Page 44 - Case Study Annual 2015

A new warehouse locality would be required that
would accommodate existing levels of inventory to
be managed and which would provide for additional
throughput and growth.
From the time of the award of the tender to SDB to
actually ‘going live’, the collaborative team had only
3,5 months (88 days or 880 hours) to overcome many
significant challenges and hurdles. These were, inter
alia:
• T o urgently finalise the formal collaboration between
SDB and InSync.
• To locate, secure and re-furbish a suitable warehouse
observing a tight budget. The requirement for at least
3 400 m2 of storage area was the call.
• Prepare inventory for migration from previous
warehouse to new. Approximately 160 000 parts were
involved. The biggest challenge was moving these
parts in less than 30 days, since the new warehouse
was vacated late by the previous occupants.
• Initial collaboration in respect of spares migration,
warehouse lay-out and design as well as all matters
in respect of previous warehouse controls was found
to be somewhat frustrating as the planning team
was on occasions denied even limited access to the
warehouse of the previous service provider.
• A major amount of re-packaging of units from broken
boxes and placing these into the correct each counts
had to be performed before items could be binned
within the new facility.
• Comprehensive collaboration was critical given the
short period to complete the migration of inventories
and to work within budgeted limits to achieve the
results that have been recorded.
• Effective collaboration between SDB Internationally
(India) and SDB South Africa, InSync, Mahindra and
with the former service provider was core critical to
ensure a successful implementation.
• A new state-of-the-art paperless warehouse
management system was the decision made for
implementation which, in itself, presented some new
challenges to meet.
• A management and operations team had to be
assembled. The team had to be trained – all personnel
involved had no previous experience of the Mahindra
and SsangYong product and spares management
procedures.
• T he handling of dealer queries as to inventory
positioning and availability status during the migration
of parts from the previous warehouse to the new one
being provisioned was also a tough call.
• The receiving of new stock arrivals from suppliers
that also had to be consolidated within the new
inventory holding processes being introduced for
the new warehouse. Five 40 ft containers arrived on
the doorstep during the migration planning process
42 the logistics news case study annual 2015
and these additional inventories had to be effectively
managed while the warehouse facility located was
being appropriately prepared to receive all inventories
from the previous LSP facilities.
• T he installation of racking and binning positions for
the housing of high value parts as well as small and
medium items, a bulk storage area and two lean lift
units for the housing of small and valuable items had
to be completed.
• T he creation of a dealer parts ordering system had
to be developed and implemented with appropriate
application training provided to all concerned.
• T here were many Information Technology (IT) issues
that had to be managed between the InSync Flonet
and SAP systems. The Flonet warehouse management
system and dealership integration portal enables
comprehensive management and visibility.
Achievements
SDB and InSync, as a result of an effective collaboration,
have introduced a Customer Service Base to enable all
dealers to come through to one point of enquiry for all
process applications appertaining to the end-to-end
movement of parts re-order and fulfillment.
All Mahindra dealerships have been provided with
systems integration terminals by way of the InSync-
Flonet IT system to assist in the planning for procurement
of spares as well as providing a visibility of orders in the
pipeline. This system also provides for reverse logistics
management. This was a new and exciting development
for Mahindra.
A quality management procedure was introduced
offering advantages in service deliveries previously not
enjoyed by the dealerships.
Mahindra SA is now well positioned for future
growth and while there are still some operational
improvements required to achieve the efficiency levels
of industry leaders, the fundamentals of the system are
well in place to achieve such world-class positioning.
Greatly improved service levels to dealerships have
been recorded.
Inventory accuracy handling levels are now being
lauded by the customer (Mahindra and SsangYong) and
the customer’s customers (dealerships) alike. •