CARGOCONNECT-MAY23 - Flipbook - Page 57
We at Colgate, have
an in-house global IT
support team who work
on strategic projects
and developments of
key priorities. Our ERP
systems are integrated
with 3PLs, C&FAs as
well as our stockists.
This helps us get
information in real-time
and gain control. Our
farsightedness made us
conduct an organisationwide complete change
management towards
cloud computing right
in 2019-2020. This gave
us immense leverage
and opportunity towards
real-time collaboration,
stakeholder visibility
and maintaining
transparency over
dependency.
rationalised over dependency
on imports from a particular
geography. Contributing to the
'Make in India' initiative, we
have started producing a few
products in the Personal Care
segment, which were earlier
imported. This gives us better
control and growth opportunities in canteen stores where
domestic production is mandatory. Our manufacturing plants
have been capable of producing
almost the entire portfolio in
case of any unforeseen situation that might occur with
any other facility. Our strong
network of warehouses across
India services to customers/
stockists, who in turn reach
out to 1.7 million stores directly
with an indirect coverage of
product availability at around
6.5 million stores. Additionally, the source to customer
mapping can be altered if the
need to ensure product supply
continuity arises.
Technical Prowess
enabling service abilities
There has been a paradigm
shift in the level of automation that has been brought in
at our plants and at our National
Distribution Centre. We have
invested in frugal automation
at our finishing lines, to necessarily make it ‘No Touch’.
Automating end-of-line applications with COBOTS, AGVs
and SMART Factory concepts
including digital twins have
helped make our processes
more efficient and error-proof.
Use of immersive technology to
conduct facility tours, audits
and identify improvement areas
without necessarily being physically present are ways through
which we have augmented productivity.
Our case fills stand strong at 95%+ and we continue to evaluate
Machine Learning (ML) based forecasting options to cut bias and
minimise errors. While customer expectations and behaviours have
limited control, it is in our control to make our processes sturdy
to cater to sudden demands which act as our growth drivers. We
keep a strong focus on our Go-to-Market, activations and premium
portfolio and ensure supplies are maintained throughout for these
priority SKUs. Today, the challenge that supply chains need to solve
is to manage the ‘Many to Many’ functional relationship of the Order
to Invoice Cycle. For example, different customers have different
Order Management Systems (OMS), similar to their suppliers like
us and other FMCG companies. Standardisation has an immense
scope for operational ease which ensures better supplies and avoids
any POs not being fulfiled.
What has transformed during the journey is the transparency and
availability of useful data in the form of customisable dashboards.
The alert mechanisms and visualisation eliminate the dependency
on an individual to keep a track on product or material availability.
Keeping relevant stakeholders informed in real-time through
data-backed analytics is the best mechanism to make faster decisions, ask the right questions and
take corrective and preventive
measures instantaneously.
Enabling straightforward
Value Generation
Raw material prices went up
to an extent of 20-25% from
2020 levels till 2022 and are now
smoothening and cooling off, but
still not back to the pre-pandemic
levels. The consumer price index
hit 7.79% in April 2022 and the
government and RBI have been
taking measures to control it
by reducing excise and import
duty and raising the interest
rates. However, it’s imperative
for responsible organisations to
find means to not pass on the
complete cost increase to end
consumer and absorb a portion of
it and still find innovative means
to keep the margins intact.
At Colgate, this efficiency
driver is inbuilt in our DNA. Our
unique “Funding the Growth”
programme facilitates and
encourages each individual to
work on projects and ideas which
help in Value-Added Cost Reduction. As stated above, frugal
automation solutions have helped
us recalibrate and redeploy our
resources for growth opportunities. We have conducted an
E2E network modelling to find
the most optimised number
and location of facilities which
would give us cost reduction
Our case fills stand
strong at 95%+ and we
continue to evaluate
Machine Learning (ML)
based forecasting
options to cut bias and
minimise errors. While
customer expectations
and behaviours have
limited control, it is in
our control to make our
processes sturdy to cater to sudden demands
which act as our growth
drivers. We keep a
strong focus on our Goto-Market, activations
and premium portfolio
and ensure supplies are
maintained throughout
for these priority SKUs.
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