Do lean techniques compromises resilience of a Supply Chain in Crisis?

 

For the past 10 years, lean techniques like Just in Time(JIT), Heijunka, Kanban, Poka-Yoke etc. has undoubtedly increased supply chain efficiency as well as responsiveness with the introduction of robust information infrastructure and has further scope by digitization of supply chain networks. Adoption of these techniques has landmark effect on Indian economy as well as it increased overall supply chain surplus and profitability.

The lean techniques also posed a risk of less resilient supply chain and Covid19 pandemic has really brought it on its knee. Frequent and long-lasting lockdowns had almost put a full stop on distribution stage (either from supplier to manufacturer or manufacturer to retailer) as transportation was completely disrupted across the country. The unorganized sector which counts for almost 90% of employment in India was most hit as almost 120 million labors moving back to native putting shutters on mfg. sector. More or less all the 6 drivers of supply chain were compromised. This was about past once Covid19 Vaccine starts getting manufactured after its trial 3 phase,how India will respond to it is another critical question. India boasts itself as 3rd largest supplier of pharmaceuticals and will have a great responsibility ahead! Here are some solutions which can help to mitigate supply chain problems as per me. 

This all proves that redundancy is most important in such cases and also raises a question that do we need multiple level of intermediaries in a supply chain? Should the supply chain be decentralized with more warehouses in tier 2 & 3 cities of country? There should be proper trade off b/w Efficiency and Resilience is must since due to lean method the exposure to risk has been increased. Proper Risk Exposure model to know extent of potential risk associated with current techniques. There is need to optimize supply chain in b/w lean & conventional so that supply chain can be more resilient to shock. One must ensure that the Time to Service (TTS) > Time to Recover (TTR) for uninterrupted supply. Digital Twins of supply chain can be used for simulation to beforehand know what are the factors that will adversely affect the real supply chain

Business Communication - Consulting and Personal Branding

         Let's talk about a very enriching session on the importance of Business Communication in consulting and personal brand building by our former NITIE alumni  Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni. 

        A brief about him; Mr. Kulkarni is the owner of a start-up tripdarwin.com which is a holiday planning website This website lets you decide the place, type of activities and creates an itinerary in just minutes to get the extra mile on your holiday planning. He worked at KPMG for 10 years and later quit the job to give a shot to his entrepreneurial journey.

        As per him in consulting 80% is your communication and from rest 20%, 15% is relationship with the customer and only 5% is your research about the content.MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are must for a consulting job at least for the first few years. Powerpoint is the most important tool for proposal making, report making, and Executive briefing as many are interested in fewer data, and PowerPoint appeals more to the customer in terms of communication.

The Pyramid Principle & MECE

We should follow the pyramid principle to design the content. We should know the objective, audience, context in which the content is consumed, and should be able to cover all aspects of the problem. This is done by MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive) which means all content should be independent of each other and all points should be duly addressed.

Use a hierarchical structure to organize ideas and supporting evidence. The information must flow in a well-structured way with a Key Message(quote, video, etc.) followed by IDFL(Idea, Data, Fact, Logic)  and Summary so it reinforces the way the human mind understands anything.

Personal Branding

        A personal brand is something that builds credibility as an expert in the respective area. It introduces your personality without someone actually speaking about it. No. 7 Jersey in Cricket represents Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

 A personal brand is an important part of a person's career. You can get easy jobs, get things done whether it is tender or project based on your persona. The personal brand makes other people comfortable with you while working.

     He talked about his personal experience that how his blog writing helped him to get many assignments as clients really wanted to know him personally while working with him and how brands have evolved in the last 10-15 years to strive for success in the market.

        In a nutshell, it was a very good experience knowing how important business communication skills for any role and wish him all the best for his future endeavors. 

   

Swadeshi Mandi-Inauguration

The 'Vocal for Local' campaign got a kickstart at God's Own Campus on 74th Independence day with the valuable presence of Chief Guest, Shri Abhay Jere, Chief Innovative Officer, Ministry of Education, GOI and Guest of Honour, NITIE alumnus Apeksha Haldia, Founder- Zaika Ka Tadka along with Prof. Manoj Tiwari, Director, NITIE. This was the 16th edition of MAHAMANDI with 100+ posters submitted by the  NITIANS to give 'Vocal' to the 'Local' Products.

Shri Abhey Gere reiterated the vision of honorable PM 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' can be only realized by Making Products in India for the rest of the world. He also explained the importance of Local Product/Service for the growth of a country. Pointing out some achievements of GOI such as India's is ranked 53rd in the Global Innovation Index as of Today in comparison with 81 in 2014. Also mentioned the need for Patents as Intellectual property of country and weaker position of India against its adversaries like China. Showing on faith on B - schools like NITIE he concluded that with the right vision and coordination of student-faculty and society India can reach truly become Atmanirbhar

Apeksha Haldia, Founder- Zaika Ka Tadka one of the alumni NITIE proud of, shared her experience back in the 2009 batch. She worked at P & G an FMCG company in America and was offered a good job profile in an MNC. Rejecting the offer she came back to India to start her own venture and become an entrepreneur. She shared the memories of MAHAMANDI 2007 selling toys to school kids for charity  Starting from her own kitchen with a vision to spread magic of 'Maa Ke Haath Ke Khaane ka Swaad' to every corner of the country. Zaika Ka Tadka has 400k+ subscribers on Youtube, where the various mouth-watering recipes are cooked and streamed online.The sapling of Entrepreneurship which was sown from NITIE has now become a deep-rooted tree.

       #ISUPPORT#ATMANIRBHAR #SWADESHINIRMIT #LOCALTOGLOCAL #15THAUGUST

Local Se Glocal Tak- MAHAMANDI

  BECHO BECHO!! SEEKHO SEEKHO!!

            On the auspicious occasion of 74^th Independence Day, we at NITIE, Mumbai with the pioneering efforts of Mandi Sir and Marketing Interest Group (MIG) to promote #Vocal for Local extending the efforts of our founding fathers to make our country truly ‘Atmanirbhar’. This can be done by finding and implementing innovative method to help every sphere of the society and what could be better solution than tapping our Swadeshi potential and going ‘focal’ to make it ‘glocal’. What can be the better start than Swadeshi food!

        It’s been said that ‘Dil ka rasta pet se hokar gujarta hai’ so Chattisgarhi Fara- can be one of the best options to enter into the heart of world. Fara- Swad aur Keemat mein Khara is a traditional Chattisgarhi dish which is made up of rice with rich texture of Indian spices. Healthy and Nutritious this dish can be a good substitute to many junk & unhealthy Chinese food. Hitherto local centric, we want to bring this food from rural parts of Chattisgarh on Indian map. With substantial employment potential, easy to make and easy to serve recipe it, economical etc. Fara can reach each parts of country.

 So, this 15^th  August we endorse local Fara in a step to make India Aatmanirbhar

#ATMANIRBHAR #SWADESHINIRMIT #LOCALTO GLOCAL #15THAUGUST

Manhole or Black-hole

                                                                                                      

    Have you ever wondered how a person can survive inside and clean sewerage for 2 hours which is 6-20 feet down the ground with no oxygen and no safety gears where one cannot stand for even a single minute? We can say that it's a part of his/her duty since they are born for this. Pan India about 2000 sewer workers died since 1993 which means one manual scavenging death every five days and in the last five years,376 have died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan study said that 94% of those who died were from groups Scheduled Castes, 4% were from Other Backwards Classes and the rest from Scheduled Tribes which is a perfect epitome of 'Jati Pratha aur Shram Vibhajan'.

    It's safer being a soldier fighting in Kashmir than a sewer worker! At least 110 have died in sewers in 2019 itself year as against 64 security personal killed in the line of duty. There are some questions that we should ask ourselves every time we read such news. Every soldier dying in the line of duty is a martyr, but sewer worker?  Did we see any betterment in life of sweepers after Swachh Bharat Yajna? Why sanitization workers are not provided with safety equipment no hand gloves, no gumboots, no masks, no safety belt?  As per a study, 80% of sanitization workers do not reach retirement age because of chronic diseases only because of a lack of safety equipment, information and training. It's like asking our soldiers to save the borders without armour, helmet, gun and most important intelligence inputs.

    A black hole is a cosmic body of extremely intense gravity from which even light can barely escape. More or less a manhole is an uncanny place on earth where a sewer worker once enters barely escapes. On average, this 'black hole' claims 100 lives every year. What basically happens inside the sewer is the organic matter in sewer upon decomposition forms gases such as Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), Methane (CH4) & Carbone Monoxide (CO) as major gases. The Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) is a gas with rotten egg smell causes irritation in eyes and even blindness upon high exposure and can kill a man in a single inhale due to Asphyxia. The second reason is the lack of oxygen at such depths. The pattern of death is three dies in a row.

    Today, the daily wage of a sewer worker is Rs.250 which was Rs.100, 12 years ago, such a whopping increase I guess. Skilled labour wage in Delhi is Rs.622, on the contrary. In addition to this, since they are contract labours, they are not eligible for medical insurance and compensation after any mishappening. Lack of proper training, negligence on both sides, lack of awareness about do's & dont's and proper equipment are a few of the major reasons for these deaths. Although as per orders of honourable Supreme court of India under the 'Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act-2013'-manual scavenging banned in India means prohibits manual cleaning of toilet wastes, sewers, and septic tanks without safety gear and mechanised equipment. Municipal agencies have to provide equipment such as pumps at dangerous sites like clogged sewers. But contractors do not want to spend on the safety equipment. But how many contractors are prosecuted till date? 

    This brings us to rethink that do we really need an ambitious project like 'Bullet Train' worth 1.08 lakh crore? Or can we buy a sewer cleaning machine and safety gears for these sewer workers? Can we imagine India without this portion of society? Every citizen of India has equal rights to live and if we can at least give them what they deserve then we can really boast about the Statue of Unity which is a symbol of India's growth, prosperity, equality and unity.