Supply Chain Tribe magazine by Celerity January - February 2021

SUPPLYCHAINTRIBE.COM January - February 2021 Volume 5 Issue 1 For private circulation only

THE BRIGHT SPARKS Celerity 30-Under-30 & 40-Under-40 Supply Chain Awards 2020 honoured the future SCM leaders to spearhead the NEXT NORMAL (concluding part)

Global Focus An Assault Plan for Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Chain Distribution

SUPPLY CHAINS FOR NEW BUSINESS MODELS Smart and implementable ideas for resetting supply chains in the ‘Next Normal’

A Surreal Year!

Dear Readers, 2020 is finally behind us. The most ‘trying and challenging year of our lifetimes. A year where ‘normal’ got its own set of adjectives, where marathoners found ways to run 10k around the furniture at home, where cooking and household chores took CenterStage and kids got to spend a lot of time being online and legitimately!

However, this year also upped the Gratitude quotient. For those who got to keep their jobs and continued to get salaries every month or those who happened to be in the right businesses.

All kinds of online and technology services saw a huge upsurge while certain businesses took a huge hit. What was common were the sentiments. Everyone adapted, resilience became a buzzword and examples of generosity rose manifold.

This year has taught us a lot, professionally too. Organizations grappled with unprecedented change, business models adapted quickly to changing consumer needs, supply chains had to be recalibrated for resilience and agility, the ‘new normal’ set in, with digitalisation becoming the catalyst.

All of us are now just waiting for the vaccine to reach us. We look at how the supply chain must gear up to ensure inclusive, safe, and sustainable distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

A new year is here, Hello to New Adventures and best wishes for a safer and more productive 2021!

Charulata Bansal Publisher Charulata.bansal@celerityin.com www.supplychaintribe.com

Published by Charulata Bansal on behalf of Celerity India Marketing Services Edited by: Prerna Lodaya • e-mail: prerna.lodaya@celerityin.com Designed by: Lakshminarayanan G • e-mail: lakshdesign@gmail.com Printed by: Xposures, A 210, Byculla Service Industrial Estate, D K Cross Road, Byculla, Mumbai- 400027.

Logistics Partner: Blue Dart Express Limited

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CONTENTS

January - February 2021 Volume 5 Issue 1

19 | COVER STORY

Supply Chains for New Business Models The panel discussions at the recently held Celerity Supply Chain Awards 2020 unveiled a treasure chest of smart and workable ideas for the supply chain fraternity where not just the veterans but winners of the maiden 2019 awards also presented their success stories and smart strategies to combat Covid crisis and reset their supply chains.

In continuation to the Cover Story in the last issue, here is presenting the balance 15 of the 34 bright sparks who impressed the jury and took away their crowning glory.

FOCUS

14 | PERSPECTIVE

Acing the ‘SOFT’ Skills Global academicians foresee the future of talent to bring in a supply chain renaissance.

37 | FEATURE

The Resilience Toolkit Prof. Anjali Shishodia offers a toolkit to reimagine supply chains through resilience.

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An Assault Plan for Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Chain Distribution This playbook by the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society (LSCMS) in collaboration with IDC, highlights and emphasizes how government and industry can harness collective action for inclusive, safe, and sustainable distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

33 Change is the Only Constant

Sanjay Desai, Talent Advisory SCM Professional, explains how this pandemic is forcing proactive & corrective actions for Supply Chain leaders across the world.

41 | RECAP

THE YEAR

THAT WAS

2020

The Year That Was 2020

A collection of future forward thoughts by experts which are relevant and impactful for companies in these times.

Editor: Prerna Lodaya DISCLAIMER: This magazine is being published on the condition and understanding that the information, comments and views it contains are merely for guidance and reference and must not be taken as having the authority of, or being binding in any way on, the author, editors, publishers who do not take any responsibility whatsoever for any loss, damage or distress to any person on account of any action taken or not taken on the basis of this publication. Despite all the care taken, errors or omissions may have crept inadvertently into this publication. The publisher shall be obliged if any such error or omission is brought to her notice for possible correction in the next edition.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private/professional capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the publisher. All trademarks, products, pictures, copyrights, registered marks, patents, logos, holograms and names belong to the respective owners. The publication will entertain no claims on the above.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only.

4 CELERITY January - February 2021

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GLOBAL FOCUS

AN ASSAULT PLAN FOR COVID-19 VACCINE SUPPLY CHAIN DISTRIBUTION The challenge of combating COVID-19 is confronting governments across the globe. When a vaccine is available, getting the vaccine from the manufacturing sites to the global population will be the next challenge. While the current emphasis is vaccine development, governments need to plan and build the ecosystem to manage processes, infrastructure, and organization to manage the postproduction supply chain. This playbook, developed by the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society (LSCMS) in collaboration with IDC, highlights and emphasizes how government and industry can harness collective action for inclusive, safe, and sustainable distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

THE VACCINE DEPLOYMENT ECOSYSTEM The importance of a close publicprivate partnership (PPP) that involves

6 CELERITY January - February 2021

DA TA FL OW

PH YS GOVERNMENTS

OW FL AL IC

T

HE requirements of coordinating multiple logistics providers, warehouse providers, last mile fulfillment, returns, information and financial flows, and government will require a coordinated ecosystem approach. This will require a lead or coordinating service provider. This provider will need to work in partnership with the lead public body in each given country to coordinate and manage the vaccine supply chain in that country or region. This service provider, fourth-party logistics provider (4PL), or lead logistics provider (LLP) will need to work to ensure supply chain visibility and planning is enabled through accurate and real-time data. Ideally, a partnership with a suitable technology provider or consortium will facilitate this capability and provide the rapid provision of a platform or tool. Stakeholders can monitor the vaccine supply chain's performance, and swift corrective action can then occur as the vaccine undertakes its journey from manufacturer to the patient's arm.

LOGISTICS PROVIDERS

PAYMENT PROVIDERS

TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS VACCINE DEPLOYMENT ECOSYSTEM HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

INSURANCE PROVIDERS CONTROL TOWER

PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

AGENCIES

NATIONAL NGOs

INTERNATIONAL NGOs

FINANCIAL FLOW Figure 1: The Vaccine Deployment Ecosystem

people attend the vaccination centres at a timely rate to avoid overcrowding. Data verifying the vaccines' traceability, shipping process integrity, temperature control - all thisGLOBAL data will needFOCUS to be stored, verified, and secured.

Figure 2. Projected challenges due to scale and complexity of the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain

Figure 2. Projected challenges due to scale and complexity of the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain

multiple stakeholders from private, every person and the demand for the Multiple track and trace systems, non-governmental organizations vaccine will be unlike anything the allowing traceability from the SUPPLY CHAIN (NGOs) and publicCONTROL institutions cannot pharmaceutical supply chain has had manufacturing site, through distribution be over-emphasized and is crucial to to fulfil before. As figure 2 highlights, centres, between and across countries to The criticalofelement of supply managing complete chain the is to provide end-to-end the success any vaccine chain thesupply chainvaccination and logisticssupply activities final vaccination centre will generate visibility allowsindustry for full orchestration and remote management. lack of visibility hinders initiative. that Traditional supply to support cargo volume in terms ofTheenormous amounts of data. Thisthe data will chains to interacting governments shipment volume andagility storagethat spacewill will ensure need delivery to be integrated with vaccination ability respondwith to changes and disruptions with an and optimize costs. and institutions have limits to the scale be a consideration. Considerations for management to notifications to ensure The shift to an ecosystem response approach requires that the supply chain control tower be upgraded at which they can efficiently operate, adequate shelf space, inventory allocation people attend the vaccination centres to have anwhen ‘ecosystem tower’. control willshelf alsolife, relate to setting and ensuring especially working control with scarce to The ensure adequate labeling at a standards timely rate to avoid overcrowding. integration supply chain. Arequirements modern control tower capability operators to seetraceability, what is means. Given across the scalethe of the challenge for individual countries permits Data verifying the vaccines' the need toin develop an ecosystem arebroader needed. Coupled with this is the need shipping integrity, temperature happening the supply chain and the business.

It allows partners to beprocess able to analyze data in across all the parties will be critical for for the additional vaccination equipment control - all this data will need to be real- or near-real-time and then act. Supply chains can then act as a cohesive whole, providing a resilient success. This is an opportunity for a such as syringes, swabs, plasters, etc, the stored, verified, and secured. path forDeployment the vaccine from producer thetopatient's arm.

Vaccine Ecosystem (VDE), to need ensure the vaccine's integrity comprising the stakeholders as indicated (especially temperature monitoring), SUPPLY CHAIN CONTROL While the use of the term "supply chain control tower" implies a single entity, system or platform, the in figure 1, to orchestrate the elements to and then the challenge in managing mass The critical element of managing the reality is thatand it is an aggregation different digital systems. Each complete part of the controlsupply towerchain is enable regions nations to scale up to of many vaccination. vaccination the magnitudearequired provide an supplyAdditionally, coordination required to provide end-to-end coordinates specificand part of the chain. This does notismean in order to coordinate thevisibility that effective distribution ecosystem for the to manage the supply chain, coordinating allows for full orchestration and remote vaccine from production to injection. the transportation systems, coordinating management. The lack of visibility the storage and last-mile distribution, and hinders the ability to respond to changes ADDRESSING THE SCALE providing the overall visibility across the and disruptions with an agility that will AND COMPLEXITY OF entire system. Finally, companies must ensure delivery and optimize costs. The THE SUPPLY CHAIN address the availability and management shift to an ecosystem response approach CHALLENGE of personnel to assist in the distribution requires that the supply chain control The scale and complexity of the COVID-19 process and final administration. Greater tower be upgraded to have an ‘ecosystem vaccine supply chain is only just starting collaboration is a solution to this; control tower’. The control will also to be understood. Unlike MERS, SARS, however, companies will need to address relate to setting standards and ensuring and Ebola, this pandemic has affected cross-organization communication and integration across the supply chain. A resource management. modern control tower capability permits

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GLOBAL FOCUS operators to see what is happening in the supply chain and the broader business. It allows partners to be able to analyze data in real- or near-real-time and then act.

Supply chains can then act as a cohesive whole, providing a resilient path for the vaccine from producer to the patient's arm.

While the use of the term "supply chain control tower" implies a single entity, system or platform, the reality is that it is an aggregation of many different digital systems. Each part of the control tower coordinates a specific part of the supply chain. This does not mean in order to coordinate the vaccination of large portions of the population that companies or governments must invest in a whole series of control towers. Instead, partnerships will require that integration occurs between systems to ensure the modern control tower will have a flow of information back and forth, allowing for the required visibility. Companies are already beginning to utilize some aspects of cloud as a delivery mechanism for transaction data and analytics.

LOT LINEAGE AND INTEGRITY Serialization

standards

have

been

8  CELERITY  January - February 2021

improving globally, and with this, pharmaceutical companies are adopting batch-level traceability to guarantee drug and vaccine provenance. However, when something goes wrong, determining the source and location of batches can take days or weeks due to a lack of integration and disparate processes, especially in emerging markets. In that amount of time, the rest of the contaminated batch can travel further and be used on hundreds of patients before identifying and removing contaminated doses from the supply chain. This problem is exacerbated if doses are falsified or are counterfeit. Track and trace is mostly a reactive function, requiring tracing of a material’s origin back through the supply chain. With high-volume distribution comes the need to ensure rapid authentication and verification of doses.

Additionally, it is not only the authenticity that needs to be verified. The handling of the dose, including ensuring an unbroken cold chain that meets the required temperature conditions, or managing the shelf life of vaccines while balancing supply and demand.

Centralized platforms exist where third-party participants in

pharmaceutical supply chains can share relevant information such as shipping documentation and product master data with each other. Alternative options such as creating one-to-one connections between company systems exist but are costly and require tracking of relationships down the supply chain.

Using platforms that allow for multiple party integration to follow shipments as they are dispersed throughout the supply chain, and integrate sensor data to monitor temperature requirements, combined with mobile authentication systems provide an efficient way of tracking vaccinations and ensuring the integrity of the dose.

PHYSICAL SECURITY AND INTEGRITY High-value vaccine transportation will require security measures over the entire transportation process. The cargo needs to be secured and monitored with preventive measures against fraud, hijacking, and theft at each distribution stage. Supply chain participants will need to maintain physical security while also preserving the integrity of the vaccine.

Additionally, external variables such as light and temperature are a significant

GLOBAL FOCUS factor in ensuring vaccine shelf life and quality and must be recorded throughout the vaccine's journey.

The IoT sensors used, including geospatial, temporal and temperature probes used to generate and record accurately timestamped temperature and movements of cargo must be reliable with secure data storage systems.

Logging and encryption must be in place to ensure data integrity and prevent any alterations. All transporters must then take responsibility for recording and sharing data relevant to the pointto-point stock movement. Sensors need to move with the cargo and transport vehicles, especially land transport vehicles, where external risk factors are highest, and the cargo is most vulnerable. These sensors will need to connect real-time to communications networks to record data and alert personnel based on critical milestones.

Events covered should include logistics timing and efficiency, fraud prevention, critical-failure warnings, and prevention and distribution efficiency analysis. The parameters for alerts and recording should consist of all measurement values, timestamp, intervals, limits, status, and location.

To add to the complexity, each country may be receiving and distributing different vaccine lots from different sources (i.e., Manufacturers and countries) over different batches and in stages.

Different vaccines may have diverse storage temperatures and humidity constraints, and differing tolerances for temperature excursion. While not desirable, temperature variations (or excursions) are bound to occur at some point during the supply chain journey.

However, not all excursions (minor) may render the vaccines invalid or unfit for use. The temperature variation tolerances must be defined and qualified from an authoritative source to avoid wastage and avoid the ineffective administration of vaccines to a particular populace.

The different vaccines will come equipped with different temperature measuring and tracking devices with proprietary, closed-loop integrity monitoring by some manufacturers.

These devices add to the complexity of data integration. Ultimately, the variety of parameters monitored, devices used,

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locations visited, and environmental conditions to which the vaccine is exposed requires data to be collected and administered by each company in the supply chain. The safety, security, and integrity of the vaccine inventory are better managed from a national or global perspective if this data integrates with an overarching control tower platform. If planned appropriately, this is certainly an achievable outcome as vaccines procurement will be centrally managed and distributed by government or semi-government agencies. Incountry distribution from the point of importation to the vaccination point will be centrally administered and operated and not commercially driven on a decentralized basis.

DRUG DELIVERY IN-COUNTRY VACCINE TRANSPORTATION There are three main stages of domestic transportation that will need to take place once a vaccine arrives in a given country: ♦ Port / Airport / Border to Distribution Centre ♦ Distribution Centre to Hospital, Clinic or Vaccination Centre ♦ Secondary warehouse / Holding facilities to Hospital, Clinic or Vaccination Centre Suppose the use of a uniform tracking and tracing technology is not possible from the manufacturer to the final destination of the vaccine. In that case, tracking the vaccine must occur from when it crosses the border in a country to the final administration of the vaccine. At the point of entry into the country, supplier verification and cold-chain integrity must occur to prove product authenticity.

Processes will need to address: ♦ Integrity: Refer to the earlier section on lot lineage regarding the traceability requirements. Also, temperature integrity will need to be assured. ♦ Inventory position: The reverse logistics section will talk to repositioning requirements should vaccine inventory need to be moved to a location where it can be utilized better. ♦ Security: While this may not

necessarily be a concern in the global north, there may be fear, mistrust, and concerns about affordability in some locations that will result in pilferage, theft, and counterfeiting.

IN-COUNTRY WAREHOUSING / CENTRAL DISTRIBUTION CENTRE It will be necessary to make use of local storage and fulfillment capacities to receive entire pallets and then break them down into parcel-sized units for warehousing and subsequent last-mile delivery. This would have to be the modus operandi for large destination countries or regions and a long-term solution for vaccine types that can be transported under less stringent temperature requirements. Implications of costcutting or lean management programs are a consideration in that they intend to increase efficiency. However, they could potentially impact the quality of handling during the distribution of vaccines. Time pressure could cause issues with quality checks, skipping of steps, resulting in reduced shipment quality, insufficient checking of supplier certification, or documentation problems.

COVID CUSTOMS & INTERNATIONAL BORDER CROSSING A critical area where the COVID-19 vaccine distribution supply chain could fail, would be at the point it crosses an international border. Many countries have complicated and specific border control procedures. In developing countries, primarily in the global south, this is an even more cumbersome and lengthy process often influenced by corruption and illegal practices. A country’s ranking on the LPI is often a reflection of how good or otherwise a country's customs and border control processes are.

Regardless of whether the vaccines will be shipped in active or passive temperature-controlled packaging (TCP), shipments stuck at the port or point of entry can quickly degrade and be deemed unusable.

As part of the plan put in place at the country level, engagement with customs and border control authorities is paramount to ensuring the smooth flow

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GLOBAL FOCUS of vaccines when they are shipped. To facilitate the flow, countries can consider the implementation of green lanes to expedite processing at the border and look at trade automation processes that integrate the flow of vaccines through the border, facilitated by cloud-based processing of documentation and the use of sensors to verify authenticity.

TRANSPORTATION AND MOVEMENT Supply chains pre-COVID-19 were already very siloed and fragmented.

Developments in the last months have exacerbated the situation significantly.

Labor shortages, grounded commercial fleets, and closed borders are new challenges that have gripped supply chains globally. The logistics industry has been significantly disrupted due to COVID-19. In particular, the air freight industry has already been in turmoil because of the pandemic, with pharmaceutical companies already absorbing higher air freight costs.

COVID-19 vaccine distribution will radically increase demand and will have impact on the pricing for cold chain transportation both land and air. Prioritization decisions will need to be made as increased e-commerce transactions have added to demand for last mile logistics.

When a vaccine is available, it will not necessarily be transported by air across the globe simultaneously. Within Europe, for example, much of the vaccine can be distributed by road. Some countries, like Australia, have already indicated an intention to manufacture the vaccine in-country. Additionally, a complete regimen, be it a single or double dose, will not be available immediately for everyone within a population. Also, not every single person may want to or need to be vaccinated.

When it comes to execution, many design choices must be made for the vaccine distribution supply chain. These decisions will be made within the context of traditional business drivers such as cost, lead-time and balancing supply and demand. Additional influencers also come into play including maintaining quality and product integrity, the location of storage nodes within the supply network, delivery performance, differentiation of

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product storage requirements, inventory optimization, and risk management.

Aside from the physical flow of product in a supply chain, information needs to flow upstream and downstream.

This information flow seldom happens in the best of circumstances. Given the vast number of participants in a supply chain ecosystem: exporters, forwarders, importers, truckers, factories, customs, distribution centres, customs brokers, health authorities and carriers, ensuring cohesive collaboration is a delicate ongoing task. Factoring in different channels of communication, for example WhatsApp, emails, physical couriers, timelines become a huge variable and this removes the much-needed predictability in vaccine supply that countries greatly affected by the pandemic desperately require.

VACCINE INTEGRITY DURING SHIPMENT The efficacy of vaccines is in part due to effective storage and handling, and this applies in-transit throughout the entire supply chain journey from the time they are produced, until they are administered.

In order to effectively maintain integrity of cold chain handling, temperature control and monitoring must occur.

Temperature control and monitoring require either active or passive solutions, and usually fall under the category of temperature-controlled packaging (TCP).

TCP solutions are usually described as either "Active" or "Passive" solutions.

Active solutions such as refrigerated (or reefer) trucks or containers rely on an external source of power, such as battery, electricity, or dry ice. They are reliable and offer big payload spaces, however, there is limited supply of active solutions and costs are high if there is no full load.

Passive solutions come complete with their own insulation and use water/ gel or phased changed materials (PCM) as cooling elements. The size of these solutions varies from parcel to pallet size.

They are lower in cost and users have the flexibility to increase the volume whenever required.

The correct and appropriate TCP selection is perhaps one of the most critical components of a safe and secure vaccine transport. The following are some of the factors that should be considered:

♦ Tested and Certified TCP products: All pharmaceutical and medical products have a temperature tolerance. When a product is moved or stored outside of this range, its efficacy or shelf life is affected. Ensuring the TCP, whether active or passive, is tested or certified to meet the tolerances required is essential to maintaining integrity during transit. ♦ Scalability and Flexibility: The number of vaccines to ship within a specific country's or manufacturer's supply chain will vary greatly. The TCP solution selected will need to be able to scale accordingly. ♦ Domestic Rules and Regulations: Local rules can complicate vaccination handling and add extra considerations when managing cold shipments. An example of this might be if a country or mode of transport may restrict the importation of dry ice. An alternative solution will be to use frozen PCMs in place of dry ice. That shipment may then become stuck at customs and there may be inadequate facilities such as power supply for active solutions or dry ice top-up services or cold rooms. How long will the TCP solutions last before it is out of the temperature compliance? These are considerations that a user must plan before embarking on a solution.

Finally, any TCP will need to be able to maintain vaccines at the required temperature, which at this stage is speculated could be as low as -80 degrees Celsius.

END-TO-END CONNECTIVITY Aside from product flow, a critical enabler of an effective and efficient supply chain is information flow. The flow of information is crucial in any supply chain, However, with the transport of vaccines, minimizing the risks of exposing the vaccine to external factors such as environmental risks, security risks, and mishandling is crucial and requires a well-coordinated process for appropriate monitoring throughout the transportation and storage journey.

To overcome the disparate and disjointed communication process, as intimated earlier in this blueprint, a digital platform that connects all these different

GLOBAL FOCUS PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Phase 1a “Jumpstart Phase” » High-risk health workers » First responders Phase 1b » People of all ages with comorbid and underlying conditions that put them at significantly higher risk » Older adults living in congregate of overcrowded settings

PHASE 3

» K-12 teachers and school staff and child care workers » Critical workers in highrisk settings - workers who are in industries essential to the functioning of society and at substantially higher risk of exposure » People of all ages with comorbid and underlying conditions that put them at moderately higher risk » People in homeless shelters or group homes for individuals with disabilities, including serious mental illness, developmental and intellectual disabilities, and physcial disabilities or in recover, and staff who work in such settings » People in prisons, jails, detention centers, and similar facilities, and staff who work in such settings » All older adults not included in Phase1

Equity is a crosscutting consideration:

» Young adults » Children » Workers in industries and occupations important to the functioning of society and at increased risk of exposure not included in Phase 1 or 2

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» Everyone who did not have access to the vaccine in previous phases

In each population group, vaccine access should be prioritized for geographic areas identified through CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index or another more specific index.

A phased approach to vaccine allocation for COVID-19.

stakeholders, like a control tower, can make a huge difference. Underpinning and streamlining the way all parties in the supply chain communicate, all authorized parties to the shipment will be able to see the location of the vaccine at any point in time and in real time. The intent is for vaccines to travel quickly, with minimal delays. As a result, this could help to anticipate any delays and ensure all parties up and downstream can be prepared for contingency plans to ensure that the supply chain does not break, and the goods move as per intended timelines.

Digitalization of the documentation required for fast customs processing can be implemented with either high or lower technology capabilities. Authentication of the information source can occur with digital signatures and certification.

Identification of the cargo can be validated with relevant data polled from an integrated monitoring system, such as a fleet management system that collects the data with the IDs and timestamping with location data.

Ultimately, the compliance requirements for vaccine transportation will need to be assured, along with the integrity of the cold chain. Having the end-to-end connectivity of parties in

PHASE 4

the supply chain will require extensive coordination and partnerships, however ensuring public safety and reducing the loss of life makes this a worthwhile pursuit, and one that will result in real business and national benefits after the need for COVID-19 vaccinations has abated.

TEMPERATURE An essential requirement of vaccine storage is an environment of between -80 to 8 degrees Celsius, depending on vaccine being shipped. The global footprint of cold chain networks has been rising due to a growing middle class and increasing demand for fresh produce.

However, there is a significant shortage of cold chain facilities to handle a mass vaccination effort, especially in the Global South. While many logistics players have been investing in extending and expanding their cold chain capabilities to meet this growing demand, most are developed on a built-to-suit basis when needed. As a result, the available supply of cold storage facilities within the market is likely to remain scarce when the vaccine eventually arrives.

Additionally, most cold chain networks link urban centres to major hubs, including airport logistics centres

Source: National Academy of Medicine

and food processing zones. These networks will not reach the 40% of the population which are in rural areas.

Another challenge for rural areas includes the need for access to a constant electric supply, as an interruption in power can render vaccines useless.

The availability of thermal packaging solutions to maintain the temperature integrity of the COVID-19 vaccines will be a challenge, whether it is for +2°C to +8°C or -80°C. As discussed in the previous section, both active and passive TCPs are required, and manufacturers face the challenge of producing enough containers to prepare for the vaccine's availability. Hence it is necessary to plan for the eventual need for sufficient containers in advance.

Another consideration is that active TCPs can only handle +2 to +8 or up to -25°C and cannot manage -80°C. Passive containers that are available today do not have the capabilities to maintain -80°C for an extended duration. That leaves a single-use temperature-controlled pallet shipper to do the work for -80°C shipment profile. With single-use pallets, the packaging is thrown away after just one use, and this creates waste.

Dry ice is another alternative; however, large quantities are necessary

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GLOBAL FOCUS As governments, communities, and people around the world grapple with the impacts of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the need for collaboration on a local and global level becomes increasingly evident and important. Shared insights that can lead to cohesive, effective responses are imperatives for protection of lives and key to global economic recovery - the co-operation across the healthcare sector has resulted in a discovery pace where a viable vaccine may be available in the coming weeks.

Our challenge now is accelerating the administration of a viable vaccine, ensuring that these vaccines can be compliantly transported, without breaking the cold chain from multiple production locations to urban and remote communities across the globe. Now more than ever the important role of transport, logistics and supply chain management is being recognized and will be tested. Professionals and providers across the logistics arena appreciate that the scale of this COVID-ask is unprecedented.

Collaboration, co-opetition, leveraging collective experience will certainly put us in a better position than less cohesive approaches This blueprint that has been consolidated by an experienced and diverse stakeholder community. It provides a foundation for a cohesive response, enabling maximum positive impact and minimal waste at a time where the health and socio-economic well-being of billions depend on timely, efficient handling and distribution.

Margi Van Gogh, Head of Supply Chain & Transport, The World Economic Forum

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for this option. For +2 to +8 °C shipments, the passive containers need large preconditioning facilities to prepare the phase-change materials.

FAIRNESS & PRIORITY OF DISTRIBUTION The World Health Organization (WHO) is spearheading an alliance of nations, providing access to tools to fight COVID-19. This access includes the COVAX initiative which aims to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development and manufacturing. The intention of this initiative is to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for every country in the world. However, in doing so and given vaccination production constraints, this only provides doses for a minimum of 20% of member country populations.

The question of equitable allocation will still remain for every nation.

DISTRIBUTION PROCESS After finding the solutions to solve the storage and transport equation, the final logistics step would be to deploy the vaccine to inoculate the general population. Clinics, medical centres, and hospitals are likely places to conduct vaccinations. However, this will divert critical medical resources from other, potentially more urgent medical needs.

Furthermore, many emerging economies will struggle to accommodate the numbers required, given their general lack of sufficient medical infrastructure.

A large urban area of millions may have only several large medical facilities, leading to long wait times.

For those living in rural communities, long commutes may be required, or they may experience delays in vaccine distribution to those communities. While some economies have well-established distribution networks and capabilities, the vaccines' eventual deployment to the general population will be fraught with hurdles given the unprecedented task, even for the most mature of networks. As such, authorities need to start planning to ensure their systems are in place when the vaccine arrives. Establishing publicprivate partnerships with cold store or warehouse developers now will assist with capacity due to limited supply.

Some countries already have the capability for temporary medical

GLOBAL FOCUS facilities for testing. Expansion of this may be one option if temperature control requirements can be met as described in previous sections. For some countries, the setting up of temporary medical facilities will require time and resources that many local governments might not have. A potential solution for this would be to convert existing real estate within the hospitality sector (e.g. hotels, motels, resorts) currently underutilized and generally more spread out than medical facilities. The segregated rooms within the hospitality asset can act as a natural barrier to prevent the virus's spread, given the large populations expected at the location to receive the vaccination.

Additionally, access to electricity will assist in maintaining the cold chain required.

DHL’s delivery of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines to Singapore from Belgium.

Other considerations will also need to be addressed: ♦ Temperature control, security and the setting up of multiple deployment points creates the potential for lapses at each step that could result in loss of doses. Vaccination points like the testing stations will need to have SOPs that address the traceability, temperature and security. ♦ The coordination of workforce and patients will require scheduling and timing to prevent overcrowding, and patient records will need to be updated to record the vaccination themselves. ♦ Identity and access management will be required to verify patient access.

While hospitals have protocols for double-checking identity with patients, the volume and stress on the system will need to ensure that these checks are meticulously carried out and ensure that access is limited to those that are scheduled.

SUSTAINABILITY IN DELIVERY AND DISTRIBUTION If one goal in vaccine distribution is to reach as much of the population as possible, another important objective is sustainability along the supply chain.

It is critical to consider which types of packaging and modes of transport are reusable, and how to organize reverse logistics sustainably. Based on the

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experience in standard reusable parcels, return logistics can be difficult to execute (and ultimately unsuccessful) in certain less developed economies of the world. Nonetheless, one of the largest, focused distribution efforts in history, namely, supplying a COVID-19 vaccine to the global population, should not be carried out using unsustainable means of transport. Therefore, it is critical to consider innovative packaging solutions and recycling opportunities and optimal waste management in the use of one-way packaging.

If the TCP is reusable, repositioning the containers after each delivery will add a level of complexity in the supply chain that will need to be coordinated, with scheduling of resources and factoring in the costs of the return journey.

SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY IS KEY TO THE VDE Even before the pandemic, real-time visibility along the supply chain was a challenge for most companies due to the limited willingness of stakeholders to share data, the complexity of supply chains, and the lack of data standardization and interoperability of disparate systems used by stakeholders.

For the safe and efficient movement of vaccines to a given populace, visibility of the end-to-end VDE is the cornerstone for reliable tracking of vaccines and early

detection of potential transportation bottlenecks. The establishment of a strong technology backbone and datasharing mechanisms is required before vaccine production. The VDE, led by governments, should specify clear datacapability requirements when selecting suppliers and logistics providers. When selected, stakeholders should provide timely and accurate data in standardized formats; from sourcing to end use points, such as vaccination centers and hospitals. Adapting existing solutions to the VDE would allow for extensive shipment visibility, inventory and security management, demand forecast, and disruption monitoring.

A VDE can significantly relieve pain points by successfully preventing disruptions along the supply chain and meeting unprecedented challenges. The VDE should be three-way agreements between vaccine manufacturers, logistics service providers, relevant technology providers, and health authorities and governments.

Ultimately, the supply chain for full, safe, and secure distribution of vaccines globally is a tremendously complex challenge. To overcome this challenge, a VDE must be set-up and tested before vaccines are even available. Working in concert with global resources, countries can and will be ready to implement safe and efficacious distribution.

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PERSPECTIVE

ACING THE ‘SOFT’ SKILLS The aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic is going to have a greater emphasis on the most crucial key of the supply chain – TALENT. While companies across industries and across the globe had already started giving due attention to nurture future talent, the year 2020 only strengthened its dire need and importance to manage unforeseen crisis situations. The sudden lockdown not only tested companies’ ability to bounce back but it also tested their hiring and retaining skills when it came to attracting the right talent. Through this story, we reached out to academicians globally to bring to you the skillsets that are needed to prepare the supply chain talent to tide through the crisis and how do they foresee the future of talent to bring in a supply chain renaissance.

Dr. Abhishek Behl, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Business School

Dr. KK Sharma, Head of Centre for Surface & Air Transport, Adani Institute of Infrastructure

Prof. Guilherme Frederico, Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, School of Management - Federal University of Paraná – UFPR – Brazil

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Hedwik D Giesel, Senior Performance and Control Analyst, Groupe Renault

Prof. Richard Wilding OBE, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy, Cranfield School of Management

PERSPECTIVE With the Covid 19 essentially changing the business landscape, what shift do you foresee in the future talent as far as supply chain is concerned?

Hedwik D Giesel, Senior Performance and Control Analyst, Groupe Renault: The Covid-19 pandemic anticipated some changes that were latent in society, processes that would take 3 to 5 years occurred in an accelerated way in the last months, such as home office, telemedicine, and e-commerce. It is realized that one of the most required fields is the supply chain. This area has been under a lot of pressure, requiring fast responses and a high level of accuracy in a dynamic environment, and in some cases, with scarce resources. In other words, a lot of resilience and fast learning are required to understand the possible faults and correct them, and especially, to adapt to the new scenario. Obviously, disruptive technologies have been demonstrating their potential to assist and thus anticipate new possibilities in the operation that

previously seemed distant. Therefore, my vision is that future Supply Chain talents are expected to have resilience, be adaptable to different scenarios and look for new technologies that provide the necessary support to provide the answers to the problems that have been presented.

Dr. Abhishek Behl, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Business School: The future of supply chain talent management will visualize changes at every level of experience and work degree. As the economy unlocks itself and bounces back to normalcy, sufficient worklife balance forms the most critical aspect. Technology management and analytics would take center stage when supply chain experts draw future talent projections. The ongoing COVID 19 led to losses, which accounted for partial or complete payment for workers engaged in different roles. There is a pressing need for professionals to improve themselves on technical and non-technical skills.

Firms will start investing in training their existing workforce using massive open online courses (MOOCs) to upskill the knowledge. It is also seen in changing colleges and universities' curricula, wherein professors have started to offer electives on risk management and risk mitigation. Human Resource Analytics will also play a pivotal role in understanding the demand and supply of the workforce.

Dr. KK Sharma, Head of Centre for Surface & Air Transport, Adani Institute of Infrastructure: The post Covid economy will be more e-commerce savvy on the procurement as well marketing supply chain side. The companies are expected to hire less direct employees who are their brand ambassadors in the market as tele-marketing and e-commerce takes over most of the market search for procurement and sales jobs. The logistics of material/machinery receipts will be mostly shifting to the suppliers and the dispatch & delivery of finished

Working with multiple functions and companies to deliver value to consumers requires balancing what may appear to be seemingly oppositional needs: maximizing efficiencies and containing costs while providing or maintaining a high level of customer service. Externally, it means nurturing strategic relationships with suppliers in order for firms to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

High-level players have to understand logistics, procurement, manufacturing, and distribution. Being an expert in one discipline and one system of operations may be enough to open doors to higher positions. But to become the leaders who create the supply chains of the future, SCM need knowledge of each discipline.

The knowledge that goes beyond one specialized discipline can be a crucial differentiator for innovative organizations. Supply chain professionals who can effectively optimize the end-to-end operations and be strategic leaders – also known as T-shaped professionals – are now in demand for their in-depth disciplinary knowledge, as well as their ability to see and influence the bigger picture. Encouraging T-shaped leadership requires adopting a new perspective – one that focuses on the big picture without getting caught up in the details – to ensure success down the road.

Source: Michigan State University

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PERSPECTIVE goods would be delivered through the e-commerce set up. In both cases, the manpower supply agencies and the logistics companies would be in good demand.

The ecosystem would have small & large warehouses as hubs for aggregation & disaggregation and there would be an army of last mile delivery people. That essentially means the technology skills of material movement & warehouse management will be in demand. Movable vehicle owners will have more business and commercial vehicle industry will get a push.

The supply chain industry lives with a popular impression of being a seemingly dirty, demanding and unforgiving profession. Alongside, the work is becoming increasingly more complex and there aren’t enough people opting for a choice to work in this sector. Talent-wars are common as it is becoming more and more difficult to find the right people.

In the recent times, the logistics industry is redefining itself around e-commerce and digitally disruptive technologies are making a large impact. 3D printing, GPS, Robotics, advanced analytics and other emerging technologies and data processing capabilities are opening up new vistas or disrupting the earlier ways of working.

Consequently, a lot more opportunities that require digital and analytical skills have opened.

However, with an environment where distance working, work from home, digital e-commerce & tele-calling are becoming norm for future workplaces and routines, professionals in this sector would require a skillset that is heavy on inter-personal verbal & written communication & negotiation skills, team-working, self-motivation, drive to learn more, strategic thinking and an agile mind-set. The colleges & universities would start focusing on short courses in logistics skills and even more emphasis on developing communication skills.

Prof. Guilherme Frederico, Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, School of Management - Federal University of Paraná – UFPR – Brazil: With the Covid-19 event, the needs for more resilient supply chains became paramount. Future professionals

16 CELERITY January - February 2021

involved in supply chain management must be capable of managing supply chains based on the risk-based perspective. This involves not only abilities on the supply chain resilience design, but also, on conducting supply chain’s planning and control activities considering likely disruptions.

Professor Richard Wilding OBE, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy, Cranfield School of Management: In the new normal, if your supply chain is the same as the one that you had pre-coronavirus, you’re probably doing something wrong. From stalls in supply and transportation capabilities, to empty supermarket shelves – the Covid-19 outbreak has exposed vulnerabilities and weak spots in our supply chains, and highlighted the need to change and adapt in order to meet the requirements of an ever-changing ‘new normal’.

The outbreak has brought into sharp relief the impact that overdependence on one location or a lack of visibility over the entire supply chain can have – for example the discovery early into the pandemic that key active ingredients for important pharmaceutical products were manufactured in China, where factories were under lockdown – as well as the impact that customer trust, and therefore customer behavior, can have on demand and ability to maintain a steady supply of goods.

Every single part of the supply chain is potentially vulnerable to disruption – whether that’s social distancing regulations impacting manufacturing capability, border closures altering the amount of time it takes to transport goods, or sudden and unprecedented spikes in demand from consumers which create a bullwhip effect. Each element of the supply chain is all part of a whole and if one falters the whole thing can be impacted. What this crisis has made clear is that going forward supply chains must have an increased level of resilience built in, so that businesses can ensure they are robust and responsive in the face of challenges.

We are moving from an era marked by an emphasis on procurement for cost, to an era marked by an emphasis on procurement for resilience, and while this may lead to an increase in costs

for businesses – many will decide it’s worthwhile to have the peace of mind that they can continue to be operational and provide for their customers in the face of future challenges.

Going forward, businesses can expect increased pressures (both regulatory and on a society-wide level) to ensure they are more resilient to disruption and that stocks of critical products are maintained.

Alongside stitching resilience into the fabric of their supply chains, building trust with their customers through transparency may also play a key role in avoiding further panic-buying behavior that fuels volatility – further helping to stabilize supply chains. Previously, organizations focused their resiliency planning around securing first-tier suppliers. Now, they might extend their resiliency planning further upstream to second and third-tier suppliers when making decisions around sourcing, inventory buffers and transportation routes. There is a strategic element to resilience, that shouldn’t be overlooked while hiring and retaining supply chain talent and that’s what will see all the organizations through the unforeseen eventualities and make organizations better prepared to sustain & survive such sudden business shocks.

What are the skillsets that they need to imbibe to successfully navigate unforeseen challenges and grow up the ladder?

Hedwik D Giesel: During such volatile times, skills such as dynamism to know how to overcome routines and meet urgent needs, creativity to find innovative solutions, knowledge of new technologies to solve challenges and automate processes to focus on the most important decisions strategies that allow significant results to be achieved top the chart. Likewise, and perhaps most importantly, emotional intelligence to make decisions more assertive and resilience to learn from mistakes and overcome them are some of the most important skillsets for the new talent in supply chain.

Dr. Abhishek Behl: COVID 19 has disrupted not only the supply chain operations but also the people who manage the operations. The future of

PERSPECTIVE Traditional learning programs in supply chain tend to overemphasize formal training and focus heavily on functional skill development. Although both are valuable in building foundational skills, they do little to tangibly prepare the supply chain workforce for digital or facilitate more complicated learning outcomes.

For more complex capabilities, such as competencies under digital dexterity, 70% of learning should be experiential – on the job development through interventions like learning-based career paths, stretch assignments, and action learning groups. Only 10% is formal training. The remaining 20% of learning should be focused on relationship-based learning via peer interactions and coaching.

Caroline Chumakov, Principal Analyst, Gartner Supply Chain Practice

people who would manage the revived supply chain operations should work on a triple-A framework: Agility, Adaptability, and Alignment. Workforce agility, although driven by the organization under normal circumstances, needs to be intrinsically governed during uncertain circumstances. It's the attitude that will make the workforce survive, not their talent alone. Referring to Charles Darwin's theory, "Survival of the fittest," the supply chain professionals would also have to adapt to situations.

Another trend that would disrupt the existing talent management systems is the upsurge in the gig workforce. Both white collared and blue collared gig workers bring both talent and upgraded skills that might replace the redundant existing workforce. Thus, adaptability is the key. Being the third pivot helps in understanding the changing need of times and adjusting to the requirements.

Dr. KK Sharma: This question has two facets to it: One is specific to Companies and other is for Supply Chain Professionals. Companies will need to have their recruitment and training policies oriented towards testing the soft skills & attitude elements like selfmotivation, drive, and agile mindset.

There are enough tools available around to be able to use workforce analytics, performance monitoring and competency-based assessment to do better in talent acquisition, talent assessment and talent retention. On the other hand, supply chain professionals

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will need to learn more around materials management, warehouse management, marketing, e-commerce, etc. The need for having exceptionally good communication & proper attitude is even more now. Their self-drive will be proven by the efforts they make to acquire these skills without which they would get stuck in low paying logistics work. As they grow in their careers, knowledge about national and international logistics, multi-modal transport mediums, procedures at logistic hubs, exportimport will add more and more value to grow further.

patterns in demand were predictable and stable, it was simple. The traditional command and control mode of leadership was clear and effective. In the VUCA context of global markets in general (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), and with the effects of digitization on supply chains, it’s just no longer the right approach for supply chain managers and most importantly the leaders – at least not by itself. Managers need to be looking at equipping themselves to have a toolkit and look beyond the pervasive and monolithic example of the ‘good leader’.

Prof. Guilherme Frederico: Supply chain professionals must meet a set of skills with the aim to well predict unexpected situations and prepare supply chains against those threats.

Supply chains professionals must have abilities in global supply chains designs seeking alternatives and contingency plans for sudden events. This involves for instance, new collaborations with supply chain members in terms of set up joint contingency plans (e.g., with suppliers and retailers). Also, with the advent of disruptive technologies of Supply Chain 4.0, these future professionals must be able to implement and operate those new technologies bringing benefits for the supply chain processes in terms of getting more responsive.

What would be the requirements that the post Covid era would bring with itself in employing supply chain managers in the corporate sector?

Professor Richard Wilding OBE: In the old world of supply chains, where change was slow, when products and

Hedwik D Giesel: Looking back on organizations' last decades, people have never been more in demand than in the current pandemic. Having a special look at people, understanding their limitations, and assisting the team to the potential of each employee to meet the organization's objectives, is one of the great attributes for post Covid managers, mainly, with the new perspectives to home office where the most “human” and close contact with the team will be limited or non-existent.

Likewise, in-depth knowledge of the operation associated with a more holistic view of the organization and the market is essential for efficient solutions focused on customer satisfaction.

Dr. Abhishek Behl: The post-COVID

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PERSPECTIVE era would bring great opportunities for supply chain managers. As the world economy reopens, firms have progressed to digitize their business. The digital ecosystem would need managers that understand the nuances of supply chain management and technology management. With businesses going online, there also lies an issue of reverse logistics. The next-generation workforce would have to find solutions to minimize losses in product returns and dissatisfied customers. The core competency lies in not being competitive but being adaptive and innovative at the same time. Companies' new roles would also demand-supply chain managers to take leadership roles and manage crises both at the work and workforce front.

Dr. KK Sharma: The supply chain managers of tomorrow should understand while the sector will grow, only those with good digital skills, self-motivation & drive, continuously up-skilling, and good marketing communication skills will fare better in the longer run. Growth industries are unstable in large parts as entries and exits would be a norm. There will be anxiety and uncertainty galore.

Good leaders would help themselves by developing an agile mindset and resilience.

Prof.

Guilherme Frederico: Companies must value those professionals who are able to think supply chains strategically and make decisions with appropriate trade-offs between efficiency x resilience. This implicates in having professionals with a broad view of supply chains, from upstream up to downstream supply chain’s processes.

Also, professionals must be capable of understanding particularities of supply chains in the regional aspects, as well as, global opportunities, to better guide their decision-making on supply chain elements (e.g., sourcing, transportation, manufacturing, facilities). Digital supply chain skills (e.g., artificial intelligence, big data analytics) are also required, taking into consideration that those new technologies strongly contribute to more efficient and responsive supply chains.

What is the best way to enhance the industry-academia tie-up, more so in

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times like these?

Hedwik D Giesel: Specific works and projects managed in conjunction with teams composed of employees of the organizations, students and teachers are a good solution to foster this much needed movement. Some universities share their equipment and space to local organizations that can put a project into practice, carry out tests and prototypes.

Also, there are organizations that provide structures with the Fab Lab concept, moreover, bring challenges and marathons like hackathon that move the academic community and originate innovative solutions.

Dr. Abhishek Behl: Industry and academia have always been supplementing each other. COVID 19 further helped them to bridge their gaps between each other by integrating theory to practice. Industries are a vast source of data and experience that often lies unstructured and underutilized. Academia, on the other hand, is profound in their research skills and putting scientific thoughts behind actions. It is vital to promote dialogic communication between both stakeholders. More often, industry tieup with academic institutions that is need-based consultancy or upskilling their workforce. Instead, there should be a conducive environment where standard knowledge repositories should be made to benefit society. Some of the possible output that is timely needed are case studies, simulation-based studies, and theoretical testing frameworks that are situation based. Lastly, the industry should consult academic leaders to manage their operations and management efficiently, generate the right kind of data, and brainstorm with experts before making decisions.

Dr. KK Sharma: That is a difficult take. Even when the interaction was face to face and people used to work from official workplaces, conduct of internships in large parts left a lot to be desired. Inadequate attention, poor monitoring & thence evaluation left most internships conducted in an impersonal manner. With the Corona Virus playing havoc with even this arrangement, industry-academia ties have taken a

strong hit. For what are the ways out, we must look at from both perspectives.

From Industry perspective, a lot of them are going through tough business times and uncertainty. Most employees are working from home and they are dealing with the challenge of redefining work contribution and measurement through digital mediums. There is uncertainty everywhere. Due to poor business & cash flow, their inability to pay is well understood.

From the academia perspective, the need to forge stronger and continuing ties with industry has become even greater now. They could set up consulting wings at colleges/institutions who help industries with small projects pro-bono or on cost wherever the industry agrees.

That would help the graduating students with live projects to apply their minds on.

Another way they could help students get experience is through encouraging them to start-up. In the longer run, dedicating additional semesters for work-based training/internships would help students get a longer stint at companies to make a worthwhile impact and prove their credentials. That would help the industry too.

Prof. Guilherme Frederico: I think this is an unprecedented opportunity for both academy and industry to get more joint engagement with the aim to propose novel and relevant solutions in terms of supply chain knowledge for the post-pandemic era. Academy may provide novel solutions from research that provide real impact to the industries’ needs. But for this achievement, academia also needs strong industry support not only in terms of funds support but also to open their doors to supply chain researchers to conduct their works. For this aim, the establishment of joint initiatives which aligns industries and universities’ strategies are required.

Also, the academy plays an important role in developing relevant skills through supply chain knowledge dissemination on undergraduate and graduate courses at the universities.

COVER STORY

Supply Chains for new

BUSINESS MODELS The panel discussions at the recently held Celerity Supply Chain Awards unveiled a treasure chest of smart and workable ideas for the supply chain fraternity where not just the veterans but winners of the maiden 2019 awards also presented their success stories and smart strategies to combat Covid crisis and reset their supply chains. Our Panel Discussion on ‘Supply Chains for new Business Models’ was essentially all about implementable solutions that leading companies have adopted during the current times and offered ways to lead supply chains with a fresh perspective. After all it’s the TALENT we have in our organizations that will see us through tough times.

This is the second and final part of the Annual event Celerity Supply Chain Awards.

What do you think about this idea of resetting supply chain?

Rajat Sharma, SCM Head, Hamilton Housewares - India

The resetting in long term will be fairly transformative.

supplychaintribe.com

All the world’s mature supply chains had processes involving business risk management and business continuity; and yet nothing sufficed the kind of disruption that the Corona led lockdowns brought about. It is the unthinkable constraints that foster innovation and make the best case for putting up sophisticated solutions to ensure continuity of business. And it’s a great time to learn, and we saw constraints not only in the form of logistics but also dis-continuity of the consumer at the retail points, bringing along huge uncertainty on consumer behavior. In the second phase, we saw a shift in demand over the e-commerce channel, posing another challenge to the supply chain practitioners.

Thus, we have learnt, we have all agreed – to Reset our supply chains. And this is the resetting that could further lead to larger transformations in the way we store, move and make stocks available till the consumer points. It has now been rendered inevitable.

Organizations have been forced to re-think how they will ensure continuity of trade, continuity of communication, transactional systems and the resources being able to use them, of goods movement, of delivery systems, of reaching the customers and managing the returns in the events of future disruptions. These will impact asset flexibility, mobility, distribution networks, inventory positioning policies, technology for reaching, retaining and transacting with customers: the resetting in long term will be fairly transformative.

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Resetting is all about learning lessons on how to make a stunning comeback from such testing times and emerge stronger than ever.

Tannistha Ganguly, Global Head – IT Delivery, Kimberly Clark

This is an unprecedented situation that we are facing globally. For me, resetting would also mean learning lessons on how to make a stunning comeback from such testing times and emerge stronger than ever. This time has certainly taught us the true value and the worth of digitization in our respective streams. Resetting our supply chains with new technologies and new ways of working, new ways of collaboration and agile working are going to be the key. Skilling and reskilling of our workforce has also become the major factor in taking the growth trajectory forward. Such times have also redefined newer ways of working and how employee engagement and involvement is the biggest factor in seeing us through. We need to be more agile towards change management.

Covid times taught us the true meaning of collaboration.

Sourabh Raghuvanshi, Vice President & Head – Supply Chain, Lava International Ltd.

During the recent times, lot many things changed which were not perceived before.

If we take the example of recent post unlock scenario too, still around one third of the population was under lockdown. From the supply chain side, we faced numerous challenges with metro cities closed, however most tier II & III towns were still open.

Our nodal points were shut, but there was constant demand in the hinterland of the country. We had to work out a plan to reach our customers in such scenarios taking our partners in constant connect who are ultimately our face to the consumers. We looked at setting up the temporary depots outside metros where truck movements were allowed or probably move to a tier II town. Secondly, as a practice, we generally rely on a single logistics partner who provides us end-to-end service. In the current times, we realized that we would need 2-3 logistics partners to ensure timely delivery to our customers in every part of the country. Even for a single long lane, we adopted what we called a “Relay Concept” wherein just like a baton is passed on from one player to another in a Relay race, consignments exchanged hands through multiple partners before they reached the end customer. This was the case because most of the logistics players were not able to provide service for end-to-end destinations.

Resilience is the key word to reset our supply chains.

Sreekanth Vancheeswaran, VP – Supply Chain Planning, Godrej Consumer Products

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We had experienced umpteen challenges during lockdown as far as supply chain is concerned. To ensure that our consumers get our products on time, it’s important for us to be resilient. There were multiple challenges during the lockdown because of different requirements which hampered our movement of goods. Our truckers have had to face problems of even procuring foods while on the move as the roadside dhabas were closed and once you enter the cities, a completely different story would await you.

This time also taught us to help our vulnerable partners to be resilient and survive amid tough times. Plan B must be ready always. We also learned to derisk our supply chains from such unforeseen sudden shocks. Being in the FMCG industry especially in the personal wash segment, it was our call of duty that our products reached every nook & corner of the country.

COVER STORY

Speed of managing changes is of utmost importance today.

Umesh Madhyan, Associate VP – Logistics, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages

One big realization that Covid brought for the entire industry is People. There’s lot of learning we gained over this period in managing people. Coke is about 135 years old. We have closely witnessed pandemics, World Wars and other such unforeseen eventualities. Owing to these, we, collectively as a company, have got first-hand experience of managing complexities and to revive and survive such shocks. Our entire strategy revolves around people. We design strategies with people at the center of it. Because of the larger footprint we have in the country and the local community whom we place so much importance helped us enable undisrupted operations amid pandemic. We had people from the local community coming to the plant and working.

We were not disrupted by the migrant movement owing to this very factor. The biggest constraint for us or for any company had been the unavailability of truckers who had gone back home. To solve this problem, we collaborated with HUL for our fixed movements. During the early days of the lockdown, only water bottle was considered as the essential product and we had excess capacity to move goods. We gave our trucks to HUL to ply the essential food items and they shared that for a month. It’s very important to have manufacturing, warehousing and the entire ecosystem closer to the community and even more important to have people from the local community working for you to manage such disruptive times. You need to be agile not in your execution but from a strategic perspective. You need to build such adaptive systems, which can be changed overnight when it comes to supply chain. In such scenarios, any amount of forecast would not help. What would steer you through is the agile system and network that you have built over the years. How quickly can you switch from the Strategy A to a Plan B is one of things that we learnt the hard way.

We are entering in the phase, which will be the “new normal” where rules of engagement for business will change forever.

Vickram Srivastava, Head – Supply Chain Planning, Ipca Laboratories Ltd.

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Covid-19 is a Black Swan event – rarest of the rarest – impacting both supply and demand management, like I say, ‘We are not in the same boat, we are in the same storm!’ It is time for us to look at a new Gregorian calendar ‘before Corona (BC) and ‘After Disease (AD). That is how life has changed for all of us. Being in the generic pharma industry, we have had our share of challenges. Sensing demand has always been a big challenge. For pharma, it becomes even more complex as you have to comply with all the regulatory compliances in supplying critical life-saving drugs. Our challenges multiplied overnight as we were not able to procure from China at the start of the pandemic. This was followed by supply challenges in manufacturing and distribution.

Let me break the disruption and resurrection of supply chain into 3 phases: Phase I was when it was a complete mayhem where there was complete supply-demand disruption.

We were not able to import a lot ingredients from China and exports also came to a standstill impacting both upstream and downstream. Phase 2 was when China opened, and supplies were available. With relaxation to pharma industry as an essential service provider even manufacturing resumed, although at a much lower utilization, but the demand was still volatile. Every passing day, we are just looking to survive and to grow slowly. And now we are going to entry the Phase 3 – which will be the “new normal” – rules of engagement for business will change forever.

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COVER STORY

What are the supply chain levers that you are tweaking now to deal with any future disruption?

Moving from fixed to variable models in downturns and fixing them in the upturns has been an established strategy.

RAJAT SHARMA: Economic downturns have been faced earlier

reflecting in lowering toplines and shifting of impetus onto cost savings and strategic shifts to restricting inventory and other fixed costs to contain the working capital and ensure that the cash flow stays in green. Moving from fixed to variable spend models in downturns and fixing them in upturns has been an established strategy. What was different this time over was that the demand existed, only the customer – manufacturer connect was broken; and inventories nearer to customers were still usable, hence many organizations got back to placing inventories in the vicinity of the customer dense geographies. There were upstream challenges of availability of RM, import challenges and those of labor availability to produce more.

We are looking at it holistically to work on specific levers to be able to address such challenges without impacting P&Ls negatively: 1. Distribution Network a. Flexibility, Sensitivity & Responsiveness

b. This will come from a rich and intelligent blend of large DCs operating on scale along with smaller FCs allowing reach 2. Freight networks a. Agility and speed in cases crisis is sensed on fingertips (smaller FCs) b. Long hauls – collaborative strategies at partners ends to piggy-back the mobile space c. Last mile explorations – express partners, new age hyperlocal delivery mechanisms 3. High sensitivity on fingertips (nearer to customers) a. Technology usage to sense not only micro-data but also macro factors b. Macro-economic & socio-politic eyes 4. Upstream risk assessment a. Alternates b. Financing & developing crisis support

It is about getting the supply chain yields right.

SREEKANTH VANCHEESWARAN: Unfortunately, in the

current circumstances, any company would not be able to forecast accurately. Till today we really do not know the actual impact of Covid on demand & supply. The biggest challenge for all of us is to demand forecast in such volatile situations.

Consumer behavior is exceedingly difficult to predict and it has become more and more important to put our ears to the ground now. Demand sensing is what we will need to focus on. The

second lever that we should focus on is building transportation efficiency. It’s about getting the supply chain yields right. There are lot of inefficiencies we have built over the last six months, but yields are something that will stay forever. It’s about building visibility from the manufacturer to the consumer and getting the products to them in the shortest timeframe.

Technology, digitization, and data are the key levers to drive supply chain.

TANNISTHA GANGULY: One keep point I keep harping on

is to use digitization and date to our advantage. This pandemic has brought to the fore the critical importance of data in terms of last mile connectivity and other related aspects related to inventory. Kimberly Clark is into sanitizers and other hygiene

22 CELERITY January - February 2021

products and our demand went up unprecedently high. In that circumstance, we not only needed to know our inventories but also of our suppliers in real time. End-to-end vision is the biggest factor that we realized during such times.

COVER STORY

We need big organizations to join hands to change the ecosystem.

UMESH MADHYAN: Continuous improvement is what we are

looking at HCCB. Our strategy has been on the visibility both on the manufacturing and transport side. We have made lot of investments in ensuring how much data we collect on every bottling line, every equipment and on every truck so that we can take more accurate decisions. What is the time that a Coke truck takes to load 1000 cases? The least we do is 3 minutes. This system

is live in Ahmedabad and Siliguri. With this example, I would like to emphasize on the importance of palletization vs manual loading. We move about 7000 trucks per day in peak time. More than 80% of them go untouched. That’s the ecosystem we are working on since 7 years now. We started with 2% palletization and reached 80% today. We need big organizations to join hands to change the ecosystem.

The focus should be on enhancing technological capabilities and build more traceability into the system to see through such transitions.

SOURABH RAGHUVANSHI: We need to strike the right

balance between efficiency and effectiveness. Norm is to generally work on the centralized supply chain as it gives us the economics of scale. However, during Covid times, our focus shifted on how to balance the scale benefits or efficiency benefits with business continuity and we focused on de-risking ourselves. In short to mid team, when we are working with multiple vendors and spreading our width, we need to analyze

who can serve the length and breadth of the respective regional markets even with the containment challenges and have a strong and effective localized workforce. The key would be to sustain such transitions for considerable amount of time, at the same time, still command efficiencies. Companies must also build multimodal capabilities. Also, focus is on enhancing technological capabilities and build more traceability into the system to see through such transitions.

Build more flexibility in planning and shorten the planning horizon to be ready to capitalize on sudden demand spurts.

VICKRAM SRIVASTAVA: Four primary levers that we are

looking at: ♦ Procurement: Better visibility on vendor supply chain, try to lessen the risk by developing alternate supply channels and look at localization options to further de-risk the supply chain. ♦ Manufacturing: Better capacity utilization and build flexibility in execution by network optimization. Also, we are working on a bio-bubble concept to keep the workforce on shop floor protected/ contained to minimize risk of spread.

♦ Planning: Improve demand sensing and be closer to market to understand the demand changes. Build more flexibility in planning and shorten the planning horizon to be ready to capitalize on sudden demand spurts. ♦ Logistics and distribution: Remodel the logistics and distribution plan. Look at multi-modal modes of transport and tie up closely with logistics service providers to get best availability, connectivity and pricing.

What is your view on Demand Sensing?

Globally we will see hybrid strategies using deep sensing and forecasting/pattern superimposing to manage inventory RAJAT SHARMA: Demand Sensing has always been the key in

addressing economic upturns & downturns, and yet in today’s post-Covid world, it has become inevitable and imperative. The shift of consumer behavior in the period of crisis, as well as sustained shifts in buying patterns, channels, product & price preferences makes it so much more complicated to be managed by erstwhile ways. I believe forecasting will take a big hit and

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world over we will see hybrid strategies using deep sensing and forecasting/pattern superimposing to manage inventory and its placement, keeping various replenishment models at the base.

Capabilities today are springing up in various pockets, but I also see those being non-integrated across channels and platforms, and this is another space where I see future developments.

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COVER STORY

The new 3Cs that will drive the supply chain – Contained, Connected and Continuous.

VICKRAM SRIVASTAVA: Demand sensing has become a

buzzword lately. During Covid, we continued to face challenges in terms of demand sensing. As we are aware that lot of people stopped going to general practitioners as much as they used to, so much so that the elective surgeries have been put on hold, for us more than business reengineering, we had to work towards business continuity. In pharma, we started about the changed

rules of engagements, how can MRs engage with doctors and doctors engage with patients. We started looking at managing demands in innovative ways in terms of what the New Normal could be. We realized the new 3Cs that will drive the supply chain – Contained, Connected and Continuous. The pandemic has accelerated the digital footprint across sectors.

We need to be more dynamic in terms of capturing demand on a regular basis.

SOURABH RAGHUVANSHI: We are looking at the geographic

and demographic changes as well as product proposition. Just to give you an example, there has been mass migration from Metros such as Mumbai & Delhi to states such as Bihar, UP & Bengal. Now suddenly the market size of these migrated places has gone up. Secondly, the type of consumption has also changed as a result of this migration and product consumption patterns have changed. For us, the key challenge has been to sense this changed demand for the right products for the right places.

As far as consumer electronics sector is concerned, it is being

driven by three aspects currently: work from home, school from home and pent-up demand. As a result, there is increased use of consumer electronics. The demand pattern has also suddenly shifted from a small phone to a big screen smartphone, a small refrigerator to a big refrigerator, so on and so forth as majority consumers are confined to their homes and dependency & usage of consumer goods has gone up. It will take some time before equilibrium sets in. We need to be more dynamic in terms of capturing demand on a regular basis until then.

Partnering with the right people to ensure that your goods reach your consumers is critical.

SREEKANTH VANCHEESWARAN: Demand sensing has two

parts – the quantity that the consumer buys and secondly where is he buying from. Consumer behavior has changed with time.

While we have a fair estimate on the consumption of product, it is getting very difficult to know where is the consumer buying it from. Today a Swiggy can deliver products from general trade store or kirana shop. It’s a challenge to influence our product placements at each and every retail touch point where the consumption is happening. It is about chasing the consumer on what he is thinking and continuously doing that because

the consumer is looking at reducing engagement outside his home and building convenience for the family. E-commerce has leapfrogged during Covid-19. There are players who did not exist for a long period of time in terms of micro-logistics who deliver at your doorstep. These elements of distribution have changed a lot and partnering with the right people to ensure that your goods reach your consumers is critical. We are also building efficiencies in terms of cutting down variants which we feel are building inefficiencies in our system.

What is the competitive advantage that someone would be working for?

It is this talent & learning that will make the difference in years to come – Retain the talent in Supply Chain!

RAJAT SHARMA: While the ability to sense and adapt quickly

could form the core competitive advantage, yet there are various facets to the problem and each solution presents a specific competitive advantage. Thus, broadly the capabilities to be developed would fall under similar heads: • Technology on sensing shifts in micro or macro factors • Flexibility / Alternates in manufacturing / sourcing as well as Distribution Networks • Relationships & Partnerships across the value chain

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(upstream, downstream and the connectors – logistics and warehousing) will play a big role and hence People & talent will remain to be core assets.

I would stress more on people, as we come out of a big crisis, our people have learnt a lot of lessons and experimented already with many possibilities. It is this talent & learning that will make the difference in years to come – Retain the talent in Supply Chain!

COVER STORY

Now is the time Indian pharma sector to look at the 4Ds – Discover, Design, Develop and Deliver.

VICKRAM SRIVASTAVA: Sourcing, predominantly in generic

pharma space, has always been about being cost competitive, ensuring that your supply chain is never getting disrupted. Since the last 6-8 months, people have forgotten about the cost. Now we are talking about only business continuity. We started talking about the risk vs value. Now the government is also giving the much-needed push to the entire pharmaceutical sector. They are setting up pharma parks to encourage big companies to set up their bases. Surely, it is going to take time, but we are seeing the steps in the right direction. This pandemic has opened our eyes to the entire sourcing paradigm to not only be cost competitive but also having the best value and supply chain. It is also about risk. The new term we have started hearing now a days – deglobalization – localize sourcing because what happened to all the businesses the moment Covid hit us was the acute shortage

of raw material sourcing as most of it was sourced from China.

We now need to find avenues to source them locally and to do that, we need to have manufacturing might in the space. If we can do that, we will be de-risking our supply chain in a big way.

If you look at India, it seemed like 25 countries within a country, how can we leverage on our manufacturing strengths is what see us through in the future. The shifting sourcing paradigm needs to have innovative streaks from the word go. We really lagged innovation on drug discovery. Now is the time Indian pharma sector to look at the 4Ds – Discover, Design, Develop and Deliver. Currently, we are focusing on only two aspects – develop and delivery. But when all the four parameters are given due attention, then the landscape is going to be huge for pharma industry in India.

The competitive edge has always been in the availability and product quality that we need to continuously keep enhancing to ensure we delight our customer.

SREEKANTH VANCHEESWARAN: The competitive advantage

that we would be working for would always be about providing a greater value proposition to our customers for the money that they pay us. As supply chain executives, we have a role to play in how quickly we fulfill a customer need and on whether we

deliver the promised value that the customer was expecting.

Hence as supply chain, the competitive edge has always been in availability and product quality that we need to continuously keep enhancing to ensure we delight our customer.

Competitive advantage through technology will see the expanse of cloud technology and advance analytics.

TANNISTHA GANGULY: Companies industry wide are willing

to make investments in technology. The reason probably is because you can build resilience into your system. Competitive

advantage through technology will see the expanse of cloud technology and advance analytics. Technology enablement brings you the predictability through artificial intelligence.

Your advice to people wanting to invest in technology…

Companies must make smart choices in making technology investments.

UMESH MADHYAN: There is a lot of myth and talk around

invest in this and that because people are feeling that technology adoption will witness a big-time jump. My question is ‘Where is the Cash?’ Who will give you money in such constrained times for at least 12-18 months? One needs to be getting more selective in adopting technology and investing in going paperless by way of

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e-way bills, digital signature, auto-invoicing, etc. Second is how do you convert these capital models and push your OEMs to get better total cost of ownership (TCO). How do you make them transition to Build, Operate, Lease (BOL) model. You need to be smart enough in making technology investments and more so in current times.

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COVER STORY

THE BRIGHT SPARKS

In continuation to the Cover Story in the last issue, where we featured 30-under-30 and 40-under-40 supply chain winners, here is presenting the balance 15 of the 34 bright sparks who impressed the jury and took away the crowning glory. This is not just an ode to their brilliance but an inspiration for the new age managers to dream big and achieve the unconventional. Such intriguing ideas are also great testimony to India’s resilience that has been quite evident in these times of Covid crisis. Presenting pearls of positivity through these amazing pathbreaking ideas…

26 CELERITY January - February 2021

COVER STORY

40-UNDER-40 SUPPLY CHAIN SUPER ACHIEVERS

Ravi Shankar, Category Head – Demand & Supply Planning, Nestle India Ltd.

Naresh Kumar, Deputy Manager – Sourcing & Partner Management (Optical Fiber Cables), Sterlite Technologies Ltd.

Raw Material Specification Harmonization and Unique Raw Material Optimization: During a regular LEAN VSD exercise, we realized we had multiple specifications of a particular raw material being used in our factory for almost similar use. Now all these materials required a separate inventory planning, safety stock management, quality control, financial traceability, vendor development / management and many at times also contributed to wastage due to higher MOQs. Hence impact on cost and administrative control was remarkably HIGH. Along with R&D and the business team, we undertook an extensive exercise across the value chain to understand the process need of these multiple specifications and also the consumer perception and consumer value proposition for this complexity.

The perception feedback was obviously on the lower side. We then undertook process modification to eliminate almost 60% of the multiple specifications of this particular raw material with zero impact on product sensorial and value offering. This has resulted into a much LEANER, SIMPLIFIED and EFFICIENT value chain.

As the sourcing and partner management leader for the company’s global location, I must successfully handle global sourcing of raw materials, commodities, with the right techno-commercial approach. Our mantra was “Cost Reduction not by just Negotiations but Value propositions”.

Working on the in-house developed ADMIRE supply chain model (Analytics & Intelligence, Digital, Modular, Integrated, Rapid & Expandable) we conceptualized, visualized, and implemented strategies. Encouragement for practicing unconstrained thinking and leveraging expertise, technology & innovation in complex global business environment with disruptions & risk mitigation, helped us with handling the unique opportunity to lead sourcing for different locations in this Covid-19 crisis. The global supply chain is likely changed forever, and it will not be temporary. All the countries have different challenges for logistics and compliance. In this tough time, we had managed smooth operations with 100% OTD for all our business locations located in India, Brazil and Italy.

We focused on below to achieve our set goals in this Covid crisis: Clear forecast of business requirements: All the value chains have faced some sort of disruption and many countries have imposed lockdown and implemented government policies for operation. To develop a supply chain disruption response plan, a clear forecast of the parts and materials required for the business must be developed after studying the situation and using multi-scenario analysis.

Alternative supplier: Seek alternate channels for supply to diversify your current supply portfolio with the same quality. Supplier development on fast track and quality monitoring done virtually.

Inventory: Inventory is a crucial factor to run the plant smoothly. Re-evaluating and re-designing the KABAN & Just-In-Time inventory replenishment programs, helped to improve our production and reduce our overall inventory, while Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Consignment stock helped to optimize the inventory.

Choose the level of disruption to mitigate it: Resolve the supply chain disruptions before they disrupt the larger supply network. Analyze the contractual or reputation consequences from failing to meet production requirements.

The past months have been extremely hard to tackle the situation on global scale without impacting the value chain. We have ensured that the show must go without disruption, by quickly evolving and adapting.

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COVER STORY

Mohit Agarwal, Manager-NPI/LCM Projects, Johnson and Johnson Pvt. Ltd.

Chandan Shirbhayye, Supply Chain Director, GVK Biosciences Pvt. Ltd.

In healthcare most innovations come after Clinical/R&D Trials. We realized through an R&D feedback that faster sterilization cycle is available for one of our suture product known as Reel. As per given instructions, for effective sterilization, surgeon needs to sterilize Reel sutures in an autoclave at 116 degree for 30 mins. This method takes some time to effectively sterilize suture.

I led this project to reduce sterilization lead time significantly so that doctors/ surgeons can utilize this product quickly and unmet need can be met. A crossfunctional team was formed, comprising R&D, quality assurance, regulatory, design quality engineer and sterilization SME. R&D has analyzed multiple autoclave cycles and finalized parameters post validations. Required Approvals were taken.

The new sterilization parameters are: sterilization at 121 degree centigrade for 15 Minutes and 134 Degree Centigrade for 03 Minutes, depending on available Autoclave machines in hospitals.

Through this project, we have slashed sterilization lead time substantially from 30 min to 03 min, that is 90% reduction in lead time, which can save many lives during emergency procedures and this project was executed considering J&J Credo in mind.

We learnt that who seeks to change the status quo must continue seeking each other out, challenging each other, and learning from each other as well as we need to change our thinking as new problems cannot be solved by cautiously applying same thinking. We also learnt the importance of customer centric products that product should meet customer requirements.

As we were looking at redesigning the supply chain, we had multiple challenges of resources, change management and ensuring that during transitioning we didn’t drop the ball. We formed smaller teams within SCM Team who were empowered and responsible to drive each initiative so that we have dedicated focus. We had driven a dedicated program to engage our supply partners both on new initiatives as well as continuous improvements front. Lot of new metrics were identified to continuously review the progress of initiatives and impact on business deliverables.

Below are some of the key initiatives which were implemented across supply chain in line with organization purpose of accelerating R&D for customers and resulting in positive feedback from business team. We are well poised for high growth with better transparency and integration in SCM deliverables: • Technological Adaption o Implementation of RPA in PR to PO Process o Digitization of critical update activities o Centralized Database for all BU & Category Spend • Responsiveness o Alternate Vendor Development Program o Improvement in order processing in collaboration with supply partners o Differential shift operations in Supply Chain o SPOC Concept • Process Improvements o Supplier relationship management o Techno-Commercial Resources hiring o Regular Training on functional aspects through CUP (Competency Upgradation Program) • Safety & Sustainability o AEO T2 Certification o Adherence to PSCI & GDPR Guidelines o Monthly Safety training on SCM Related topics

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COVER STORY

During year 2018, we observed significant attrition in sales distributor system with distributors not being able to operate efficiently due to higher cost of operations in Metro cities, we identified opportunity to Disrupt GTM and help sales system stabilize distribution through launch of ‘Direct to retailer’ program.

Impact on self: This project offered huge learnings on sales operations and ground realities/challenges. It also gave me huge insights into modern day supply chain disruption opportunities.

Nirlay Sheth, Head – Logistics & Customer Service, Marico Ltd.

Impact on team: This was huge positive learning for team as well and it became first of its kind implementation in the industry.

Impact on the organization: It was huge positive for the organization, which helped stabilize distribution in those places as well as kept the organization ahead of the industry in implementing such disruptive GTM initiatives. Some of these markets have shown significant growth post implementation of this project.

Outcome: This project was rolled out for 8 distributors across three cities and distributor attrition was NIL for all the locations with stable business for all the locations including improvement in sales KPIs. Organization is looking at expanding the program.

Samrat Ghosh, Supply Chain Head, Welspun Global Brands Ltd.

At Knex Inc., which was a technology start up, there was a unique challenge in the supply chain of the poultry business, which dealt with predicting the growth of the chicken in the poultry farm, without touching or manually weighing the chicken.

This was an out of the box innovation where we developed an IOT device, with a 3D camera and depth sensing capabilities and other circuit boards, which helped capture terabytes of images and weights. By using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques we were successful in training the engine whereby just looking at the images it could estimate the weight of the sample of chickens and using various forecasting techniques, predict the weight of the chicken during the time of harvest. In a span of 6 months, from an ideation to prototype to final product, the IOT device, app and the software was delivered, the results of which was 95% accurate. This was a completely unexplored territory, but we embraced the challenge and delivered on the same.

Ashish JoshI, Global Supply Chain Director - B2B/B2B2C ecommerce, Unilever

THE Design to Distribute program started in 2015 as a simple concept of reducing empty spaces from the product’s primary packaging to improve its density. Higher density products need less space on the trucks and in warehouses, thereby improving their transportation and storage efficiency. However, the program expanded beyond logistics efficiency into a wider cross-functional initiative, delivering savings in packaging material and manufacturing cost. E.g., we identified that the logistics cost of a strip of our shampoo sachets was higher than the overall shampoo category’s logistics cost. Reducing the width of the sachet by 2 mm led to significant reduction in material & logistics cost and unlocked 15% production capacity. Our cross-functional project team delivered large savings for Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in 2 years across multiple product categories. I took this project global in 2017 & 2018 in my Global Logistics Director role and delivered further savings for Unilever.

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COVER STORY

APR Rao Abhishek, Group Director, Sales & Marketing, Varuna Group

I am extremely honored to be receiving such an important award (40 under 40 award

by Celerity). I am earnestly grateful for the recognition that I have received for my work because I am very sure that every other nominee for this award was as capable if not more, of winning this award. Being nominated in this contest has been the best experience in my career and I feel enormously proud to belong and contribute to something in this great event.

I have faced several challenges on my way here, but each one of them has only strengthened me to make me the person I am today. Winning this award would not have been possible without the inspiration, which I have received from my seniors and my colleagues, for whom I have the deepest respect, and from whom I have derived the strength to challenge myself and perform better at each stage.

Your mind is your first enemy, if you challenge it, you can challenge others. Your Prize should state your purpose the reason you are in business.

This award will always be dear to me. It will always be a reminder of the hard work that I have put into the projects so far. Moreover, this award will always motivate me to achieve more & more success in the future.

30-UNDER-30 SUPPLY CHAIN SUPERSTARS

Akhil MV, Assistant Manager, ITC Ltd.

Abhishek Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Shadowfax Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

30  CELERITY  January - February 2021

'ITC Ltd had an organizational initiative of merging two of its businesses to crossleverage upon lean operational efficiency and capitalize on capabilities available inhouse. This project involved extensive coordination between all the functions, including sourcing, procurement, inventory management, logistics, and HR team as internal stakeholders. There was a requirement of restructuring the organizational design, as there was a significant difference in internal grade structure. This called for extensive primary and secondary research and then an industry-wide benchmarking exercise in understanding and defining KPIs and performance metrics for employees of both SBUs so that the definitions of different levels of performance for the SBUs can be on the same page. The project was completed successfully, and the success can be measured by the fact that there was minimal attrition and a significant boost in the employee satisfaction survey conducted. The resultant conglomerate formed resulted in a lean manufacturing process with increased capacity utilization and industry best sourcing, procurement, and logistics practices.

We founded Shadowfax to democratize logistics and bring convenience to our customers and today we are pioneering 3PL logistics solutions through our unique operating model, innovative platform and our inimitable network on-ground. In the last 5 years, we have leveraged technology to build the best-in-class logistics solutions that are efficient, cost-effective and agile.

As we know, supply chain management has always been an asset-heavy industry; most companies either buy commercial vehicles or get into long term leases with fleet owners to manage the logistics involved in the gamut of supply chain management.

At Shadowfax, the prime differentiator from traditional logistics companies is our crowdsourced asset-light model that changes the conventional way of operating supply chain management. Our model is designed to bridge the gap between supply and demand and reduce supply chain inefficiencies. With Shadowfax’s crowdsourced model, vehicle owners can optimize their earnings by working with us on a variable cost-based contract that can be adjusted keeping in view the market fluctuations.

Operating on an asset-light model, currently, we have more than 150 K+ delivery network on the platform and fulfill 500K+ orders a day in food, grocery, fashion, pharmacy, e-commerce, and traditional business sectors. Also, we are on a mission to create one million micro-entrepreneurs in the next five years.

COVER STORY

Krishna Pratap Ramesh, Divisional Supply Chain Manager, Marico Ltd.

The goal was to strive towards sustainable procurement for our biggest brand Parachute. Coconut production is itself a sustainable commodity where every part of the coconut tree is used for various products giving the tree and our program the name Kalpavriksha. With an objective of taking coconut farmers beyond the traditional agricultural practices, we took it upon ourselves to train them in a gamut of agricultural management. We successfully spearheaded several training sessions in the coconut growing states of south India and educating farmers on scientific and modern practices that have boosted the agrarian tradition with technological innovation.

Farmer does not invest much in his farm. Because of this attitude of minimal investment and care, the production of a coconut tree which should be in the range of 120 - 150 nuts/tree is in the range of 60 - 80 currently. Also, a farmer loses about 1-3% of his fully grown trees on a yearly basis to diseases and pest attacks. The seedling cost is not that high as he uses his own nuts to regrow, but it takes about 7 years for the tree to start giving nuts.

Considering the need of farmers and having established the effectiveness in a pilot project with 100 farmers, in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu, it was important to expand the program across all 4 coconut growing states (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh) under the brand name of Parachute Kalpavriksha so that many coconut farmers can benefit from this program.

As I had mentioned earlier, Kalpavriksha was more like a start-up and there were various key initiatives that were propagated as part of Kalpavriksha. We ran an Agronomist Program. We deployed Farm Care Personnel, on the ground to interact with farmers in helping them to understand the program, enroll farmers and visit their fields for providing on-field support. A Kalpavriksha Care Centre was also set up where farmers could call up on our toll-free number and seek support on any farm issues they are facing from agricultural experts. This support is available in multiple local languages namely Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. So far over 50000+ unique farmers have been reached and benefitted through the toll-free line. A Digital Library has also been set up to educate farmers on best farm practices, pest & disease management, water management, etc. As of now, 35 digital library videos have been developed and uploaded on YouTube across 5 Languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada & English) which have garnered over a million views overall.

As suggested in the beginning, Coconut cultivation is not a heavy investment crop where the farmer invests on equipment. We developed over 3 Agri Business Centres in a year where the farmer could get the equipment on rental basis plus various other labor services were provided at a lower cost. Several farmers were able to reap the benefits of this project. Additionally, we were able to create employment opportunities bringing the program into a self-sustainable mode.

Water Conservation: There was a time when coconut farmers had to buy water from outside just to make sure that they could keep their trees alive due to consecutive droughts. Majority of the coconut farmers are highly dependent on ground water making us to focus on increasing the ground water table through various water harvesting techniques. We were able to build over 150+ farm ponds in a period of 2 years contributing over 10+ crore L of water. And this in fact helped Marico’s Aim to achieve water stewardship by offsetting 100% of water consumption in operations.

Sustainable Procurement: The goal was never to buy directly from farmers. It was always aimed towards their welfare and making them sustainable & independent and a derivative of this program was getting coconuts from these sustainable farmers. The farmers wanted to sell their product to Marico to get the best market prices and we were able to buy through various initiatives like Coconut Collection Centres, Coconut Producing Companies and Direct Farm Buying.

The impact was in making PARACHUTE KALPAVRIKSHA a renowned brand among this community and we were quite successful to do the same in a period of 2.5 years.

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COVER STORY

Alka Kamble, Procurement Manager, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electrical Ltd.

Praharsh Chandra, Co-founder & COO, Shadowfax Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

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INDIRECT sourcing is one of the important processes for a business to enable it to maintain and develop its operations. This process was decentralized, which involved branches sending their requisitions at HO just for approval. This approvers at HO then had to perform the reconciliation exercise, thereby leading to high process time and tracking inefficiencies because all the transactions were carried via email. Being a part of business excellence team, I handled the project for automating pan-India indirect procurement at all the branches. Being a non-critical items in terms of profit impact and risk, the process would have been made efficient through standardization and centralization. For that I first did high level process mapping of the existing process and identified the high lead time and non-value added activities. Next step was to incorporate the process on an e-procurement portal. For that I was involved in drafting business requirement document with all the necessary stakeholders, listed the test cases and performed user acceptance testing and launched the pilot portal in one region before release. The portal has made tracking and approval mechanism for Admin team easy and process centralization has helped in cost savings because of requirement consolidation creating desired MOQ and regular e-auction. Major challenge was to inculcate the regular portal usage among the users because of the resistance to change.

However, high level communication, constant training to the users and hand holding to branch representative have helped in transitioning the process.

The project is a great learning for me and helped me understand how to eliminate the elements of inefficiencies from a process and make it more user-friendly and compliant.

One SCM innovation from the Shadowfax Ops team was cross-utilization of resources across facilities, last mile, and middle miles of the supply chain. The team analyzed cost structure, peak time patterns, efficiency and utilization and other parameters of different delivery verticals.

We soon understood how variabilizing cost headers across the supply chain could increase an individual partner’s utilization and at the same time open an avenue for them to earn more than what they were earning by delivering for just one vertical.

Utilization in cross-category was exceptionally low across the industry. So, Shadowfax created a culture to combine and cross-utilize our massive ground force to drive a better deal for both our clients with increased efficiencies and for our delivery partners so they could switch from one vertical to another based on requirements and peaks. For example, an FMCG vehicle delivering grocery in the morning slots, could be utilized to move furniture in the later part of the day when grocery requirements were not high.

We developed an intensive training infrastructure to help partners understand the potential of this cross-utilization and how they could maximize their earnings. Every partner underwent a process training and related sessions so they could seamlessly deliver for different verticals without impacting customer delight in any way.

FOCUS

CHANGE is the only CONSTANT CHANGING GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS POST COVID-19 The current situation reminds us of a famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi, “You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will no results.” Taking a leaf from this thought, Sanjay Desai, Talent Advisory SCM Professional, explains how a recent Covid-19 pandemic is setting the foundation for major shifts and forcing proactive & corrective actions for Supply Chain leaders across the world …

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C

OVID-19 has struck at the core of value chains affecting social, economic, and political life across the globe.

The pandemic has severe implications for international supply chain networks, and it will leave its legacy for many years to come in future.

EVOLUTION OF LOCAL MANUFACTURING INTO GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS IN LAST 4 DECADES Over the past four decades, much of worldwide manufacturing production was organized in what has become as global value chains (GVCs). Raw materials and intermediate goods are shipped around the globe multiple times and then assembled in yet another location. The final output is re-exported to many end consumers located in both developed and developing markets. If the global economies have to avoid the prolonged effects of economic distress, what is required is a collaborative response amongst all nations including re-thinking and re-designing multiple elements of their supply chains. As of now, this thought process serves as possibly the most promising path amid a mercy environment.

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HOW CORONA-19 BECAME A MAJOR CATALYST FOR CHANGE… Companies are forced to re-examine their supply chain best practices and contingency plans in place since many years. This outbreak shines a light on the need for a “change” i.e., true business continuity and disaster recovery planning. As companies figure their way

out in this environment and slowly inch back to finding their path, they also need to make sure that what they will rebuild is responsive, agile, and long term sustainable.

LOOKING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL Going forward, companies will need to de-risk their operations by rebalancing

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FOCUS the supply chain with a more strategic mix of local, regional, and global supply chains so if anything happens in any one of those sources, it will be easier to adapt and fulfil the need with the other.

Let us look at major shifts that will drive businesses globally and areas that supply chain leaders need to change / or re-adjust their focus ….

VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, MANUFACTURING, AND DISTRIBUTION The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines will occur against a backdrop of a global supply chain still reeling from the effects of the pandemic itself, which has hampered many industries and slowed the flow of goods around the world.

While some level of recovery has occurred right in the midst of pandemic, the effects are still present and may worsen as infections are on the rise in what is called as 3rd / 4th wave of infections.

A successful & rapid deployment of any proven vaccine does not just rely on the amount of vaccine that can be produced.

It relies on multiple factors such as infrastructure, information systems, storage & transportation capabilities and also equally important is having a workforce that can administer the vaccine handling these elements in a collaborative manner.

TRANSFORMATION IS WRITTEN ON THE WALL… FROM DESIGN FOR EFFICIENCY TO DESIGN FOR RESILIENCE & AGILITY Companies are (self) questioning relevance of their value chain models given the impacts that Covid has had on their supply chains. The word ‘Transformation’ is fundamental to the success of digital transformation framework because leaders first need to recognize the fundamental difference between change and transformation before they can lead their companies on a journey of legitimate business transformation via digital transformation. While ‘change’ is required to maintain and modernize an organization, this is not enough to sufficiently elevate both its internal capabilities and external offerings.

34 CELERITY January - February 2021

FROM GLOBALIZATION TO REGIONALIZATION Logistics hubs will re-emerge at the regional level. To eliminate singlesource model and to establish a flexible and adaptable supply chain, product integrators, sub-system suppliers and component suppliers will source, assemble, and deliver from their own backyards. This change had been kicked off several years ago because of increasing Chinese labour costs, Covid 19 just helped to hasten that process along the way during 2020. Labour cost differential, once the major attraction for companies towards Asia, has already shown signs of shrinking over past few years.

CHANGES IN THE CUSTOMER PROFILE, CONFIDENCE, AND EXPECTATIONS Until recently (pre Covid19) consumers took safety & security of supply as “granted” or may be never gave enough thought to it. The products they consumed were safe; the venues in which they travelled and worked were safe. But alas!!! COVID-19 has ripped those assumptions apart. Consumers now want safety, sustainability & transparency more than ever. And it is the responsibility of companies to provide it. Balancing strategic imperatives such as risk, sustainability and consumer preference will challenge & may prevail over pure economics in the near future.

USE OF EMERGING AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES The industry 4.0 was already due, but Covid19 provides opportunities for companies to leapfrog and embrace

Sanjay Desai runs his own advisory consulting practice based out of Singapore. Currently he is running Humana International (An MRI Group Network) handling Talent Development & Executive Placements in end-to-end supply chain ecosystem across Asia Region. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Postgraduate in Materials Management from premier Indian business school.

He holds a CPIM certification from APICS, USA. He has completed formal Executive Leadership management courses at INSEAD, Singapore.

Digital Technologies as a means to transform business models, reduce cost, increase visibility and customer engagements. The time has come for companies to execute their words into actions. Companies who are able to navigate and embrace technology capabilities to digital platforms will be in a better shape to mitigate the impacts to their business and continue to sail in troubled waters sustainably.

MAJOR TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL BE CATALYST FOR FUTURE 5 Machine learning for demand planning 5 Advanced analytics for inventory planning 5 Control tower technology for

As most countries are still in SHUT DOWN mode and social distancing norms, customers are using online buying mode more often than ever before especially for essentials, food, grocery, and medicine supplies.

There has been a drastic shift in the profiles of customers buying online for the first time during Covid-19 shutdown periods.

FOCUS The human dimension will be back, and it will play a prime role in rebalancing the global supply chain during this crisis, and well beyond. The Toyota Principle of “autonomation� (automation with a human touch) has proven to be the most adaptable during periods of crisis and there is every possible thought that going back to the board once again is the Right Thing to do NOW.

increased visibility and transparency 5 Driverless vehicles and use of drones 5 Big data combined with AI-predictive & prescriptive analysis 5 Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) in storage / warehouses 5 3D Printing and additive manufacturing 5 RPA for repetitive algorithms/ applications

IMBALANCE IN FREIGHT (DEMAND SUPPLY & ESCALATING FREIGHT RATES)

Companies globally are forced to re-look into their modern stocking strategies & resorting to drastic measures like reducing their reliance on single source/ reduce LEAN supply chain practices, and shift focus from JIT (Just in Time) to JIC (Just In Case) strategy. These renewed practices have a direct bearing on the levels of the inventory and a potential threat to working capital deployment.

Companies need to strike balance between inventory holding v/s service levels and better use of expedited freight as a hedge more often than in the past.

RESURGENCE OF NEAR SHORING OF MANUFACTURING Companies need to move their production footprint closer to markets/ customers to the point where it is being consumed.

This has wider impacts to capital costs, infrastructure cost and inventory holding costs. Despite these, Companies are exploring ways to re-design their global supply chains, and more & more

companies will consider moving offshore operations back to their own factories, or at least their own continents.

DEMAND ON STORAGE FACILITIES & SUPPLY GAP As companies work on reshaping/ transforming their supply chain manufacturing / sourcing footprints, it will have a domino effect on their storage requirements. This is especially true to pharmaceutical / temperaturecontrolled products (i.e., vaccines) where the demand for GDP compliant storage facilities will be at a record high in the first couple of years. Companies need to manage storage needs v/s costs while maintaining regional capacities and meeting (local) compliance requirements.

MULTI-MODAL TRANSPORTATION WILL BE ON AN ESCALATED PATH To reduce cost-to-serve impacts and to build pipe-line consistency & visibility of supply, companies will shift away from air freight and resort to multi-modal transportation. We will see growth in

freepik.com

Air freight rates have sky-rocketed 7-8 times their usual rates during Covid period for most commodities and especially for high demand /essentials and medical related supplies. Eventually these new air freight rates will come down but at a significantly much higher % in relation to Pre-Covid19 period. This is an after-effect caused by permanent loss of air freight capacities globally. Companies globally need to build this new element in their cost v/s customer service tradeoffs strategy.

SHIFT FOCUS FROM JIT TO JIC INVENTORY STRATEGY

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FOCUS alternate means of transportation like rail, road & motorways globally in near future.

significant benefits. First and foremost— and contrary to conventional wisdom— selling less often leads to selling more!!!

COLLABORATION ON THE RISE (HORIZONAL AND VERTICAL)

REVIEW CUSTOMER VALUE PREPOSITION

Companies need to better understand the merits of collaborating with their partners vertically as well as horizontally for a win-win solution. Sharing of critical business information leads to enhanced knowledge across the value chain that allows to achieve lower inventory levels and higher inventory turns, lower transportation & warehousing costs.

Companies need to form long term partnerships in their supply network for enhanced negotiation ability, better visibility covering their tier II and tier III suppliers.

PROLIFERATION OF ONLINE BUSINESSES Most likely a high % of these customers will never return to buying retail and will continue buying online. This phenomenon is felt very naturally in Asia and emerging markets around the world.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FREELANCE - NOW CALLED “GIG ECONOMY” WILL INCREASE Freelancing was created by underground jazz musicians of the 1920th, who engaged the public in jazz culture through irregular live concerts, called ‘gigs’. These performers were paid right after the event. This “payment-after-completion system” went far beyond the jazz scene in late 80s/ 90s and actually started to creep in during last decade. Covid19 has, in a way, pushed many professionals to embrace this model further. While “gig workers” offer employers greater workforce management flexibility, HR leaders will need to evaluate how performance management systems apply to these workers and determine whether they will be eligible for the same benefits as their full-time peers across the industry.

REDUCE PORTFOLIO COMPLEXITY SKU Harmonization when done right, assortment simplification will unlock

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A Customer Value Proposition (CVP) is a promise of potential value that a company delivers to its customers and stimulates customer engagement. The value preposition needs to be in the same language as customers, so they are better able to resonate with your products and services cajoling them to buy the products consistently. Gathering customer insights through interviews, focus groups, and frontline observation is rather straightforward. Competitive analysis should also feed into customer value proposition work and can easily be accomplished in this age of technological excellence using AI and Big data analysis.

To win customer, companies need to define their value preposition and be able to communicate it effectively.

GLOBAL TRADE & TARIFF SITUATION WILL CONTINUE TO BE SEVERELY IMPACTED The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be known as that inflection point in the history which changed the nature of the post-World Trade Organization (WTO) global trade policy environment. The last time the world witnessed a similar situation was in 1995 when WTO was established, creating a rule-based global trading system. The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said in its annual report, "Review of Maritime Transport 2020," that its forecast for maritime trade growth this year has been cut to 4.1%. UNCTAD said the shipping sector has been forced to make sacrifices amid weaker global oil demand and tariff wars between the United States, China, and the European Union.

WORKING REMOTE OR “WORK FROM ANYWHERE” WILL BE ON THE RISE The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced organizations into perhaps the most significant social experiment of the future of work in action, with work from home and social distancing policies radically changing the way we work and

interact. But the impact on work is far more profound than just changing where people work; it is also fundamentally altering what work is performed and how we perform it. Another imperative for HR leaders is to evaluate the longer-term impact will have on their organization’s operations, work culture and strategic goals. They need to identify which require immediate action and assess to what degree these trends will change pre-COVID-19 strategic goals and plans.

A recent Gartner poll showed that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 versus 30% before the pandemic started.

CONCLUSION The current pandemic is just the latest in a series of global risk events which have exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain. It will be the catalyst to rethinking how organizations are led, organized, and operated, which will lead to a fundamental rebalancing of the supply chain and business operations. One key question business leaders / board members need to answer is What are you going to do to rebalance your supply chain model and ensure you ensure you have a resilient, digitally enabled, agile supply chain and operations of the future?

The human dimension will be back, and it will play a prime role in rebalancing the global supply chain during this crisis, and well beyond. The Toyota Principle of “autonomation” (automation with a human touch) has proven to be the most adaptable during periods of crisis and there is every possible thought that going back to the board once again is the Right Thing to do NOW.

FEATURE

THE RESILIENCE TOOLKIT The year 2020 has been a very uncertain and a volatile year for industries and supply chains across the globe facing challenges right from global trade to natural disasters and pandemics. Such times call for a need to develop a resilient supply chain, for organizations to be able to adjust plans quickly and efficiently. Through this article, Prof. Anjali Shishodia offers you the resilience toolkit to reimagine supply chains through resilience.

Organization

Environmental Scanning

Review prodct portfolio

Redefine Supplier Relationships

Investments in Technologies

Exploring Vulnerabilities and Capabilities

Customer Requirements

Resilience Enhancement

Risk Management (Foundation)

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FEATURE

G

LOBALIZATION, since the last three decades, has increased the complexity of supply chains. The global interconnectivity of organizations has not only led to achieving profits but has also exposed them to several unprecedented supply chain disruptions such as Brexit, the US-China trade wars, climate change risks, and cargo thefts to name a few. The risk mitigation processes in organizations predominantly focus on predicting the known-unknown threats and mitigate them by implementing strategies for handling disruptions.

Most of these solutions are temporary answers to much bigger problems that catches the practitioners unaware.

Nowadays, the supply chains need to be risk resilient and not risk blind for responding to the emerging unknown risks such as the recent pandemic. There is a lack of visibility caused by traditional technology as it hinders the transparency of end-to-end supply chains at the order, product, and shipment points. The data provided by the primitive and obsolete technologies leads to inaccuracy in planning, predicting higher fulfillment costs and difficulty in managing risks.

Most of the SCM practitioners rank supply chain visibility as one of the biggest challenges which they face. The complex global supply chains demand a paradigm shift from traditional risk management thinking to address these

vulnerabilities, uncertainties, and unforeseen disruptions. The linguistic meaning of the term ‘resilience’ is derived from the Latin word resiliere, which means the ability to ‘bounce back’ but the underlying core concept is “ability of a system to return and restore its original state after disruption”. Resilience, therefore, represents an opportunity for firms and constitutes something that firms should maximize in order to avoid disruptions.

As the risk management toolkit helps the organizations to deal with known risks, a resilience enhancement toolkit can help organizations to effectively recover from unknown risks. The resilience toolkit may comprise of several dimensions that include exploring vulnerabilities and capabilities of the firm, building transparency through investments in analytics and digital supply chain capabilities, redefining supplier relationships, and reviewing their product portfolio. Following are the four vital strategies that organizations should deploy in order to possess a resilience toolkit in order to overcome disruptions in their supply chains:

TO EXPLORE VULNERABILITIES AND CAPABILITIES OF THE FIRM As it is highlighted in a SWOT analysis chart, organizations must focus on improvising their internal capabilities

Anjali Shishodia is working as an Assistant Professor at LMTSM, Patiala, Punjab. She has completed her doctorate in operations management from National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai. Her teaching and research interests include production and operations management, quantitative techniques, project management and supply chain management.

and strategize on the opportunities.

Weaknesses and threats or vulnerabilities often refer to a system’s resistance in preparation before the occurrence of a disruptive event aka catastrophe. On the contrary, recovery is defined as how the system or the organization adapts to situations when disruption occurs and how to get the system back on track until normalcy prevails. Vulnerability and time to recover are two critical dimensions of resilience, and the primary underlying difference between the two dimensions is the occurrence i.e. before and after disruption occurs.

Supply chains have ever been increased in length and complexity; therefore, resilience is considered as a critical capability for maintaining the continuity of operations and supply chain risk control along with timely and costeffective product delivery. Resilience increases with the increase in coordination between the internal processes, real time information flow, greater coordination with the upstream and downstream partners. Therefore, it becomes significant to strategically select suppliers associated with the dedicated supply chains across primary (cost, quality, and lead time), green (carbon footprint and environmental practices) and resilient (absorptive, adaptive and restorative capacities) criteria to meet the end consumer needs. More focus should be laid on empowering local suppliers and developing shorter local supply chains.

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FEATURE

Situation Analysis

Internal Analysis (Internal Origin)

Strengths

Weaknesses

Hence, vulnerability and time to recovery both constitute resilience, which enable a resilient system or an organization to better respond during the whole event of a disaster or disruption. Research studies outline that risk is something that firms need to minimize because it represents a threat. Therefore, lack of availability or ineffectiveness of key resources, practices, processes, or procedures highlights these as barriers to building resilience. These barriers obstruct firms in providing quick reaction to disruption and therefore increases vulnerability. Hence, resilience represents an opportunity for firms and constitute something that firms should maximize in order to avoid such disruptions. Therefore, an ecosystem should be developed comprising of flexibility, agility and adaptiveness in order to combat risks.

INVESTMENTS IN ANALYTICS AND DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN CAPABILITIES TO ACHIEVE SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSPARENCY The transcendent of big data is big data analytics in which advanced analytic techniques are applied to provide business intelligence to the organizations.

Big data analytics can enhance firm performance in the digital business environment. Ever since the concept

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External Analysis (External Origin)

Opportunities

of big data was introduced by Cox and Ellsworth in October 1977, since then it has gathered a lot of attention from both academia and practitioners. It has led to a growth in the implementation of supply chain technologies and has created a management shift from traditional decision-making to data-driven decisionmaking.

The current supply chain management (SCM) practices are confronted with technological innovations and disruptions which constantly metamorphize the current supply chain configurations. Supply chain analytics (SCA) defines the amalgamation of SCM with big data analytics. Big data coupled with SCA plays a pivotal role in transforming and improving the functionality of the supply chains. This emergence of big data and supply chain analytics is the new frontier for the big data-driven supply chains as it has the potential to increase the value delivered to customers.

Nowadays digital supply chains are becoming a key enabler for achieving competitive advantage, with the upsurge in the advancement of ICT technologies, supply chains are now empowered to regulate the data flow and are oriented towards accumulating and analyzing big data for management efficiency.

Digital supply chains can potentially lead to enhancement in organizational

Threats

efficiency and effectiveness through activities such as location tracking, exchange of commodities, advanced demand forecasting and supply planning, and interpreting consumer and supplier behavior. A digital supply chain will lead to enhanced visibility throughout the supply chain, thereby reducing errors and redundancies which are aplenty in the conventional supply chains.

The digital supply chain investment capabilities depend upon organization expectations and degree of resilience required in an organization. The associated costs and benefits may be initially high but can be helpful in sustaining them better than their competitors in the longer run.

Beyond the top-level generic strategies, the organization should think on the specific data required to be captured and measured using the best set of indicators.

Also, careful investigation is to be done on under what circumstances particular strategies to be utilized to mitigate types of risks. This would help in effective budget allocation for reinventing the current business model. Organizations can have early supplier involvement to work closely with them for maintaining transparency. Organizations are not required to disclose every detail to their suppliers, but certain details such as inventory levels, network planning, and capacity can be disclosed and planned in collaboration for improving the supply

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FEATURE Majority of the organizations are in a rush for launching and extending their products/ services and commodities for acquiring market share and showcasing their presence.

This may lead to increased sales and maximizing profits but can result in major flaws, leading to product and project risks.

Therefore, a strategic focus is needed to reduce product portfolio complexity that may increase sales volatility and operational costs. chain visibility. This further helps in mitigating, avoiding, and transferring risks to a great extent.

REDEFINING SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS It is high time to focus on redefining supplier relationships and capturing new opportunities from cross-industry models to reduce emerging risks. The focus should be shifted more on risk competitiveness rather than on cost competitiveness. The practitioners need to understand the structure and develop an issue hierarchy for identifying the hidden patterns, linkages, and nodes of interconnectivity that invite vulnerability. The organizational culture also acknowledges that warning signs of both internal and external risks to be openly shared. Management and employees need to feel empowered for putting up their opinion on how to convert challenges into opportunities.

This would create an ownership environment for the outcomes of actions and decisions in the adversity and work harmoniously towards a rapid resolution.

Supply chains have ever been increased in length and complexity; therefore, resilience is considered as a critical capability for maintaining the continuity of operations and supply chain risk control along with timely and cost-effective product delivery.

Resilience increases with the increase in coordination between the internal processes, real time information flow, greater coordination with the upstream and downstream partners. Therefore, it becomes significant to strategically select suppliers associated with the dedicated supply chains across primary (cost, quality, and lead time), green (carbon footprint and environmental practices) and resilient (absorptive, adaptive and restorative capacities) criteria to meet

40  CELERITY  January - February 2021

the end consumer needs. More focus should be laid on empowering local suppliers and developing shorter local supply chains.

REVIEWING THEIR PRODUCT PORTFOLIO Majority of the organizations are in a rush for launching and extending their products/ services and commodities for acquiring market share and showcasing their presence. This may lead to increased sales and maximizing profits but can result in major flaws leading to product and project risks. Therefore, a strategic focus is needed to reduce product portfolio complexity that may increase sales volatility and operational costs.

This also leads to an imbalance between the risks and costs associated with product and project portfolio leading to losses. Moreover, organizations should focus on their product portfolio through internal and external feedback so as to increase profits. Internal and external feedback largely depends upon supply chain integration and supply chain integration is enhanced through effective communication between the stakeholders in a supply chain. Information and communication technology tools also play a critical role in enhancing the supply chain integration. Based upon internal and external feedback, the products can be designed and launched. Effective supply chain integration also increases the risk mitigation capabilities in the organizations. Therefore, organizations must review their product portfolio and enhance supply chain integration through effective communication to increase their resilience capabilities.

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT The dynamic turbulent business environment has forced the organizations to take measures for

improvising their supply chains. Gone are the days when risk management was given utmost priority. Nowadays, more critical than risk management is the resiliency of the organization or their ability to bounce back after a catastrophe/ disruption. The resiliency toolkit will help the organizations to make decisions to enhance the resiliency capability and therefore make them prepare well in advance thereby saving vital resources. A resilient organization will be able to cope up with the external environment in the best way possible and will also have an enhanced customer centricity. The four vital strategies viz. explore vulnerabilities and capabilities of the firm, Investments in analytics and digital supply chain capabilities to achieve supply chain transparency, Redefining supplier relationships, and Reviewing their product portfolio are built on the foundations of risk management. Together, these strategies in synchronization can drive the organization towards resilience and thereby give the requisite ability to bounce back in case of disruptions.

The organizations should proactively develop mitigation plans for potential slowdowns, shutdowns, and project restarts if any. Further, the organizations should focus on designing and shoring up contracts for limiting the risks associated with uncertain schedules as these can be positioned for efficient remobilization once recovery starts. Finally, the organizations need to develop coping capacity and adaptive capacity in order to learn, adapt and transform continuously with the business environment.

RECAP THE YEAR

THAT WAS

2020 The year 2020 will go down in the history as the most unfortunate and the most used word – unprecedented year for the entire human race. Not only did the year disrupt our lives but took the economy back by years. Covid-19 not only distressed us, but it made the entire global supply chain rethink on various parameters and get back to more localization. Through this section, we are repurposing some of the future forward expert thoughts we had published over the course of last year. We feel these will be relevant and impactful for companies at large to deal with the crisis and RESET their supply chain towards the NEXT NORMAL. Here is presenting some of the striking statements made by subject matter experts…

RS SODHI, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)

WE need to be agile enough in efficiently managing our supply chains with or without crisis. In achieving this, supply chain needs to be technology driven to start with.

Everyone understands the importance of supply chain today. We need to quickly bridge the technological gaps in our supply chain. Secondly, our supply chains should not be dependent on one product or one business or one big buyer. It should be driven based on multi-segments, multi-channels, multi-products, etc. Lastly, you need to be ready for any eventualities coming your way so that the planning becomes easier in trying times.

This is the time to build and maintain relationship with the supply chain partners.

You should involve them right from the planning stage. Communication is the key so that everyone is on the same page. They understand your pain points and vice versa.

Together companies can solve the problems they are facing and devise a workable solution. Following this strategy, we have not only doubled our communication with our partners through advertising, but also reached out to them personally to get this going. You need to treat your supply chain partners as your family members. You shouldn’t stop communicating with them because they are under distress or you are under distress.

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RECAP DR. VARUN CHAUDHARY, Executive Director, CG Corp Global THE new age entrepreneurs will need to be prepared to change modules overnight. In fact, I believe, opportunities to capitalize on the rampant disruption are going to peak, whereby start-ups are going to be flooded with ideas as they lead the way. However, they will need to be agile and open to new business module evolutions. Another important aspect that needs to be focused on is brand building during this period – this is the ideal time to connect with consumers with relatable online content and offerings. This approach will go a long way in building consumer trust, impacting their purchasing behavior and thereby building a solid brand story. We are faced with a crisis that has no blueprint that will help us navigate our way through. Today, the new age entrepreneurs and seasoned businessmen as well need to adopt flexibility, resilience, and courage to work together across all businesses and make this our finest hour.

AKHIL SRIVASTAVA, Director – South Asia, AB InBev and Venture Partner, Agroecology CHIEF Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) increasingly control 50% or more of a company’s annual budget, responsible for cost leadership and optimization of operations. More importantly, CSCOs play a vital role in strategy development, product, and service innovation, and even sales by virtue of collaborations, which gets ingrained in their leadership style collaborating diligently across organizational footprint. They know the business (inside out) by virtue of their supply chain functional leadership.

These leaders, with holistic business knowledge actively influencing organizational outcome by optimizing internal and external stakeholders, are best suited for CEO roles. I personally envision CSCO elevation to CEO roles provides organization with a sustainable growth trajectory for building and scaling GREAT COMPANIES banking on SUPPLY CHAINS OF FUTURE!

PAWANEXH KOHLI, Founding & former CEO of NCCD cum Chief Advisor on post-harvest and supply chain to Ministry of Agriculture

Most vaccines need to be handled, after production to end-use, within specified temperature ranges. Probably, the protocols will require it be kept between 2°C and 8°C, while in transport and storage until delivery. Such protocols are well established.

But the public health network is limited in capacity. Luckily, the food cold-chain has synergistic use for this purpose and should assist in this battle. Existing coldchain enterprises may need to allocate specific resources in their network. The food cold-chain has the maximum reach, with an extensive last mile connectivity. It will require minor redesign to designate storage space and transport load for this purpose.

Most importantly, such private operators will have to be prepared to safely process the vaccine loads as they connect them with points of delivery. Vaccines are fragile cargo, requiring strict adherence to the handling protocols, especially in temperature maintenance. Non-standardized care will be disastrous, and some training will be needed here as well.

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RECAP DR JOHN GATTORNA, Global Supply Chain ‘thought leader’ and Author

IN the longer-term, and post-Covid-19, companies have to significantly change the way they do business. No longer can a single source of supply be relied on, even if this is the lowest cost source. Procurement functions must seek to reduce risk by spreading orders across multiple suppliers and geographies, especially for critical items. Pharmaceutical companies, in particular, are going to have to wean themselves off China as the primary source of active ingredients. We will have to pull back from designing supply chains for lowest cost only, because we have gone too far in that direction. To cope with future volatility and indeed major disruptions, we will have to build-in some degree of redundant capacity in the form of extra inventory, machine capacity, and manpower.

The resulting additional resilience will have the effect of increasing the cost-to-serve, which no one wants to hear, but there are no other options.

PIYUSH CHOWHAN, Group Chief Information Officer, Lulu Group International THE ability of supply chains to absorb shocks and react to situations without disruptions are needed in this VUCA world. The resilience of supply chains was at test during COVID-19 and not many were able to steer the dynamic changes required. Industry 4.0 requires the supply chains to be re-modeled with use of technology. The trend would be to move away from large monolithic logistics hubs to more nimble microfulfillment models, which have better ability to react based on changes in demand.

Digital Technologies will play an extremely critical role in making transition from rigid to “Agile” supply chains. Supply chain transformation will be accelerated post COVID-19, so let’s all work towards making a Digital Supply Chain, which is agile and innovative to be ready for future

VIVEK SARBHAI, Senior Director – Supply Chain & EHS, India & Middle East, Thermofisher Scientific ORGANIZATIONS need to first change their strategy and insert technology enablement as an intrinsic part of the strategy. To me, three words are truly relevant to be included that reflect the insertion of technology mindset. They are “Interconnected, Asset Lite and Intelligent”. Interconnected reflects the desire to make products / services as accessible, asset lite reflects the plethora of choices available without capex and intelligent reflects the willingness to step up AI/ML in data and analytics driven business decision making. Secondly, it is important to identify where is the maximum value – is it in the front end i.e. commercial and marketing or middle of the organization – procurement, manufacturing and logistics or back end – Financial analysis, talent analytics, shared services, etc. Lastly, it is important to visualize the capability needed in an intertwined triangle of Business, Analytics and Technology. There needs to be the creation of Centre of Excellence team comprising of Business Translator (intersection of Business skills and Analytical skills), Data Architect (intersection of Technology and Business skills) and Data Scientist (intersection of Analytics and Technology). Together these three would drive the technology enablement under a strong sponsorship of business leadership teams.

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RECAP GAURAV ARORA, Senior Director – Global Sourcing, Biocon Ltd. IT is the perfect time for every company to do its bit in the government’s mission of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’, by strengthening the capabilities of their respective suppliers. The government has been proactively coming up with policies to enhance the capabilities of small-scale industries of every sector. Indian Central Government has recently published the road map for “India – Towards a Global Pharma Hub” to de-risk the import dependency of 53 Bulk Drugs / APIs and medical devices. This will certainly help domestic manufacturer, especially the new start-ups to build the infrastructure and get ensured business. While these policies are at very nascent stages, but better late than never. Department of Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIT) has started decoupling exercise. We need to extend the reliance on domestic suppliers of goods & services. Second there are horizontal linkages to strengthen the collaboration between the domestic institutions such as universities and other technical platforms where they can receive the desired education about the new technology and third most aspect would be the movement of the skilled workforce out of foreign firms so that Indian domestic small scale suppliers can take advantage of. We need to be committed towards the upliftment of these small players.

RAHUL GUPTA, Vice President – Procurement, Planning & Contract Manufacturing, Amway India

THE distress in supply that started in China earlier in 2020 and the resulting distress in demand as the global economy almost shut down, exposed vulnerabilities in the procurement and supply strategies across economies. Closed borders, temporary trade restrictions coupled with limitations on people’s movement dealt a blow to global logistics. These developments, along with the US-China trade war, have paved the way for economic nationalism in the world today.

Consequently, organizations are trying to increase domestic production ability, looking at reducing or even eliminating dependence on distant resources that might be perceived as risky to create an agile value network. From the supply chain perspective, derisking is finding immense importance today because the world is becoming more and more self-reliant. In other words, becoming ‘Aatma Nirbhar’ to strengthen the indigenous supply base, has now become a Global norm. Today, companies need to shift from the traditional ‘at an arms-length’ to ‘arms-around’ approach when it comes to supplier relationships. This can only happen when we move from a purely transactional relationship to a value and outcome-based partnership through increased transparency and support. Both the companies and the supply partners will reap maximum benefits when they are committed to each other’s success.

Furthermore, this is the era of bringing the specialists on board to run the show.

We, at Amway India, are significantly promoting supplier-led innovations in our KPIs to boost their morale, which ultimately aids in our business performance. Commercializing innovations has been one of the biggest success stories with our suppliers and we will continue to build on more ideas for mutual benefits.

Amway passionately believes in the power of collaboration to transform operations.

Owing to such strong support, we were able to develop and launch a hand sanitizer in a record 30 days during this pandemic. We are also working on other product innovations which will be co-developed and cocreated with some of our key business partners in the days to come.

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RECAP VINAY S. CHAUHAN, Head – Logistics and Supply Chain, Bridgestone India

WE are already beginning to see the new era for the tyre industry where we move beyond the core product and get into how it will enhance the end user experience.

There are multiple facets of looking at TaaS Tyre as a Service. The Pay per Kilometer model allows buyers to be relieved of all maintenance hassles and would allow them to only pay for how much they use. The upkeep and maintenance stays with us – the tyre experts. In addition, we will also see Smart tyres make way in the future, which can share important data in real time – resulting in lesser damage and longevity of the tyres, thus, enabling customers to derive more value in the long run. Overall, it's an exciting space to be present in.

DEEPAK SHARMA, Executive Vice President & Head – Supply Chain Management (Consumer Products), Bajaj Electricals Ltd.

TO elevate the role of supply chain as a strategic enabler in the business operations, it is imperative to amalgamate the latest technology in the supply chain. These technological enablers will allow access to real-time information digitally with optimum accuracy to establish improved supply chain designs in place, for efficient planning and operations.

This will minimize the costs & errors and enhance the overall supply chain value. The two major factors that influence the entire supply chain performance and costs are product quality and cross-functional drivers. Across the supply chain, the major focus is on creating an ecosystem that allows a constant flow of information and makes the complete chain more efficient. Hence, the key enablers will be a collaborative approach, people-centric strategy and technological advances.

ALAGU BALARAMAN, Director & Founder, Augmented SCM and MD, CGN Global India

A scan of the writing of future gazing pundits shows some common themes. Despite hiccups arising from the financial sector clean up and the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that the Indian customer will continue to grow and upgrade their interests.

What is the best way to respond to this? A report tabled by Bain & Co at the World Economic Forum ends by saying – Firms will thrive by innovating for India and embracing a “founder’s mentality”. Going beyond replicating Western models at lower cost, they need to localize and personalize products and services. The founder’s mentality refers to greater entrepreneurial thinking and agility.

Supply chain leaders will need to go beyond rolling out global templates and help shape these templates. They need to get a deeper understanding of what their external customers need. They need to change the way their functions work and how they interact with other functions to deliver superior value to customers.

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Celerity India Marketing Services Email: tech@celerityin.com | Mobile: 79771 05913 Website: www.supplychaintribe.com