensuring that the metrics can‘t be easily gained

firm has a well-defined strategy that optimizes the edge they provide. Firms are moving towards virtual integration because of the problems faced in traditional approach of vertical integration. Some such relevant problems are listed below  

Because of these problems and the benefits of virtual integration most firms are now slowly moving toward the latter. Some of the benefits of virtual integration are as follow

End-casting/Demand Management



End-casting is a heightened focus on final consumer demand. Big data has led to the development of the concept of end-casting. With the ubiquity of scanners, data is now available for analysis and for developing insights into demand patterns not just from channel partners but also from end customers. Big data can be used to sense demand forecast and reduce forecasting errors by 40%. These are game changing norms in performance that can turn into considerable financial gains.



Virtual Integration Virtual integration is the use of internet to replace physical components that a firm has with timely and useful information. Firms engaged in virtual integration own only their brand and their clients thus eliminating the need to produce, ship or handle any such products as they are now outsourced. Outsourcing to a thirdparty service provider should be done only if the

Requirement of considerable capital investment Complex organizational structure Lack of available and dedicated workforce

  

Helps to overcome financial burden of capital Gives access to a larger pool of skilled labour and management Potential for reduced price and labour cost Increased knowledge Access to a large customer base

Information sharing and visibility Firms have started to find out links that connect the huge loads of information that is generated from multiple sources and are analysing the data using powerful hardware systems and business analysis expertise. In the current scenario, management of information is one of the keys to supply chain excellence How can firms improve their information sharing ability is the question to be answered today. The above question can be answered by the ability and willingness to collaborate with partners and customers. Considering the volume, velocity and variety of data in today‘s scenario, it‘s easier said than

done. Given that today‘s supply chains require reliable access to timely and cross network data, high-quality information begins with a scalable integration platform which has the ability to connect all participants in the extended network. And this creates a need for one-to-many and many-to-many sharing of data and information. This approach enables all relevant participants to access a shared version of the truth in real time. This approach of information sharing also provides access to a variety of experts who work together with real time and accurate data throughout the network. The key issues that may be faced while adopting this approach of total information sharing can be   

Big Data and key insights Data Quality Breadth of the anticipated Supply Chain

Value Based ManagementMost of the firms have started realizing the fact that their supply chain can prove to be the most critical lever in increasing shareholder value. Supply chain of a firm drives shareholder‘s value because it controls the heartbeat of the firm which is the fundamental flow of material and information from suppliers through the firm to its customers. Generating economic profits is the prime goal of all the firms and economic profit drives shareholder‘s value. Supply chain excellence can deliver the most upside to economic profit because its full potential has been underutilized which creates a gradient for improvement in the utilization of supply chain.   29

Supply chain controls movement of inventory It controls 60-70% of the cost.

 It improves product availability and thus provides a foundation for revenue generation

FROM THE X-OPS TEAM

Transforming â&#x20AC;&#x153;Manufacturing value chainâ&#x20AC;? with Internet of Things - Raksha Arya Abstract Implementing the concepts of IoT in the manufacturing sector by unremittingly adding sensors, smart software, and wireless connectivity to the manufactured products would bring in an era of renaissance where every other device would communicate using IP connectivity without humans getting involved. It has been forecasted by International Data Corporation that by 2020 consumers and business would be using 30 billion connected devices in the day to day activities. The concept would be so deeply penetrated in the manufacturing value chain and smart connected chain that these devices would decide how efficiently the entire system would work. But in order to make it a success in manufacturing sector, there are some major challenges pertaining to data security and collection that needs to be addressed by working in tandem with service providers to integrate the advantage of new business opportunities enabled by IoT. Introduction The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across the vast network of existing infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. IoT has an untapped potential of building smart manufacturing in India by 31

creating a virtual mesh connecting the suppliers and the consumers at every touch point along the way. The traditional methods being replaced by these advancements could bring in a great industrial revolution once again. IOT creates an unprecedented opportunity across a plethora of industrial sectors and operations. Experts in the field of operations management estimate that each and every manufacturing product would be connected in some way forcing all the manufacturers and major players in manufacturing value chain to adopt modern approach for handling data. If we take the example of automobiles, every car would be connected in a way that those networked data will provide valuable insights that will enable the car-makers, dealers and vehicle owners to make better and informed decisions in their daily activity. This information can be tapped in by installing sensors, setting communication network among multiple devices and implant advanced analytics to filter actionable insights. Application It can find application in several fields like Automotive, Energy Management, transportation and logistics, plant floor control automation, remote monitoring and management of assets and many more across various industries. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s take the examples of automotive and energy management field to understand how application of IoT can influence their processes.

Automotive: Engineering devices like CarIQ that are completely designed and developed in India is a perfect example of advancements in operations management with upcoming concepts of Internet of Things. Emergence of connected cars that can continuously generate data by simulation with other devices inside as well as outside will bring the entire supply chain along with other services in various sectors in close proximity. For example: Based on the data on traffic density, the vehicleâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s acceleration can be automatically adjusted in order to avoid the risks of accidents or with access to the real time weather reports, automatic temperature adjustment in connected cars can become a reality. Also, if an accident takes place the information can be directly sent to the nearest hospital systems without any delay. The concept thus helps in optimizing the operations and maintenance of the automobiles clubbing convenience and comfort of passengers with it.

advantages but there are some real challenges that need to be addressed for its successful implementation. Security and Privacy With greater degree of connectivity across all points in manufacturing sectors there is a great chance of data attacks and security compromise. To ensure that there is no leakage of data across the entire chain; devices must have adequate network security. Infrastructure Implementing this concept across manufacturing value chain requires an extensive interconnection between hardware like sensors, actuators and software that works at assembly level. This would require a massive capacity to store information with so much data being generated. So while designing the infrastructure, storage effectiveness and efficiency both should be kept in mind.

Energy Management:

Analytics

IoT based models and automation of environmental controls like HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and electricity can greatly assist in reducing the costs incurred by manufacturers. There are some specific IoT-enabled HVAC that can help the manufacturers forecast expenses and plan usage of energy beforehand by offering an integrated weather report and prediction analysis system. These concepts can also be extended in buildings and home management systems.

With the growing volume of data, the analytics involved in it would get complex with time. Industries applying this concept would require mastering the science and art of converting data into actionable insights.

Challenges Transforming the manufacturing value chain with Internet of Things, though gains a lot of 32

Conclusion By switching to this new technology, there is a huge potential of gaining a lot of advantage in operations management across several sectors. Integrating new and old data with IoT analyticsdriven data would provide manufacturers the degree of flexibility and decision-making capabilities needed to deal with current complexities in various sectors. But managers

cannot remain myopic to the challenges it may pose in the future, for this boon can easily become a bane. References Research Papers IDC's Global Technology and Industry Research Organization IT Survey, 2014 Lopez Research: Building Smart Manufacturing with Internet of Things

Websites http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_tec hnology/the_internet_of_things_and_the_future _of_manufacturing http://www.industryweek.com/webinar/internetof-things

Is India Post as a logistics partner the future of ecommerce success in India? - Punyaslok Guru, Rahul Chaturvedi and Manindra Kumar When I was a kid, the sound of a ringing bell approaching from a distance, generally suggested that the postman is round the corner of the street. That was a time when we used to deliver and receive letters, parcels, and bills at our doorstep. It was the time when we relied on the post office for the transfer of information and knowledge. Times change really fast and now, it is the era of e-commerce and fast speedy mailing services. With the advent of Internet, the masses have turned to staying at one place and achieve their needs and fulfil their wants. Delivery business has taken a huge leap although it still targets 20% of the total population in India. Many consider India Post as one of the ancient companies that provided delivery services but I would argue on the basis of the fact that India Post was the stepping stone over which the modern day delivery companies have stepped to achieve success. India is a huge market for e-commerce businesses and companies worldwide have realized the importance of investing in such a big and booming market. As the number of aficionados of the online shopping keeps growing, businesses start looking for new, interesting and probably exquisite e-commerce offerings. In India, the future looks very bright for e-commerce platforms. To complement a world class e-commerce business one needs a pretty good delivery service providing company. In this aspect, we consider India Post, one of the oldest services in India as one of the key 34

competitors for deciding the future success of ecommerce businesses in India. India Post, as of 2014, has 1, 54,882 post offices all over India. Out of these offices 89.86% are in the rural parts of India. Now, e-commerce businesses have thrived in markets that are present in the urban areas whereas rural markets are still unexplored. The fact remains pretty straight forward, the rural areas of India that constitute almost 80% of the population are still untapped and they present a huge opportunity for e-commerce companies to expand their business and thrive on the profits. Theoretically, India Post should offer the missing link to this supply chain but in actuality there are a lot of issues that hinder the collaborative efforts with India Post up until now. Firstly, India Post has an unmatched network of Post offices that effectively connect even the remotest areas of India. But the Professionalism that its competitors possess immensely affects the credibility of the company. The postal service has been traditionally criticized because of the unprofessional attitude of the employees of India Post. Long gone are the days of the friendly sign of an approaching postman. Delay in delivering mails, Lack of proper customer service and no transparency in the transaction process has led to the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; preferring other alternatives of the postal system. A person would want to use private courier services rather than India Post just to be the recipient of a warm and cordial customer relationship. Food for

thought is why would an e-commerce business collaborate with unprofessional companies and risk jeopardizing the entire business. The customer of any e-commerce platform generally wishes a speedy transaction and regular feedbacks regarding the entire process. However, the most critical and challenging aspect is the return policy of any e-commerce business. The criticality of return policies are further aggravated by the expectation of an angry customer who is already unimpressed due to the flawed product. Introduce an element of unprofessionalism and unhealthy customer care support, and a business risks losing out on a customer and even a group of customers. The repercussions are huge because any slip on a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s part is a win-win for its competitors. In such scenarios the problematic and technologically backward internet platform of India Post poses a big problem in rendering the customer even more dissatisfied. Mail tracking systems, proper payment platforms, overall feedback storing and responding platforms and proper customer care supports are the key areas where India Post is lagging behind its modern day counterparts. Why would a company take a chance with a delivery system when the existing problems are persisting??? The issue of rural markets lies in the lack of technology development in these areas. Internet and connectivity via online platforms is still a very big issue in India. But on the brighter side the present government has chalked out plans of developing and connecting the rural and urban areas of India via Internet and thus facilitating technological advancement of the entire mass of India. This provides the e-commerce platforms a

huge boost in opportunities to try and tap into these markets. Though with its vast reach India Post is a viable partner but its flaws cannot be over sighted. Let us take the example of Amazon who tried collaborating with India Post. Many customers were unsatisfied with the inefficient Tracking system incorporated by the company and the delay in receiving the products from their respective sellers. The simple conclusion that can be derived is that the rural markets of India is a risk for any e-commerce company and add to it a flawed delivery system, the entire business lands in a soup. Recent trends suggest an increase in the sales of smart-phones and this indicates a huge boost for online shopping companies and indirectly, their sales. However, this again is a matter of concern that only the urban population is technically capable of using a phone for e-commerce purposes. The future holds great things with regards to the technological advancement and capabilities of the Indian population. And the rural population will also be educated to understand the technical know-how of online shopping and carrying out businesses over the internet. The single point of concern is the delivery system. But the possibilities of success depend on the organizational structure of India Post and how well it conducts itself with respect to its competitors. India Post can certainly hold the key to future successes in e-commerce business in India if, it decides to improve its standing among the Indian masses and re-lay its organizational polices to improve its services. If India Post can work on its flaws and rectify them, then it will have a clear advantage over its competitors due to the fact that it already has a network which is unrivalled.

Supply Chain Visibility: A key to competitive advantage - Aman Purohit, Divya Prakash and Jaydeep Sahoo Supply chain visibility is probably one of the most talked about terms in industry right now. Its usage varies across firms depending on a company‘s supply chain and what business insight it is seeking. For some, visibility is just EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and for others it is clear understanding of the company‘s current status and relevant history of orders, shipments and inventory. Supply chain visibility (SCV) is the ability of parts, components or products in transit to be tracked from the manufacturer to their final destination. The goal of SCV is to improve and strengthen the supply chain by making data readily available to all stakeholders, including the customer. Supply chain visibility promotes quick response to change by allowing privileged users to take action and reshape demand or redirect supply. Goals associated with supply chain visibility are focused towards increasing the overall productivity of the operations of the concerned organization. These goals are  

Reduce business and supply chain risk Improve lead times and performance Identify shortage and quality problems along the supply chain

How to Gain Supply Chain Visibility The best possible way to gain visibility is by making sure that all the information at all the stages of operation is readily available to all the stake holders. 36

There are three components which are critical to achieve the type of visibility which can produce real value for the organization. They are 

Multi-enterprise- A company should possess the ability of collecting data from multiple sources (both internal and external) at all links in its supply chain.  Harmonisation- For this strategy to be effective, an organization should be able to maintain consistency in data collection at different levels in the Supply Chain. An incoherent data analysis in the form of multiple disjoint packets would affect coordination along the entire length of the supply chain.  Modeling – It is much more than just about collecting data. A company without the ability and resources to analyse the data and derive potential use from it would not be successful in ensuring effective Supply Chain Visibility. The complex problems faced by the industry can only be solved with the right tools for calculations and data modeling. There is a need to be able to analyze the information, not just see it. The solution to increasing visibility of supply chain is not a ―one size fits all‖ proposition. Because supply chain visibility generally carries a long lead time to show return-on-investment, taking on smaller components incrementally is usually a company‘s best approach to getting these initiatives funded. Hence, a phased approach is often the best winning strategy. The

organization must start with solutions that will provide the greatest benefit with the least investment or training, and implement more complex or costly solutions as resources permit. Ultimately, an integrated system with maximum supply chain visibility, collaboration, and compliance will give the organization the competitive edge needed in today‘s economy. Competitive advantages of supply chain visibility One of the major implications of supply chain visibility is the development of collaborative relationship with the customers. Collaborative relationships with customers offer access to demand data. Especially in long supply chains, collaboration allows manufacturers to access customer plans and weak market signals. The SCV provides real time transparency over ongoing processes. This can help the organization to modify their operations thereby optimizing the available resources. The model improves on-time delivery of the product and reduces lead time. It also helps in reducing working capital and managing variable costs more effectively The customers are regularly updated on the product availability and shipment status. There is also the added advantage of tracking and tracing products throughout the entire supply chain providing real time feedback and helping in better management. By enhancing visibility across the supply chain, organizations can improve supply chain operations and overall business outcomes. The benefits include: Product pull to drive sales: The traditional supply chain was largely ‗push‘ based. By leveraging sales trends, Big Data and analytics

organizations can create a pull-based or demand-driven supply chain. Proactive risk detection and mitigation: With real-time access to the latest information through social media, Big Data, mobility and analytics, organizations can proactively identify risks across the supply chain. They can take corrective actions to mitigate or minimize the impact on business. Reduced supply chain cost: By enhancing visibility through analytics, organizations can reduce inventory levels and the associated carrying costs. This also simplifies procurement decisions such as ‗make versus buy‘. Better margins: Social media and sentiment analysis can help determine the right price for products, to ensure both competitiveness and increased margins. Increased networking capital: Optimal inventory levels help contains costs and improve margins. This in turn increases the working capital. Improved service levels: Better visibility allows organizations to track shipments in real time and commit to realistic delivery schedules. What the future holds Big data can be utilized to develop a more comprehensive policy for supply chain visibility. There are already some developments in these fields. The first step toward sincorporating Big Data in the supply chain would be to focus on leveraging structured data in spreadsheets and databases to improve supply chain visibility, geo-location/mapping and product traceability. The Internet of Things (IoT) is another significant factor that is shaping the supply chain. By some estimates, in 2020 we will see over 200 billion devices/sensors/gizmos

collecting data from manufacturing line throughput to Point of Sale (POS) information, all in real time. Imagine the implications. The most talked about jargons in the current economy are Big Data and internet of things. These concepts can be synergised with the supply chain management to create a mini revolution in the field of operations. Sources http://blog.kinaxis.com/2015/07/top-3-supplychain-visibility-necessities/ Jadhav Sharad and Pendse Pranav, See through the Supply Chain: Enhance Visibility and Reduce Risk, Tata Consultancy Services Limited

Last Mile Logistics – The Mantra for Competitive advantage in Retail Business -Anuja Verma and Divya Prakash With the ongoing trend of shifting from single channel to multi-channel delivery, the retailers need to closely monitor the demands for cost, convenience and variety. As a result, the retailers need to re-determine the services they are offering while accommodating more number of starting and ending points. This will cause the retailers to shift their traditional focus from availability to a refined focus on the dynamic trade-offs between availability, delivery times and margins. And taking this into account, the last mile logistics plays an important role in gaining the competitive advantage. Last mile logistics is the last stage of supply chain in which goods are finally transported from the nearest hub to the customer. With increasing popularity of e-commerce, last mile delivery is becoming very important as it accounts for a majority of the shipment‘s cost; but at the same time it is difficult to manage due to its complexity. So it is highly required to properly manage all the logistic assets – distribution centers, trucks, land, people and technology, thereby responding in a smooth and efficient way to the changing demands, seasonal peaks and driving hot merchandise quickly. Start with a detailed plan: Usually all activities before the last mile delivery (supply chain and production) are meticulously planned and executed. But last mile delivery does not get that level of importance. Companies must realize that last mile delivery is at least as important as all the preceding stages. Therefore, coming up with a detailed 39

last mile delivery plan is a must. This plan should be detailed enough to take into account the variable conditions within different areas of a city. Choose a cost effective technology platform: While evaluating different technology platforms that will be used for last mile delivery, focus should be on both cost and features. Software related costs can be very high because of licensing, training and maintenance costs. For small companies these costs may be prohibitively high. To avoid a high upfront cost companies can opt for on demand logistics solutions whose cost depends on the usage. Apart from cost other important factors in this case are degree of visibility, security, ease of use and robustness of the platform. Unification of distribution assets: In order to achieve the target of expedited deliveries demanded by consumers in a cost-efficient way, retailer needs to increase the number of distribution centers (DCs) across every region so as to achieve the delivery across any channel at any point through the cheapest and the fastest possible way. The first step towards this goal involves unification of distribution assets between retail and online. For the retailers with large footprints – having more than 1000 stores and 10 distribution facilities – this deliverable is quite achievable; on the other hand, retailers with small footprints will need to add new capacities to their existing DCs or will have to depend on the third-party fulfillment.

The retailers may need to explore the use of stores in both selling and fulfillment mode when the DC network alone cannot meet the need for speed-cost effectively. Retailers such as Macy‘s have already started to adopt this new model. Thus store-level fulfillment can occupy many forms, which includes picking out of back rooms, carving new picking space out of low-volume areas, or it may even include ‗dark‘ stores – repurposing underperforming locations as valuable shipping assets. These transitions will involve a better integration across retailers‘ operations. Nordstrom is one such retailer that has adopted this transition and has achieved an end-to-end visibility. These certain transition practices and processes will help the retailers to gain the competitive advantage in the industry; however, it does require the retailers to be more agile. It has to restructure business processes and metrics, adopt uniform standards for shipping or for allocating credit for sales between online and in-store operations. Best practices: In order to achieve best outputs by constant improvement, technology platform should be used continuously to gather and analyze data. Once a company identifies areas for further improvement, it should come up with measurable performance indicators to assess the degree to which improvement has been made. Another good practice would be to come up with easy to understand standard operating procedures for specific delivery activities. These SOPs will help in guiding the employees. When it comes to actual delivery, companies generally factor in only the costs and performance benchmarks associated with the delivery vehicles. Although this is important, another important factor that often gets

overlooked is the driver. Focus should be on training the drivers and assessing their performance using relevant KPIs. To make sure their vehicles are used in the most optimum manner their movements can also be tracked. To improve customer satisfaction, the delivery needs of customers must also be taken into account. Delivery schedules may vary from customer to customer. They may also vary in case of different clients such as shops, hotels and factories in terms of timing and loading dock schedules. Factoring these factors while making the delivery plan can be very useful. Efforts should be made to enhance visibility in the last mile delivery process. A high visibility is required in order to respond to contingency situations. With a high degree of visibility last minute changes to the delivery schedule can be made and customers can be informed about the delay with a higher degree of accuracy. Benchmarking of all activities involved in last mile delivery as per the industry standards is highly important; and by adopting the practices mentioned, the last mile logistics can be implemented successfully by retailers owing to which they can increase their efficiency and gain a competitive advantage over others. References: 



http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/ article/last-mile-logistics-key-tocompeting-in-the-retail-race/ https://www.descartes.com/knowledge -center/logistics-best-practicesoptimizing-last-mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mil e_%28transportation%29

Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Is it profitable? - Aman Purohit and Sampat Padhi In a world of limited resources, it could be argued that companies aspiring to be good corporate citizens need to focus on the best use of resources. Supply chain management plays a key role in managing the resources in the most efficient manner. Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management is the complete supply process which is concerned with all the activities of the organization right from procurement of raw material to the delivery of the product or service to the end user. Strategic planning, demand forecasting, buying, producing, assembling, delivery, storage, assembly line, transportation, allocation, sales and assistance to end consumer are all part of supply chain. Need for supply chain sustainability for an organization Organizational sustainability is about integrating social, environmental and economic considerations, into strategic and tactical decision-making processes to create a long-term basis for the business model. These sustainability dimensions are interdependent and, even though the concept of sustainability is well established, businesses still struggle to implement sustainable practices adequately. Organizations are increasingly faced with global competitors, elevating competition to a supply chain level and thus making effective supply chain management essential. Hence, sustainability application also has to go beyond an organizational focus and take into account the entire Supply Chain. Decision 41

makers need to consider the impact of their decisions on quality of life, safety, and health of the public to act in an ethical manner. Pressure to comply with government regulations and industry standards are commonplace, forcing companies to adopt more sustainable operations, as well as sustainability measures across the Supply Chain. The interaction of sustainability and Supply Chain Management is critical to advance sustainable business practices as it expands the focus on a product or service throughout all production and delivery processes. Supply chains are complex systems, and the decision making and support processes for the development and management of such multifaceted entities are quite challenging that requires strategic as well as functional alignment between their different sections and departments. Current supply chain practices are often ad hoc and lack end-to-end support for the gradual transformation towards supply chain sustainability. Sustainable Supply Chain Management Ahi and Searcy (2013) define Sustainable Supply Chain Management as" The creation of coordinated SCs through the voluntary integration of economic, environmental, and social considerations with key inter-organizational business systems designed to efficiently and effectively manage the material, information, and capital flows associated with the procurement, production, and distribution of products or services in

order to meet stakeholder requirements and improve the profitability, competitiveness, and resilience of the organization over the shortand long-term." In today‘s global marketplaces, Supply Chain Management is often a decisive factor for competitive advantage. Supply Chains are responsible for an increasing proportion of value addition to products and services but also for potentially adverse side effects. Hence, sustainability must be deeply embedded into Supply Chain operations and decision-making processes to deal with sustainability related risks and realize market opportunities. While a relatively new field, research on Sustainable Supply Chain Management is growing rapidly and can hence be considered well established. Sustainable Supply Chain Management deals with the environmental issues with a wider focus on the social and regional issues. All these issues are based on a firm resolution to drive the organization towards a better economic standing. The creation of coordinated SCs through the voluntary integration of economic, environmental, and social considerations with key inter-organizational business systems designed to efficiently and effectively manage the material, information, and capital flows associated with the procurement, production, and distribution of products or services in order to meet stakeholder requirements and improve the profitability, competitiveness, and resilience of the organization over the shortand long-term. Decision making in Sustainable Supply Chain Management Achieving the mandate of Sustainable Supply Chain Management involves decision making

at all levels from the strategic to the operational. These decisions affect the nodes and arcs of a Supply Chain at a nodal or arc level as well as at a holistic and integrated level. The decisions could be organized so that they cyclically lead to Supply Chains that become more sustainable with time. The overall macro-level decision-making process begins with the discovery of unsustainable areas within a Supply Chain. This is followed by learning more about these areas and about environmental, economic and societal practices within these areas that could lead to win-win solutions. These discoveries and learning result in the formulation of a strategy for the introduction and implementation of sustainable practices. The strategy is then translated into a successful design of people, processes and systems that make the Supply Chain more sustainable. The design is ultimately implemented across the Supply Chain resulting in its transformation. This transformation and its impact on sustainable practices need to be monitored in terms of relevant key performance indicators and crossindicators. The monitoring may result in various measures to govern and control the sustainability of the Supply Chain through corrective and proactive actions. The monitoring and control help to discover new areas of sustainability issues or identify whether newly introduced practices are successful or there is a need for a new cycle of discovery–learning–strategising–design– transformation–monitoring–control. There are systems for supporting a specific decision, but there are few or no systems that support all the decisions involved in establishing and managing a sustainable Supply Chain. Furthermore, there are only a few systems that integrate and model the economic, environmental and societal issues concerned in a holistic manner.

Image source-sagepub.com Advantages of sustainable supply chain management

study, and 23% would do so even if this option is more expensive.

Supply chain sustainability can create a competitive advantage for companies worldwide. It gives them a firm base to operate and expand their functions. The customers are increasingly becoming conscious of the environment and sustainable practices could influence them. A company can leverage this to increase its market share. Companies embracing sustainable development can benefit from being a first mover in a market. For example Eighty-two percent of UK consumers prefer to purchase goods from socially and environmentally responsible companies, according to a 2003

References

Ahi, P., & Searcy, C. (2013). A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 52, 329â&#x20AC;&#x201C;341 Ashby, A., Leat, M., & HudsonSmith, M. (2012). Making connections: A review of supply chain management and sustainability literature. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(5), 497â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 516.

Managing Supply Chain Disruptions - Sonali Sukla and Sweta Das As long as there are supply chains, there will be disruptions, and no supply chain, logistics system, or infrastructure network can ever be totally immune to them. Nevertheless, supplychain disruptions have only recently begun to receive significant attention from practitioners. One of the major reasons for this growing interest is the spate of recent high-profile disruptions. Focus in recent decades on ―lean‖ supply chains, which involves slimmed-down systems with little redundancy and slack are another reason. Although lean supply chains are efficient when the environment behaves as predicted, but they are highly fragile, and disruptions can leave them virtually paralyzed. Evidently, having slack in a system is not futile because it serves some purpose. Another reason for disruptions gaining attention is that firms are much less vertically integrated than they were in the past, and their supply chains are increasingly global. The five worst disruptions of 2014 (estimated revenue impact, and time needed to recover) 1. Typhoon Halong, South East Asia ($10+ billion, 41 weeks) 2. Severe flooding, Long Island, New York, US ($4+ billion, 38 weeks) 3. Typhoon Rammasun, South East Asia ($1.5+ billion, 38 weeks) 4. Gas explosions, Kaoshing, Taiwan ($900+ million, 26 weeks)

5. Hazardous chemical spill, Arizona, US ($900+ million, 10 weeks) (Source: www.supplymanagement.com/news/2015/thetop-five-supply-chain-disruptions-of-2014) Determining the probability of occurrence and magnitude of impact for every such potentially disruptive event was done with methods used traditionally for managing Supply Chain Risk. Historical data is used for quantifying the level of risk of common supply-chain disruptions like poor supplier performance, forecast errors, transportation breakdowns etc. However, for low-probability, high impact events, or major outages like fires or political upheavals, historical data are limited or nonexistent and hence, their risk is hard to quantify using traditional methods. Therefore, majority of the under-prepared firms face calamitous consequences when catastrophes strike. Supply chain disruptions may lead to significant physical costs (e.g., damage to facilities, inventory, electronic networks, and infrastructure) and subsequent losses due to downtime. Supply Chains are multi-location entities, whereas disruptions are not generally localised—they cascade through the system, with upstream disruptions leading to downstream ―stock outs.‖ Such huge costs of disruptions show that business continuity is important for business success, and hence, many companies are actively pursuing strategies to ensure operational continuity and fast recovery from disruptions.

Supply Chain disruptions can be managed by the following methods: Identify hidden exposures

lock in alternative sources if a supplierâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s disruption affects several firms Promote discussion and learning

This helps managers in identifying which nodes in the network creates the greatest risk exposure- this highlights previously hidden or overlooked areas of high risk. It also allows the firm to compare the costs and benefits of various alternatives for mitigating impact.

By indulging in discussions with suppliers and internal groups about acceptable levels of Time to Recovery for critical facilities managers can gain insights about best-practice processes followed to reduce recovery time. As a result, the impact of disruptions is minimized.

Avoid the need for predictions about rare events

Managers know that they need to protect their

It helps determine the optimal response to any disruption that might occur within the supply network, regardless of the cause. Rather than trying to quantify the likelihood that a lowprobability, high-risk event will strike, firms can focus on important exposures and ways to mitigate them using risk management strategies. Reveal supply chain dependencies and bottlenecks Companies can make inventory and sourcing decisions that increase the robustness of the network. This involves taking into account the probable scramble among rival companies to 45

supply chains from serious and costly disruptions, but the obvious solution is increasing inventory, adding capacity at different locations and having multiple suppliers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; undermine efforts to improve supply chain cost efficiency. Several surveys have proved that while managers appreciate the impact of supply chain disruptions, they do very little to prevent such mishaps or mitigate their impacts. This is because the solution to reduce risk means little unless they are cost effective. Logistics managers can face challenges and opportunities by addressing the following three evolving supply chain elements: 1. Unforeseen events: Natural disasters, international conflicts, geo-political situations,

industrial accidents, and mundane disruptions all pose a constant threat to lean supply chains. Many organizations are attempting to reduce risk by on-boarding new suppliers closer to their end markets. This shift, however, makes the supply chain even more complex and difficult to manage.

data or predictive methods. Evolving responsive supply chain solutions promise the ability to gather and analyse data to understand correlations and effects within the business, but the speed and form in which this data is delivered to managers will be the important differentiating factor.

2. Reduced sense-and-respond time: Shippers have to face shorter, predictive time horizons. As competition increases, organizations need to deliver goods faster, which means a shorter working timeframe. Many organizations have added real-time visibility and event processing systems, along with automated decision-making, to manage the supply chain, rather than using historical

3. Total visibility: Having a seamless view of the entire supply chain network drives success, and supply chain managers continue to seek a centralized system of command and control. While the challenge of disparate parts remains, supply chain technology is consistently evolving to make a single view of the network more feasible.

Conclusion

Disruptions are generally beyond a managerâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s control, and dealing with them could affect a supply chainâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s cost efficiency. In order to avoid increased costs, a manager might choose to do nothing to prepare for hazards and losses or reconfigure supply chains to handle disruptions better, while accepting the impacts on cost efficiency. Most of the time, it is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Companies could elect to deploy different strategies in different settings or at different times for improved management of disruptions.

The best way to manage a supply chain disruption is to prepare for it. A business impact analysis should be undertaken to prepare business to address the impacts of supply chain disruptions. A business impact analysis is a process which identifies the key business processes, and the activities and resources required to operate business. It also assesses how these key elements will be affected by supply chain interruptions.

FUN – OPS

Crossword Time With organizations striving for excellence in Operations and Supply Chain Management, there are quite a few who have shown excellence beyond comprehension and have etched their names as the companies with the best supply chain practices for eternity. So, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s take a moment and raise a toast to these torch bearers of Operations and Supply Chain Management with this interesting Crossword puzzle.

Cryptic Clues ACROSS 6- If its product (bottles) were stacked end to end they would reach the moon back and forth 1677 times. 7- This company acquired and developed Episkin so that products would no longer be tested on animals, and now this technology is used all over the scientific world. 8- In 2014 when its site went down for 49 minutes the company lost nearly $5.7 million. 9- It enables you to store an ocean of data. 11- It sponsored the jersey of Barcelona football club from â&#x20AC;&#x2014;insideâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;. 48

13- A retail company which has a huge workforce across the globe. Had it been an army, it would have the second largest military in the world, after China. 14- A coffee chain which was founded by two teachers and a writer. 15 - Its main product was developed as a cure for stomach ache. The product latter became a beverage. DOWN 1- It is the first company to be crowned as a global green brand (automobile company). 2- Smoking near its computer voids the warranty. 3- A chain of restaurants which started as barbecue restaurant. 4- It has a galaxy of products, a communication based company. 5- It had a 2 minute controversy. 10- It has a pronunciation of name similar to that of recent scam in India. 12- It‘s a sports and apparel company whose slogan is based on the last words of a convicted murderer.

2 States – A Strategic Managerial Acumen - Raksha Arya Chetan Bhagat‘s novel ―2 States – The story of my marriage‖ is akin to the book of Operations Management of MBA. Krish and Ananya do SWOT analysis of their respective parents to come up with solutions for promoting their relationship and building long term trust with their concerned stakeholders. Krish does a trade-off and gives Chennai as his preferred job location. Luckily, the opportunity cost of forgoing Delhi as the option proved to be quite low at the end of the story. Initially, Krish had a bad customer feedback while launching him as a brand. So he does a deeper analysis in the operational behaviour of the scenario and comes up with improvised 49

strategies. It helps him to reduce the Mean Time to Repair his first impression in front of his customer – the girlfriend‘s father by assisting him in making presentation within a planned lead time. This moment-of-truth is much appreciated by his major stakeholder, Ananya. Later, he does a time series forecasting by studying the mindset of his next customer and applying the six sigma concept which helps him to impress Ananya‘s mother as her biggest dream of singing at a big concert comes true. Now, Ananya faces the challenge in the market of Punjabi Wedding where she applies reverse logistics to win Krish‘s mother heart.

After the bottleneck was removed between their parents, they decided to make them meet. But they were not aware of the prospective costs that would incur by this meeting. Ananya's parents developed a suspicion towards Krish‘s family in this conclave. But before the brand name of their Punjabi Family could get blemished,

Krish's father arrives Just In Time and gains his son‘s customers trust. So we see that after a series of collaborative planning, forecasting and business process reengineering, Krish and Ananya finally emerge as successful managers in the current business era.

Art of Operations or Operations of Art - Punyaslok Guru Ernst Fischer had once said ―I don‘t want life to imitate art; I want Life to be Art‖. When I was a kid, I signed a MoU with painting. It was the result of a strategic planning done by my parents to incorporate the skill of Sketching and Fine Arts in me. I took a training and development process to hone my skills in the area of fine arts. I had to negotiate with the time I spent for studying and the time I utilised in pursuing my passion. I needed to follow a proper schedule to prevent myself from taking unwanted risks. As I grew up this fantastic hobby turned into my passion. I made continuous improvements in the said field. A special ability, since day one, was that I never had to procure utilities for pursuing my passion. I always managed to find the right equipments, be it winning competitions and receiving them as prizes or be it innovating new things to accommodate my needs which was a classic resource management technique. My passion for painting led me to various places and deal with diverse expectations. Multi-site 50

operations became a part of my life during those days. Outsourcing ideas and techniques from famous painters like Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci helped me expand my visions and improve my performance. With time my creations got better. My resources varied in proportions and usage. With the increase in work load I developed a sense of materials planning and organizing my thoughts, dreams and visions on the canvas just in time. The times when I doodled on the corner of a page or crafted a letter in my own style of calligraphy, I realized that painting is something I can never let go. Instead, I always found that even the smallest of spaces on a paper was enough to accommodate my widest and weirdest of imaginations. I learnt to control the quality of my paintings and strived for continuous improvement. Today painting is not just another dimension of my Multi Production Schedule; it‘s a merger and acquisition of my dreams and the reality that I perceive outside. It is my life.

X-Ops – We Rock - Raksha Arya The X-Ops Committee,

And foremost in the list.

With skills so witty,

A game of logics, insight and decisionmaking,

Aims to sharpen Your analytical ability.

Tests your business acumen In a corporate tinge.

We – The X-Ops Can never fall apart,

Then comes the flagship event,

As operations management

The Aswamedha – inspiring future ideas and talent

Lies in our heart.

A seminar on new trends and innovations Developing strategies to resolve issues,

Beyond conventional classroom studies,

In the field of operations.

We provide insights of management reality. With us, you learn to work effectively,

Not to forget the national quizzes,

In turn enhancing your efficiency.

It‘s time to sharpen your brain,

There is not just one,

By getting involved in the business quiz Nirnay.

But several enriching learning opportunities, We begin afresh, With launch of many events.

The list doesn‘t end here There is a lot more to gear, So Xplore more on X-ops

Aarohan being the first

The committee that rocks!!

Did you know? -Sonali Sukla That1) Logistics operations deliver over 4 billion meals to pubs every year in the UK - thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s enough to feed two thirds of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s population.

2) If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be 26th largest economy in the world.

3) If you joined together all the sausages that the logistics industry delivers in a year, they would reach beyond the moon.

4) For every truck of goods delivered to our supermarkets, 400 cars are needed to transport the goods to our homes.

5) Logistics operations deliver the equivalent of 16,000 swimming pools of milk every year.

6) Amazon's warehouses have more square footage than 700 Madison Square Gardens and could hold more water than 10,000 Olympic Pools.

7) Khari Baoli, a street in Delhi, has the largest spice market in Asia. A must visit for the once-in-a lifetime overdose of a spice cocktail high.

8) According to Wikipedia barcodes were first used to label railroad cars. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t until a pack of Wrigleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s gum was first scanned in a supermarket in 1974, that the efficiency of barcodes was realized for retailers, in particularly large grocery chains.

9) 50% of ownership of Dominoâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s Pizza was once treaded for a used Volkswagen Beetle.

10) The founder of FedEx once saved the company by taking its last $5000 and turning it into $32000 dollars by gambling in Vegas.

11) India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is estimated that by 2030 India will be the third largest economies with projected GDP (PPP) of $13,716 bn.

12) Indians love to talk thus; India‘s national tele-density is of 74.15 per cent with 926.53 million telephone subscribers.

13) According to the survey India is the 19th-largest exporter and the 10th-largest importer in the world. During 2011-12, India‘s foreign trade grew by an impressive 30.6% to reach $792.3 billion.

14) India is the fastest growing retail market in the world. Our retail industry is estimated to be $450 billion.

15) Chemist John Stith Pemberton was the man who created the Coca-Cola formula in the year 1886. Coca-Cola was termed as a brain-tonic by Pemberton. Today Coca-Cola ranks 13th in the Gartner‘s List of Supply Chain Top 25 for 2015.

Luminary of Operations Management -Subhashish Panda Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (March 31, 1947 – June 11, 2011) was an educator, an author and a business leader who has made great contributions in the field of Operations Management. Born in Israel in 1948; he was the son of Avraham Yehuda Goldratt. Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University and his Masters of Science and Doctrate degree from Bar Illan University. He is popularly known as the ―Father of Theory of Constraints (TOC)‖, for pioneering the same and changing the way modern business functions. Goldratt after working in the education field for some time, joined the company Creative output. The company developed and sold a software package named the Optimised Production Technology which was the first software to provide finite capacity scheduling for production environments. A pioneer in the field of education Dr Goldratt established the Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute and taught in that Institute and is also the founder of TOC for education, a non-profit organisation to teach TOC concept to teachers. One of his masterpieces was his 8 session Goldratt Satellite program where he taught how the organisations should function in order to develop the cross functional skills of the managers and improve decision making through the TOC application. He was sought after as an educator by many great companies like General Motors, Procter and Gamble, Philips, Boeing etc. Business Novels authored by Goldratt He has authored many books and publications during his notable career. Some of his best works are – 1) The Goal- Published in 1984, this book is a best seller which introduces the concept of Theory of Constraints. The book is a business textbook written in the form of a novel .The TOC concept is an overall framework for helping businesses determine what to change, what I will become after changing and how to implement the change. The TOC is a holistic approach and eliminates conflicts between local operating decisions and global perspective. 2) The Race- Published in 1986, it discusses a logical system called Drum buffer rope based on the theories of TOC which were developed in the book Goal. 3) Haystack Syndrome- Published in 1990, this book speaks of a concept that basically determines the performance measurement in an organisation. 55

4) Production the TOC way- In this book, he describes the 5 focussing steps of the TOC in application to business. 5) Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s Not Luck - Published in 1994, the book applies Theory of Constraints to several aspects of marketing, distribution and business strategy. The policy constraints arising from this have also been addressed in this book. 6) The Critical Chain- This book describes the concept of critical chain in TOC to describe why the projects assigned to companies are never completed on time. It also deals with the academic problems MBA institutes are facing. 7) Necessary but not Sufficient- This book applies the concepts of Operations Management outside the manufacturing industry and is more related to other enterprises. 8) The Choice- Published in 2008, this book talks about Goldrattâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s thought provoking approach to the system of beliefs through a conversation with his daughter. In addition to this he also held patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices, to drip irrigation and temperature sensors during his lifetime. Described as a Management Guru and a genius, Godratt was essentially a thinker who has brought about a change in the society through his efforts. Even though he has departed this world for his heavenly abode, his contributions to the field of Operations Management will keep the light of this luminary burning bright for time immemorial.

Answers to the Crossword ACROSS

DOWN

6- Coca Cola

1- Toyota

7- L'Oréal

2- Apple

8- Amazon.

3- McDonald‘s

9- Seagate

4- Samsung

11- Intel

5- Nestlé

13- Walmart

10- Colgate

14- Starbucks

12- Nike

15 - PepsiCo

About X-Ops X-Ops, the Operations Committee of XIMB has always aimed at keeping the student community at XIMB abreast of all the developments in the field of Operations management. And thus, the X-Ops annual calendar is filled with activities to promote student and industry interfacing as well as developing the interest among students on Operations Management and emphasizing its criticality for business success. Magazines: Opsession is the monthly newsletter of X-Ops. It covers all the recent trends from around the world in Operations Management and articles on various contemporary issues that provide food for thought for the readers. It also covers the activities in and around XIMB by X-Ops during the month. The Ashwamedh magazine, a synopsis of the flagship event of X-Ops, publishes white papers of management students of leading business schools on specific topics. Immersion Courses & Workshops: These courses impart hands-on experience to the management students and prepare them for the corporate world. The courses entail

various subjects which are not present in curriculum. It also conducts several workshops on Theory of Constraints, case analysis, case development and Photoshop to name a few. Certifications: X-Ops in collaboration with major institutions provides opportunities for the students at XIMB to avail valuable certification courses. Some of these major certifications include Green belt Six Sigma, Project management, TQM, and PMP. Business Simulation Games: Nirnay and Aarohan are two other flagship events of XOps that provide an opportunity for the students to indulge in real time competition in the form of business simulation games. While Aarohan aims at cultivating an interest among the new students of XIMB, Nirnay tests the decision making capability of the students from various B-Schools. Quizzes: X-Ops conducts many quizzes for the quizzing enthusiasts, chief among them being Opsie-V, a pictorial quiz and Burnout, an automobile quiz that are filled with nerve-wracking questions to tease the quizzing brains from across India.

REACH US AT: http://www.ximb-xops.com & http://www.facebook.com/ximb.xops P Hanumantha Rao Prudhvi (Coordinator) Subrat Nanda (Treasurer) Swarup Ranjan Ghadei (Deputy Coordinator)

CHIEF EDITOR: Abinash Mallick

DESIGN & LAYOUT: Abhineet Sudhendra Punyaslok Guru

EDITORIAL TEAM: Neha Gupta Aman Purohit Anuja Verma Divya Prakash Punyaslok Guru Rahul Chaturvedi Raksha Arya Sampat Padhi Sonali Sukla Subhashish Panda Sweta Das