Indian Supply Chain Sutra - a great way of thinking & paradoxes with the West

Supply Chains have evolved with the "West" as an anchor. It probably has its roots in Supply Chain as a term being coined in the West. Also over the years, Supply Chain leading practices have emerged out of the West as well as the Supply Chain thought leadership has rested with the West. A mix of all these & many more things has led the Indian thinking of Supply Chain be overshadowed by the West. And that has been a very contrasting story till NOW.

Indians by nature are heuristically driven & most of the Indian Supply Chain professionals that I have met over my career have exhibited that they can handle the "state of flux" much better. Rather Indian Supply Chain professionals have less liking towards deterministic way of working. Contrasting to that over the decades, all efforts have been to move towards "planning for enhanced flexibility, responsiveness & agility". This has been through practices of planning systems, adoption of technology & systems which inherently have taken away the Indian Supply Chain sutra. Over my long consulting career, I have seen Indian Supply Chain Professionals having to overcome the basic instincts to mould themselves into these Western way of thinking & operating called as "Benchmark" practices. 

Considering that it is pretty evident that the rate of change coupled with the variables impacting the change is so high that it is the eternal Indian Supply Chain Professional ethos than can be leveraged in formulating Supply Chain sutras.

Having met over 6,000 Supply Chain professionals I have got this feeling that "Indian Supply Chain Sutra" should be given much more serious thought & attention. This, if shaped up correctly, can be a long lasting best practice. Much more important, because it has a perspective which is indigenous. Western Supply Chain practices have kind of "mechanized" everything leaving less to "think" & more to "adhere". That is fine as long as the its applied to the transactional layer of Supply Chain. But when it comes to Tactical & Strategic layer, its the "thinking" processes which shape up Supply Chain decision making & outcomes. Indian Supply Chain Sutra is extremely powerful as its focused on "People inherent ability to think". 

Paradox in India is, we have fitted a square in a circle. Under the influence of Western Sutra of Supply Chain with an assumption that the West does & knows it better than Indian Sutra, the Supply Chain advantage which can arise from "Indian Supply Chain Sutra" has been subordinated to the Western way of Supply Chain. 

In 1970's the way Japanese (from the East) led the Manufacturing revolution (which West eventually adopted), India (from the East) has a great opportunity to lead the Supply Chain revolution (which West shall adopt) of the the 21st century.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Five Point 'Profit Protection Plan'

Business cycles come & go. And if history is any evidence then the cycles also get 'repeated'. The nature of the cycles undergoes a time frame change & a characteristic change although the broader 'structure' remains the same. Arguably the goal of the organization also shows continuity over the history & the overarching goal although is 'creating / preserving stakeholder value' the more commonly understood goal is 'Profit' . The current industry cycle seems to be of demand contraction hence decelerating revenues & profits. I was wondering what may constitute a 'Profit Protection Plan' for organizations. My five point agenda for Profit Protection is; a. Target Volume - It is unlikely that one enterprise has a capacity which exceeds more than quarter of the total market demand. Need to redefine markets & start selling more to the ones who you didn't sell. b. Price - Think 'service'. This is where the ...
Read more

2023 for Indian Fashion Supply Chains

Image
The size of #GlobalFashionIndustry is almost the size of 6th or 7th largest economy of the world. China being the largest exporter while #europeanunion & #USA being the largest importers.  #IndianFashionSupplyChains with the levers available are shaping up for the #realignedglobalsupplychains in the #fashionretailindustry be it #apparels or #footwear . My understanding of the key Supply Chain issues for Indian Fashion Retail for 2023 look like, a. International customer demand - Inherent characteristic of the #FashionRetail #supplychain is long ordering cycles. While we are in August 2022, order books for global customers for Christmas and New Year shall be booked. A slowdown in developed economies (due to #higherinflation which may have resulted lowering demand) may have left excess #inventory at the retailers. These customers of Indian Retail industry Supply Chain will slow down their demand in the coming months & quarters. Due to the long lead times, Indian ...
Read more

Last mile to First mile delivery - An area of strategic refocus in Supply Chain

Supply Chains have always been focused rather obsessed with customer order fulfillment. Focus of Supply Chain Network design has predominantly been around the "last mile" delivery. Adding nodes to the network, latest technology adoption and many other initiatives have been about improving last mile delivery.  Is it time to also re-focus & offer consideration for "First mile delivery"? Particularly in industries where the first mile may have the highest delta impact on the customer. e.g. In Healthcare, the first mile is the most crucial one for the customer,who in this case is a Patient (particularly in emergency cases). From the time the patient has a health issue which needs attention till the time medical care is made available is the first mile in this case. For example they say first hour is the "Golden Hour" for a person who has an health emergency. In that case even if the last mile delivery, which in this case may be a well equipped hospital, is...
Read more