Supply Chain Visibility is the precursor to the success of any business. A prerequisite in this era of ever-expanding growth of the Logistics and Warehousing sector, Supply Chain Visibility partnered with the latest technology is the only way to grab the market by its horns. Kapil Premchandani, Managing Director, KD Supply Chain Solutions Pvt Ltd gives us a bird’s-eye view of the importance of visibility, the latest innovations in technology, the challenges that lie ahead and what fuels the engine of such a veteran company in continuously expanding its reach in the industry today.
With the changing landscape of the global transportation trends and a growing dependency on technology, is an efficient Transportation Management System the answer to gaining Supply Chain Visibility?
The idea is to bring visibility in the entire process right from planning to delivery and cut inefficiencies in the process. We have picked up a minority stake in MOJRO which helps in dynamic planning, optimising, providing realtime visibility of our fleet and instant availability of digitized POD.
In the midst of an ever-expanding domain of logistics and warehousing, what are the key issues that supply chain professionals face today?
There are multiple ongoing challenges faced by the supply chain professionals today. The major challenges are:
• Availability of skilled manpower.
• Rural mindset is very rigid to deal with.
• No clear definition of green zones in majority of the areas.
• No clarity on kind of licenses required
• Absence of any guidelines and regularisation for building and operating warehouses.
• Absence of large tracts of land.
• Absence of high quality warehouses and floors.
The concept of a ‘one size fits all’ solution is no longer valid in this age of tailored solutions where people seek to choose a plan that is unique to their logistics and storage requirements and company. Does this statement hold true for KD Logistics’ service offerings as well?
Unfortunately, it is true. All the sectors and industry have different requirements and one size definitely doesn’t fit all. Pallet height, weight and dimensions are different for different sectors. Forget sectors, they are different even for customers in the same industry also. The 3PL industry is gradually getting classified into auto, consumer, telecom, retail etc. but still have a long way to go.
Technology is the heart of an efficient end-to-end supply chain. In this context, can you share with us some of the innovative technologies that your company has adopted?
Significant growing volumes are posing a challenge to deliver goods with right accuracy. In an era where warehouses are delivering goods directly to consumers, precision in dispatches is of paramount importance. Keeping this in mind, we have taken steps towards automation such as the following:
• We’ve invested in Pack-To-Light and Sortation Systems to increase productivity and accuracy of picking.
• We’ve implemented Transport Management System (Mojro), which allows us to do dynamic automated planning, optimise route, realtime visibility of our fleet, and instant digitized POD
• We’ve developed in-house business intelligence tools to measure and analyse various pertinent parameters related to our operations, which helps us to be on a continual path of improvement and strive for excellence.
There is a shift towards an increasing emphasis on flexible services, and a reduction in inventory levels and cost of logistics. How does your company keep up with this trend?
Our company has invested in creating muti-client sites at Bhiwandi and Delhi, where we charge on pay as you use policy. We have been successful in converting fixes costs like rentals, security, housekeeping and other overheads into a shared model.
In the present scenario, where sustainability is the need of the hour, has your company imbibed any environment-friendly initiatives?
Generally, all the non-saleable, expiry and other goods come back to the warehouse and it becomes very important to follow right procedures in scrapping the products. We have tied up with compliant vendors to help us in scrapping the products, tied up Gram Panchayats and Municipal Corporations to educate and train our people in disposing and scrapping waste. Even the buildings are designed in eco-friendly manner by providing right width of roads, drainage systems, sanitation systems etc.
Yes, definitely, we are extremely concerned towards the environment and hence we practice Go Green initiatives across all our warehouses. We have planted saplings and have planned to invest in rain water harvesting plants and solar panels in our new logistics park.
As someone whose expertise in the logistics domain extends beyond 15 years, what are your focus areas and best practices in order to drive your company to be at par with global standards?
We are focused on expanding our footprint across northern, southern and western parts of the country by opening new multi-client sites and also developing our own sites as well. We are venturing into eastern part of the country in this year by starting our sites at Kolkata and Guwahati. We are building robust BI tools, strengthening warehouse infrastructure, building training templates for our people to help us in catering to growing needs of the sector.
