Sukanta Das, President and Chief Logistics Officer, Hindalco Industries

The world is moving quickly, and customers are moving with it. For organizations to achieve a competitive advantage, there’s no time to waste in embracing the customer-centric supply chain. Supply Chain or Logistics were earlier seen as cost-centers – today these are service functions contributing to P&L bottomline. Hence the ‘customer first’ approach with service orientation is a Must-Have for any supply chain organization to excel in this consumer age. The supply chain managers today must also sharpen their sight on the ever-evolving automation & technology, regularly monitor socio-economical market dynamics with their impacts and master the skill of flexibility in execution. At Hindalco, we are constantly calibrating and syncing our systems and processes in not only making the best metals but also towards delivering the best experience.

of the product such as is it made from organic materials, the source or the origin of the material, the value chain, etc. They are highly conscious of knowing how quick-to-market they are. In a nutshell, we are changing as Consumers and those changes are fast shaping the value chains of the organizations.

Amitabh Singh, Chief Growth Officer, Stellar Value Chain Solutions: I would just want to split my views in two parts. Since the subject is customer centricity, I would talk like an individual consumer to start with and try to define the expectations that the millennials and GenZ have today and then I would like to draw your attention as to how we are enabling the customers deliver those expectations. We cater to all segments of supply chain, be it B2B, B2C, D2C who have different consumers with different set of expectations. Today’s consumers don’t just go to a store and buy a product. They will compare a whole range of products, check the suppliers, any appealing discounts they are getting from a competing brand, any supporting EMI option available, over, and above this if there are further discounts available with the partner banks. Once the consumer zeroes in on the product, he then prefers a company which delivers him goods at his own convenience. The selection doesn’t end here… the consumer also demands traceability till it reaches the destination. Then comes the aspect of return & exchange and refund if the product is not as per customers’ liking. That’s how the expectations of consumers have evolved in the last few years. This is more pronounced in B2C or D2C channels. B2B channel customers’ expectations are also evolving. Earlier, for e-commerce companies, after receiving orders, packages would be shipped by the next day. Now, the game has changed where the customer is asking for the same day delivery or delivery in few hours. When you're dealing with high volumes of throughput each month, you need a robust system in place. Now-a-days, all thanks to new age tech deployment, the moment clients place an order, it gets shipped out from the warehouse in about 20-25 minutes.

As 3PL partners, we have to deal with the complexities involved in meeting such expectations. At Stellar, we have visibility solutions for warehouses and transportation, and everything is seamlessly connected. We provide visibility right from the pickup point to the final delivery point, including the warehouse, enabling the consignor and the receiver to see the end-to-end product. They can also do the inventory planning and know where the material is, what time it will arrive and what kind of inventory planning is needed. As per the end consumers’ evolving demands, the entire supply chain or rather the value chain ecosystem has to evolve in order to survive in this market.

What are your views on how visibility alone is impacting our strategies around the kind of products or services that we roll out in the market?

Sreenivas Rao Nandigam: What do you do with visibility is an appealing

Companies need to make decisions in time which will actually save cost and improve services. I will give a very simple example, take for instance, any FMCG company which will have more than a thousand distributors in this country. If only I have the visibility of the stock of all the distributors with me, by rebalancing that particular stock on a daily or a weekly basis, I guarantee the service levels to their retailers or distributors will improve by at least 300-400 basis points. I can tell you by rebalancing the stocks within the distributors, there is a possibility for us to actually reduce stock returns in pharmaceutical goods. Procuring data from the various steps of the supply chain network, analyzing it through artificial intelligence and big data, and using the data to deliver the right products efficiently and reliably helps bring agility to the supply chain, improve business forecasts, save costs, and meet rising market demands.

Sukanta Das: In modern industries, products or waste materials pass through several stages before they either reach consumers or are safely disposed of. At any stage, there could be visibility gaps leading to mishandling, theft, counterfeiting, loss of goods, or other challenges. Blockchain enables companies to track every stage without loss of visibility. Companies can also choose to make this information available to partners, consumers, etc. to enhance transparency and mutual trust.

At Hindalco, we have been adopting best-in-class digital technologies to achieve higher visibility, speed, and efficiency across our processes. We are leveraging analytics for data-driven process management. For instance, we

As needs change, strategies to address those needs also change. Most supply chains undergo re-valuations and restructuring in networks to reach customers, technologies to engage and retain them and models/ processes to serve them better. Upgradation of technology, people skills and infrastructure for the newer channels and creating visibility and visibilitybased decision-making tools has been a constant topper on supply chain strategy.

have GPS-based logistics solutions for finished goods. This entails tracking truck movements starting from the refineries to smelters to downstream plants to warehouses and customers. This technology has provided greater visibility on finished goods to both internal and external customers. Other benefits include better operational control, faster damage control in case of accidents and optimal route usages. We have also deployed Blockchain for smart contracts at the foils plant. Workers, suppliers, and Hindalco are connected on a single, transparent and incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions, which records financial transactions and other important developments through a smart contract. This helps users to identify and mitigate inefficiencies across the value chain.

Another important milestone achieved recently, and I would like to bring your attention to is at Hindalco's aluminium plant at Hirakud in Sambalpur, Odisha, a blockchain sustainability system is being used to track waste from generation to end-of-life phase. In basic terms, the system enables Hindalco to authenticate the certification of its waste processing vendors. This ensures that conforming to Hindalco's promise of sustainable and responsible growth, the waste is processed and does not get disposed of in the value chain.

The system at Hirakud is aligned with the UNDP's sustainable development goals related to the quantification of sustainability metrics. With the initial results proving promising, Hindalco already plans to extend the system to other manufacturing locations as well. Blockchain, a next-generation technology, has become an important part of greener supply chains. With its vision of planet-friendly growth, Aditya Birla Group is taking the lead in exploring the applications of blockchain, and other new technologies, for building a more sustainable world. This is how we are attempting to increase our customers’ confidence towards living up to their expectations.

Rajat Sharma: With the changes in consumer behaviour, it is imperative for supply chains to enable and ensure granular visibility at all points of the supply chain – inclusive of the network and transit stages of stocks as well as orders. This visibility is also extended at the same granular level for commercial transactions – payments and receipts, in order for customer experience to be smooth as well as supply chains to keep a clear account of monies paid and received. Visibility also creates opportunities for advanced analytics such as early sending of demand, or PoS forecasts, CrossChannel trend signals, causal signals impacting fuel or commodity prices and hence a lot of better decision making is made possible.

TS Venketram: There are two tenets of this question – one is related to product visibility and the second is our own ability to have visibility across the value chain. I think one of the things that we try and do is digitize processes. Digitization means different for different organizations. For some, it’s about automating processes, for some, it’s about automating forecasting & demand sensing. As consultants, we are witnessing the real value of digitization in enhanced data visibility. Companies are investing heavily on sensing consumers’ demand. They are seeking our help in getting data regarding their point of sale closer to their consumer vis-à-vis the old pattern where we they used forecasting methodologies and techniques to decide where they want to be. It’s a combination of both, but we try and make this better with demand sensing. Secondly, today visibility is not just limited to our supply chain, but it’s the extended value chain or the suppliers’ supply chain that makes or breaks the entire ecosystem.

What is the top supply chain strategy change that you have all gone through because of customer behaviour changes?

Sreenivas Rao Nandigam: Recently we heard Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, announcing that all trucks will now need to have air-conditioned driver compartments starting 2025. The intent of bringing this conversation to the fore is that in today’s scenario, we need to design & manufacture products as per our customers’ needs and not vice versa. For us at Sun Pharmaceuticals, it has been a great challenge to come to the conclusion to actually manufacture what the sales team wants basis their conversations with the customers. There’s always going to be a tussle between what we want to manufacture and what the sales team has asked us to manufacture. Decision-making was once the domain of the physician, but increased patient activity blurs the line as to who owns the relationship with pharma companies. Balancing cost with effectiveness is a top strategic priority, as is getting the right message to the right constituencies through multiple owned and independent channels. Patients are changing their attitudes and behavior toward healthcare. They have an increased awareness and role in decision-making, due in large part to shifting financial responsibility. They are hungry for information from numerous sources—from their doctor and health insurer to their pharmacist, drug companies, independent experts, and peers. They are looking for guidance as they navigate the increasingly complex world of healthcare. Ultimately, the smart choice lies in going with what the ultimate consumption demands are.

Sukanta Das: I think post the pandemic, most of the organizations are now trying to focus on strengthening their supply chain with uninterrupted and seamless supplies; either from their strategic vendor-partners or deliveries to their crucial customers. Towards that, there is a definite shift in mindset to augment the supplier-customer relationship from both the sides. Be it through time-bound price protected contracts or timeline committed orders with preferred logistics partners and flexible mode of transportation. Transparency throughout the order journey has become a basic requirement for any consumer. Digitalization is a key enabler towards real-time visibility across the value chain. At Hindalco, we had embarked on the digital journey much earlier, thereby bringing in more confidence and stability in our customer relationship. As we move ahead, the consumer behaviors are going to keep changing if not more demanding but the digital integrations with seamless visibility should be able to bring in better collaborative execution and more confidence between the customers and

Rajat Sharma: As needs change, strategies to address those needs also change. Most supply chains undergo revaluations and restructuring in networks to reach customers, technologies to engage and retain them and models/ processes to serve them better. Upgradation of technology, people skills and infrastructure for the newer channels and creating visibility and visibility-based decision-making tools has been a constant topper on supply chain strategy.

Amitabh Singh: It's a trade-off between cost and service. Given the growing customer demands and product & process complexities, technology has emerged as a catalyst for building value propositions. Moreover, technologies build operational resilience to navigate pandemic-like situations with minimum disruptions. As enablers, we are trying to bring in the global best practices into India and indigenize it. We are in dialogue with many startups to make it happen. As I mentioned earlier, B2C is a lot more streamlined, which is backed by new age technology deployment. On the contrary, B2B is still evolving. When we talk about B2B deliveries, we are talking about modern day deliveries, and that's where you really need systems and processes visibility and also tech-enabled when we talk about end-to-end appointment modules. The key mantra is ‘Don’t over complicate processes. Minimize the variables. Most importantly, Don’t Over Commit and Under Deliver.’

Digitization means different for different organizations. For some, it’s about automating processes, for some, it’s about automating forecasting & demand sensing. As consultants, we are witnessing the real value of digitization in enhanced data visibility. Companies are investing heavily on sensing consumers’ demand. They are seeking our help in getting data regarding their point of sale closer to their consumer vis-à-vis the old pattern where we they used forecasting methodologies and techniques to decide where they want to be. It’s a combination of both, but we try and make this better with demand sensing. Secondly, today visibility is not just limited to our supply chain, but it’s the extended value chain or the suppliers’ supply chain that makes or breaks the entire ecosystem.

What are the parameters that supply chain managers need to re-invent for improving customer experience?

Sreenivas Rao Nandigam: The traditional metric for the Customer experience is OTIF. In addition, we need to look at how can we ease the customer's supply chain, in B2B scenarios, can the principal companies predict their demand based of the consumer offtake and give inputs for ordering and in a manner of speaking demand planning for the B2B customers.

Sukanta Das: The world is moving quickly, and customers are moving with it. For organizations to achieve a competitive advantage, there’s no time to waste in embracing the customer-centric supply chain. Supply chain or Logistics were earlier seen as cost-centers – today these are service functions contributing to P&L bottomline. Hence the customer first approach with service orientation is a Must-Have for any supply chain organization to excel in this consumer age. The supply chain managers today must also sharpen their sight on the ever-evolving automation & technology, regularly monitor Socio-economical market dynamics with their impacts and master the skill of flexibility in execution. At Hindalco, we are constantly calibrating and syncing our systems and processes in not only making the best metals but also towards delivering the best experience.

Rajat Sharma: Today’s supply chain leaders have gone through a full cycle from the covid era of cash conservation and de-risking of supply chains to ensure sustainability; and then emerged to also manage consumer demands of faster smoother deliveries and easier

Given the growing customer demands and product & process complexities, technology has emerged as a catalyst for building value propositions. Moreover, technologies build operational resilience to navigate pandemiclike situations with minimum disruptions. As enablers, we are trying to bring in the global best practices into India and indigenize it. We are in dialogue with many startups to make it happen. The key mantra is ‘Don’t over complicate processes. Minimize the variables. Most importantly, Don’t Over Commit and Under Deliver.’ engagement experiences with products and services both. These meant parameters such as service level were supplemented by turnaround time in hours, free return periods and loyalty programs, consumer visibility on origin of materials used for manufacturing, etc. While maintaining these the fundamentals on reduction of cost to serve have remained the same, making supply chain teams monitor return percentages and cost of reverse logistics, shelf availability was supplemented by marketplace replication, brand websites and WhatsApp/Facebook e-shops.

What are the best practices being adopted by leading companies in the customer enablement journey?

Sukanta Das: This is truly a consumer’s era and that is visible with the customer enablement transformation that has happened over the last decade in the B2C space. Today the consumer is offered with plethora of choices from payment options to delivery options to service options. And the offerings are only improving from good to better. Now, with the consumers from B2B space seeking similar logistical experience, it becomes imperative for even large manufacturing organizations to align with customer facing best practices. Tailored fulfilment, Agile operations, Trustworthy relations, and Innovation are few areas where most leading companies are focusing in reinforcing their practices within their supply chain. So clearly, the changing expectations of customers are visible and along with that the customer-centric approach has now become the focal point of any supply chain function.

Rajat Sharma: Most best practices in customer enablement journey are focusing on easy, quick, and effective customer experiences, whether it is the kirana store, or the retail chains with brand promoters or marketplaces/ websites with customized search and price comparisons, product reviews, etc. This has meant investment in technology, automation of transactional steps and intelligence to pre-empt choices and shorten the buy cycle but a much longer customer lifecycle management. That apart in today’s era of online payments and purchases, anti-fraud features have stood out amongst best organizations.

A McKinsey research highlighted that the CX programs of the future will be holistic, predictive, precise, and clearly tied to business outcomes. Evidence suggests that the advantages will be substantial for companies that start building the capabilities, talent, and organizational structure needed for this transition. Those that stick with the traditional systems will be forced to play catch-up in the years to come.

For organizations to lead from a customer-centric position, they increasingly need a comprehensive view of the full customer journey, as well as the ability to obtain deep, granular insight on what is driving customer experience. They need immediate and individual signals in order to act “in the moment” and to create relevant experiences for each customer, and they need to demonstrate that the experience enhancements they would like to invest in will result in positive ROI.