Launch of Strive V - Automobiles

The fifth edition of Strive, the biannual publication from OPEP (the Operations and Supply Chain Club of IIM Raipur), was launched on the 4th of October, 2013, by Prof. B S Sahay, Director, IIM Raipur together with Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governer of RBI (left) and Dr. B.S Sahay, Director of IIM Raipur

This time around the central theme of the magazine is ‘Automobiles’. The main features of this publication include articles on Supply Chain Performance Measurement by Prof. Parikshit Charan (Prof.  IIM Raipur), Emergence of Supply Chain in Indian automotive industry by Dr. Tapan Sahoo (VP, Maruti Suzuki) and also an interview with Mr. Sanjeev Khapre (EVP, Exide Industries India Ltd.) The edition also features articles on the scenario of Hybrid Cars in the Indian context and reverse logistics in the Indian automotive industry. 

The publication presents articles written by students about some of the contemporary issues and trends in the automobile sector – ‘Green Revolution Part – III’ discusses the present trends in electric car industry in India and provides insights on the growth potential for these cars in the future. ‘Evolution of Supply Chain in Automotive Industry’ talks about the various stages of development in the concepts, philosophies and practices in the field of Supply Chain Management across the world in the automobile sector.

The ‘Regular’ section in the magazine covers Summer Internship experiences of students, Guru Mantra - which explains the concept of Car Sharing, Debate on Two Wheelers against Four Wheelers in India, Book Review – Lee Iacocca and a Crossword puzzle.

The magazine will now be available for students of all B-schools across India and abroad and also for industry-relevant professionals.

Click on the link below to read.
http://opepiimraipur.blogspot.in/p/e-magazines.html

Post by OPEP Club, IIM Raipur.

HOW E-MARKETPLACES HAVE HELPED IMPROVE SUPPLY CHAIN

Supply chain is the term used to define the system of organizations, assets and activities involved in the conversion of raw materials into finished products and moving the product or service from the supplier to the customer. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is defined as the efficient integration of warehousing, manufacturing, logistics and distribution. In lay mans’ terms, SCM is ensuring that materials are available at the correct point in the correct amount at the correct time.

The primary objective of SCM is to minimize the costs involved the sourcing, warehousing, logistics and distribution.

The major obstacles in SCM are:

• Purchasing
• Unstable volume requirements.
• Delivery schedule.
• Large volumes.
• Manufacturing
• Production cost.
• Quality requirements.
• High productivity.
• Warehousing
• Optimized inventory management.
• Transportation management.
• Quick replenishment capability.
• Customer delivery
• Diverse product portfolio.
• Reduced backorders and lead time.
• Bullwhip effect.

As understandable, traditional methods of demand forecasting, vendor rating, procurement ordering takes a lot of time and effort. In today’s proactive and competitive world and delay in demand orders are inventory management can add to the bullwhip effect resulting in loss of money and efficiency. In a cost sensitive market this difference can result in the final product cost thus making the product dearer to the customer and can therefore influence the profit margins.

One of the major advancements in terms of SCM is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This automated software which helps in streamlining the supply chain operations and also holds the records and data at a central repository so as to ease retrieving the data. The limitation of ERP is the requirement of the software and the compatibility and hence it is used largely within an organization and does not link suppliers to the customers.