Sify puts in place a web based Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) for DALMIA Consumer Care
Background
DALMIA Consumer Care (DCC) is a part of the Rs 1,200 crore DALMIA group and is into products related to oral gratification. The companyÕs products target consumers who are price sensitive and demand value for money.
To cater to this target, the company embarked on a process of putting in place a web-enabled forward supply chain solution as they faced problems in terms of their current supply chain information processing and workflow. All their data capture and collation was being done manually. Formatting and aggregating the data, generatingthe MIS reports was a tedious, time consuming, manual activity. As a result the company was unable to leverage the business intelligence generated for its daily operations.
There was a need to develop an integrated system capable of automating the forward supply chain processes over the Internet. To translate this into a reality, DALMIA approached Sify for putting in place a Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) designed to address the painful areas of Data Capture, Data aggregation, automated workflow and on-demand MIS reporting.
Some of the business challenges faced by DALMIA were:
- Short time to start commercial operations
- Remote locations with dial-up connections
- Tight business controls to prevent stocks loss
- 20 plus Carrying & Forwarding Agents and 1000 plus resellers with outsourced staff and high staff turnover
- Scalable solution to support business growth
Issues faced by other Supply Chain Management systems were:
- Disparate formats for collecting data, making it time-consuming to validate and collate information
- All reminders and escalations for non-availability of data were done manually
- All reports generated were not available on real time to all the team members
- New reports took time to generate. Hierarchy based information flows were unavailable online
- Calculation and validating claims were done manually which resulted in large turnaround time for reimbursements and claim settlements
- Credit check on distributors were based on manual reconciliation of invoices and payments received
Sify's solution offering
Sify with its expertise in the sphere of web technologies and its wide pool of services was able to offer a completely integrated web-enabled solution to DALMIA. This solution used the Internet and the messaging infrastructure of DALMIA. The complete solution involved design, development, user acceptance, data migration, documentation and user level training.
Sify developed a web-based supply chain management system that re-engineered the processes for improving the operational efficiency relating to order processing, inventory, credit control and accounts receivable while ensuring that the system was:
- Easy to work with on the Internet
- User friendly and intuitively laid out
- Protected through Login and Password Authentication
- Audit Trail of transactions with user, date and time
The Solution implemented incorporated the following modules:
Order processing module
Functionalities implemented in this module were:
- Order Entry, Invoicing, Credit Checks, Collections
The module provided for customer code / name to be entered with the other getting picked up automatically. Bill to Party, Ship to Party and Pay to Party were chosen automatically with an option to manually overrule the selection. Provision to put in the mode of dispatch and the calculation of the freight charges done automatically. All taxes were applied automatically to each order and the credit checks performed.
Inventory module
This module maintained and tracked stock levels at each SP or WH. It also defined stock norms for Sales Partner/ Warehouses based on which factory the indenting was done.
Logistics module
This module helped DALMIA define distribution routes between any two locations in the material movement process. Based on the above routing table, the system determined routes, freight costs and time for Sales Partner/Warehouse indents as well as while fulfilling distributor orders on DALMIA.
Credit control module
The functional requirements in this module were as follows: The system tracked the credit limits of each of the customers (distributors) and prevented the distributor from raising invoices in case they had exhausted their credit limit. At the same time the system permitted the Sales Manager, Regional Office andHead office to relax the credit limits on the distributor. The System was designed to ensure that the relaxation of credit limits was, by defined amounts, based on the persons' position in the organizational hierarchy of DALMIA.
Account receivables
The system provided for automatic reconciliation based on invoices raised and the payment received from distributors. This reconciliation was available at any given point for reference.
In addition to the above, the ageing information was also made available.
Statutory requirements
The new system was also expected to satisfy some of the statutory requirements as imposed by the government
- Sales Tax / VAT registers
- Computation for Sales Tax returns
- Octroi/Entry Tax incorpora-tion and generation of necessary information which may be required by respective statutory authority
- Details for receipt of C/D/F forms or any other forms to be received under Sales Tax / VAT
- Road permit utilization details
Efficiency measurement
The new system helped measure the efficiency of the following processes in the supply chain of DALMIA.
- Distributors' claim processing
- Tracking discount/trade promotion/consumer promotion schemes and its impact on sales volume (Tracking against target/ actual of previous period prior to scheme etc)
- Freight register for transportation of material and its usage for passing transporter's invoice
- Optimization of distribution routes/dispatch planning and freight cost
MIS reports
MIS reports in the new system covered all the aspects of the above functional requirements.
SCMS technology framework
- OS - Windows 2000 Server
- Web Server - IIS
- Application Framework - .NET Framework, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, C#
- Development Tool - Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Edition
- Reporting Tool - Crystal Reports 9.x for Visual Studio.NET
- Database - Oracle (Current available license with DALMIA)
- UI - HTML; Browser - IE 4.0+
Advantages of the technical architecture
- Capable of accommodating future changes in business logic as well as new scope
- Provided the flexibility of DALMIA to add new scope as building blocks on top of the SCMS solution
- SCMS architecture is scalable to incorporate more number of users at a later date
- The architecture is common for DALMIA's internal usage as well as external users like DSA coming through the Internet
- The SCMS architecture provides for facilities to integrate with the current and possible future applications of DALMIA
Conclusion
The project was tailor-made to ensure that the business processes of DALMIA were re-engineered to bring in a higher degree of efficiency and transparency. In addition it was in keeping with DALMIAÕs desire to maintain a common system, be it for internal or for external users. The system also offered the following benefits to DALMIA:
- Quick launch of a comprehensive application
- Standardized business processes across 20 plus locations
- Online MIS reports for all, even for the Field Sales Team
- Robust infrastructure with On Demand usage
Hence DALMIA was able to leverage the advantages of technology to jump up the efficiency curve with the help of Sify.
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