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JK Tyres & Industries Ltd. has been serving its customers since 1970. The company which offer tyres for the entire range of passenger and commercial vehicle with its services have become an industry leader in domestic as well as at a global platform.
In an exclusive interview with Logistics Insider Sameer Gupta, Chief Manager (supply chain), JK Tyres & Industries Ltd. reveals the secret behind JK Tyres smooth and efficient supply chain and the role of technology in driving innovation.
What strategies do you follow in order to maintain the right balance between demand and supply of JK Tyre in its Supply Chain?
In order to maintain the right balance between demand & supply, we leverage the agility, flexibility, speed & quality in entire supply chain metrics.
These are the key components, which are necessary to meet the unique needs of customers and markets.
Companies that focus on agility are market sensitive and will profit by exploiting their supply chains rapidly and cost-effectively respond to unpredictable changes.
We use multiple planning & tracking tools which help us to capture real-time demand, better forecast, production planning, order tracking & fulfilment process.
Our demand planning is based on market demand rather than traditional forecasting method. Usually, companies are fulfilling demand based on weekly, fortnightly or monthly production/demand planning.
We use technology to maintain transparency within each component of the supply chain like supplier, retailer, outsource partners, plants, transporters & customers.
What hurdles do you face while planning your supply chain? How do you ensure that products of JK Tyre reach every nook and corner of India in a timely manner?
Fluctuating customer priority & managing logistics at peak demand are some of the key challenges in supply chain planning. To address the above two challenges we capture real time market demand & respond it accordingly.
Technology helps us to make decisions on real-time inventory & maintain the optimum level at each location so that we have the right quantity available to serve customers on time.
Creating predictability, consistency and visibility within the service supply chain enable a business to communicate faster and more efficiently with customers.
For the last few years, we have outsourced our warehousing
operations to enhance the better customer experience for faster & smooth delivery with optimum cost.
Warehouse automation like no manual intervention in ordering & invoicing process helps to speed up the fulfilment process.
In order to delivery tyres on time & cost effective manner, we have connected last-mile delivery by beat cycle. Beat cycle helps us to connect with customers continuously, let a customer choose & change delivery window, link to order processing.
How do you plan to optimise your supply chain activities? Are your optimisation strategies based on speed or cost?
We at JK Tyres have optimised supply chain activities by improving collaboration between all business partners in the supply chain like supplier & manufacturer, for demand-driven forecasting, inventory management, production & inventory planner for bridging the gap between demand & supply, 3PL partners for last-mile deliveries.
Focus on overall lead time reduction & timely delivery.
JK Tyres optimisation strategy is based on speed in cost effective manner by using technology as a tool.
How much tech enabled is JK Tyres’ Supply chain? How do you ensure that JK Tyre picks up the right technology for its supply chain needs and doesn’t become a guinea pig in the race of multiple tech offering companies?
Technology is playing a critical role in optimising decision of supply chain network flow for achieving organisational competitiveness, improve higher service level, improve visibility & accountability, lowering inventories & supply chain cost.
At JK Tyres now all supply chain processes are automated & we have been using various technological tools like APO, ERP & mobile application to link real time data to serve our customers proactively.
Technology helps to track drivers, inventory and other processes, that will allow a business to increase productivity. This can improve the supply chain and reduce inefficiencies
Today markets are offering a lot of technologies to optimise supply chain solution.
Before picking up any technology solution, we at JK tyres first evaluate if a particular supply chain management solution “help to improve visibility across the organisation?”
End-to-end (E2E) visibility is becoming an increasingly meaningful goal in the world of Industry, as it helps to promote agility and flexibility within a more legible, integrated supply chain.
JK Tyres consider whether proposed solution offers real-time integration, in-memory storage, and an easy-to-use interface. Features like these can help to give would-be users a sense of the visibility implications both within
their organisations.
This is an abridged version of the interview published in Logistics Insider magazine’s January issue. Click the below link to buy your e-copy now to get full access of the interview –
