Case study Benefits of eTracK in supply chain management Profile sundra's Farm Equipment Sector is one of largest manufacturer

r of tractors in India with sustained market leadership of over 4 years. Started in 1994, SUNDRAs tractor division has played a vital role in the mechanisation of Indian agriculture. The Farm Equipment Sector is the first tractor company in the world to win the Deming Application Prize. It designs, develops, manufactures and markets tractors as well as implements which are used in conjunction with tractors. SUNDRA has two main tractor manufacturing plants located at Mumbai and pune in Maharashtra. Both these plants have been certified for ISO 9001, QS9000 and ISO 14001. Apart from these two main manufacturing units, the Farm Equipment Sector (FES) has satellite plants located at Rudrapur in Uttarachal and Jaipur in Rajasthan. The objective of satellite plants is to produce tractors of high customisation and quality at affordable costs and facilitate quicker deliveries in local markets.

Background FES Supply Chain Management

Strategically, SUNDRA FES sources components and parts at single location at Kandivile (Mumbai) plant and send the required quantity from Mumbai to their assembling plants at Rudrapur and Pune. While pune is around 180 kms away from Mumbai, Rudrapur is around 1400 kms away and trucks have to traverse four states of Maharashtra, M.P., U.P and Chattisgarh to reach Rudrapur (Uttaranchal).FES division has enlisted 12 transporters with around 350 trucks operating on contract to these locations. With the production capacity of 9000 tractors per year in Rudrapur, ensuring the availability of raw materials on time for the remotely located plant is a challenging task. Though meticulous

planning is contemplated for the scheduling and despatch of materials, SUNDRA had encountered various problems in transportation of raw materials as per the dynamic requirements of the plants.

PAINFUL AREAS
The major problems encountered by FES Supply Chain department are as follows: Despatches delayed due to non-availability of trucks on time Absence of information on the expected time of arrival of the trucks leads to anxiety and improper planning Exact information on the current location of the trucks and status of deliveries not known as the information provided by the transporters are often unreliable eLogistics Pvt. Ltd. In-transit idle time of the trucks not known due to which deliveries are delayed SUNDRA has been continuously strived forward to implement various IT enabled measures to transform the supply chain management. In their quest for sustained competitive advantage, SUNDRA has learnt that automatic vehicle tracking services (AVTS) can be employed for solving many of their problems related to scheduling and planning of despatches.

eTracK system the right solution

In pursuit of this objective, after analyzing the performance of various companies offering vehicle tracking services, SUNDRA has enlisted eLogistics pvt Ltd, Chennai to install eTracK devices in their trucks. Initial order was to install eTracKdevices in 200 trucks of 12

transporters in the first phase and thereafter to extend it into the entire fleet. Majority of the trucks earmarked for vehicle tracking were in Mumbai Rudrapur route as this was a painful route identified by logistics managers for managing supply chain activities. eLogistics has so far installed around 150 devices and the servicing requirements are managed by their service engineers at Mumbai and Rudrapur alongwith their alliance partner, TVS Electronics Ltd at various locations. Online Vehicle location reports are provided every 2 hrs and status reports are sent on a daily and weekly basis. SUNDRA has been given access online to eTracK application software wherein they can log in with a secured Username and Password and track the current location of their trucks anytime. The weekly productivity reports comprises of the reliability of the system, distance travelled between trips, average speed of trucks, no: of kms travelled by each truck, idle time and unscheduled halts.

Benefits from eTracK

SUNDRA has derived immense benefits by employing eTracK system in their trucks which has enabled them to solve major supply chain related problems. SUNDRA has been actively involved in provding inputs regarding eTracK which has helped eLogistics in developing eTracK v3.0 with much more advanced features. We have been involved in beta testing of eTracK v3.0 and as regular eTracK users, are very satisfied with the enhanced features in v3.0 contends Sandeep Patil, FES Supply Chain Manager . The following are the major benefits accrued out of eTracK system:

 Real-time information on the location of trucks for estimating the arrival time and despatch planning Idle time reduction through constant monitoring of vehicles eLogistics Pvt. Ltd. Improved productivity by reduction in turnaround time Reduction in in-transit inventory Reduced anxiety levels in managing supplies The valuable information in weekly updates from eLogistics are being incorporated in MIS reports and helps SUNDRA to measure many of the the critical performance parameters of the supply chain department. The new version of eTracK web-based software application provides almost 5000 locations plotted in the digital map with multiple layers and other user-friendly features like enabling customer to change Username and Password, generate trip-based MIS reports, display of distance between trips on the map etc SUNDRA has unequivocally expressed their satisfaction in the services offered by eLogistics and has decided to extend the system for their entire fleet. The success in supporting SUNDRAs endeavour to transform the supply chain function keeps eLogistics on a strong footing to extend eTracK system to other manufacturing companies in India.

eTracK is helping us in better co-ordination among supply chain, dispatch department and the plants with regard to availability of trucks and dispatches hence reducing our pressure on delivery commitments and better control on the transporters Sandeep Patil Manager-Logistics