LAKSHYA-A BEACON OF KNOWLEDGE, JULY EDITION 2021

Lakshya is an initiative by Club Kaizen which is our monthly supplement designed for people who dare to think above the average and believe in connecting the dots. In an age where technology has taken over every sphere, information is abundant and data is omnipresent, we have conspired to bring to you a collection of thoughtfully created and carefully curated pieces of work by some bright aspiring minds of ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad on the current trends and hot topics in the field of Operations Management and their relevance in different Industries.

Everything is growing at the pace of nanosecond and hence it is quintessential to know about every minute change in the eco system. With Lakshya we aim to present our readers with compact yet explicit articles on vivid topics such as Internet, Banking, IT, IoT, etc. A fair share of this edition focuses majorly on the banking systems and payment gateways. With the constantly evolving technology it will be interesting to ponder over changes that could be seen in the near future.

We look forward to providing the students with some valuable insights and inculcate the passion for reading once again within our readers.

Lakshya is an amazing platform for readers as well as aspiring readers to showcase their talent and pen down their thoughts which in turn will be a gold mine for information for the students of not only IBS but from the outside world too.

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OUR KNOWLEDGE PARTNER

Club Kaizen is privileged to have The International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA, USA) as the Knowledge Partner from Lakshya’s 24th edition.

To be a single source for Total Supply Chain Knowledge through Education, Certification, and Recognition is the mission of ISCEA. Many workshops/events are conducted by ISCEA to improve the knowledge of manufacturing and service industry professionals.

ISCEA provides a platform to explore leadership potential to the aspiring leaders in the supply chain industry while developing the skill sets and knowledge desired by corporations, through SCNext (ISCEA Young Supply Chain Professional Association).

Some of the internationally recognized certification programs developed by ISCEA include1.

2.

3.

Certified Supply Chain Analyst (CSCA).

Certified Demand Driven Planner (CDDP).

Supply Chain Case Competition.

To know more about ISCEA, visit http://www.iscea.net/india.

We look forward to working with ISCEA in spreading knowledge and reaching greater heights together.

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EDITOR’S LETTER “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."

Welcome to the 40th edition of “LAKSHYA”, our monthly supplement designed for people who take that one extra step to reach perfection. To step above the average, one needs to strive for excellence.

That is exactly what we aim to achieve here. Preaching continuous improvement since its inception, Club Kaizen brought forward this magazine, which enables young writers to garner a platform where they can learn, grow and re-learn new things every day. The magazine is a tool that aids students and professional managers to get deeper insights into the current trends and latest happenings around the world.

Lakshya is an amalgamation of articles from corporate professionals, faculties, and students from reputed organisations and institutions all across the world. The articles published through Lakshya aims to provide a hands-on experience from great minds and business leaders who wish to inculcate theoretical concepts and strategies with a practical implementation. We all collectively wish to bring in the best, organic and fresh ideas from the young pool of budding managers as well.

Also, the most important aspect of a magazine is that it provides a platform for students to enhance and improve their writing skills, it would also create an environment for them to enrich their thought process where they research and write articles.

We hope that you like this issue and please let us know if there are any areas or topics that you'd like us to address in upcoming editions. Please write to us and become a part of this discussion.

Email ID: kaizenclub.ibs@gmail.com

AARATRIKA LAHIRI VICE-PRESIDENT Club Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2020-22

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CONTENTS

S. NO.

TITLE

PAGE NO.

1

From the Mentor’s Desk

5

2

Telemedicine in India

7

3

When Data Science Enters into Operations & Supply Chain Management

11

4

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

13

5

Farm-AI-Wonder

17

6

E – Procurement Tools with Benefits

21

7

Importance of Inventory Management

25

8

The Kaizen Way of Life

30

9

Success of Walmart’s Supply Chain

34

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From the Mentor’s Desk

In the era of competition, it is imperative for students to be prepared for the ever-changing business environment.

Knowledge creation plays an important role to learn to tackle the dynamic nature of business.

I appreciate and congratulate the initiative of club KAIZEN for bridging the gap between the corporate world and academia through LAKSHYA which is an excellent platform where industry practitioners, academicians and researchers can share their knowledge and experience, acting as a beacon guiding students to reach their goal.

My best wishes to Club KAIZEN in their endeavour of knowledge creation through LAKSHYA.

Dr. Nishit Kumar Srivastava Mentor, Club Kaizen

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FACULTY’S INSIGHTS

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Dr. Nishit Kumar Srivastava Assistant Professor, Department of Operations and IT, IBS, Hyderabad.

TELEMEDICINE IN INDIA

Telemedicine can be defined as the approach that allows healthcare professionals to diagnose, evaluate and treat a patient from a distance using telecommunication technology. It provides immediate access to healthcare professionals, saves travelling time, is cost-effective, etc. In India, telemedicine related activities started in 1999. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was the first national body to deploy a nationwide SATCOM (Satellite Communication) based telemedicine network in India. India observed a gradual increase in the telemedicine market which rose to 100 million dollars in 2011 and then to 450 million dollars in 2016 and over 1000 million dollars by 2019. In 2020 with the outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic India observed an exponential increase in telemedicine services adoption, over 500 per cent rise in healthcare consultation was observed where 80 per cent of the people were first-time users. According to a report published by Statista 5 crore, people used teleconsultation healthcare services from March to May 2020. Further, Statista predicted that the telemedicine market in India is expected to become 5410 million dollars by the end of 2021. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst in accelerating the adoption of telemedicine in India, more than 87 per cent of Indians are yet to experience telemedicine services for the first time. With over 68 per cent of the Indian population residing in rural areas, we are yet to address several challenges to improve the adoption of telemedicine services by the masses.

Challenges that need to be addressed are: • • • • • •

Lack of awareness Ignorant population Lack of basic telecommunication infrastructure in rural India Communication (Language) barrier Lack of proper government regulations Aversion to change by both patients and doctors

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Several schemes have been started by the government of India in recent times to cater to the need of the population and those are:

• • •

The “Ayushmaan Bharat” scheme The “e-sanjeevni” scheme The “Sehat” scheme

The rapid advancement in technology and availability at affordable prices can play a crucial role in mobilizing telemedicine services to the remote areas of India, making them effective and affordable.

References: 1.https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1705358#:~:text=The%20National%20T elemedicine%20Service%2C%20set,platform%20(eSanjeevaniOPD)%20which%20provides%20o utpatient 2. https://chironhealth.com/telemedicine/what-is-telemedicine/ 3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7437610/ 4. Statista (2020). Telemedicine market size in India from 2010 to 2019, with estimates until 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1174720/india-telemedicine-market-size/ (Accessed on 24th May 2021).

5. https://www.doconline.com/for-business/blog/telemedicine-india

About Author: Dr. Nishit is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations and IT at ICFAI Business School (IBS) Hyderabad. He is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified from IASSC certified institute- Xlnc Academy, Mumbai. He is a recipient of the Best Professor in Operations Management Award by the Academy of Management Professionals, in association with IDMBA Hyderabad, India in the year 2020. He has recently coordinated a 3- days MDP program at IBS, Hyderabad jointly in association with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM); the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Government of India; New Delhi. He has completed his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad in 2015. His Ph.D. thesis was on "Development of Predictive Maintenance Models- A Study in Indian Manufacturing Sector." He is the recipient of one "best paper award" at the 6th ISDSI Conference. He has an overall 10 years of research and teaching experience. His area of research interest includes Quality Management, Evolutionary Algorithm, ICT adoption studies, Healthcare, Sustainable 8|K A IZE N ’S OP ERA T ION S & RE SE A RC H EN T ITY

development, etc. His teaching areas are Operations Management, Operations Research, Quality Management, Six Sigma, Project Management, Productivity Management, Business Statistics, and Disaster Management. He has more than 10 research articles published in Scopus listed, ABDC ranked, and Web of Science indexed journals of Sage, Emerald, Inderscience, etc. He has worked as an organizing member in the International Conference held by the Dept of Operations & IT, in IBS, Hyderabad. He has served as the Chairperson of ‘GATI Centre of Excellence in LSCM’ and ‘Coordination of PGDM-LSCM’ at Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar, from May 3, 2014, to May 2015. He is a lifetime member of ‘IAENG, International Association of Engineers, Hong Kong. He is also GATE qualified. He also serves as a Project reviewer at AIMS International for the annual SIP competition. He has presented papers in several International reputed conferences like ISDSI, AIMS International, Society of Operations Management, etc. He has chaired sessions in conferences as well. He is a guest reviewer for Scopus and ABDC listed journals of international/national repute. He is into continuous research, teaching, mentoring, and guiding students on various fronts.

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CORPORATE ANGLE

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Mr. Mohit Bhardwaj Sr. Career Counsellor, upGrad.

WHEN DATA SCIENCE ENTERS INTO OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Spurred by the need for automation and improved process capability, Operations Management, is now improved by Data Science. Big Data, AI & Blockchain, Machine Learning, Data visualization and many more such applications have revolutionized the way how Operations & Supply Chain activities used to be.

Today, due to the abundance of data - Supply Chain, logistics, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, automation, healthcare, banking and other domains are becoming more data-driven. Many problems/challenges in the supply chain or Operations have now been mitigated using analytics.

Big data analysis has improved information management which was once a cumbersome task.

Moreover, there is greater transparency and responsiveness in the process.

Why big data in operations & supply chain activities?

• Real-time

delivery tracking has become extremely convenient to track the shipments and ensure smoother PoD and PUDO operations.

• Optimization in supplier management by improved collaborations between manufacturer/supplier and retailer for forecasting which is demand data-driven and inventory management.

• Automation in product sourcing avoids process bottlenecks and reduces dependency on manual checks. Dropship automation solutions help the companies to connect with the suppliers, automatically upload product data, keep inventory aligned with demand-supply – no manual file imports. Also, it helps in automatic order processing.

Why machine learning & AI in operations & supply chain activities?

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• • •

•

Chatbots are highly preferable for user experience and to improve operational activities.

One of the effective ways to engage customers on the platform or with the service.

Machine Learning (ML) with Supply Chain Planning (SCP) can help in identifying demand supply and forecast.

ML also helps in the right vendor selection based on past data set thus improving the sustainability of supply chain activities. Supplier ratings/ feedbacks and assessments are now a matter of concern. Automation in the process ensures an unbiased approach and thus ensuring healthy industrial relations.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) can mitigate the language barriers between buyers and suppliers thus making the process more responsive and solution-oriented.

Why data visualization in operations & supply chain activities?

• •

•

This simplifies decision-making ability when comes to choose the right suppliers/vendors looking at their past performance.

Tableau – one of the most popularly used tools in SCP has helped cross-functional teams to execute operational activities, resource utilization, logistics, raw material procurement and product sourcing.

Supply Chain dashboards help in tracking activities, input metrics in a display format. An easy way of remembering the data and making decisions again.

Therefore, the focus of the industries and individuals is more towards learning and deploying the skills - Python, Tableau, SQL, NOSQL, Excel, Hadoop, Apache Spark, Power BI, R, SPSS and many others to streamline the operational activities and supply chain planning.

Restating the overall discussion, in a nutshell, data analytics is the future and the urgent demand of the industries. Operations and supply chain activities that were used to run conventionally are now seeing a shift in approach and performance too, however, still, human intervention will be required who has mastered the process of using analytical tools in the right direction.

About Author: Mr. Mohit Bhardwaj is a senior counsellor at UpGrad. A Kaizenite from the Batch of 2018-2020 and an admirer of Knowledge. He has completed his MBA education at IBS Hyderabad. He believes in hard work along with Smartly doing things. He exhibits deep knowledge of finance, marketing, operations, and entrepreneurship skills.

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Mr. Aman Goel Product Support Consultant, Zenoti.

IT INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY (ITIL) What is ITIL? The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a library of volumes describing a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. ITIL has gone through several revisions in its history and currently comprises five books, each covering various processes and stages of the IT service lifecycle. ITIL’s systematic approach to IT service management can help businesses manage risk, strengthen customer relations, establish cost-effective practices, and build a stable IT environment that allows for growth, scale and change. ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are neither organization-specific nor technology-specific but can be applied by an organization toward strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.

ITIL contains nine guiding principles that were adopted from the most recent ITIL Practitioner Exam, which covers organizational change management, communication and measurement and metrics. These principles include: • • • • • • • • •

Focus on value Design for experience Start where you are Work holistically Progress iteratively Observe directly Be transparent Collaborate Keep it simple

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ITIL is a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. ITIL’s systematic approach to IT service management can help businesses manage risk, strengthen customer relations, establish costeffective practices, and build a stable IT environment that allows for growth, scale and change.

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is an integrated, process-based, best practice framework for managing IT services. It guides creating and operating a Service Desk that provides efficient communication between the user community and the IT provider. Originally initiated to improve IT service management for the UK central government, it has become relevant to all organizations; public or private sector, large or small, centralized or distributed. It integrates an organization’s Incident Management, Problem Management, Configuration Management, and Change Management processes under one Service Desk.

FootPrints provides practical, rapid ITIL V3 enablement for the vital processes that support the demands of your customers, allowing you to give them the best possible experience. FootPrints also offers a configurable customer portal integrated with your intranet or Internet site for proactive support of customer incidents and service requests.

FootPrints offers a web-based architecture, built-in templates and flexible workflow, all of which contribute to the reduced time and effort necessary to implement ITIL processes. It can be tailored to meet your business and IT needs quickly and easily and without programming. Lengthy consulting engagements or extensive technical skills are not required.

FootPrints is built on ITIL v3 processes FootPrints provides optimal support for the following ITIL service lifecycle processes: •

Incident Management—Accelerate incident resolution with configurable forms and sophisticated workflow • Problem Management—Perform root-cause analysis to prevent incidents from reoccurring • Request Management—Optimize service delivery by managing all service requests and related workflows with optimal effectiveness • Event Management—Monitor key systems with BMC Network Monitor and create incidents automatically for significant events in FootPrints.

• Service Asset and Configuration Management—Discover assets with BMC FootPrints Asset Core and enhance your visibility of configuration item relationships with FootPrints Configuration Manager • change manager—Automate unlimited approval workflows with full audit trail and secure email approval with FootPrints Change Manager • Knowledge Management—Build a robust knowledge base of rich solutions with FAQ categorization and knowledge authoring approvals • Release and Deploy Management—Plan releases from approved changes with FootPrints and deploy custom packages automatically with BMC FootPrints Asset Core • Service Portfolio Management—Design, approve and manage service offerings to customers and other key stakeholders 14 | K A I Z E N ’ S O P E R A T I O N S & R E S E A R C H E N T I T Y

•

Service Catalog Management—Create, publish and offer customized menus of services to internal and external customers based on their role for end-to-end request management with FootPrintss Service Catalog • Service Level Management—Enforce and report on agreed-upon response and resolution times based on your service level agreements and their related services • Service Reporting—Create your trend and performance reports with comprehensive and easy to use reporting tools to aid in the continuous improvement of your service delivery.

How to put ITIL into practice?

ITIL is a collection of e-books, but merely going on a reading binge won't improve your IT operations.

First, you have to wrap your brain around the concepts and then get staff buy-in getting some IT personnel to adopt new procedures can be like herding cats, but some tools can help.

How can ITIL improve my company's business performance?

A well-run IT organization that manages risk and keeps the infrastructure humming not only saves money but also allows the business people to do their jobs more effectively. For example, brokerage firm Pershing reduced its incident response time by 50 percent in the first year after restructuring its service desk according to ITIL guidelines, allowing users with problems to get back to work much more quickly.

ITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provision, and offers the following benefits: • Reduced IT costs • Improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes • Improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery • Standards and guidance • Improved productivity • Improved use of skills and experience • Improved delivery of third-party services through the specification of ITIL or bS15000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements ITIL can also help businesses improve services by: • Helping businesses manage risk, disruption and failure • Strengthening customer relations by “delivering efficient services that meet their needs” • Establishing cost-effective practices • Building a stable environment that still allows for growth, scale and change

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About Author: Mr. Aman Goel is working as a Product Support Consultant at Zenoti. He is an experienced professional with an experience of 4 years in product consultancy, project management and product management with companies like SoftwareONE, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, PharmEasy, Meddo HealthCare, Zenoti.

Having worked over the years with tech-based solution companies to provide customers with seamless and intuitive products, Goel has handled large scale projects individually and in teams to drive them to growth and scale with profitability by analysing data across various departments of the business. He is a former Kaizen member from the batch of 2019-2021.

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Mr. LVS Sai Charan Analyst – Biz Development, Cognizant.

FARM-AI WONDER

Agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.” — Thomas Jefferson The global population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050, necessitating a 70% increase in agricultural production to meet the demand. As the world's population grows, land, water, and resources become insufficient to sustain the demand-supply chain. As a result, we need to take a smarter approach by implementing Artificial Intelligence in farming to become more efficient & productive.

CHALLENGES IN TRADITIONAL FARMING • Climatic factors such as rainfall, temperature, and humidity play an important role in the agriculture lifecycle. Climate change is exacerbated by increasing deforestation and pollution, making it difficult for farmers to make decisions about how to prepare the soil, sow seeds, and harvest.

• Specific soil nutrition is required for each crop. In soil, three nutrients are required: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Nutrient deficiency can result in crop failure.

• Weed control is critical in agriculture, as evidenced by the agriculture lifecycle. If not controlled, it can increase production costs and absorb nutrients from the soil, causing nutrient deficiency in the soil.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AGRICULTURE The agricultural industry is turning to Artificial Intelligence technologies to help yield healthier crops, control pests, monitor soil, and growing conditions, organize data for farmers, assist with the workload, and improve a wide range of agriculture-related tasks throughout the food supply chain.

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AI AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS Use of Weather Forecasting: As climatic conditions change and pollution increases, it is difficult for farmers to determine the best time to sow seed. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, farmers can analyze weather conditions by using weather forecasting, which helps them plan the type of crop that can be grown and when seeds should be sown.

System For Monitoring Soil and Crop Health: The type of soil and the nutrition of the soil influence the type of crop grown and the quality of the crop. Soil quality is deteriorating as a result of increasing deforestation, and it is difficult to determine the quality of the soil.

A tech start-up based in Germany PEAT has developed Plantix, an AI-based application that can identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil as well as plant pests and diseases, giving farmers ideas on how to use fertilizer to improve harvest quality. This app makes use of image recognition technology.

Smartphones can be used by the farmer to photograph plants. Through short videos on this application, we can also see soil restoration techniques, tips, and other solutions.

Similarly, Trace Genomics is a machine learning-based company that assists farmers with soil analysis. This type of app assists farmers in monitoring the health of their soil and crops to produce healthy crops with a higher level of productivity.

Drone-Based Crop Health Analysis: SkySqurrel Technologies has introduced drone-based Ariel imaging solutions for crop health monitoring. In this technique, the drone collects data from fields, which is then transferred to a computer via a USB drive and analyzed by experts.

This company analyses the captured images with algorithms and provides a detailed report on the farm's current health. It assists farmers in identifying pests and bacteria, allowing them to use pest control and other methods to take the necessary action on time.

Precision Farming and Predictive Analytics: AI applications in agriculture have developed applications and tools that assist farmers in performing accurate and controlled farming by providing proper guidance to farmers regarding water management, crop rotation, timely harvesting, crop type to be grown, optimum planting, pest attacks, and nutrition management. AI-enabled technologies predict weather conditions, analyze crop sustainability, and evaluate farms for the presence of diseases or pests and poor plant nutrition on farms using data such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and solar radiation in conjunction with machine learning algorithms and images captured by satellites and drones.

Farmers without internet access can reap the benefits of AI right now, using tools as simple as an SMS-enabled phone and the Sowing App. Meanwhile, farmers with Wi-Fi access can use AI applications to get an AI-customized plan for their lands continuously. Farmers can meet the world's needs for increased food production and revenue by using IoT and AI-driven solutions that grow production and revenue without depleting precious natural resources.

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AI will help farmers evolve into agricultural technologists in the future, using data to optimize yields down to individual rows of plants.

Agricultural Robotics: AI firms are creating robots that can easily perform multiple tasks in agricultural fields. This type of robot is programmed to control weeds and harvest crops at a faster and higher volume than humans. These robots are programmed to inspect crop quality and detect weeds while picking and packing crops at the same time. These robots are also capable of overcoming the challenges that agricultural labor faces.

AI-enabled system to detect pests: Pests are one of the worst enemies of farmers, causing crop damage. AI systems use satellite images and compare them to historical data using AI algorithms to determine whether or not an insect has landed and what type of insect has landed, such as a locust or a grasshopper. And send alerts to farmers' smartphones so that they can take necessary precautions and use necessary pest control, thus AI aids farmers in pest control.

CONCLUSION Artificial intelligence in agriculture is not only assisting farmers in automating their farming, but it is also shifting to precision cultivation for higher crop yield and quality while using fewer resources.

Companies involved in improving machine learning or Artificial Intelligence-based products or services such as training data for agriculture, drones, and automated machine making will benefit from technological advancement in the future, allowing the world to deal with food production issues for a growing population.

So, how long do you think it will take for countries like India to completely adapt AI in farming?

REFERENCES https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/feature/Agricultural-AI-yields-better-crops-through-dataanalytics https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589721720300155 https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2020/11/artificial-intelligence-in-agriculture-using-modern-day-aito-solve-traditional-farming-problems/

About Author: Mr. Sai Charan works as analyst-Biz Development at Cognizant. A Kaizenite from the batch of 2019-2021 and completed his MBA education at IBS Hyderabad. He was the Joint Secretary of KORE and has shown extraordinary leadership and hardworking skills. He has played a vital role in the development and execution of the activities in the club. He also worked as Network Analyst at HCL Technologies.

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EMERGING MANAGERS

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Mr. Anantha Subramanian MBA, 2020-2022 IBS Hyderabad E – PROCUREMENT TOOLS WITH BENEFITS

E-procurement - electronic procurement also known as supplier exchange, through a web interface or other networked system is the purchase and sale of supplies, equipment, works and services. This boosts efficiency, effectiveness and total cost of procurement.

The eProcurement is used in B2B, B2C, B2G and G2B. Why E-Procurement Is Necessary?

Majorly, the main aim of a supply chain is to satisfy the customer's requests as soon as they appear.

A properly implemented e-procurement system is connected by companies and their business processes directly with suppliers which manage all interactions between them.

E-Procurement Tools: Some of the e-procurement tools and applications include electronic systems to support traditional procurement. EDI (electronic data interchange) ERP systems.

A few internet tools and platforms that replace traditional procurement include: • E-sourcing.

• E-tendering.

• E- auctioning.

• E-ordering and web-based ERP. • E-information E-procurement In B2B E-procurement is the foundation of the B2B business. It’s the process of the purchase and sale of goods and services through the internet. This business model helps everyone associated to curb irregularities in business and reduce operating costs 21 | K A I Z E N ’ S O P E R A T I O N S & R E S E A R C H E N T I T Y

E-Government Procurement (e-GP) E-Government procurement (e-GP) projects are often part of the major e-government efforts of countries to efficiently and effectively serve their people and maintain businesses. This promotes better governance in public procurement by increasing transparency and eliminating opportunities for fraud. The application of Information and Communication Technologies to the procurement processes has resulted in e-Procurement platforms that are ideally fit to address the e-GP objectives.

Pursuing an e-Procurement system implementation is an effective way to improve public procurement management, through automation of all underlying processes. Many governments all over the world have adopted end-to-end e-Procurement systems which covers the whole procurement cycle.

Advantages of E-Procurement: E-procurement is time-saving and efficient too. Electronic handling of tasks supports and simplifies the purchasing process, transaction speed is increased and also, because of e-enabled relationships with suppliers, procurement cycle times speed up A small connection can be established which Improves the Business Transaction Speed: The services offered by electronic procurement can allow businesses to support multiple tasks, simplify the online purchasing process, establishing meaningful relationships with suppliers, minimizing the number of manufacturing cycles, and reducing the manual data entry.

The E-Procurement Process and How to Improve It 1.

Identifying and anticipating materials or service needs.

2.

Evaluate potential suppliers.

3.

Selecting suppliers.

4.

Releasing and receiving purchase requirements.

Continuously measuring and managing supplier performance I too strongly believe nothing can impress the mind compared to a picture. The above picture also depicts the same for example, we can take the person roles on various aspects like supplier, contractor, etc while in e-procurement.

From the above picture we can say that e-procurement makes our work easy on e- sourcing, timesaving, procurement process, PO management, helps in order accuracy, manages our spending, ease of invoice processing, the workflow also gets improved along with better customer experience.

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Benefits Of E-Procurement Process: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Reducing cost Transparent spending Increased Productivity Eliminating paperwork Transaction speed increases Standardized buying Reduction in Errors, to add in more info

Benefits To the Suppliers / Contractors: ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Anytime and Anywhere bidding Fair and Fearless means of participation for vendors freely No dependence on Newspaper, courier Zero Administrative hassles Economic – saving on more travel cost Reduces efforts and cost of bidding None of the tenders can be missed because of the distance Can even submit the bid at the last moment Can carry out all the activity from any computer Like a coin has two sides, there are challenges on e-procurement too

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Challenges In E-Procurement: • • • • •

Commitment of Top Management Change in Management issues Inability to capture required benefits Cost and time overrun Computerized Auditing

Buyer Adoption: • • •

Strong Leadership and a top-down approach are very much required Securing high-level support to negotiate better prices through volume aggression IT readiness – Infrastructure and user training

Security And Data Sharing: •

Internet-enabled procurement talks about transactions on public domain perception hold contradictory to the confidential nature of the bidding process • E-procurement process is about data sharing, communication and competitive – security of such system is of paramount importance • Evolving regulatory frameworks and choice of technology in the rapidly changing technology landscape

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Ms. Garima Soni MBA, 2020-2022 IBS Hyderabad IMPORTANCE OF INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Inventory is among the main present assets of an organization. Therefore, the quality of inventory management has a direct bearing on the organization's bottom line and an indirect impact on its top line too. Costs associated with inventory are directly proportional to inventory.

Good inventory management in containing approach goes a considerable way these prices, therefore improving profitability, tracking the expiry dates of stock and triggering alerts appropriately can minimize losses due to obsolescence. Putting in place a good inventory management system would allow the organization to evolve strategies that are appropriate to sell those items which are approaching expiration, which then curtails losses due to obsolescence. A comparable approach can be adopted concerning non-moving stocks too.

Lean management business principles can be applied to eliminate waste and avoid ordering too many supplies.

Using the ABC system of inventory planning, one can divide the inventory into three categories: • • •

High-monetary volume items Medium-monetary volume inventory Low-monetary volume inventory

For large and/or complicated orders, the economic order quantity system helps determine the optimal order size based on input cost, storage cost, order cost and annual usage.

Why Is Inventory Management Important?

One of the aims of a good inventory system is to zero in on the most efficient and profitable amount of inventory with which to operate the firm. To do this, one must find the breakeven point in inventory reductions, where the cost saved by eliminating inventory is outweighed by sales losses. Inventory management is the fundamental building block to longevity. When inventory is properly organized, 25 | K A I Z E N ’ S O P E R A T I O N S & R E S E A R C H E N T I T Y

the rest of the supply-chain management will fall into place. If not then, customer reviews and loyalty take a negative hit.

In the success stories of H&M, Zara, Ikea, and Walmart, luck is not a key factor.

1. H&M Though H&M’s vital to follow fashion trends, the clothing retailer’s success is bound to the price economy. This is where inventory management strategy steps in. H&M manufactures 80% of its retail inventory in advance and, during the year, introduces the remaining 20% based on present-day market trends.

Affordability is reached with strong supplier relationships, paired with manufacturing strategies that reduce lead times. H&M has 30 international supply partners, and a central inventory management software system. Adopting a modern IT infrastructure has brought the average lead times down by 1520%. Flexibility and short lead times reduce the risk of buying the wrong items. This allows H&M stores to restock quickly with the bestselling products at economical prices.

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2. Zara Zara Avoids Inventory Buildup Zara is a large retail chain with 6,900+ stores in 86 countries and 450 million items sold in a year. The retailer has opened about 400 stores annually on average over the past 5 years spread out among eight brands. The brand is renowned for its ability to deliver new clothes to stores quickly and in small batches. Twice a week, at precise times, store managers order clothes, and twice a week, on schedule, new garments arrive. To achieve this, Zara controls more of its supply chain than most retailers do.

Zara keeps most of its production in-house.

For Zara, its supply chain is its competitive advantage. In-house production allows it to be flexible in the amount, frequency, and variety of new products to be launched. If a style becomes highly popular all of the sudden, Zara reacts instantly, creating a new design in the popular style, then gets new items into stores while the trend is still peaking.

From Customer Feedback to Inventory Management Zara’s inventory management software lets the store managers communicate customer feedback on what they’re looking for, what they like and dislike. Zara’s designers keep sketching, based on the data. Constant slight changes give customers a sense of scarcity and exclusiveness. This strategy allows Zara to sell more items at full price. Less mark-downs, less inventory piling up in any part of the supply chain from raw materials to finished products.

Inventory optimization models are used, so the company can determine the quantity to be delivered to a single retail store twice a week. The stock delivered is strictly limited, ensuring that each store receives just what it needs. Thus, the brand image looks exclusive, and the building up of unpopular stock is avoided.

The batches delivered are small, so if the hastily created design does not sell well, little harm is done inventory-wise. Peaks in demand can be addressed quickly, as a Zara factory usually operates only 4.5 days per week on full capacity, leaving flexibility for extra shifts.

The core of Zara’s success is centralized enterprise resource planning. Inventory, products, and logistics are managed in central cloud-based software. The merchandise is already priced and labelled for selling when it to a store. The operations are monitored in real-time and changed accordingly. At Zara, change doesn’t disrupt the system; it’s part of the system.

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3. IKEA In-Store Logistics Besides cost-per-touch, IKEA also relies on something unique regarding its product reordering. It has in-store logistics personnel handling inventory management. These in-store logistics managers use a stock replenishment process called minimum/maximum settings for the reordering points. Two factors are set for each product: the minimum amount of products available before reordering, and the maximum amount of a product to order at one time.

Using IKEA’s central inventory management software, logistics managers also have Point of Sale (POS) data of how much an item sells. The inventory management software also displays warehouse management, shipping, and distribution centre data. IKEA uses separate high-flow and low-flow warehouse facilities. Products stocked in a low-flow facility are not in high demand.

Every product is designed by IKEA itself so the company maintains control over manufacturing costs.

IKEA seeks to use as few materials as possible to make a product while not compromising on quality or durability. By using fewer materials, the company cuts transportation costs and get favourable supplier prices. This allows the company to stay competitive against other retailers in the industry as it continually seeks for advanced methods to streamline supply chain and inventory management.

4. Walmart Walmart uses innovative technology to track inventory and restock its shelves, thus allowing the retail chain to cut costs. Strategically, the idea is to minimize links in the supply chain, sharing information with suppliers, and linking purchasing to sales in a more direct way. The technical backbone of Walmart’s supply chain innovation is inventory management software, which allows implementing automated re-ordering and cross-docking and other inventory tactics.

Cross-docking is the centrepiece of Walmart’s strategy to replenish inventory efficiently. It means products are loaded from inbound or outbound truck trailers right away without extra storage.

Suppliers and manufacturers within Walmart’s supply chain synchronize their demand projections under collaborative planning, inventory forecasting, and stock replenishment scheme. The network of global suppliers, warehouses, and retail stores has been described as behaving almost like a single firm. Walmart cooperates with suppliers for inventory management.

Competitive Advantage with Inventory Management Software H&M, Zara, IKEA, and Walmart are really large retail operations with tens of thousands of employees and numerous operations to run. They surpass the competition in supply chain optimization and

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strategic thinking. To make it work, they all use inventory management software as a backbone of operations.

Back in the day, building the necessary software instruments meant a massive investment and in-house effort. Today, technology has created an environment where practically every company can optimize their business model and streamline processes. Even though the technology is becoming increasingly popular, it is still possible to gain a competitive advantage, taking advantage of a full business management software package.

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Ms. Aaratrika Lahiri MBA, 2020-2022 IBS Hyderabad THE KAIZEN WAY OF LIFE Derived from the Japanese word for continuous improvement, the concept of Kaizen means to change for the better and continuously evolve. This concept has been in place from the 1950s and moulded into a business strategy for making small but effortless changes for the better in company operations.

These changes can range from productivity, inventory to changes in manufacturing steps or quality control steps. The Kaizen concepts believe that each employee and every aspect of the organization should strongly believe in improvements, no matter how minor they might be. Kaizen looks at the entire company with a fisheye focus on essential areas like costs, quality, logistics, staff motivation, technology and the environment. Toyota, the Japanese automotive manufacturer is one of the renowned companies which applies and abides by Kaizen. They are responsible for making this method known and proving that its results are effective.

Why Is Kaizen Important?

Kaizen is essential as it is a process that is used to identify key problems at the very source of the issue. Kaizen can’t and is not just a one-person job, as every employee needs to be active in contributing with small improvements frequently. The most common ways that Kaizen can make a difference that is notable and will help the organization are: 1.

Reduce Waste – Reducing waste is always known to increase effectiveness and efficiency. It can decrease your costs by getting rid of unnecessary items, reducing working movement, or decreasing wait times on certain products as and when required.

2.

Organizational Competitiveness – When the culture of Kaizen is inculcated and created, and all associates buy in, we may achieve what is called organizational competitiveness. When one employee notices another improving their process and working ahead to help the company, they will

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want to take action in their role and work to do the same thing. Harnessing this type of culture can provide a huge help to improve overall processes, instead of only in certain areas.

3.

Employee Engagement – As mentioned previously, Kaizen involves and includes everyone, which gives employees and people in concern of the context a greater sense of pride and responsibility in their jobs. Mostly keeping the employee morale high leads to longer employee retention.

Now kaizen more often than not is considered to be the building block of all lean processes. Lean production is founded on the very ideology of Kaizen. Now if we speak about the method and its implementation approach.

Continuous improvement processes typically need an organization to foster and inculcate and promote a culture where employees are empowered to identify and solve problems faced by the said organization. Most organizations implementing kaizen-type improvement processes have established structured methods and ground rules that are well communicated in the organization and reinforced through training and development processes. The basic steps for implementing a kaizen "event" are the following, although organizations are most likely to adapt and sequence these activities to work effectively in their unique circumstances suiting their needs.

Phase 1: Planning and Preparation The very first challenge is to identify the problem area which requires improvement at the earliest.

Such problem areas might include areas containing substantial work-in-progress; an administrative process, a production area where significant delays occur; areas where everything is falling out of order and/or quality or performance does not meet customer expectations or standards.

Once a target area has been selected, a more elaborate and specific "waste elimination" problem within that area is narrowed down to, for the focus of the kaizen event (i.e., the specific issue that needs improvement in the case, such as lead time reduction, quality improvement, or production yield improvement). Once the problem area is selected, managers generally gather a cross-functional team of employees to work on this improvement.

Teams need to involve workers from the targeted administrative or production process area, although employees or participants with "fresh perspectives" may sometimes supplement the team as they might provide an approach that might be completely out of the box. Team members should all be familiar with the organization's improvement process or receive appropriate training and induction on it before the "event". Kaizen processes are generally organized to last between one day and seven days, depending on the scale of the targeted process and problem. Team members are expected to shed most of their operational responsibilities during this period so that they can primarily focus on the kaizen event.

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Phase 2: Implementation of the process The team works to develop a clear understanding of the "condition" of the targeted process so that all members have a similar understanding of the problem they are working to solve. The two techniques that are most commonly used to define the current position and identify the ongoing manufacturing wastes are: • Five Whys. Here, during a process, an organization asks the “Why?” five times to uncover the root cause of the problem. For example, Toyota developed the practice of asking "why" five times.

An instance for the same would be like: Repeating "Why" Five Times 1. Why did the work of the machine stop?

There was an overload, and the fuse blew or a short circuit issue.

2. Why was there an overload?

The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.

3. Why was it not lubricated sufficiently?

The lubrication pump was not pumping sufficiently.

4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently?

The shaft of the pump was worn and not working.

5. Why was the shaft dysfunctional out?

There was no strainer attached, and metal scrap entered the shaft.

Following this process, the organization and its workers can uncover the issue and why it persisted or occurred in the first place.

• Value Stream Mapping: This technique works on the concept of flowcharting the steps, activities, communications, material flows, and other process elements that are involved in any process or change. Whatever may be the line of work, this method, creates a flow chart indicating the flow of the work and what has to be followed and how. Value stream mapping helps the organization identify the non-value-adding elements in a streamlined process. This technique is closely similar to process mapping, which is frequently used to support pollution prevention planning in organizations.

In a lot of cases, value stream mapping can be used in phase 1 to identify areas for which to target for launching kaizen events.

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During the event, it is necessary to collect information on the targeted process, such as measurements of overall product quality; scrap rate and source of scrap; a routing of products; total product distance travelled; total square feet occupied by necessary equipment; number and frequency of changeovers; amount of work-in-progress; and amount of staffing for specific tasks. The members are assigned specific roles for research and analysis of the work. As more information is collected, members add detail to value stream maps of the process and conduct time studies of relevant operations (e.g., leadtime).

Once data is gathered, it is analysed, assessed and scrutinized to find areas for improvement. Once waste or non-value-added activity, is identified and measured, members then brainstorm to find improvement options. Ideas are often tried and tested on the shopfloor. Ideas deemed most promising and seemingly effective are selected and implemented. To fully realize the benefits of the kaizen event, members should observe and record new cycle times, and calculate overall savings from eliminated waste, operator motion, part conveyance and throughput time.

Phase 3: Follow-up.

An essential element of a kaizen event is the follow-up activity or feedback that aims to ensure that improvements are sustained, and not just temporary. Following the event, members are routinely made to track key performance measures (i.e., metrics) to document the improvement gains. Metrics often include lead and cycle times, process defect rates, the movement required, although the metrics might vary when the targeted process is an administrative process. Follow-up events are often scheduled at 30 and 90-days following the initial kaizen event to assess the change performance and identify follow-up modifications that may be necessary to sustain the already done improvements. As part of this follow-up process, personnel involved in the targeted process are tapped for feedback and suggestions.

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a fine example of how Kaizen functions and progress, and how it can improve the company’s operations. TPS relies majorly on employees to keep a watch out for areas where waste can be removed, thus increasing efficiency. Each employee takes ownership of their work, which they scout to make work easier on themselves, as well as on the organization.

Toyota continues to deliver top-of-the-line products because each employee in the production system is encouraged to offer suggestions and methods to improve processes and streamline production to consistently improve the quality of the work.

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Ms. Tanvi Batwal MBA, 2020-2022 IBS Hyderabad SUCCESS OF WALMART’S SUPPLY CHAIN

Why Walmart’s Supply Chain is so Successful Walmart is the best example of the way to leverage supply chain management to scale back costs and enhance the consumer’s experience. It’s difficult to consider another company that manages inventory and generates sales quite as Walmart does.

Walmart has accepted technology and automation that have innovated their supply chain so that they could trace their inventory and seamlessly restock inventory, while also passing on savings to their customers. And, by fine-tuning the way it handles inventory, from the acquisition process to its spot on the shelf, Walmart has enabled itself to not only become a highly profitable business but one that others strive to emulate.

Sam Walton decided to set up an organisation that might serve a mass market and compete on the idea of price. He did this by creating one of the world’s most effective supply chains. The structure and operations of this company are defined by the necessity to lower its costs and increase its productivity so that it could pass these savings on to its customers in the form of a reasonable price.

Four Powerful Concepts from WalmartPractices that Walmart pioneered are extensively adopted by its competitors and other organisations serving entirely different markets. Walmart initiated concepts that are now industry standards. Many of these concepts come right from the way the organisation builds and operates its supply chain. The four powerful concepts that Walmart follows are – 1. Strategy of Expanding Around Distribution Centres (Dcs) Expanding around DCs is central to the way Walmart set foot in the new geographical market. The 34 | K A I Z E N ’ S O P E R A T I O N S & R E S E A R C H E N T I T Y

organisation looks for areas which will support a group of latest stores, not just one new store. It then builds a new DC at a central location within the area and opens its first store at the same time. The distribution centres are hat the supply chain bridgehead into the new territory. It supports the opening of more new stores within the area at a really low additional cost. Those savings are passed along to the consumers.

2. Using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) With Suppliers Using EDI with suppliers provides the organisation with two substantial benefits. First of all, this cuts the transaction costs related to the ordering of products and therefore the paying of invoices. Well defined and routine processes which will be made very productive and efficient through electronic data interchange and ordering products and paying invoices are, the leading and important parts. The electronic links with suppliers allow Walmart a high degree of control and coordination within the scheduling and receiving of product deliveries this is the second advantage of EDI. This assist to make sure a gentle flow of the proper products at the perfect time, delivered to the right DCs by all Walmart suppliers.

3.The “Big Box” Store Format The “big box” store format permit Walmart too, in effect, merge a store and a warehouse during a single facility and obtain great operating efficiencies from doing so. The big box is large enough to carry large amounts of inventory like a warehouse. And since this inventory is being held at the same location where the customer buys it, no delay or cost might rather be related to moving products from warehouse to store. Again, these savings are passed along to the consumers.

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4. “Everyday Low Prices” “Everyday low prices” are having 2 ways. The primary thing is to inform its price-conscious customers they're going to always get the best price; they need not look elsewhere or look for special sales. The effect of this message on consumer’s guides Walmart does the second thing. Therefore, another thing is to accurately forecast product sales. Sales and other events designed to sway consumers purchasing tend to form demand forecasting far more difficult and this affects supply chain planning. By eliminating special sales and assuring consumers of low prices, it smooths out demand swings making demand more stable and expectable. So, stores are more likely to possess what customers want once they want it.

Usage Of These Concepts to Lower Costs and Inventory in Any Supply Chain Taken individually, these four concepts are very useful, but their real power comes from getting used in combinations with one another. They combine to make a supply chain that drives a self-reinforcing feedback circuit. Each concept builds on the strengths of the others to make a strong business model for an organisation that has grown to become a dominant player in its markets.

Inventory Types at Walmart Walmart utilizes various types of inventories to fulfil roles within the supply chain.

There are 4 main sorts of inventory adding to their success that every business should note.

1)Finished Goods The major type of inventory employed by Walmart and make the most important impact on its overall success is Finished Goods. These goods reach Walmart stores directly, are replenished regularly, and are always available in Walmart stores for consumers to shop for.

2) Transit Inventory Next is transit inventory. To replenish the furnished goods mentioned above, goods that are held in transit for long periods eventually reach Walmart stores wanting.

3) Buffer Inventory For the unexpected times, some goods are suddenly in high demand and running low, buffer inventory at Walmart stores is designed. This buffer inventory is on hand for immediate re-shelving, to maintain stocked shelves.

4) Anticipation Inventory And last but not least, Walmart also operates what is coined anticipation inventory. Much like buffer inventory, this type of inventory is on hand, but only for seasonal changes, and is ready to address increased demand when the time comes.

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ABOUT US The word “Kaizen”, where “Kai” = change, “Zen” = good, signifies change for the better. In its birthplace Japan, the word Kaizen is imbibed as a process that many small continuous changes in systems and policies bring effective results than few major changes. This methodology applies to every department across different sectors.

Kaizen – The Official Operations Club of IBS Hyderabad has always been aspiring “Constant Change ad Evolvement”. We, as an organization work to inspire and aspire to the student community for the betterment of the future.

KORE – Kaizen’s Operations and Research Entity, one of our primary wings provide the students with a platform to improve and hone their technical competencies to meet the changing demands of the organizations. KORE’s sphere of influence includes Case-Based Research, Consultancy, Live Projects and Workshop. LAKSHYA, an initiative of KORE focuses on improving the reader's knowledge about Operations Management by providing insights in the form of articles on various operation techniques followed by different companies and also updating the emerging trends in the communities.

K PAVAN KUMAR REDDY EDITOR IN CHIEF - KORE Club Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2020-22

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LAKSHYA is an academic print and is not for any commercial sale. Reliability and Responsibility, for sources of data for the article vests with the respective authors.

Please feel free to drop in your suggestions at kaizenclub.ibs@gmail.com KORE: Kaizen’s Operations & Research Entity.

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