Transform Your Indirect Procurement
Transform Your Indirect Procurement
Transform Your Indirect Procurement
Podcast E3: Now and Next in The Automobile Industry
Podcast E3: Now and Next in The Automobile Industry
Subscribe:
The Communicators’ Assembly Point
The Communicators’ Assembly Point
Date: May 2020
Theme: Communications in start-ups
About the event: The virtual event saw participation from some of the most eloquent speakers from the Indian-startup fraternity who expressed their views on navigating reputation in the post-COVID-19 era.
The Economic Times Supply Chain Management and Logistics Summit 2020
The Economic Times Supply Chain Management and Logistics Summit 2020
Date & Location: May 2020
Theme: Remodelling supply chain in turbulent times
About the Event: Dedicated to the OEM community the conference witnessed the coming together of supply chain leaders to discuss some of the most pressing challenges and solutions. Major issues discussed during the course of the event included emerging practices like digital transformation of MRO procurement and digital enablement of supply chains for OEMs to gain greater visibility into supply chain performance
COVID19: The Three Phases of Recovery in Manufacturing
COVID19: The Three Phases of Recovery in Manufacturing
How badly has the manufacturing sector been hit by the COVID19 pandemic? Is recovery from the current situation even possible? Given the huge costs imposed by the lockdown and the unpredictable contours of the spread of the contagion, what can manufacturers do to resume their business once the first signs of ‘Unlock 1.0’ are visible? If so, what trajectory will enterprises in manufacturing need to take to make up for the significant losses that have already occurred and the ones that are anticipated to emerge over a period of time?
The United Nations (UN) has projected that the global economy will shrink by 3-4% in the year 2020. As an outcome, manufacturing enterprises need to introspect on the steps that they need to take today, tomorrow, and over the course of time, leading into the future of a post-pandemic world. At Moglix, we believe that enterprises need to visualize the road to recovery by first rebuilding trust today, enabling businesses processes with technology for tomorrow, and building futuristic supply chains using advanced technology for the foreseeable future beyond COVID19.
What Manufacturers Need to Do Today?
Rebuilding Trust: The Great Lockdown in 2020 has lent a major shock to public healthcare systems and has created an enormous trust deficit at both individual and institutional levels. In the manufacturing sector, trust erosion has emancipated in many forms, including withdrawal of labor from participation in production processes, opaqueness in supplier collaboration, and a lack of visibility into insights on key performance indicators of cost, quality, and expected timelines of delivery. As such decisions to deploy resources and engage them into manufacturing during ‘Unlock 1.0’ must be pivoted on addressing the trust deficit secularly first within enterprises and then scaling up across all enterprises constituting the supply chain in the manufacturing sector.
- Ensuring Health Protection: At the enterprise level, this calls for ensuring the availability of quality rated personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, and medical kits for all employees and the creation of fool-proof systems for implementation of standard operating procedures for regular sanitization of the physical environment at the workplace. The second imperative is to ensure transparency in sharing information on the deployment of such social distancing and contact tracing measures on a “need to know basis” among all stakeholders in the supply chain while staying within the ambit of data privacy.
- Fixing the Broken Fragments with Data: Reviewing supplier collaboration and manufacturing workflows today will play a huge role in creating an open and transparent dialog among OEMs, CMs, EPC enterprises, MSMEs, and suppliers across multiple tiers in the supply chain. A pilot project for mapping the supplier network can follow a template similar to the one used by bankers to conduct a stress test of debtors during the Great Meltdown of 2007 and focus on three Cs: character, capability, and credibility. One way to do this is by creating a similar stress test in manufacturing and encompassing the three Cs can be of paramount importance:
- What is the site location of the supplier including the city, region, and country? Do we have insights into the real-time status of COVID19 spread there?
- Is the supplier adhering to social distancing and contact tracing practices to steer clear of COVID19 risks?
- What are the parts procured from this site? What is the part number and description, part cost, annual volume for this part, rate of replenishment of inventory for this part, and the total spend (per year) from this site?
- What is the end product including the OEM’s end product(s) that uses this part? What is the profit margin for the end product(s)?
- What are the lead times from the supplier site to OEM sites in days?
- What is the Time to Recovery (TTR)? What time would it take for a site to be restored to full functionality if the supplier site is down, but the tooling is not damaged or if the tooling is lost?
- What is the cost of loss if expediting components from other locations is possible? If so, at what cost?
- Can additional resources (overtime, more shifts, alternate capacity) be organized to satisfy demand? If so, what is the cost?
- Does the supplier produce only from a single source? Could alternate vendors supply the part? Is the supplier financially stable? Is there variability in performance (lead time, fill rate, quality)?
- What are the mitigation strategies for this supplier-part combination? Who are the alternate suppliers? How to arrange excess inventory?
What Manufacturers Need to Do Tomorrow?
Enabling Business Processes with Technology: As enterprises in manufacturing and supply chain operations look to move beyond the immediate impact of the COVID19 pandemic over the next financial quarter, it shall make sense for them to scale up the best practices from the peak of the recessionary phase and integrate siloed data repositories for multiple functions into a compact source to pay (S2P) platform for a single-window approach to manage approvals and authorization for procurement decisions. This shall serve the purpose of augmenting enterprise-wide transparency and building greater efficiencies by facilitating multi-tenant models for collaboration spanning across the nerve center leadership, customer relationship, and supply chain teams to optimize costs. Small steps towards instituting a digital “cost control tower” to prioritize urgent and important payments and define clear reporting metrics for managers to track the liquidity status in real-time may over the period of the next financial quarter evolve into rolling forecasts to identify major areas of EBITDA risks and finally implement zero-based budgeting (ZBB) to achieve greater fiscal prudence for discretionary expenditures and indirect procurement. Authorization and access to such information systems may slowly be devolved amongst mid-level managers to move the enterprise forward along the lines of supply chain digitization and learning curve from a strategic to a tactical level
What Manufacturers Need to Do in the Future?
Build Futuristic Supply Chains using Advanced Tech: One of the major lessons coming out of the COVD19 pandemic for enterprises in manufacturing shall be gaining visibility into the next steps and future-proofing their supply chains. They will have learned the value of anticipating the next supply chain disruption in advance and adjusting their positions in the market while they still have time to do so.
Using Advanced technologies like contract management and predictive analytics that allow enterprises to stay informed on their supplier relationships, map the contributions of suppliers by value and volume, and assess their exposure to volatile business environments are likely to emerge as the enablers of de-risking supply chains. With AI, ML, and advanced analytics being able to capture deeper insights on the next steps in the supply chain right up to the end consumer, the direction of supply chain automation is likely to direct towards demand-driven planning and forecasting (DDPF).
While temptations to stay in denial of the challenges in a post COVID19 world and to retain the status quo may still be strong, enterprises shall do well not to risk a return to pre-COVID19 coordinates of workflow, collaboration, and distribution. Instances such as the Y2K, the subprime crisis of 2007, and climate change should serve an adequate warning to enterprises to steer clear of the lure of wishing away a rebound of challenges and then waking up to grave realities. A future that is driven by a high degree of technology enablement for information sharing, engaging in transparent dialogs to drive outcomes, and creating coordinated responses to a crisis may present us with a vertical upward shift in costs. Irrespective of how steep the shift in costs may be, it shall be prudent for enterprises to believe that they shall be able to pass on such incremental costs of technology enablement across the downstream of the supply chain right up to the end consumer.
How a National Supply Chain Network Can Enable India to be Self-Reliant: Looking Beyond COVID19
How a National Supply Chain Network Can Enable India to be Self-Reliant: Looking Beyond COVID19
The compelling need to go into lockdown and maintain social distancing to minimize the transmission of the COVID19 pandemic serves as a glaring case study for enterprises in India to analyze the challenges caused by global supply chain disruptions. Given the projected decline in the real GDP growth rate by at least 1% and a surge in unemployment to 23% due to the freezing of the economy into an abominable lull, it makes sense to: (1) critically examine manufacturing-led exports, (2) explore the scope of a national supply chain network to boost domestic manufacturing and investment, and (3) assess export promotion as a strategy to boost employment generation and economic growth through the multiplier effects thereof.
What Makes India a Strong Contender to Emerge as a Global Manufacturing Hub Beyond COVID19?
A new normal is set to emerge coming out of the COVID19 pandemic accompanied by a major restructuring of global supply chains. While the manufacturing sector has been affected by the global supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID19 pandemic, there is ample reason for enterprises in the manufacturing sector to be optimistic about the India growth story.
Diversification of Export Portfolio of Indian Manufacturing by Geography:
Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, the value of exports of manufactured goods from India, stood at USD 18 billion of which China accounted for USD 1.8 billion while, the United States, India’s top export market accounted for USD 4.2 billion. This is indicative of the highly diversified portfolio of manufacturing exports of India and in hindsight both an opportunity to grow as well as a major lever to de-risk the supply chain of the manufacturing sector in India.
The Resilience of Indian Manufacturing Exports to Sino-U.S Trade Wars:
India’s revenues from the export of manufactured goods had been registering consistent growth for some time before the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic. In FY 2019 reached its highest ever at USD 330 billion, surpassing the previous peak performance of USD 314 billion in 2013-14. It was achieved despite the strong headwinds due to the reciprocal Sino-U.S imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers that were projected to weaken growth in global trade by 1.70% for a number of Asian economies including China. The fact that India emerged as the only Asian economy to register 1.7% growth in the value of manufacturing exports proves its resilience to a weakened global economy.
Growth in Exports of Intermediate Goods and Technology Penetration in Manufacturing:
A significant progress in the performance of India’s exports of manufactured goods is the growth registered by various categories of intermediate goods in FY 2019. Major growth drivers in the category of intermediate goods include engineering goods (+6%, USD 83,704 million), petroleum products (+28%, USD 47, 954 million), chemicals (+22%, USD 22,573 million) and pharmaceuticals (+11%, USD 19, 188 million) respectively. Other verticals that registered growth include textiles, electronics, and plastics. The growth in the value of exports of such intermediate goods holds significance from the standpoint of how technology enablement in manufacturing can push Indian manufacturing enterprises up the global value chain in a post COVID19 world. The share of FVA in India’s exports stood at roughly 17% in 2018, with the share of IDA (domestic value-added) in its exports stood at 83%.
National Supply Chain Network Can Enable India to Grab a Greater Share of the Global Value Chain
A National Supply Chain Network can connect Indian manufacturers in the hinterlands to new opportunities in the global supply chain and enable them to earn a greater share of the GVC. This calls for exploring avenues to strengthen domestic manufacturing and attract foreign direct investment to make a greater proportion of the global manufacturing output, locally in India and embrace export promotion. It calls for an integration of initiatives to create fixed assets for infrastructure, improve logistics connectivity, and drive the technology enablement of supply chains through digital connectivity to de-risk global supply chains from the unprecedented shocks experienced during the COVID19 pandemic.
Improving Infrastructure is the Key to Building the National Supply Chain Network
The creation of world-class infrastructure is at the heart of the idea of a National Supply Chain Network and remains a strong impediment to India’s performance in manufacturing. Infrastructure in India has a strong investment-to-GDP multiplier effect of 2X. This means that a 1% increase in investment in infrastructure can create 1,360,000 jobs. The National Infrastructure Pipeline that has been envisaged at the cost of INR 100 lakh crore over the next five years can be leveraged to improve logistics connectivity. The creation of fixed assets like 9000 KM of the economic corridor, 2500 KM of controlled highways and 5000 KM of highways before 2024 in 12 bundles if designed from the ground up to provide greater connectivity beyond terminal gates ports and airports to the hinterland in rural areas can significantly raise the attractiveness quotient of foreign direct investments for global corporations in core industry verticals mentioned above to make in India. The recent announcement on the creation of a land bank to promote investments in the 3376 industrial parks and SEZs spanning across 5 lakh hectares is a step forward in the right direction in this regard. A single-window approach to clearance and approval of land acquisition drives based on the adoption of a scientific and weighted average indexing of economic, technical and environmental feasibility can expedite land acquisition while ensuring that questions on livelihoods of people and the sustainability of the planet are duly addressed. To make economic growth truly inclusive, the scope of land acquisition may be extended to include public healthcare, affordable housing, safe drinking water, irrigation, and warehousing.
Leverage Technology Integration in Manufacturing to Create a Transparent National Supply Chain Network
The lack of visibility into data and limited information sharing has great repercussions for OEMs, CMs, suppliers, and end customers in the manufacturing supply chain because it operates on a foundation built by land, natural resources, and fixed assets all of which have a high gestation period, entail high fixed costs and involve making decisions for the long run. One of the major takeaways for Indian enterprises from the COVID19 pandemic has been the massive trust erosion in supplier relationships and collaborations with major OEMs based out of the epicenter of the supply shock invoking force majeure to seek effective insulation from the loss offsets mandated for dishonoring supplier contracts. Technology integration can significantly improve technical and economic efficiency, reduce project overrun costs, and provide visibility into outlay on direct procurement and enable compliance with contractual obligations and transactional behavior. A focused approach to improving transparency into the mapping of multi-tiered supplier networks is essential to the vision for a National Supply Chain Network. Advance information on possible digression from supplier contracts, supply chain automation to explore repetitive patterns in supplier behavior through tracking of key performance indicators of cost, quality, and on-time delivery can enable Indian enterprises to work with a better sense of anticipation and likelihood into the next steps in the supply chain journey and thus adjust their positions in the market to hedge against supply chain disruptions.
Make in India and the National Supply Chain Network Critical to Job Creation and Growth
Amidst the emerging realities of the COVID19 pandemic and the negative economic shocks, a dialog on making India self-reliant needs to focus on integrating policy narratives and corporate initiatives to boost employment generation and get a greater share of the gross value addition to manufactured goods done locally in India. The manufacturing sector that currently contributes 16-17% of the GDP, 12% of employment generation in India, and 57% of India’s exports, assumes critical importance in this regard. The MSME sector, on the other hand, has been the enabler of the last resort in these challenging times of COVID19 to diverse communities of people in the country. Stand-alone shops, grocery stores, food marts and markets, and ancillary units have demonstrated their capabilities to provide hyperlocal services, deep market penetration, low-cost innovation, and last-mile delivery of goods and services. With a strategic integration of the National Supply Chain Network with the mission to make in India, the share of manufacturing in India’s real GDP may rise to 25%, create new business opportunities for the MSME sector and create the 100 million jobs targeted under the aegis of the “Make in India” campaign. Data suggests an indirect multiplier effect between manufacturing and services in India with one manufacturing job creating three jobs in the service sector. For a labor surplus economy like India, the ability to generate employment and affect a rebound in real GDP growth rates to pre-COVID19 levels should suffice to conclude a dialog on the importance of the National Supply Chain Network and the “Make in India” label.
Getting Indian Businesses Prepared for Restarting the Supply Chain During Lockdown 4.0
Getting Indian Businesses Prepared for Restarting the Supply Chain During Lockdown 4.0
The latest MHA guidelines for enterprises to resume commercial activities during the ensuing period of lockdown 4.0 reflect the solutions required to resolve the local challenges posed by the Covid19 pandemic to India following “mass customization”. The roadmap to be adopted by enterprises for “walking off the seatbelt” must address the twin challenges of scale and diversity that are representative of the economic and geographic environments of India. Given the diversity in the rates of morbidity, mortality, and recovery across regions in the country it is evident that the opening up of the economy while being staggered shall also be localized and follow different timelines across regions and industry verticals in the economy. It is in view of these emerging realities that enterprises need to decode the revised MHA guidelines for resuming activity during the nationwide lockdown.
National Directives for Covid19 Management and Standard Operating Procedures: MHA Guidelines
The latest order for lockdown 4.0 retains the status quo of preceding orders during the last 60 days of the lockdown while devolving regulatory functions of the business to local authorities to assess health risks and resilience of the apparatus for civil administration. It mandates that disinfectants be used for regularly sanitizing: entrance gate of building and office, cafeteria and canteens, meeting room, conference halls, open areas, verandah, the entrance gate of sites, bunkers, portacabins, buildings, equipment and lifts, washrooms, toilets, sinks, water points, walls, and other surfaces. Further, it deems the sanitization of all vehicles, machinery entering the premises, and thermal screening for everyone entering and exiting the workplace as mandatory. The National Directives for Covid19 management mandates compliance with the following workplace safety measures:
- It recommends that the practice of work from home be followed as much as possible.
- It requires enterprises to ensure on the best effort basis that employees install the Aarogya Setu app on their personal devices for safety in the workplace.
- It deems the wearing of masks as compulsory for people in public places and workplaces.
- It deems the making of adequate arrangements for temperature screening and hand sanitizers for people as compulsory.
- It deems as compulsory for organizations to sanitize workplaces between shifts.
- It deems as compulsory for organizations in manufacturing units to ensure frequent cleaning of common surfaces and makes handwashing mandatory.
Reimagining the Solutions for Lockdown 4.0 from a Local Perspective
One of the major highlights of the extended period of lockdown 4.0 from the standpoint of supply chains is the approach to localization of challenges and solutions thereof. The latest order from the MHA for lockdown 4.0 clearly suggests that the delineation of red, green, and orange zones will now be decided by the respective state and UT governments. It also devolves decision-making powers for demarcation of buffer and containment zones to district-level authorities, while requiring them to operate within the guidelines of MoHFW. Enterprises that are looking to resume economic activity in the ensuing period are now required to take cognizance of the decentralization of the business regulatory framework and must look to engage with local authorities, local suppliers, and local communities of people.
Implications for Supply Chains and Workplaces of Enterprises Due to the Localized Approach
The new approach enshrined in the MHA order for lockdown 4.0 brings into focus the aspects of localization of supply chain practices and engagement with business and civil regulatory institutions at the district, state, and UT levels.
Enterprises that are preparing to restart their supply chains thus need to be more aware of the evolving on-ground situation in states and UTs to understand the regulations on the mobility of people, materials, and multimodal logistics and thereafter map their availability for work across multiple locations in their supply chain.
For enterprises that are multi plant operators, this requires them to adopt a new decentralized and bottom-up approach to planning, implementing, and monitoring supply chain operations in different locations across states and UTs in India.
By implicit rationale, it also calls for enterprises in the manufacturing sector to take a fresh look at the upstream and downstream activities of their supply chain. Given the wide diversity in the rates of spread of the COVID19 pandemic across locations, it is prudent for enterprises to keep track of operations across every plant location separately.
The localized approach to lockdown 4.0 calls for a fresh mapping of suppliers against procurement requirements for each plant location. This shall, in turn, set the tone for mapping the available modes of hyperlocal transport, engaging with logistics service providers, planning the logistics routes and number of sorties required for each vehicle, and conducting a gap analysis of headcount of people for covering each touchpoint in the supply chain from the point of manufacturing to the points of distribution.
Social distancing norms for as long as they apply shall compel enterprises to operate at sub-optimal production levels thereby drastically cutting down gross value addition at multiple levels in the supply chain and a search for new models of costs. Owing to the different timelines of the opening up of regions across the country, a restructuring of the supply chain is bound to happen. Enterprises located in regions that are first to open up shall have the first-mover advantage, albeit in the short term. The resumption of economic activities in the regions that lead the race to reopen shall create a local demand for industrial supplies and local suppliers located in proximity to these enterprises shall be the first in line to secure these orders for raw materials, intermediate goods and class C items like packaging and MRO. In the short term, as long as all the regions in the country do not open up for the economic activity to resume, local supply chain ecosystems resembling the raisin-pudding model envisaged by the scientist JJ Thomson shall emerge. As long as logistics across adjacent states shall remain cut off, such local supply chain ecosystems may also increasingly witness opportunities for arbitrage and speculation, thereby affecting new pricing and revenue enablement models in the newly reopened regions.
Building Supply Chain Capabilities for the Short Term and the Long Term
Given the new realities of supply chain restructuring that are about to emerge during lockdown 4.0 and beyond, enterprises need to start building capabilities now and look to scale best practices through a repetitive model to arrive at a new normal in the long term. Creating local supplier networks and investing in collaborative supplier relationships in local geographies shall be integral to restarting economic activity in the short term. Partnering with these new suppliers in the short term and moving towards strategic supplier relationships shall require new supply chain models driven by collation and analysis of data on key performance indicators of supplier performance. Agile collaboration with suppliers shall require switching to a digital workflow to fast track the PR-to-PO process. Most importantly it shall be necessary for enterprises to leverage cloud platforms to store such data and then apply sensing, processing, and learning capabilities of artificial intelligence to drill down their supplier networks to understand their supplier risk exposure better to stay insulated from supply shocks in future. A new normal shall eventually emerge from these altered ground realities.
The New Normal: Supply Chain Touchpoints Separated by Distance and Connected by Technology
The revised MHA guidelines for business enterprises while being effective for the ensuing period of the lockdown 4.0 are integral to the strategic evolution of the economic, geographical, and regulatory environments for business in India towards a more federal and localized supply chain design. There is a likelihood that enterprises may now have to work with a unique supply chain design composed of pools of resources, materials, and people within local jurisdictions and geographical footprints while being connected to each other in India and across the globe through high-end supply chain technology platforms and digital systems.
The takeaways from the localized approach to the lockdown shall in the long term lead towards a trajectory whereby all functions of business shall pivot on gaining visibility into the next steps in the local supply chain, making their supply chains more granular and agile to respond to opportunities and risks in the local environment, designing low-touch processes to stay operational from remote locations and building capabilities to align local resources towards the next opportunities in the shortest turnaround time. The Covid19 pandemic has caught business enterprises unawares amidst a massive supply chain disruptions. The supply chains of the future shall be much more localized and technology-enabled to enable enterprises to insulate themselves from the risks posed by opaque supplier relationships, failures of long-distance logistics, and look to move closer to the point of consumption.
Decoding Workplace Implications for Enterprises From the Guidelines for Lockdown 4.0
Decoding Workplace Implications for Enterprises From the Guidelines for Lockdown 4.0
In the wake of the lockdown 4.0, business enterprises are planning to invest efforts and time now to map their requirements of PPE kits afresh as they aim to restart and ramp-up commercial activity. In the wake of the evolving contours of the efforts to combat the COVID19 pandemic in India through an extension of the lockdown up to 31st May 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has issued revised guidelines for gradually reopening chosen industry verticals and sectors in the economy while ensuring adherence to:
- Basic preventive measures
- Preventive measures for offices
- Measures to be taken on the occurrence of cases
- Disinfection procedures to be implemented in case of occurrence of suspect/confirmed cases
While business enterprises located in such buffer zones and containment zones are not yet allowed to resume commercial operations, the MHA guidelines for the resumption of economic activity during lockdown 4.0 apply to all enterprises located in green, orange and red zones and assume significance from the standpoint of people, operations, and supply chain.
What Do the Basic Preventive Measures Imply for Enterprises? Procure PPE Items In Bulk?
The basic preventive measures mandate physical distancing of at least one meter at all times, use of masks, regular washing of hands for at least 20 seconds with hand sanitizers, and adherence to respiratory etiquette. The basic preventive measures apply to all people and are agnostic of commercial activity. However, this assumes importance from the standpoint of enterprises that operate in densely populated physical environments and have high exposure to a traffic of people such as retail, public transport, MSME, food, and beverages, pharma retail, repair, and maintenance services, MRO, healthcare, etc. Enterprises in these verticals should ideally invest in the bulk procurement of PPE items like alcohol-based hand sanitizers, N95 masks, coveralls for their employees. For enterprises operating in the downstream of the supply chain, it is important that they train their staff adequately in practicing zero-contact delivery to ensure the safety of themselves, their customers, and the community at large.
What are the Implications of the Preventive Measures for Offices? Is Digital Workflow the New Normal?
The new set of preventive measures for offices during Lockdown 4.0 requires enterprises operating from offices to restrict the entry of visitors apart from the organizational staff, avoid physical meetings and restrict the use of hard copy documents and files for official correspondence as much as possible. Given the need for social distancing, it is also important that enterprises make the point of common use in their infrastructure low-touch. For instance, no-touch equipment like doors, cloud installed human resource information systems for attendance in lieu of biometric machines, and automated office equipment are recommended. Beyond these, the standard measures for social distancing like regular screening of body temperature of all people entering the premises of the office using IR thermometers, soap dispensers, and sanitizer dispensers for regular sanitization are advised.
For enterprises, this translates into the requirements of designating the workplace infrastructure management team to map seating arrangements at the workplace for adherence to social distancing, creating daily rosters for the staff to attend to work and thus accordingly map the supplies of PPE items. In fact, it is advisable that data be maintained to proactively map PPE line items, volumes of each line item for a financial quarter, local PPE suppliers with credible records, procure the items in advance and further, create a separate PPE store with due diligence for safe storage, replenishment of inventories and disposal of used items as per instructions recommended by the MoHFW. Further, it is also advised that enterprises gradually move up the levels of digital workplace maturity by resorting to the use of online platforms for collaboration, sharing data on a “need to know basis” and digital workflows to make business processes low-touch. This applies especially to processes with external dependencies for the enterprise such as purchases, invoicing and payments, inventory management, track and trace of cargo and procurement, direct contract management, and supplier collaboration.
What Do the Measures to be Taken on the Occurrences of Cases Imply? Can Contact Tracing Reduce Risks?
While the guidelines of the MHA recommend measures for self-isolation and quarantine for both suspect and confirmed cases of COVID19, it calls for enterprises to be more agile in ensuring compliance with preventive measures. It makes good sense to suggest the reorganization of the workplace from the ground up and deployment of screening measures to control the sporadic transmission of the pandemic at the workplace. The use of the Arogya Setu app that facilitates contact tracing as recommended by the government can be a prima facie precursor to detecting and mitigating health risks and its spillover to business. This can especially be the case in business processes that entail mobility such as logistics, warehousing, inventory management, and supply chain.
What are the Implications of the Disinfection Procedures for Enterprises?
In the event of detection of COVID19 positive cases, the new guidelines for lockdown 4.0 mandate measures for thorough disinfection of the entire building premises before resuming work and close monitoring of the health of office staff with a low-risk exposure for the next 14 days. This implies that before resuming commercial activity, enterprises need to be ready with adequate stocks of surface cleaning agents, surface cleaning sprays, floor disinfectants, Lysol disinfectants, and disinfectant sprays to cope with any eventuality. The guidelines handbook mandates that disinfectants be used for regularly sanitizing: entrance gate of building and office, cafeteria and canteens, meeting room, conference halls, open areas, verandah, the entrance gate of sites, bunkers, portacabins, buildings, equipment and lifts, washrooms, toilets, sinks, water points, walls, and other surfaces. Further, it deems the sanitization of all vehicles, machinery entering the premises, and thermal screening for everyone entering and exiting the workplace as mandatory.
PPE Kits, Automation Software, and Digital Workflow: The Future of Workplaces in India
On a concluding note, the latest guidelines for lockdown 4.0 require enterprises to adapt to a new normal for the long term by securing the lives of its people and communities that are dependent on them. This can be enabled through agile collaboration between PPE suppliers and manufacturers on one hand and business enterprises that need them on the other for seamless procurement and distribution of PPE medical kits. Further, the requirement for social distancing calls for a new work culture in India that is driven by higher automation of programmable functions and greater penetration of technology into business processes especially in the ones that require teamwork, collaboration, and exposure to external environments beyond the control of enterprises. Paperless workplaces and workflows are here to stay.
Podcast E2: Now and Next in the Indian Food and Beverages Industry
Podcast E2: Now and Next in the Indian Food and Beverages Industry
Subscribe:
Enabling Indian Food and Beverage Supply Chains During COVID19 and Beyond
Enabling Indian Food and Beverage Supply Chains During COVID19 and Beyond
Food and beverages (F & B), the fourth largest sector in the Indian economy, has continuously endeavored to keep the supplies of essential goods up and running in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. While the F & B sector had garnered annual revenues of USD 52. 75 bn in FY 2018-19, it had been experiencing growing headwinds over the last 12 months before the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. It was able to register a growth in value in January and February in FY 2019-20 to the tune of 8.6%. Still, the recovery was cut short by the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic in March, with growth slipping to 6.2%, owing to disruptions to its supply chain emanating from a wide range of factors.
How Does the Geographical Footprint of Indian F & B Affect Its Supply Chain Ecosystem?
The Indian F & B industry finds the presence of several large enterprises with a geographical footprint spread over 40 Mega Food Parks across the country. These Mega Food Parks may be further classified into the categories of: in operation, in progress, and in principle. Five of the top enterprises in the F & B industry in the country run food processing and manufacturing facilities at 17 “in operation” Mega Food Parks, with four such Mega Food Parks each in the north, west, and south and two each in the east and the north-east respectively. These large enterprises also have food processing facilities across the 21 “in progress” Mega Food Parks, with eight of these being distributed across the north, five across the southern states, and four across the central-south zone. The industry is characterized by the presence of a well-established distribution network, and non-price competition between the organized and unorganized segments. Traditionally the industry has benefited from the easy availability of raw materials from farmgate players, low labor costs, and value addition by post-farmgate players and MSMEs.
What Are the Supply Chain Risks and Operational Challenges Facing Indian F & B Now?
From the standpoint of an analysis of the supply chain risks and operational challenges facing the Indian F& B industry, the following factors assume significance:
- the epidemiological dynamics across the geographical footprint of Indian F & B
- the regulatory guidelines for crop harvesting and threshing and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID 19
- the dependence of Indian F & B enterprises on global suppliers and markets
- the dependence of Indian F & B enterprises on supplies for value-added services
- finally, the supply chain risks emanating from a breakdown of contractual obligations and compliance mechanisms in hotspots, red zones, and containment zones
How Does the Spread of the COVID19 Contagion Impact the Indian F & B Industry?
From the standpoint of large Indian F & B enterprises, it is essential to note that its geographical footprint across the Mega Food Parks and beyond farm gates has a direct bearing on the food supply chain and exposure to COVID19 led disruptions. 80% of the final products manufactured and processed by Indian F& B industry comprises of non-food grain items like poultry, dairy farm products, fruits and vegetables, sugars, permissible additives and preservatives, and edible oils and are driven perishable food supply chains (FSCs). These are low-shelf life products, with 60% of volumes being handled by non-farmgate players. Further, a whopping 85% of the FSC is handled by MSMEs that are dynamic and clustered near and in towns. The dynamics of the contagion thus far indicate that urban areas with a high density of population and congested physical environments are especially vulnerable to risks of transmission of the #COVID19 pandemic.
What to Make of the Regulatory Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures to Combat COVID19?
An analysis of the Indian FSC on the lines of segregation of farmgate players, post-farmgate participants, and downstream MSMEs can enable F & B enterprises to act with prudence and proactively map contingency and recovery mechanisms to ensure compliance with regulatory measures.
Farmgate Players in Indian FSC
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation, and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India has issued guidelines for harvesting and threshing for farmgate participants in the FSC. While foodgrain items make for only 20% weight of the FSC in India, the dependence on several critical agro-based products hold relevance to the F & B enterprises.
Post-Farmgate Players in Indian FSC
Indian F & B enterprises face higher exposure to post-farmgate activities that account for 60% of the FSC. Data reported in the National Sample Survey 2011-12 suggests that post-farmgate activities are undertaken in semi-urban areas, towns, and tier-II cities in regions that are close to farm areas. Such physical proximity has traditionally served to reduce the TAT of cargo, reduce logistics costs, and added a measure of speed to the FSC that holds relevance for perishable goods. The low rates of morbidity and mortality reported thus far, coupled with easy access to healthcare services and regulated commercial real estate, make post-farm gate participants less likely to be disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic. Furthermore, the presence of organized labor makes it easier to implement social distancing measures stated by the Ministry of Home Affairs vide the National Directive on COVID 19 Management and Standard Operating Procedures.
MSMEs in Indian FSC
MSMEs form the third key stakeholder group in Indian FSCs. NSSO 2011-12 data suggests that MSMEs handle between 72% and 83% of the F & B products consumed in India for wholesaling, processing, logistics, distribution, and retailing, all of which are labor-intensive and operate with high densities of workers in small commercial real estate. Given the trajectory of the COVID19 metrics thus far, it makes sense to suggest that MSMEs that are engaged in the downstream supply chain are the most susceptible to COVID19 risks. With 80-90% of retailing and distribution being routed through MSMEs operating in densely populated urban areas, the downstream of the Indin F & B supply chain stands at risk of being disrupted.
How Does Dependence on Suppliers for Value Added Services Affect Indian F & B Enterprises?
Dependence of Indian F & B enterprises on domestic MSMEs for class C items like packaging and labeling adds to the supply chain risks. Given the economic environment of MSMEs as discussed above, the withdrawal of people from workforce participation, compromising with regulatory guidelines, and exposure to red zones and containment areas make them susceptible to supply chain disruptions. Further, the bundling of services like third-party logistics and warehousing makes MSMEs more vulnerable to the risks of COVID19, thus raising the risks of inflated costs of packaging, warehousing, and distribution and higher turnaround time of cargo thereby affecting market outreach of enterprises.
Recommendations for Making Indian F & B Supply Chains More Efficient Now.
The Indian F & B industry, while being a leading player in the resolution of the impasse, is required to make its supply chain more efficient to withstand the disproportionate impact created by the Covid19 pandemic. Following operational and supply chain measures are recommended for deployment in the short-run (next two financial quarters):
- Map Exposure to Local Supplier Network in Red Zones and Containment Areas
In the wake of the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) elements that have been accentuated owing to the dynamics of the contagion across India, it makes sense for Indian F & B enterprises to regularly assess the on-ground developments across red zones and containment areas. Given the challenges that are likely to emerge in the downstream distribution of food products, a switch to smart packaging to enable more excellent track and trace of SKUs during the supply chain journey can create customer delight in times of crisis.
- Periodic review of HVACR in Plants and Warehouses and PPE
Given the prerequisites of the operating environment that the F& B industry has, there is a necessity to periodically monitor and review the working condition of cold storages and cold chains to ensure the freshness of perishable products. The most important measures to ensure the safety of the lives of people and ensure minimum disruption to production routines are the optimal procurement of personal protective equipment and regularization of the MRO supply chain. Periodic quality control audits of HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) can enable the easy downstream distribution of food products when these are still fresh and fit for human consumption.
- Gradually Evolve to Sustainable Packaging to Protect Edible Contents to Address Health Risks
The immediate supply chain risks posed by the COVID19 pandemic to the downstream activities of wholesaling, retailing, and distribution of F & B products call for enterprises to take greater cognizance of the trust deficit among customers by the need for social distancing. Enterprises can do well to invest in partnering with suppliers that have the necessary capabilities of new product development and industrial-scale to provide tamper-proof packaging solutions that insulate the contents of edible items from the risks of contamination by pathogens during the supply chain journey. With the likelihood of a new normal of contactless delivery and models of low touch distribution, Indian F & B enterprises may like to drive pilot projects of innovation in sustainable packaging for edible items and scale-up deployment across product categories to reduce costs.
- Advance Booking of Logistics and Warehousing Capacity to Counter Surge in Domestic Demand
With an eventual reopening of the economy over the next financial quarter, a surge in domestic demand can hit logistics costs and, by implicit economic rationale, may invite a need for optimization of inventory holdings. Booking of logistics and warehousing capacity can reduce demand-pull inflationary pressures. Vendor managed inventory services for holding inventories can enable Indian F & B enterprises to unlock cash and rationalize working capital usage over the short term.
Beyond COVID 19: What is Next for the Indian F & B Supply Chain?
The COVID 19 pandemic, while having disrupted the downstream supply chains of Indian F & B enterprises offer a vast spectrum of takeaways that are likely to lead to the evolution of a new normal. Currently, the F & B retail market is dominated by food grocery stores and food services, both of which are growing at a CAGR of 25%. The overarching reliance on MSMEs for retailing and distribution routed through the manual workflow may witness a paradigm shift. It should enable Indian F & B enterprises to invest in temperature-controlled supply chain capabilities in urban areas, thereby allowing them greater control over the supply chain, volumes, and value. Given the non-price competition in the packaged F & B industry, a new technology-driven approach to the procurement of packaging and labeling can: reduce TAT of perishable goods, bring visibility into the supply chain journey of every unit of product, strengthen brand equity and reduce spoilage of food products.
Back