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‘Streamlining the supply chain’

QHow do you seefuture of logistics

market of the automotiveindustry in India?

The automotive industry can bebroadly segmented into finishedproducts like cars, trucks and otherautomotive components. The auto-motive components can be furthersegmented as per inbound logistics,that is components required forassembly of a vehicle and outboundlogistics, mostly as spare parts forafter sales requirements. The indus-try is bullish on vehicle sales growingin the coming five years. Commercialvehicle sales are a barometer to read the correct situation of the Indian

economy. The ‘Make in India’ projectand investments in infrastructure andmanufacturing will spur the demand,which will call for more transportationneeds for material and goods.

QWhat are the crucialbottlenecks faced by

the logistics sector?

Responsive and skilled man-power, automation in warehousing,telematics in transportation, roadinfrastructure, reliable services of 3PLand transporters, storage and han-dling inefficiencies are certain bottle-necks faced by the logistics sector.

QIs there any specificstrategy for better

supply of products?Spare parts management is

purely a game of lead time manage-

ment. The department has embarkedupon overcoming these supply leadtime constraints by adopting the consumption-based replenishmentmode of supplies. To put in simple ways, the retail consumptionwill trigger the channel partner tosupply, which in turn will trigger thecompany to supply, in turn triggeringthe vendor to supply as per norms specified. The entire supply chain will have visibility of consump-tion at each stage, which drives

the movement of supplies in efficient ways.

QWhat strategies doesyour company adopt

to manage costs andprotect margins?

Consolidation at hub and redis-tribution through ‘Hub and SpokeModel’ will reduce logistics costs. This,coupled with higher inventory turnsdue to norm based replenishmentmode of supplies, will protect margins.

CT BUREAU

Gaurish L Salgar, Head – Supply Chain and Demand Fulfillment (Commercial Vehicle Business Unit), TataMotors, speaks about the bottlenecks faced by the logistics sector and the strategies adopted by Tata Motors forbetter supply of products.

Gaurish L SalgarHead – Supply Chain and Demand Fulfillment(Commercial Vehicle Business Unit)Tata Motors

Highlights:� Commercial vehicle sales are a

barometer to read the correct situationof the Indian economy

� An efficient supply chain is ofparamount importance in spare partsdistribution business in overall growth

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