Interview
Consistent with the commitment to maximum value addition for TML business What was the ambition behind origination of TMLD?
TMLD was carved out from TML in 2008, as a 100 per cent subsidiary company to manage distribution and logistics for commercial as well as passenger vehicle products at the time of introduction of TATA Nano in the Indian market. TMLD was entrusted to provide countrywide distribution network and logistics strategy, lean, agile yet extremely competitive. This required specialisation and focus on utilisation of every resource or mode of transportation available at our disposal. Challenge was to fit logistics cost and time into the frame, every TML customer would expect from us.
How big is India’s automotive logistics domain for TMLD?
TMLD has been managing distribution of TML products primarily for Sanand Plant, and logistics management for all commercial and passenger vehicles through its presence across 6 plants, 8 regional offices and 23 regional stockyards, which post-GST consolidated to 12. In terms of numbers, this amounts to distribution of almost 1 lakh units to nearly 285 channel partners and logistics management for nearly 5,00,000 units per annum through road, rail, car and chassis carriers.
To what extent has TMLD been responsive to India’s dynamic market and innovating its automotive logistics management process?
The core strength of TMLD has been its agility and ability to quickly adapt to the dynamics of the automotive market and its logistics needs. I can proudly say that TMLD is the first company which has used rail as bulk mode of transportation in the era before Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) scheme, to its advantage and set records in logistics cost efficiency, when Nano itself was setting a benchmark in terms of cost competitiveness. However, it was not possible without support and commitment of its logistics partners, especially TCI, to the cause. Our long relationship with TCI is glaring example of trust and mutual value creation at Sanand plant. On other side, we successfully managed multi vendor environment at Pune, Pantnagar, and Dharwad plants. More
To hive off the logistics and distribution part of its business to a fully owned unit, TML Distribution Co Ltd (TMLD), which was incorporated on March 2008 by India's largest automobile firm TATA Motors, has today become a big entity in itself. Achal Paliwal, CEO- TML Distribution Co Ltd, in a one-to-one interaction with Upamanyu Borah, elucidates more about their line of business, and how operational agility has enabled them to nimbly adapt and upgrade their existing products and services to meet rapidly changing customer needs, with efficiency gains and quality improvements.
58 CargoConnect - july 2019