CARGOCONNECT-MAY23 - Flipbook - Page 58
Advancing through the ranks – and
impacting service delivery
Warehousing and
transportation are
fully managed by 3PL
service providers.
We have C&FAs who
manage our warehouse
operations and a mix of
organised aggregators
and unorganised
transporters depending
on the geography. The
SOPs and standards are
provided by Colgate,
and our partners ensure
complete regulatory
(legal and commercial)
compliance. The
experience of our
partners is deeply
valued and we create
an environment of
openness and mutual
learning.
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
organisation-wide 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. From
multiple versions of files being shared and stored in
local hard drives to cloud based real-time platforms
enhanced employee productivity, task completion and
decision making significantly. We have a complete
integration of real-time data flow capability, right
from the point of sale done by a salesman from their
palm tops to the upstream supply chain. This gives us
immense power to respond to any demand spike and
have the right assortment at the right location at the
right time. IoT based sensors at our manufacturing
lines, help us conduct predictive maintenance and
reduce our unplanned downtime. TMS is being
used extensively for our primary goods movement,
which helps us measure our performance, transit
time, real time location of goods, etc.
Our future goal is to synchronise E2E Planning through AI and
technology. With IT advancement, comes great responsibility to uplift
capabilities. We are focussed on the upskilling needs at all levels, and
customised learning modules are being offered to each individual.
Refined planning of Logistics
For logistics, we have a 100% outsourced model with warehouses
managed by C&FAs and transportation by our approved service
providers. Our vendor selection criteria is a mix of cost and service
along with value derived. We strongly value our relationship with our
service providers, and do not switch simply due to cost advantages
being offered. We understand that for business acquisition, it’s
relatively simpler to offer better pricing but we evaluate the merit
and sustainability of the offer on record. Our mantra of Excelling
Fundamentals, Customer Centricity and deploying Futuristic
technology is at our heart during vendor selection. We believe in
rephrasing the term customer service into customer delight and
58 | CARGOCONNECT MAY 2023
whoever can help us achieve that, can consider
partnering with us.
Collaboration with LSPs remain vital as
outsourcing continues
Warehousing and transportation are fully managed by
3PL service providers. We have C&FAs who manage
our warehouse operations and a mix of organised
aggregators and unorganised transporters depending on the geography. The SOPs and standards are
provided by Colgate, and our partners ensure complete
regulatory (legal and commercial) compliance. The
experience of our partners is deeply valued and we
create an environment of openness and mutual learning. Primary transporters are onboarded each year
through RFP, RFQ and e-auctions whereas the secondary transporters are more or less determined based
on their key strengths and geographic advantages.
Our association, relationship and trust with
service providers are our strong suit, and hence,
we always stand at their top most priority to render
services. With our partners, our coordination is
determined by engagement. With a fixed frequency,
we share our expectations, priorities with our
stakeholders and learn from them. The frequency
may vary depending on the task being performed.
Steps to streamline Alternative Transport
Modes and Routes
The biggest challenge here is the factor of rising
customer expectations. Modern trade and e-commerce
customers have been demanding in terms of their
serviceability. A customer today would require goods
any day without any constraint on a minimum order
value. It is upon us to either complain about it or
accept and find out solutions to these problems. At
Colgate, we innovate and negotiate for a mutually
beneficial process.
We evaluate using multimodal logistics for our
primary goods movement. Very recently, we have
experimented with a road + coast model of delivery
from our manufacturing facility in the west to our
warehouse location based in the South. A small per
cent of our primary goods movement is through
railways as well. The opportunity here is the centre’s
focus on multimodal logistics parks and infrastructure upgrade in
terms of Expressways. Our policy shall be strictly in consonance
with the same and we would expect our logistics service providers
to be apprised of all developments and adapt to offer better customer
experience in an efficient manner.
Warehousing strategies that alleviates the bottom-line
Ever since the GST implementation, we have not looked back
and traversed our journey from a 31 warehouse setup in 2016 to
23 warehouse setup in 2022. Consolidation has given us great
advantages in terms of savings, reduction in complexity, accurate
inventory management while maintaining service levels.
Meanwhile, any transition that we undertake, we ensure that
we are at par or better than Grade A classified warehouses.
Apart from that, we have installed and implemented WMS at a
few of our warehouses and have a plan to have 100% implementation by 2025.
Interviewed by UPAMANYU BORAH
opportunities and minimise complexity through
sustained or improved service levels. Our continuous strive to benchmark costs through various
new-age service providers also keep us aware
about our positioning in terms of our costs. Use
of multimodal transportation, wherever possible,
increased container contribution in our primary
goods movement and direct dispatches through
customer segmentation have helped us keep our
logistics costs under budget and even generate
savings, despite inflation and increase in fuel prices.
Importantly, our logistics partners play an
integral role in this journey. We have a transhipment
model of delivery which helps ensure complete
and efficient utilisation of vehicles for first-mile,
long haul as well as last-mile.