Magister Operandi Autumn Edition 2019

MAGISTER OPERANDI—AUTUMN 2019
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

CONTENTS
Serial No. Title Page No.
1 From the HOD's Desk 4
2 Faculty Coordinator’s Message 5
3 About SOM 6
4 About Opera 8
5 Words from Opera 9
6 Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Indian context 10
7 Quotes 14
8 Last mile delivery innovations and the way ahead 15
9 Crossword Puzzle 18
10 Improve Supply chain efficiency through robotics & IoT technology 19
11 Famous firsts 21
12 Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) in Dairy supply chain 22
13 Success story – Amazon 25
14 Industry 4.0 : Being future ready 26
15 Guess who? 29
16 Supply Chain is changing - Disruptions in the global supply chain management 30
17 Quotes 34
18 Leverage on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth across 35

supply chain
19 Support sustainability and reliability in the end to end supply chain 38
activities
2 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Serial No. Title Page No.
20 Success story– NIKE 41
21 Innovations in last mile delivery 42
22 Crossword Puzzle 44
23 The TEAM 45
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 3

From the HOD's Desk
Dear Readers,
Greetings from the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT
Bombay!
We present to you, the Autumn Issue of Magister Operandi: Bi-annual
Operations magazine by Opera, The Operations and Supply Chain club
of the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSoM), IIT
Bombay. The vision of the club is to impart knowledge and guidance in
Prof. Shivganesh Bhargava the domain of operations and supply chain management to all the
budding managers. The club serves as a platform for the students,
Head of Department faculty members and industry practitioners for sharing knowledge in
the field of operations and supply chain management.
Shailesh J. Mehta School of
Management The magazine brings out various perspectives that everyone has about
the world around them when observed through the operations lens.
IIT Bombay
The articles in this issue will give you the usual flavour of operations
but with a lot of focus on incremental and radical change that
innovations in this field can bring in our day to day lives. You will find
some suggestions, some critics, and many insights on the way it can happen. This edition of the magazine
covered 3 main themes: (1) “Supply Chain Dynamics, Control and Disruption Management”, (2) “AI and
Robotics Automation in Supply Chain” (3) “Supply Chain Planning to address Risk and Uncertainty”.
The articles include topics like Industry 4.0: Future trends and challenges ahead, Disruptions in Supply
Chain: Opportunities and Challenges, Improve efficiency in the end to end logistics and the new age
disruptions, Role of integrated planning Enroute to inclusive supply chain, Improve Supply Chain
efficiency through Robotics and IoT technology, Last mile delivery innovations and the way ahead, Is
supply chain ready for the next major disruption?, Driving operational and technological efficiencies in
the new age companies, Reducing supply chain costs with innovative procurement strategies, Leverage
on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth across supply chain, Support sustainability and
reliability in the end to end supply chain activities, Importance of Supply Chain planning to address the
new age risk and uncertainty.
I hope that the magazine will help you gain more insights into the developments in the field of operations
across the world. I also take this opportunity to congratulate Opera club members for their efforts in
coming out of this magazine and to everyone who contributed in it.
Prof. Shivganesh Bhargava

Head, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management,
IIT Bombay

Faculty Coordinator’s Message
Dear Readers,
I am pleased to present to you the Magister Operandi - Autumn 2019
edition. SJMSOM’s Opera Magazine, with its collection of timely and
thoughtful articles on Operations & Supply Chain Management (OSCM),
aim to invigorate the thoughts of students and readers in response to
the current trends in the field. The magazine covers a wide array of
insightful articles from the young minds, the budding Operations
Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee
Managers of the future.
Shailesh J. Mehta School of The topics reflect some of the major trends in the field. Although OM as
Management
a management function has reached a certain level of sophistication
IIT Bombay and rigor that can be the inspiration for many other functions, it has
kept itself nimble and adaptable to changes happening in the outside
world. Today’s economy is dominated by services, and the importance
of service OM is only going to increase in the coming years. It is in this
spirit that the students are taught the classic inventory model and learn
novel applications of the same by applying it to service industries to suggest techniques/tools for
managers which help them make better decisions. At the same time, this is complemented with the
knowledge of traditional and well proven models in supply chain management.
In this edition of the magazine, we cover 3 main themes: (1) “Supply Chain Dynamics, Control and
Disruption Management”, (2) “AI and Robotics Automation in Supply Chain” (3) “Supply Chain Planning to
address Risk and Uncertainty”. The articles include topics like Industry 4.0: Future trends and challenges
ahead, Disruptions in Supply Chain: Opportunities and Challenges, Improve efficiency in the end to end
logistics and the new age disruptions, Role of integrated planning Enroute to inclusive supply chain,
Improve Supply Chain efficiency through Robotics and IoT technology, Last mile delivery innovations and
the way ahead, Is supply chain ready for the next major disruption?, Reducing supply chain costs with
innovative procurement strategies, Leverage on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth
across supply chain, Support sustainability and reliability in the end to end supply chain activities
OSCM within SJMSOM continues to grow from strength to strength. Some of the specific heartening
changes that I see happening are increased collaboration between the “research” world of faculty and
doctoral students, and the more immediate and applied “practice” world of MoM students. Over the
years, I see increased interest and collaborations, with MoM students involving themselves in faculty
research projects, and doctoral students guiding and mentoring the Masters’ student projects, thereby
creating synergies and I hope this edition of Opera will create some buzz in that direction.
Let us now hear from the authors themselves.
With best wishes,
Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee,
Professor,
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay
About SJMSOM
The School, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM) established in 1995, as an academic unit
of IIT Bombay, has its distinct place as a national and global business management school. SJMSOM offers
post-graduate [Master of Management (MOM) and Ph.D.] programmes in management and, recently, has
launched an Executive MBA, in association with the Washington University at St. Louise, USA.
SJMSOM has experienced and young full time Core Faculty in all functional areas of management, who
are engaged in teaching, research and outreach activities. The School also has many Associate Faculties
from other departments, schools, interdisciplinary groups and visiting faculties from the industry that add
value to our programs. The expertise of faculty is the main strength of the school that facilitated us to
have a distinctive global professional standing.
As a B- School, SJMSOM has always tried to maintain an updated curriculum and train students to prepare
them to meet the challenges they face ahead in their professional life after graduating from IIT Bombay.
In addition to regular academic curriculum, emphasis is given on the overall development of a students’
personality. For this, SOM boasts of the best industry exposure with continuous interactions with the
industry through:
• “Continuum” the rolling seminar series by eminent speakers from business and academia
• “Diksha”, a series of talks conducted by eminent speakers from the corporate world.
As a part of IIT System, SJMSOM imbibe the value of student driven activities, which is an essential part of
the IIT culture. Budding entrepreneurs would know that SJMSOM is one of the five select founding
member institutes of the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). Also, SJMSOM provides the
opportunity to be in touch with Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) which provides
opportunity to all the stakeholders of IIT B to learn from the experiences of budding ventures.

“Avenues”, the International Business festival of IIT Bombay, is an event organized completely by
students with an objective of learning combined with fun. All major B-Schools of India participate in this
festival. The flagship event of Avenues is “Alankar”. It is leadership lecture series where people from
different walks of life share their life experiences and success mantra. Over the years we have hosted
speakers like—Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Debarati Sen, Harsha Bhogle, Kamal Hasan, Ameera Shah, Anjum
Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Raveena Tandon and Rajdeep Sardesai.
All the activities at SJMSOM are student driven with expert guidance of the faculty. The club activities are
organized by the various clubs of SJMSOM, focusing on Consulting, Finance, Marketing, Operations,
Systems, Human Resource, and Entrepreneurship, with an objective to promote peer-to-peer learning
through various activities. It is a platform for like-minded students to come together and organize events
around the year.
The institute not only gives you a platform to enhance your functional knowledge, but also provides one
with an opportunity to pursue their hobbies, like sports, dance, music, etc. We have access to one of the
best sports facilities, from swimming pools, to football fields, tennis courts, badminton courts, etc. SPIKE
(the sports club) organized inter-B school sports fest “Prithvi”, which was conducted alongside Avenues.
All around the year, the students of SJMSOM, in association with IIT B organizes various cultural and
sports events like, SOM league, PG Cult, PAF, etc. Some other activities which part of SJMSOM are
includes: -
• Study tours
• Student exchanges
• Live projects
• Summer internships and much more
Apart from this, students at SJMSOM take on huge amount of extra-curricular activities in IIT Bombay
which are part of their learning process.

About Opera
Opera, the Operations Club, is the flagship club of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. The club strives to increase the
functional knowledge of the students in the field of operations and supply chain management. It provides
a pedestal for like-minded people to come and share their knowledge in the concerned area. The club
also conducts various activities and sessions which aim at improving the understanding of the students
and equipping them with the necessary skill set in order to excel.
The club is guided by one of the best operations faculties, Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee under whose expert
guidance various events are conducted throughout the year. In the present world where innovations in
technology are continuously disrupting every facet of doing business and shaping the future; the club also
takes the responsibility of keeping the student abreast of all such relevant changes.
In order to keep the students on the front foot in terms of the latest industry trends and innovations, the
club has till date circulated nine focus articles. The articles were received very positively by the batch. The
articles covered topics like Warehouse Performance metrics, Technological advancements in SCM, ERP in
Supply Chain, Customer Centric Supply Chain, Truck Platooning, Problem of too much data, Application of
Cobots, Demand Driven Planning and forecasting, Reimagining Procurement Operations.
Students have shown interest in multiple certifications like APICS-CPIM/CSCP, which is an indication of the
interest in the operation field in the batch. The club also conducted a National-level Online Quizzing
Competition on operation domain, which had wonderful participation.
In order to provide
the students with
practical know-how
and giving them a
hand on experience
about assembly line
production and
demand planning, the
club organized a
simulation game
challenge. The event
saw substantial
participation from the
batch with students
working in teams to
achieve the highest
profit.
Opera ’20 has tried to keep up with the legacy of providing the students with the best of operations
knowledge through myriads of events and opportunities. The club will strive to function for the benefit of
the batch and continue to come up with novel avenues.

Words from Opera

Greetings from Team Opera, Operations club of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. We are extremely pleased to bring
to you “Magister Operandi Autumn Edition 2019,, the biannual operations magazine of SJMSOM, IIT
Bombay. In this edition, the new editorial team is bringing to you many exciting contents in our pursuit of
enriching the knowledge of students in the domain of Operations Management and Supply Chain
management and thereby bridging the gap between industry and academia.
We hope that this effort helps build new perspectives and insights to add to your knowledge. Before we
plunge into the ever evolving and intriguing world of operations management, we would like to take this
opportunity to thank each one of you who has contributed to the magazine. Special thanks to Prof. S.
Bhargava, HOD, SJMSOM and Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee, Faculty Coordinator of Opera Club for their
constant support and guidance.
In this edition, we cover 3 main themes: (1) “Supply Chain Dynamics, Control and Disruption
Management”, (2) “AI and Robotics Automation in Supply Chain” (3) “Supply Chain Planning to address Risk
and Uncertainty”. The articles include topics like Industry 4.0: Future trends and challenges ahead,
Disruptions in Supply Chain: Opportunities and Challenges, Improve efficiency in the end to end logistics
and the new age disruptions, Role of integrated planning Enroute to inclusive supply chain, Improve
Supply Chain efficiency through Robotics and IoT technology, Last mile delivery innovations and the way
ahead, Is supply chain ready for the next major disruption?, Reducing supply chain costs with innovative
procurement strategies, Leverage on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth across supply
chain, Support sustainability and reliability in the end to end supply chain activities. In this edition, we
bring to you the articles that dissect the burning aspects from this domain. We have selected and
included some of the articles which we got as an overwhelming response to the article writing
competition.
The last few pages present the snippets of some of the activities that OPERA, the Operations club of
SJMSOM, IIT Bombay performs throughout the year. So, get set to enter the world of Operations
Management where a plethora of ideas and concepts await your perusal. We hope that you enjoy
reading this magazine and that it some way adds to your knowledge.
TEAM OPERA:
Vinay Xavier Amogh Sanjay Chonkar Jayasankar S
Kalpit Jain Parmar Tejas Bhailalbhai Pogala Gowtham

Sustainable Supply Chain Management : Indian Context

that not only suppliers and customers but also society, gov-
Abstract
ernment, community and NGO’s become an integral part of
Advocacy of sustainable supply chain management
it. With this inclusion, the term SSCM was coined, which
(SSCM) in Indian Manufacturing firms is of utmost in-
meant that supply chain besides being economically profi-
terest in the field of research. In this article we will
discuss abou the findings of different surveys conduct- cient needed to be socially and environmentally viable .
ed on major Indian Firms and compare those with ob-
servations made by other studies in developed and
developing countries. This paper will also shed light on Large MNC’s such as XEROX, GE, GM, 3M, and DOW CHEMI-
steps needed to be taken by the organizations to gen- CAL have successfully saved millions of dollars and prevented
erate awareness towards sustainability in SSCM prac- ton of a pollutant from intoxicating the environment by in-
corporating SSCM their corporate mission through programs
tices and therefore, draw a conclusion on the future
like 3M’s Pollution Prevention Pays, etc. Indian exporters to
roadmap on SSCM.
the U.S and EUROPE like leather, textile, handicrafts, etc. are
Introduction being policed to take environmental friendly measures.
Global warming and another such phenomenon along
with human rights violation have called for sustainable India, being the third in terms of total emissions in the world
developments. To describe sustainability, we need to after China and the U.S emit more than 2 billion tonnes of
discuss all three factors, namely Social, Environmental, CO2 and other GHG. India, not being an Annex-I country,
and Economics. This is called as Triple Bottom Line does not have to meet emission targets but is trying to cut
(TBL) as shown in the figure: emissions by 20% by 2020. According to different environ-
Sustainable Supply Chain

ment concerned authors, Indian manufacturer’s as well as
consumers’ lack awareness on sustainability.
Here we will discuss the steps to modify such views.
Management: Indian New Terms in SSCM:

The environment plays a significant role on sustainable sup-
Context
ply chains when we talk about an environment-friendly prod-
uct and process design, supplier participation for “Green”
purchasing, cleaner technology adoption, environmentally
Fig. 1: Dimensions of sustainability: Triple Bottom Line
safe storage and transportation of goods, returns manage-
(TBL or 3BL) (Source: UN Global Compact Report: BSR) ment including disposal of end-of-life products and product
Though economic viability is of primary concern for an recovery for reuse and reselling on secondary markets.
organization but in today’s world, causing irreversible These create terms like “reverse logistics,” “closed-loop sup-
damage to eco-system and depriving employees of their ply chains,” and “green supply chains.”
essential needs for economic gains will not suffice in the
long run. Now to speak of Evolution in supply chain man-
agement let us look at the following diagram:
Fig. 3: Closed-loop supply chain adopted by XEROX (Source:

UN Global Compact Report: BSR)
Fig. 2: Evolution of supply chain management (Source:
UN Global Compact Report: BSR)
As the evolution took charge in the SCM industry, it strived to

eliminate redundancies and reduce cycle time and inventory
for better customer service, and thus it became imperative

SSCM Drivers: Supplier with non-hazardous process or/and non-

dangerous operations with EMS/OHSAS
There are some external drivers of SSCM like certification Suppliers in categories A & B were
regulators, competition, marketing pressures, etc. determined to be top priorities for the company’s
In India, compliance strategies follow existing continuous improvement programme.
norms, so it is the proactive strategies taken up by
The company’s Farm Equipment Sector established
the SCM firms works as SSCM drivers. The different the Mahindra Yellow Belt (MYB) Business Partners’
initiative taken by them are as follows: Training Programme to help build suppliers’
capabilities to address quality problems. The training
Sustainable Procurement Practices: program includes two days of training, a test to verify
that the learning objectives have been met and a
To make an SCM organization environmentally follow-up project to apply the learning that is
sustainable, each of its functional units needs to selected by the supplier and approved by Mahindra.
adhere to the regulatory norms. In this regard, the (Source: UN Global Compact Report: BSR)
suppliers hold the key. Most times, customers hold
manufacturers responsible though suppliers are Sustainable Manufacturing Practices:
environmentally irresponsible. After procurement comes manufacturing and in this
case, an organization has direct control over its
So, it is of crucial importance that suppliers are manufacturing unit. So, it has the opportunity to
sensitized and on-boarded to a manufacturer’s SSCM make it environment-friendly without any external
programs. Manufacturers need to make them aware deterrents. Green manufacturing includes the
of the adverse effects of air emissions, solid and liquid following methods:
wastes, discharge of hazardous chemicals, and
effluents. They need to help suppliers make the final Sustainable product design
products non-polluting, bio-degradable, and Products need to be designed such that it uses
recyclable if possible. Not only the suppliers of raw environment-friendly raw material, parts, and
materials but also in downstream components and reduces energy consumption,
emissions, and generation of solid and liquid wastes
during production, transportation, storage, and
Logistic services like transportation, warehousing
usage. The design should be such that after the
needs to follow the pre-specified manufacturer
expiry products need to contain more degradable
environmental criteria. Once the eco-friendly
and recyclable components.
installation facility is up and running there should be a
periodic audit by the manufacturer. Sustainable process design
Products are results of a process. So, an efficient and
Examples: In order to address environmental, health
eco-friendly process will result in less amount of
and safety impacts throughout the company’s
wastes meaning high utilization of resources, less
supply chain, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, an
Indian industrial group, started a programme to energy consumption, and low costs. Also,
enable knowledge and best practice sharing with unconventional energy like solar, wind power should
suppliers. A detailed questionnaire was sent to all be a premium priority while designing the process.
suppliers. This provided the basis for understanding Sustainable packaging
the current processes in the supply chain and the
level of the environmental challenges, such as One of the most important yet neglected part while
effects of irresponsible waste disposal. becoming SSCM is the packaging. The organization
needs to take into account that environment-
Suppliers were then categorized as follows
friendly and biodegradable packaging materials are
Supplier with hazardous process and dangerous the need of the hour. Uses of plastic and such non
operations with no EMS/OHSAS certification bio-degradable materials should be banned. Uses of
Supplier with hazardous process or/and dangerous organic materials like jute etc should be
operations with EMS/OHSAS certification encouraged.
Supplier with non-hazardous process or/and non- Sustainable Logistics Practices:
dangerous operations with no EMS/OHSAS
certification The final stage in an SCM is the logistics part. It has

an undeniable impact on the environment. To 8.Occupational safety

achieve SSCM, following steps needs to be taken: 9. Emergency preparedness
Sustainable storage, transportation, and 10. Occupational injury and illness
distribution
11. Fire safety
The transportation of goods across India creates a 12. Industrial hygiene
huge amount of carbon footprints. Manufacturers
13. Physically demanding work
should promote more green logistics like electrically
powered vehicle etc. Not only that the containers 14. Machine safeguarding
transporting items needs to be more effective in
space saving and be made off environment-friendly Employee Perspective
materials. In India, most of the above factors are not
After the transport comes storage so warehousing considered. Forced and child Labour though
needs to be environment-friendly, uses of pesticides prohibited by law is still rampant, and supply chain
and CFC coolants needs to be restricted and if the companies are huge contributors to that. Wages
distribution network is secure and capable enough are meager and working hours are very long
then the need for huge storage facilities can be sometimes 12-14 hours. A survey shows that
minimized. All this will not be just only environment- average wage a person working as supply chain
friendly but also be cost effective and safe. labor get Rs. 10 per hour. Most of them do not
even have any formal safety training and in an
Recovery/disposal of products and packaging after use emergency cannot guide themselves or others to
Many countries have adopted strict processes to safety. The company that employs they prohibit
collect packaging after disposal. In India, this has not most cases, creation of unions or such
been inducted to any formal company objectives, organization. Hazardous working conditions pose a
specially in SCM. Companies are hesitant to invest in new threat to the laborers. Severe Injuries, even
the recycle unit because of mainly two reasons. deaths, are common occurrences. However, the
Firstly, these units need to be centralized and well victim or his/her family doesn’t get adequate
managed, but the location and geography constraints compensation. Last but not the least issue is of
make it unviable. Secondly, the recycling units need discrimination.
to adapt to the eco-friendly power source which has India, with its diverse population, is divided into
not yet caught up to Indian markets. sects and cults, and these sometimes create
Also, customer awareness, which needs a discrimination among workers. They are paid
considerable push, comes as the forefront in based on their sects or cults, not on their
negotiating the product disposal and product performance. Not only that, but gender
recycling. discrimination is also prevalent in Indian supply
chain sectors.
Human Factor:
After considering the environmental sustainability Employer Perspective
focus should be shifted to another aspect of
On the flipside, the organizations are sometimes
sustainability, which is human rights and labor. Some
bound by the local authority to engage people well
of the features that are needed to be incorporated in
over the capacity of their facility. Thus, they do not
an SSCM has been listed down by the United Nations.
have the funds or expertise to manage this amount
These are:
of people. Other scenarios involve negligence, cost
saving, and other monetary benefits. Knowing
1.Forced labor
about the degraded conditions of machinery but
2.Child labor still perusing to continue with those supports such
3.Working hours accusation. Technological advancement is also a
factor which the supply chain company should
4.Wages and benefits
strive for. The government initiative is also of
5. Humane treatment utmost importance in this sector. Regulatory and
6. Non-discrimination auditory bodies should never encourage
7. Freedom of association and collective bargaining malpractices like corruption, bribery, etc.

Corrective Measures
With the above issues and malpractices, reformative
procedures have started finally. Supply chain
companies have started uniform incentives,
insurance plans, free healthcare facilities for their
workers. Government has begun FIXED TERM
EMPLOYMENT scheme for such unskilled labors,
which not only ensures a job for the masses but also
fixed the number of expenses for the company.
Conclusion:
In the above discussion, we have listed down

problems and their root causes. Now, it is the time
for implementation. Both supply chain companies
and the government have taken positive steps to
achieve the dream of sustainable practices in the
sector. With the progress of technology, new
innovative techniques will create more such green
opportunities. As sustainability advocates,
companies should rally to incorporate those.
Promotions and awareness campaigns should be
prioritized so that more customer gain knowledge
about such green initiatives. Government’s Swatch
Bharat mission can also be incorporated in their
portfolios. With this, we conclude that though
Indian supply chain sector reform started way
behind its compatriots of other global countries but
it has taken the right foot forward.
- Tanvir Singh
IIM Viskhapatnam


Last mile delivery innovations and the way ahead

The ever-growing congestion of cities and rapid Location tracking
development of e-commerce home delivery have made Since most of the delivery vehicles are set up with GPS,
companies to rethink the traditional last-mile logistics it will be better if we have a proper route planning,
strategies which have focused on point-of-sale delivery. including the location for parking based on insights
There are greater uncertainty and complexity caused by from previous delivery incidents. It will be a relatively
efficient plan than traditional systems.
dense & congested cities, which further increase the
risks of increasing the cost of last-mile delivery. Last- 2. Drone Delivery in last mile logistics
mile costs about 50% of the total transportation cost & So far UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been
hence, it is necessary for companies to optimize the cost used mostly for military applications, but they are
through innovations. This article primarily tries to show gaining traction for improvements in last-mile delivery.
Experiments like deploying drones in the last mile, by
the innovations happening in the last mile delivery of e-
modelling the cost of delivering with one truck and
commerce & CPS. multiple drones were conducted by companies like
Amazon, UPS, etc
Top companies which are involved in last-mile
deliveries like Amazon, UPS, FedEx, etc. are trying to
gain a competitive advantage by innovating in this
space. As of 2015, consumers are spending around
$1.7 trillion in e-commerce, and it is expected to
double to $3.5 trillion by 2019.
Why it is important??
Over half of the global parcel delivery costs are
incurred in the last mile. This method of cost reduction
was proposed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. It can reduce
the cost of last-mile delivery by reducing the labor
costs and improving fuel efficiency (because of
integration with drones).
Let’s discuss about some of the innovations which are in MIT Megacity Logistics Lab experimental results on
pilot phase in the industry, where some of them may drone delivery in the last mile are as follows:
become disruptive in the future. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by varying several
vital parameters, such as drone speed and endurance,
1. Better usage of the transactions data
the number of drones available, and truck speed.
Big data might seem to be a natural choice for the
• Altering the drone speed/endurance: A 10 mph
complex problem like last-mile delivery. As we all know
increase from 25 to 35 mph yields a development of
all the delivery companies like DHL, Amazon (partly), E-
over 20% in cost savings, whereas increasing the
kart, etc. sits on millions of data related to transactions,
endurance leads to an improvement of just 2-3%.
delivery records, consumer information, etc. We can
leverage our last-mile delivery by using this data in a • No of drones available: Increasing the number of
better way. It will provide us insights about the demand drones from one to two available results in an increase
patterns, customer behaviour patterns, and provide of over 10% in savings, while increasing from two to
deeper insights into improving our service to the three drones results in just 3% improvement.
customers. • Truck speed: Increased savings by 10% as we change
the speed of the truck from 25 to 20 mph and savings
improvement by 7% as truck speed changes from 10 to

5 mph
Outcomes of the experiment:
Use of drones as a supplement to delivery trucks show
significant savings, with a base case median savings of
30% over using truck only. Integration of drones in the
current last-mile delivery system shows a proper growth
opportunity than the stand-alone drone delivery
system.
3. Automated parcel delivery terminals
Another critical issue faced by the new age e-commerce
and online on-demand delivery companies in the last
mile is the inconsistency in the route planning due to
unavailability of structured data on the availability of
customers at their locations. This is a gap in the present
Indian topography across major cities in the country.
This results in increased cost/delivery resulting from
multiple visits for the same order to be successfully
delivered due to unavailability of customer and
decrease inefficient route planning. A redseer research
article says that the first attempt delivery rate is at a 4. Last Yard Autonomous Delivery bots:
dismal 75%, resulting in last mile costs contributing 45-
50% of the overall logistics cost.
Robots can be very useful in the very last leg of the last
Companies such as Amazon, Flipkart have been long mile delivery, which could also be called the previous
trying to solve this problem of unavailability of yard delivery to customer door. This concept will be
customers through the introduction of IHS (I have extremely successful in well planned, and structured
space) program, similar to drop ship points, in high geographies such as IT parks, large institutions, smart
package delivery density areas, thereby improving the cities where the GPS uncertainties are reduced
first attempt delivery rate. But this is still an idea which drastically. The shipments are packed in small
can be employed only in regions with high package convertible autonomous robots and carried using vans
density to ensure breakeven for the partners who enact or trucks to a location close to our final yard delivery
as drop points. point and released there. These stationary robots now
Another upcoming key solution to this issue is the change into autonomous movable robots which reach
Automated Parcel Delivery terminals. Each delivery the customer doorstep with the help of GPS and other
terminal consists of multiple boxes, very similar to sensors. After delivery, these robots come back to the
safety lockers that we use hotels and other places. All point from where they were released.
the customer needs to do is to opt for a delivery This concept not only takes the delivery to the hands
terminal of his choice (such as near to his home/ office) of customer, it also avoids wastage in time of the
during the order checkout. A box is allocated for the delivery truck which carries the packages to these
particular order once the order is out for delivery from areas as the trucks can leave to the next drop point
local distribution centres. The last mile delivery immediately after releasing the bots in a particular
executive identifies the box with the help of a code, point irrespective of whether the customer is available
drops and locks the box and leaves. The customer at their homes or there is a delay in delivery. These
immediately receives an OTP for the safety locker using robots can be taken back in the reverse leg later.
which he can access the box and take his parcel. This Without considering the number of robots required as
technique drastically reduces uncertainty in planning in a constraint, this concept can drastically improve the
the last mile delivery system. Companies could even time taken to deliver the packages and reduce
move towards compulsory alternative delivery terminal dependency on key resources such as delivery trucks
selection to which the parcel will be delivered if the or drivers during peak delivery periods.This concept,
customer is not available at his/her location. coupled with autonomous EVs in well-planned
This drastically reduces multiple trips undertaken and environments, could be a successful breakthrough in
improve the first attempt success rates. the last mile delivery.

Way ahead
It is evident from the above diagram than Courier,

express and parcel companies have neglected the
investments in the last mile technology where at least
50% of the transportation cost go in. For a technology
to disrupt the last-mile delivery, heavy R&D spending
should happen in that particular technology.
The potential for improvement in the last mile delivery
is tremendous, and last mile delivery as an industry is
bound to grow rapidly in future with large e-commerce
companies starting to look outward for assistance from
a society for innovations that will assist in building an
infrastructure. No single innovation can individually
solve the last mile issue; rather it should be focussed on
building an integrated environment of a different
solution to ensure seamless last mile connectivity
REFERENCES:
• http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-e-commerce-
spurs-innovations-last-mile-logistics-0904
• https://redseer.com/articles/amazon-ihs-
program-disrupting-the-last-mile-of-e-commerce-
logistics-in-india/
- Jeevanantam N, IIM Lucknow

CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Across Down
3. Like a seasoned wine, let's get better with time 1. Chaos is bliss? Maybe. Ask Amazon
5. I'm the 80/20 rule 2. One in a million? Not clearly. It's 3.4
7. A..B..C..Let's do some analysis 4. Brainchild of the International Chamber of
8. Automation with a human touch Commerce. I rule your sales contracts
6. Light-footed
Note: Write '-' for blank space in case of terms with more than one word.
Down: 1. RANDOM-STOW 2. SIX-SIGMA 4.INCOTERMS 6.AGILE
Across: 3. KAIZEN 5. PARETO 7. SEGMENTATION 8. JIDOKA

Improve Supply Chain Efficiency through Robotics and IoT Technology

fact added value including high end productivity im-
INTRODUCTION: provements, efficiency and effectiveness gains, the
Supply chain is a complicated area that though has capability to enhance the scale up and down with de-
challenges, got tremendous potential to extract. Sup- mand shifts and the ability to enhance customer ser-
ply chain basically represents the link from product vice levels. The most popular example of robotics in
creation till it becomes a consumer’s possession. Com- the fulfillment process happens at Amazon. This com-
panies in different geographical locations find it hard pany giant acquired Kiva Systems (now known as Ama-
to track the product’s movement. Moreover lack of zon Robotics) in the year 2012 for $775 million. Ac-
transparency in the chain creates difficulty in investi- cording to Deutsche Bank, the deployment of the ro-
gation and hold people responsible for illegal activities botics in supply chain equates to a roughly $22 million
that have occurred along the chain. So basically, com- per year savings in facilities where they are in use, and
plexities involved and non-integration of supply chains an estimation of 20% reduction in operating costs. If
have hampered the traceability of the product. Deutsche Bank’s estimates are considered close, Ama-
SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY CHALLENGES: zon has proved that there can be tremendous value to
According to Deloitte’s 2013 Global Supply Chain Risk gain through the use of robotics within the fulfillment
Survey identified the following impacts, risks, and center of the supply chain.
challenges:
Erosion of profit margin and sudden changes of de- USE CASE OF ROBOTICS IN PHARDMACEUTICAL SUP-
mand PLY CHAIN:
Alterability effects as a result of extended value chain Robotics has in fact come a long way in the pharma
Supply chain inefficient risk management Lack of end- industry from carrying micro tilter plates to schedul-
to-end visibility Technology obsolescence Hence, to ing the software system to eliminate human error
make the supply chain reliable and transparent, IoT thereby helps in maintaining the quality of the in-
and Robotics are implemented. strument. Robotics have been used in:
•Research and Development
ROBOTICS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: •Laboratory Robotics
As we know supply chain is considered most important •Control systems
and critical for the overall wellbeing of an organiza- •Vision systems
tion. It can grow and expand further with autonomous •Sterilization and Clean rooms
robots, where they can be programmed to perform •Flexible feeding
tasks with little or absolutely no intervention or inter- •Packaging Operations
action. Robotics in supply chain especially in Pharma indus-
Robotics in supply chain execution, especially when it

comes to “order fulfillment processes” in the ware-
house becomes difficult as processes like these actu-
ally involve a very high degree of human involvement
as well as a enormous amount of movement through-
out the facility. It is not as if robotics and its technolo-
gies have been absent from these areas in the recent
past; there are couple of use cases but none were exe- try has been here for almost 2 decades. Once they
cuted at a large scale across supply chain execution. were just confined to clinical laboratories but now
Those organizations that have introduced robotics into they have found their way into packaging processes
their warehousing and fulfillment operations have in as well.

Both of these technologies are getting popular and

INTERNET OF THINGS IN SUPPLY CHAIN: companies have already started taking steps in in-
IoT has a lot more application in the aspects of Supply vesting on them. Also, off late there is an emerging Arti-
chain management such as Location tracking, Fleet ficial Intelligence coming up on our way known as Inter-
Management and Environment sensing. net of Robotic things. This is in fact an emerging vision
IoT in Supply chain helps in capturing the real time data of the future to bring together pervasive sensors and
of the product’s journey. It helps any stakeholder with objects with robotic and autonomous systems. Early
valid credentials to retrieve the information. signs of IoT and Robotics convergence has been distrib-
uted to bring in a strong added value and this will en-
USE CASE OF IoT IN PHARDMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN: hance the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry
Block chain’s one of the features being, smart contract that it has been implemented on.
functionality, along with the use of IoT devices, could in
fact deliver an efficient, effective and continuous drug -Kavya Nivedhita.B.
tracking processes capability for pharmaceutical stake- Institute of Financial Management and Research—
holders where the full provenance of a product’s unit, Graduate School of Business
its conditions, authority rights, and checkpoint approv-
als could be accessed at any point in time, thereby im-
proving the complete audit trail of each item or product
in the chain. Any deviation, such as the with regard to
the drug temperature, could be captured through an
IoT device, whose data would be considered as an input
and tracked via smart contracts on the block chain. If
certain pre-defined conditions are not met and are
failed, drugs could be recalled before they are released
into the market. Using tested detection capabilities for
negative conditions and recalling a drug on time could
not only reduce stakeholders’ compliance risk but could
also prevent the sale of dangerous products in the mar-
ket and potentially protect patients from adverse
events or medical accidents. Enhancing the contracts
with a digital signature could also provide stakeholders
with an accurate and accountable tracking throughout
a drug’s lifecycle from its beginning to its very end,
leading to dis-intermediation of the chain by elimi-
nating the actual need for certification processes by a
“sole authoritative source”.
CONCLUSION - DIGITAL FUSION:

Robotics and IoT can push the supply chain to another
level than the level it is now. Imagine how the Supply
chain process actually works : from multiple sensors
track things like location, delivery stages, and food stor-
age conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.), and Ro-
botics provides ease of carrying out the processes, thus,
removing the need for intermediaries as well as any
intervention.

FAMOUS FIRSTS

Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) in Dairy Supply Chain
INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMS FACED IN DAIRY SUPPLY CHAIN SECTOR

India, a country with the second largest population of High dependence of the farmers on the contractors for
133Cr and one of the largest milk consumer in the milk collection leads to decrease in the level of quality
of milk. [Raghavendra Verma,2014]. The farmers do not
world with a production of 176.3 Tonnes in the year
have an alternate source other than the contractor to
2017-2018. sell the milk since he is the single point of contact ,as
The per capita consumption of milk is 375gms per day result he tends to charge huge commission from farm-
[Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics, DAHD&F, GOI]. It ers.
also can be seen that there is an average increase in Another problem faced by the farmers is the
consumption of 6% Year on Year. environment aspect, where the grounds on which milk-
ing and distribution is done are unhygienic. Cows tend
to become sick or sometimes even fatal when proper
hygienic conditions are not maintained. As a result it
affects the production quantity for the farmers, who are
already living with small profits. Clean water and hy-
gienic food which is a necessity for the cows sometimes
are not met.In order to increase the milk production ,
cows are given antibiotics It can also be seen that farm-
[Source: https://www.nddb.coop/information/stats/
ers do not have adequate knowledge about the im-
milkprodindia]
portance of quality of milk which has to be sold to cus-
tomers.
However, the total processing of this milk is only 35
per cent with unorganized sector accounting for 20
Most of the farmers travel on two wheelers to
per cent share and organized sector representing 15
sell their milk, during transportation where the milk is
per cent share. The dairy supply chain in India is com-
exposed to surrounding air, which results in contamina-
plex process as production and processing units are
tion in milk. The farmers are unaware of integrated sup-
often dispersed in different regions. As a result of in-
ply chain and are easilty exploited by the contractors.It
creased complexity, there is poor flow of information
can also be seen there is low return of investment for
along the supply chain from the customer to the sell-
the farmers and lack of reliable data from the govern-
er. The efficient movement of milk depends on the
ment.
supply chain which involves transportation, pro-
cessing and handling of milk and there is huge scope
The problem faced by the farmers day to day
of improvement along the supply chain [ Murali and
are huge numbers and once field of improvement can
Roy,2008 ].
be done in the field of logistics.

blood banks to hospitals. The same can be applied to

cold storage supply chain for dairy industry.
Real time temperature of milk which should be main-
tained between -2ºC to 6ºC can be monitored by cus-
tomer and seller at the same time. This live monitoring
helps us to maintain the quality of milk is reaching the
supplier.
[Source : Shah, Deepak. (2016). Synthesis of Agribusi- With continuous upgradation of chilling cen-
ness Success Models Under Co-Operative and Private tres and many more to be opened in coming time, the
Sector in India. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ challenge of managing these high value assets with
ssrn.2885224] associated accessories & parts becomes humungous.
INTERNET OF THINGS IN LOGISTICS: There comes the solution of maintaining a futuristic
With India advancing in the technological field and monitoring & controlling cold chain solution which
huge push by Government of India, lots of start ups are wipes all the operational problems and let entire Dairy
emerging in the field of IoT in supply chain. The main supply chain start churning huge profits out of it.
reason for this can be seen there is huge scope for re- [ http://www.stellapps.com/]
search in this field and only 7% articles are published in CONCLUSION:
this field. Already many Dairy companies have deployed remote

monitoring cold chain solutions to strengthen up their
cold chain. Dairy Unions like Tumkur Union (KMF Kar-
nataka), BAMUL (KMF Karnataka), Kolar Union, Aavin
(Tamil Nadu), Milma (Kerala) etc have been continu-
ously scaling up on such solutions and realizing better
operational results with improved earnings. Even Dairy
farmers in the region are able to fetch better prices for
their milk from Dairy companies and are happy to have
such Technological solutions deployed. [http://
www.stellapps.com/]
With India on the path of becoming a Devel-
oped country and digital push along with Make in India
[Sourcehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/.compag.2017.09.015 initiative huge opportunities present it won’t be long
0168-1699/_ 2017 Elsevier] till became a global supply chain player in dairy indus-
With the arrival of internet available everywhere, the try. Enroute to this path much research will be done in
use of sensors can be implemented for real time track- the field of logistics to help farmers to provide optimal
ing of temperature of milk during transportation .At solutions and help them generate profits.
present in medical field, IoT based sensors are present

in cold storage units during blood transportation from

Big meetings and big talk are not enough in a

world that is hungry for change. Big action - world leaders
keeping their promises, and developing countries com-
mitting resources while listening ardently to the voice of
the small farmer is needed to bring big results and pros-
perity to the world's poor.
-Sylvia Mathews Burwell
REFERENCES:
1. Murali, D and Shankar Kumar Roy (2008), ‘Supply

Chain a Major Challenge for Indian Retail Sector’,
The Hindu, April 1.
2. Shah, Deepak. (2016). Synthesis of Agribusiness
Success Models Under Co-Operative and Private
Sector in India. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/
ssrn.2885224.
3. https://www.just-food.com/management-
briefing/the-supply-chain-issues-facing-the-
sector_id127994.aspx
4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2017.09.015.
0168-1699/_ 2017 Elsevier]
5. https://www.nddb.coop/information/stats/
milkprodindia
6. http://www.stellapps.com/
- Abinesh Arul , Puja Chavan
Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Nashik

SUCCESS STORY– AMAZON

Industry 4.0: Being future ready

Keywords:integration, manufacturing, shared economy, the rapid growth of technology with regard
value drivers, digitalization, automation, internet, cyber to industrial development. The transformations are
physical systems (CPS), internet of things (IoT), industrial guided by 4 major principles of:
IoT (IIoT), big data, artificial intelligence (AI) interoperability, information transparency,
technical assistance and decentralized decision
1. Introduction
making. Interoperability refers to enabling a
1.1 Change is inevitable Industry 4.0 refers to the seamless communication between machine-to-
integration of digital transformations and innovations machine (M2M) and machine-man operations (CPS,
concerning industrial processes. The underlying social IoT, IoP). Information transparency
objective of Industry 4.0 lie in operational efficiency, includes making the digital imprint of the plant
better decision making, higher profitability and models, making a virtual copy of the physical
delivering enhanced value to all stakeholders involved in world. Technical assistance is adopting central
the business. The fueling prowess behind such physical systems performing range of tasks and
development is Internet and its augmentation with acting as efficient support mechanisms. Automation
machines, whether big or small. and network efficiency are primary functions.
As we progress in this write-up, we will come across The fourth principle of decentralized decision
what are these machines, their types and how are they making deals with using business intelligence,
poised to make transformations. Industry 4.0 is often working at wisdom level (a level up from
used or referred similar to as fourth industrial knowledge) leveraging AI and ML techniques for
revolution. The latter is a much wider sphere and optimal-automated results. The models are
includes domains such as smart cities, e-governance expected to have better reliance in terms
including industry. of prediction confidence and risk mitigation.
In the current context, let us see path of Industrial 2. Technology
progress. It will help us understand why it’s Industry 4.0
2.1 Making it happen In the last 10-15 years, world
and what associated potentials of change and challenges
have witnesses long strides in technological
it possess.
capabilities. Be its internet penetration, smart-
phones scope and utility, smart devices and
computing and storage through cloud services. We
live in a time where it is impossible to think of our
lives without our smart gadgets and the internet
both in our daily routines and in industrial set-up.
The pace of change is something that is new to
mankind. Here are list of some drivers and enablers
to such rapid change.
2.2 Key drivers
Smart-phones and basic phones, Internet,

Integration of devices, automation, Social media
1.2 Simple is complex What will be our next generation and networks, Huge streams of data generation (3
factories be like? How smart will it be? Who will rule: Vs of Big Data: Volume, Velocity, Variety),
man or machines? How complex will be the future User awareness, involvement and adoption
technologies? ….
These are some absorbing questions relevant to

2.3 Key enablers Telecom/Network capabilities: 5G, 4G equipment, product testing the model, blueprints
LTE, Edge, wireless sensor network (WSN) and efficiency of a physical device in real time using
simulations.
Device capabilities: sensors (SPS & active), actuators,
embedded boards, relay switches, IC chips, Bluetooth Dedicated batch processing: It is relevant to serving the
(Beacons, NFC), RFID, Quick Response (QR) codes needs of small demand variants where the whole
manufacturing process is specifically customized and
Advance technologies: IoT, IIoT, Cloud Storage and
going for small batches or mixed batches of
Computing, Edge-Fog Computing, Blockchain, Network
production.
Analyser, Advanced Data Visualization
Co-bots: Collaborative robots are getting smarter every
3. Trends
day and fitting in our workspace. They are there to
3.1 Current use(s), applications and opportunities physically interact, support and when in need, guide us.
The industry has been proactive in adopting new There are industrial norms with regard to use of such
technologies related to automation and improves robots and in upcoming years the expected use likely to
operational efficiency. We can trace use of smart multiply across all domains.
communicating and complex computing devices in 4. Challenges and Solutions
inventory management, adopting lean process design,
asset tracking, spatial geo-computations, supply-chain
resource modeling. Amazon, Google, Alibaba, 4.1 Technical
IBM, CISCO and many giants are involved in creating
Big Data Handling and Processing: data volume, velocity
such innovative solutions in the field of
and variety of stream of data need large scale storage
retail, automobile, healthcare and agriculture.
and computing capabilities.
According to a PwC 2019 report, it is estimated that
Possible solution can be implementing ubiquitous
combined investments worth $1.6 trillion will be made
computing and data warehousing. Eg: Edge-Fog cloud
to install IoT solutions in 2020 having a total potential
computing, acting as a layer between steaming channels
economic impact of about $11.1 trillion by 2025.
and central node.
3.2 Trending
Managing protocols/ universality: These technologies are
Automation of process (es) including the machines as a emerging and yet to reach a threshold adoption in
part of the network itself promoting self-learning industry. There is a strong tussle between multiple
models and recommendation systems. Enabling a high Business consortiums to make their protocol claims as
degree of engagement to designers and user through industry standards.
Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality.
Security
Converging Operational Technology (OT): It is integrating
Security of IoT based devices is a critical challenge.
IT with OT, where the monitoring and controlling
Scope of data theft, surveillance and network routing
resources and asset management can be facilitated
and hacking have posed crucial implementation and
through new edge solutions.
regulative defiance.
One path-breaking example is from Amazon Warehouse
Level-base encryption network are major challenges
management, where smart drones are used to manage
when it comes to dealing with sensitive record(s)
the RFIDs enabled inventory spread in hundreds of
monitoring. We can see Blockchain based solutions to
acres. It significantly saves time and cost for the
security issue creating decentralized and distributed
business.
control over the data logs.
Digital Twin Technologies: It is creating a virtual replica
4.2 Others
of any physical device. This emerging technology is a
level up from 3D Nano-printing and is expected to bring Other important challenges include robust adaptation of
wonders to the manufacturing. We can use it for such technologies will require huge investments and

efforts. Any business must analyze the potential ROI and

objectives with regard to any business process change.
It is also often seen with industries that employees
are usually non-accommodative to new technology
practices and modifications. General overview comes
with a threat of loss of many blue-collared jobs, which is
partly true to an extent. Therefore, the firms must
handle its human capital and desired skill set with due
commitment.
5. Conclusion
5.1 Be relevant or lose grace

The industry must be forward looking and supportive in
adapting the tide of innovations. The scope and extent
of leveraging the advanced technology in manufacturing
and industrial set-up must be prompted by diligent
planning and framework. Technological advancement
enforce efficiency and stiff competition, therefore it is
imperative to be relevant with this sturdy pace of
progress. And also, we must remember that technology
is for simplifying actions, we must not end up in
complex whirls.
References:
• https://www.bcg.com/en-in/capabilities/
operations/embracing-industry-4.0-rediscovering
-grow th.aspx
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/
bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-
heres-a-super-eas y-explanation-for-anyone/
#4d8714619788
• https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/
internet-ofthings/our-insights/the-future-of-
conne ctivity-enabling-the-internet-of-things
• https://slcontrols.com/7-industry-4-0-trends-that
-will-influence-manufacturing-in-2019/
• Ojha, T., Misra, S., & Raghuwanshi, N. S. (2015).
Wireless sensor networks for agriculture
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_4.0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RPC7yo99Nxs
- Aman K . Kashyap
IIM Indore

GUESS WHO ?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Supply Chain is changing - Disruptions in the global supply chain management

Abstract: procuring produce from farmers at a low price and
selling to retailer restaurants at a premium.
Supply chain involves the sequence of processes related
to production and distribution of commodities. “A disruption is defined as a major breakdown in
Traditionally, non-perishable commodities have a better production or distribution nodes that impacts other
supply chain structure, as these commodities can be nodes in the supply chain” (Handfield et al. 2008). One
stored and distributed with minimal wastage. But startup which is trying disrupt the supply chain by
perishable commodities lose value over time in the leveraging technology is Ninjacart – a B2B Agri-tech
supply chain, thus, management of the supply network marketplace that connects farmers directly to
plays a pivotal role in defining the success or failure of businesses. Hence, Ninjacart is able to pay the farmers
the business. We examine high-margin business models 10-15% more than what middleman pays and sells to
of two B2B fresh-produce startups viz. Ninjacart and the retailer at 4-5% less. How the farm-to-fork supply
FreshtoHomes and how they have revolutionized the chain works? . Ninjacart, in an attempt to tackle the
global supply chain existing poor logistics and improper market
information, has deployed robust technology in their
supply chain. This disruption is an all-important
differentiator which contributes to their healthy
margins. The supply chain process adopted by Ninjacart
is as follows:
• Ninjacart informs the farmers about the desired
Tne category of perishable commodities are Fruits and
quality. After weighing and tagging, the produce
Vegetables. To a large extent these commodities are
is sent to the collection centers. Farmers are paid
neither served by technology nor have an efficient
for their produce in the next day
supply chain mechanism which could reduce wastage
and the time of travel. Since the products can rot,
farmers hedge the risk by selling produce within a day
or two to middleman at dirt cheap prices. Thus, leaving
the farmers vulnerable at the hands of the middlemen.
Not only farmers face the tedious task of selling at
correct price, customers (retailer restaurants, kirana • The produce then moves to the fulfillment
shops, etc.) equally face the tedious task of procuring center, and thereafter the crates are loaded onto
fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price. So, both the vehicles at the distribution centers and
parties depend on middlemen or mandis. In the whole subsequently delivered to the customers
process it’s the middlemen who makes profit by

Disruption in the Supply Chain Dynamics refrigerated trucks from harbour to household would
prevent the usage of preservative chemicals and control
A small or simple change at the grassroot level can help
the prices by eliminating the middlemen.
improve already wafer-thin operating margins and
farmers earnings too. Below is some unique technology FreshtoHomes – series A stage start-up is developing a
driven innovations followed by Ninjacart: fully controlled supply chain to deliver chemicalfree fish
and meat at a reasonable price. Indian fish market is
1. It uses an efficient algorithm to deliver the produce
extremely fragmented with more than 5000 harbours,
from the farm to retailers in less than 12 hours
the largest in the world. This makes direct sourcing from
eliminating the need to use cold storage trucks. 2. The
the harbours unviable for any fish sellers, unless they
delivery team doesn’t wait for the crates to be emptied
get involved with the middlemen for sourcing.
at the customer’s location; the crates are collected on
Freshtohomes enabled technology in logistics,
their way back instead. 3. Since they provide standard
marketplace and delivery network for direct sourcing
crates, thus the crates are collected midway in any of
and selling.
the nearest center and not necessarily collected at the
original collection center only. 4. Using Artificial Integrating the new supply chain technology in the
Intelligence (AI), the company is able to predict demand seafood and meet industry
from the data and allows the farmers to trim waste. In
Firstly, to address the issue of fragmentation and to
fact, the company provides information regarding which
eliminate the middlemen - the company has launched
crops to grow based on the demand, that way farmers
an app – the “Freshtohome commodities exchange”
which has established direct links with the fishermen
traders in each harbour. Also, the app has been made
vastly pictorial to simplify the transactions with the
fishermen across the western and the eastern coasts.
On the app, the traders select the image of the fish
they want to sell and quote their price. In the
backend, the tech engine of the company estimates
can diversify and increase their earnings
the demand, determines the prices and decides the
5. By leveraging deep machine learning algorithms, they purchase.
have brought down the overall produce wastage to 4%,
After sourcing the fish from the harbours, a stringent
as opposed to 30% wastage as per the industry
quality check is done at the collection centers before it
standards.
is transported to FreshtoHomes plants for testing
Just by disrupting the supply chain, the startup impacts microbial contamination and chemical adulteration.
positively on the life of the marginal farmers by The fish is transported in refrigerated trucks to
improving their income. different centers and then it is air shipped. The team
FreshtoHomes also uses temperature proof or iced boxes for last mile
delivery in bikes. Thus, a considerable portion of their
Another category of perishable commodity business -
investments is spent on the control of supply chain
Fish Farming - is witnessing an increase in innovation in
from direct sourcing to transporting and selling.
its age-old fish trade operating system. Before reaching
the retailers and vendors in big cities, the fish passes Secondly, unlike most Agri-tech start-ups focusing
through trader-fishermen, agents and Interstate mostly on the top 20% of the farmers in India,
distributors. This long-winded supply chain not only FreshtoHomes is helping innovate the supply chain in
keeps the prices high but also gives rise to the the participatory farming. It provides financial
unrestricted use of chemicals such as ammonia, assistance, steady supply of seed and feed, and
carcinogenic formalin and sodium benzoate to prevent guaranteed purchase assurance to fragmented fish
the fish from becoming stale. Thus, faster transport in farmers of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Thus,

innovation of FreshtoHomes in its supply chain goes to hundreds of small, local milk processors. Even
management has led to direct sourcing and the largest companies like Amul, Mother Dairy, and
participatory farming thereby eliminating the need of Nestlé have tiny percentages of the market, and they've
middlemen. Supply chain efficiency - a make or break been operating for decades. As per a 2016 report in The
for businesses India is the world's biggest producer Economic Times of India citing Euromonitor mentions
and consumer of dairy. In 2018 alone, India produced the market share of about 7 percent for Amul, 3.7
186 million metric tonnes of milk i.e. 22 % of the milk percent for Mother Dairy, and 2.9 percent for Nestlé.
produced globally. In 2011, the French dairy company This illustrates the fact that tapping into the existing
Danone hoped to capitalize on this by opening a
division in India. to capture some of Indian market

having a population of 1.2 billion people. But less than
a decade later, Danone closed their dairy business in
India. That same year, the company made 28 billion
dollars worldwide and was in the top three global
dairy companies. With all this success worldwide,
Danone's dairy business turned sour in India. The
company’s three business units are: specialized dairy infrastructure of India is extremely time
nutrition, bottled water and dairy and plant-based consuming.
alternatives. The dairy and plant-based alternatives
Humongous effort is required in contacting dozens or
makes up over half of their global sales, but it's also
hundreds of local and regional dairies, processors, or
the one that failed in India. There are about 75
individual farmers. But establishing a separate supply
million dairy farmers in India. Most of them are
chain altogether is very expensive — a lesson Danone
women who own one or two buffaloes or cows to
learned the hard way. Dairy never accounted for more
supplement the family's income. Nearly half of India's
than 10 percent of Danone's sales in India, a far cry
milk is not sold, but consumed by the farmers
from its global 50 percent.
household. This makes India's dairy industry far more
fragmented and localized than other countries where Meanwhile, its biggest competitor, Amul made nearly
Danone operates. For instance, Danone’s native five billion revenue from dairy. The main reason that
country and one of its biggest customers, the US, eachcould be attributed to Amul’s success is its highly
efficient supply chain across the country. In fact, Amul
has far fewer dairy farms with herds that dwarf India's
one or two animal average. was the first company to follow a three tier cooperative
structure consisting of cooperative societies at the
This was Danone's first big problem in India: sourcing
village level, milk unions a the district level and
milk is difficult. Of the half not consumed by farmers'
operated as a centralized unit from the state level. This
households, only about 15 % goes to big organized
model ensures that there is proficiency and swiftness in
companies or government run cooperatives. The rest

operations because of the efficient supply chain.

Meanwhile, its biggest competitor, Amul made nearly
five billion revenue from dairy. The main reason that
could be attributed to Amul’s success is its highly
efficient supply chain across the country. In fact, Amul
was the first company to follow a three tier cooperative
structure consisting of cooperative societies at the
village level, milk unions a the district level and
operated as a centralized unit from the state level. This
model ensures that there is proficiency and swiftness in
operations because of the efficient supply chain.
India’s dairy market is largely fragmented and
unorganized with huge growth potential . Companies
can tap the opportunity by innovating the supply chain
at the grass root level. As referred earlier in this
paper,B2B Agri-tech players such as Ninjacart and
FreshtoHomes have already disrupted the supply chain
of perishable goods by brining technology and
innovation into the supply chain management.
Similarly , a B2B player(s) with tech-enabled demand
aggregation, logistics and delivery channel could
organize the market and provide a strong value
proposition to bith the dairy farmers as well the dairy
sellers.
-Kiran Hota
XIMB


Leverage on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth across supply

chain
Abstract: range of 3–7%, which varies across several industries
[1]. As a result of faster movement of goods across the
Logistics and warehousing plays an essential role in the
country, in the near future, companies would need to
transportation of goodsa across the country. A
carry smaller levels of inventory to fulfil the same level
warehouse is a rudimentary part of business
of sales. This would reduce the carrying costs of
infrastructure and is one of the paramount enablers in
inventory and working capital requirements leading to
the global supply chain. It is the fulcrum for
significant financial savings.
procurement or purchase, manufacturing and
distribution services which collectively build robust Challenges:
economies. Highly efficient warehouse and logistic
Space is the major challenge faced by warehousing
network will increase the profitability and at the same
industry, apart from low retention of labour force,
time cut the cost borne by the end user, a step already
low perfect order rate and in case of e-commerce,
initiated post GST regime. This action will be further
specifically grocery e-commerce warehouses, the loss
accelerated by new generation warehousing and
due to return orders is in huge numbers.
logistics techniques.
Below are certain techniques which can be
Warehousing Industry Today:
implemented to make the warehousing more efficient
Logistics cost in India accounts for 13-17% of the Gross and increase the profits.
Domestic Product (GDP) which is nearly double (6-9%)
Future Trends:
the logistics cost to GDP ratio in developed countries
such as the Hong Kong, US and France. Much of the 1. Share Warehouse Space: The industry trend of
higher cost could be attributed to absence of efficient sharing/ delegating assets instead of owning them is
intermodal and multimodal transport systems. finding ground in the warehousing sector. Companies
Moreover, warehousing which approximately accounts who are leading the 3PL providers in India are
providing their services in managing the warehouse. In
such case, only the inventory is owned by the
company, rest all process, like the warehouse space,
manpower and operations is controlled by the 3PL.
E.g. Grofers (grocery e-commerce Company) share
warehousing, operations and outbound deliveries to
customers with Delhivery.
for 25% of the logistics cost has also been facing major
2. Minimum Inventory Warehouse: More than 50% of
challenges. This further added to the logistics cost borne
the cost and space in a warehouse is held by
by the end users and other stakeholders [1].
inventory. Inventory is that entity which can bring
Earlier, the incentives to foray into India’s warehousing about significant cost reduction in the overall
sector was minimal for organised players. Companies warehouse operations. If inventory is kept at
maintained smaller warehouses in each state due to minimum level, then the amount held up is freed
multiple state and central level taxes. Further, this which will eventually decrease the warehouse size.
limited the focus on higher throughput and automation.
The data can be used to identify the quantity of the
Currently, i.e. post GST, companies are enjoying the inventory which is required in the warehouse to fulfil
immediate benefits from removal of check points. daily orders. By doing this, the warehouse will hold
According to the survey conducted by Knight Frank inventory quantity just enough to satisfy the orders.
research, this has led to average cost saving in the The frequency of the inbound shall be increased to

meet the low level of inventory. systems need to be supported with efficient and 24-
hour monitoring devices to ensure smooth functioning.
The cycle time of the inventory shall be reduced to 5
Thus, cold chain warehouses have advanced warehouse
days from an average15 days. This will ensure that the
management systems that make use of high end tools
stock is fresh, less damages due to holding of
like big data analytics for real time monitoring.
inventory and more space utilisation in the
warehouse. 5. Multi-Storey Warehousing: Multi-storey warehouses
came up as a solution in land–constrained countries to
3. Smart Warehousing: Like smartphones, smart
increase the usable floor space per square foot of land.
warehouses are the ones that with the help of
It is gradually gaining grip in other countries as well.
technology effectively perform multiple functions
Such warehouses need sound architectural design as
simultaneously. They are also referred to as intelligent
well as technological
warehouses or warehouses that think. In such
planning so that all
warehouse, all gadgets and devices are fitted with
supply chain processes
sensors and are connected to each other via the
can be carried out on all
Internet. This connectivity gives the gadgets the ability
floors without any
to synchronize their processes thereby enabling
hindrance. Multi–storey
smooth operations. Internet of Things, Cloud
warehouses have been
Computing, Big Data Analytics, Robotics and
common in the Asian
Automation together enable the concept of a Smart
cities of Tokyo,
Warehouse. They are all necessary elements of a larger
Singapore and Hong
integrated ecosystem.
Kong. Land is a limited
E.g. Amazon is known for pioneering the smart resource here and
warehouse model and so this concept is at times therefore the need to
referred to as the Amazon Effect. Its warehouses in maximise utilisation of
Europe and the US have set the benchmark for smart the available space.
warehouses.
In such warehouses, the
4. Temperature-Controlled Warehousing: Also inventory will be
known as cold-chain warehousing, these warehouses occupied in the upper
are equipped with temperature–controlled floors and outbound will be located on the ground floor.
environments required for the storage of cool cargo Gravity drop will used to transfer the order from upper
products. Products like frozen foods, fresh agricultural floors to the ground floor. Such system will be very
produce, pharmaceuticals, photographic films and effective in e-commerce warehouse where huge
chemicals are sensitive to temperature change either amount of orders move from inventory to outbound all
due to a smaller shelf– life or due to their sensitive the time.
chemical composition. To avoid damage to these
6. Conveyor belt sorting: Largely implemented in the
products
Amazon warehouses of the US and Europe, this
it is necessary to maintain a fixed temperature range 24 conveyor belt system speeds up the order processing
hours seven days a week. This has led to the need of speed. This system reduces the human involvement,
cold-chain warehouses. Such warehouses are equipped thereby reducing the order errors and increasing the
with temperature-control systems. Systems with a perfect order rate.
temperature range of 2°C–8°C and 15°C– 25°C are very
Though, this system is not used in India widely because
common in pharmaceutical industries. Along with
the cost involved in setting up the conveyor belt
temperature, these temperature-control systems also
system is much higher than employing labour.
need to maintain other product specifics and
parameters like air quality levels (carbon dioxide, Conclusion:
oxygen, humidity and others). Furthermore, such
The warehouse industry is booming in India with total

297 million square feet space by 2021[2]. The

traditional warehousing techniques are still effective in
India because of high set up cost and cheap available
labours. Automation is still a distant step since the
investment required is substantially high as compared
to hiring labour. Even the Amazon India warehouses
do not use automation in picking process.
There is a dire need to devise process which require
minimum investment and give significant results.
Warehouse layout, picking process and managing
inventory is necessary to cut warehousing cost,
thereby reducing total supply chain cost. For this, a
robust operation system is required.
Reference:
[1]Indian Warehousing Market Report 2018, Knight
Frank Research.
[2] JLL India.
- Pratik Soma
SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Nashik

Support sustainability and reliability in the end to end supply chain activities
The future holds tremendous opportunities for the these needs some companies will depend on
consumer companies. Nearly 1.9 billion people are innovation to make products which will require less
expected to join the global consumption class, a 75 energy and material. But most consumer companies
percent growth from 2010.Not only there is a will find their answers to sustainability performance in
burgeoning in the number of consumers, but also their Supply Chains.
there is a rise in the disposable income across the
The Remedy: A Sustainable and Reliable supply chain A
world. For example in China, by 2030 around 100
sustainable and reliable supply chain allows a
million working age consumers will be added to the
consumer company to mitigate two types of
economy, and their spendings on consumer products
sustainability related risks. One type of risk is the
will be double the present value. These numbers
sustainability impact of making and providing goods for
contribute to a strong growth projection for the
the customers. For a typical consumers company the
consumer sector: 5 percent YOY for the next 20 years.
impact of its supply chain on the front of both the
This is wonderful news for investors.
environment and society is far more than its own
The present value of the expected cashflow for a operations. Its supply chain accounts for 80 percent of
company plays a huge role in measuring its worth. And the greenhouse gas emissions and 90 percent of the
the enterprise value of the top 50 publicly traded impact on air, water, land and biodiversity. Thus such a
FMCG companies showed that, the expected growth in company can significantly improve its sustainability
the cash flows made up roughly half of their current performance by focusing on its supply chain. The
worth. And as such any alterations in the expected second type of risk occurs because the sustainability
growth projections of these companies will have performance can obstruct the supply chain of the
serious impact on their returns to the shareholders. company. For example Unilever estimated that it loses
€ 300 every year due to worsening water scarcity.
One major factor which can turn these projections
upside down is the company’s poor sustainability Even after recognizing these risks very few companies
performance- in terms of the environment and society. are actually working with their suppliers to mitigate
Firstly, it will be impossible for the FMCG to produce these risks. According to CDP worldwide, an
and sell goods without reliable and affordable supplies organization which promotes companies to disclose
of energy and natural resources . Secondly, they will their environment impact data, only 25 percent of the
need approval from the consumers, shareholders and companies worldwide engage with the supplier to cut
government to carry out their businesses. But down emissions. But even if a company tries to work
companies can no longer take these supporting factors with its suppliers, they mostly run into a number of
for granted. There has been a recent consensus across challenges. One major challenge is that primary
the global leaders regarding the importance of the suppliers often subcontract portions of their orders to
sustainability performance. For example, the Paris other firms. Subcontracts give little sense of control to
Agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the companies with hardly any oversight regarding the
climate change by keeping the global rise in social and environmental impacts.
temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre
Such challenges prevents consumers companies from
-industrial levels. To meet such climate goals consumer
understanding the sustainability impacts of the
companies have to cut down their greenhouse –gas
segments in the supply chain where the impact is
emissions significantly.
probably the worst. Without a sense of understanding
The need of the hour for the consumer companies is to of the sustainability problems at the different stages of
find a way to capitalize the growing demands without the supply chain, it is impossible for these companies
harming the environment or human welfare. To meet to begin working along with their suppliers to solve

these issues. the global sustainability agenda Once the company

identifies the critical issues in its supply chain ,
Despite the challenges, the consumer companies are
they can set targets to lessen the resulting
responsible towards customers who are concerned
impacts. Ideally, they will set these targets based
about the sustainability of the goods they buy and the
on scientific recommendations for bringing various
investors who are concerned about the sustainability
impacts under certain limits that will maintain or
of the company. So it is of utmost importance that
improve human wellbeing. For examples based on
these companies ensure that their supply chain are
the targets set by Intergovernmental Panel on
managed well. Some ways to go about it has been
Climate Change for reducing greenhouse-gas
discussed below.
emissions, the TSC has calculated that the
Three ways to improve sustainability and reliability in consumer –staple sector must cut down their
the end to end supply chain activities : greenhouse-gas emission by 16-17 percent to do
• Identify the critical issues across the entire supply their bit for the global reduction between 2010 &
chain 2020.Reaching these targets will help them to save
$18 billion in costs. General mills used this
Companies must find ways to determine how the
approach to set an emission reduction
natural and human resources are impacted at each
target ,across its entire value chain ,that
step of its supply chain activities as well as its internal
corresponds to internationally agreed upon target
operations. The company must also consider a wide
of 41 to 72 percent reduction from 2010 levels, by
range of social, environmental and economic issues.
2050. For this General Mills announced that it
Due to the sheer variety in consumer goods these
would strive to cut emissions “from farm to fork to
issues can differ significantly from product to product.
landfill” by 30 percent within a decade .To reach
For example, LCD manufacturing causes high emissions
these goals the company is motivating its
of greenhouse gases while a coffee plantations are
agricultural suppliers to follow sustainable
susceptible to to hire underage workers for cultivation.
practices and has pledged to obtain 100 percent of
Several organizations provide measurement 10 priority ingredients from sustainable sources by
frameworks and tools which helps companies to 2020.
identify the most critical issues in their supply chain:
• Help suppliers to manage impacts – and make sure
 The Sustainability Consortium (TSC),a global non- that they follow through Some effective methods
profit organization dedicated to improve to change supplier’s practices:
sustainability of consumer goods, has created a set
 Digital Technology: Digital technology has helped
of KPIs and a system for reporting that highlights
companies to assist large number of suppliers.
sustainability hotspots for more than 100
Walmart recently launched a program to assist
consumer product categories, covering 90 % of
thousands of its Chinese suppliers to increase the
the impact of consumer goods. World Wildlife
energy efficiency in their factories through the use
Fund (WWF) offers more than 60 KPIs to measure
on an online tool. This had helped the average
supply chain risk involved in the production of a
supplier to reduce its energy consumption by 10
range of commodities, as well the severity and
percent.
probability of these risks more than 100 consumer
product categories, covering 90 % of the impact of  Incentives: Consumer companies can also offer
consumer goods incentives to promote sustainable practices among
its suppliers. Walmart has vowed that by 2020 , 80
 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) offers more than 60
percent of the goods it sells will come from
KPIs to measure supply chain risk involved in the
suppliers that uses Walmart’s Sustainability index,
production of a range of commodities, as well the
a supplier sustainability scorecard. Moreover, on
severity and probability of these risks
their ecommerce website, products from suppliers
• Associate the supply chain sustainability goals to with highest Sustainability Index scores are tagged

as “made by Sustainability Leaders”, providing

them an incentive to participate.
 Collaborative efforts: Since supply chains overlap
in many sectors , companies have realized the
benefits of a collective effort and have begun
working together to involve their supplier network
in sustainability efforts. For example, Consumer
Goods Forum (CGF) , a global network of more
than 400 retailers and manufacturers , have made
a collective commitment to achieve zero net
deforestation by 2020. CGF members are pursuing
this goal by responsible sourcing of 4 key
products : beef, pulp and paper, soy and palm oil.
Consumer companies have started to realize the
extent to which their supply chain contributes to
global sustainability challenges as well as the
impact poor sustainability management can have
on their top and bottom lines .A few leading
companies have already started working with their
suppliers with different programs and tools to
reduce the sustainability impacts and have begun
to realize the benefits of their efforts. Such efforts
have led the onus on other companies to initiate
similar activities. Companies with the most
sustainable and reliable supply chain are well
positioned to gain from the boom in consumer
spending that is expected to occur in the next
decade and beyond.
-Sourav Chaliha
NMIMS Mumbai

SUCCESS STORY– NIKE

Innovations in last mile delivery

A new disruption up with solutions. This is what spurs innovation. And
without innovation, the world as it is would stagnate.
July 15th and 16th saw Amazon’s Prime Day feature
numerous discounts varying anywhere from 20% to a Volkswagen seems to be in the testing phase for a
whopping 80% of the retail price. Myntra also held its solution to such a problem: their “We Deliver”
End of Season Sale (EOSS) from the 18th to 21st July, initiativei , in co-operation with DHL, involves a delivery
advertising similar kinds of discounts. One thing that person being granted onetime access to the boot of a
these two companies share in common is that both are Volkswagen automobile using his or her parcel scanner
players in the e-commerce space. The advent of e- along with a code provided by Volkswagen. The code is
commerce in modern times is arguably one of the most issued to the courier, conditional on confirmation from
significant disruptions to the area of last mile delivery, the customer. Customers can then pick up their
as it has led to an increase in quantity (in terms of packages from their cars at their own convenience.
orders placed) and quality (in terms of same-day
Look ma, no hands!
shipping, etc.) of demand from customers. This further
exacerbates the problems faced by last-mile delivery In this day and age, many an operations manager has
since very early days: the problem of high shipping costs had to painstakingly give in to high labor costs in cities
and demand variability. This has led to a need for many where wages are considered to be on the higher side.
innovations in the area of last mile delivery. What’s worse is that these wages are often-times
spent on non-value adding activities such as waiting in
Pop the trunk
traffic, trying to find a parking spot, etc. It may
Mr. Shyam Verma sat in the second row of his therefore please these executives to know that
Competitive Strategy lecture at the esteemed ISB. The autonomous vehicles may be expected to provide last-
professor was an alum of IIM Ahmedabad and had mile delivery solutions in the near future.
decades upon decades of industry experience and
Renault’s “EZ-PRO”ii is a plan of action involving many
commanded the respect of all his students. Mr. Verma
driverless pods that are supervised by an autonomous
had, accordingly, switched his phone to silent mode (of
leader pod controlled by a human “concierge”.
course, in this day and age, no one really turns their
However, this solution requires some co-operation on
smartphones off, even when asked to) to avoid
the part of the customer; a convenient delivery time
distractions in the middle of the esteemed professor’s
must be provided by the customer in order for the
lecture. After two hours of intense focus and analyzing
delivery to be a success. The customers further have
structural industry changes in the provided case, the
the option to choose between having the concierge
class was dismissed. Upon exiting the class, the first
make the delivery or to obtain their delivery package
thing Mr. Verma did was to check his smartphone, only
from lockers on the driverless robot pods. One point of
to find three missed calls and a notification from the
note is that such solutions may not be perfect in cities
delivery company, informing him that his long-awaited
where labor costs are not so high. In fact, in such
smartphone case could not be delivered due to
areas, the initial investment may be too high, and
unresponsiveness on his part. Mr. Verma drew a breath
customers too unwilling to cope with the advent of
of mild annoyance, exhaled sharply, and started on his
new technological innovations. It stands to reason,
route to the next lecture.
then, that each solution requires an appropriate
This may seem like a trivial problem to have; after all, context, and should not be shoe-horned into whatever
delivery is more often than not attempted again as situation one is confronted with.
soon as possible in such scenarios, with minimal
The communal delivery-place
inconvenience to the customer. However, despite the
triviality of the matter, the situation is still a problem, Imagine you are coming home from a long day of work.
and, for every problem, it is our prerogative to come You aren’t driving back home, since your commute
takes place during peak rush-hour traffic; you decided

a long time ago that being packed into a metal box with example of the kind of data that route optimization
a bunch of other strangers for 25 minutes was better should be based on, rather than static maps of cities.
than being stuck alone in your own personal metal box Lowered delivery times would increase throughput
in a sea of other metal boxes for over 80 minutes. As while, at the same time, increasing customer
you get off your station, you take a slight detour to a satisfaction.
shop that is perhaps marked with the logo of a delivery
The way ahead
company. Once inside, you make your way to a neat
row of lockers parked at the back of the store, input an It is very tempting to think that the above solutions,
access code to a certain locker, retrieve your parcel, and individually or in aggregate, will provide a silver bullet
are on your way, parcel tucked firmly under your arm. solution to the problem that has plagued this segment
of outbound logistics for ages. However, the age of
The concept of an intermediate delivery place from
innovations that advance any particular field in leaps
which customers can retrieve their parcels at their own
and bounds is over. It is more prudent to expect more
convenience is an idea that is ingenious in its simplicity
minor, more persistent incremental innovations to last
and has been pursued by several companies concerned
mile delivery. At the end of the day, the progress from
with last mile delivery, such as UPSiii, FedExiv, and DHLv .
65% efficiency to
However, there are deeper complexities lurking
underneath the seemingly shallow shores: the communal 95% efficiency has already occurred in most areas. Now
delivery place is most effective with a combined source is the age of the slow advance, from 95% onwards.
of input. Simply put, this idea must work well, and to i.We Deliver: A trunk full of new ideas
work well, a majority of companies should cater to the
ii.Meet Renault EZ-PRO: a robo-vehicle AND a concierge
same intermediate delivery areas.
for last mile delivery
Customers don’t care who delivers to them, as long as a
iii.UPS Access Point ivhttps://www.fedex.com/en-us/
delivery company does not become a source of
shipping/store/all-location-types.html
inconvenience. If customers have to go to 3 different
places because their parcels are being delivered by three iv.DHL Packstation
different companies, this idea will quickly become a v.https://www.beckfriends.com/
burden on the customer, and the idea will subsequently
flop.
- Sharanya Sharma
Crowd-sourcing delivery, and a better route
Indian School of Business
One way to deal with the highly volatile customer
demands on a day-to-day basis is to keep a barebones
fleet in order to deal with the minimum expected
demand from customers every day, and to outsource
delivery at a microlevel. This would drastically reduce
costs in areas where demand varies by large amounts on
a daily basis. In India, Beck Friends is an example of a
company providing crowd-sourced delivery solutions .
Another possibility to improve last mile delivery is to
use artificial intelligence in route optimization and to
include more realistic data. For instance, instead of
merely looking at roads on a map, perhaps it would be
more prudent to base route optimization
methodologies on data that accurately depicts traffic
conditions, weather conditions, and any other data
relevant to traffic conditions. Google maps is just one

CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Across Down
3. This effect aggregates things 1. I like to slow things down. You can find me on
5. Neither an early bird, nor a late comer. Will see Mount K2
you on time. 2. You need me but don't know how much.
7. I shall never fail you. Ever! 4. Levelling
8. Life is colorful and so am I 6. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle But just don't waste
Note: Write '-' for blank space in case of terms with more than one word.
Down: 1. BOTTLENECK 2. INVENTORY 4. HEIJUNKA 6.LEAN
Across: 3. BULLWHIP 5. JUST-IN-TIME 7. POKAYOKE 8. KANBAN

THE TEAM
From left:
Jayasankar S , Pogala Gowtham , Vinay Xavier, Amogh Sanjay Chonkar, Parmar Tejas Bhailalbhai ,
Kalpit Jain


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MAGISTER OPERANDI—AUTUMN 2019

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

1 From the HOD's Desk 4

2 Faculty Coordinator’s Message 5

5 Words from Opera 9

6 Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Indian context 10

8 Last mile delivery innovations and the way ahead 15

10 Improve Supply chain efficiency through robotics & IoT technology 19

12 Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) in Dairy supply chain 22

13 Success story – Amazon 25

14 Industry 4.0 : Being future ready 26

16 Supply Chain is changing - Disruptions in the global supply chain management 30

18 Leverage on new-gen warehousing and fulfilment to drive growth across 35

2 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Serial No. Title Page No.

20 Success story– NIKE 41

21 Innovations in last mile delivery 42

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 3

From the HOD's Desk

Prof. Shivganesh Bhargava

4 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Faculty Coordinator’s Message

6 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 7

8 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Words from Opera

Vinay Xavier Amogh Sanjay Chonkar Jayasankar S

Kalpit Jain Parmar Tejas Bhailalbhai Pogala Gowtham

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 9

Sustainable Supply Chain Management : Indian Context

Sustainable Supply Chain

Management: Indian New Terms in SSCM:

Fig. 3: Closed-loop supply chain adopted by XEROX (Source:

As the evolution took charge in the SCM industry, it strived to

10 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

SSCM Drivers: Supplier with non-hazardous process or/and non-

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 11

an undeniable impact on the environment. To 8.Occupational safety

12 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

In the above discussion, we have listed down

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 13

14 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Last mile delivery innovations and the way ahead

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 15

16 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

It is evident from the above diagram than Courier,

- Jeevanantam N, IIM Lucknow

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 17

Down: 1. RANDOM-STOW 2. SIX-SIGMA 4.INCOTERMS 6.AGILE

Across: 3. KAIZEN 5. PARETO 7. SEGMENTATION 8. JIDOKA

18 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Improve Supply Chain Efficiency through Robotics and IoT Technology

Robotics in supply chain execution, especially when it

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 19

Both of these technologies are getting popular and

CONCLUSION - DIGITAL FUSION:

20 Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay 21

Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) in Dairy Supply Chain

INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMS FACED IN DAIRY SUPPLY CHAIN SECTOR