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, generating the 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:
o 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 and
Head 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. |
