Countrywide Outbound Logistics Automation (COLA)

 

PRLog (Press Release)[1] - Jan. 31, 2014 - BANGALORE, India -- The Client:
The client is the most popular and highest selling soft drink brand in history, as well as the best known product in the world. The client has a truly remarkable heritage. From a humble beginning in 1886, it is now the flagship brand of the largest manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages in the world. The client operates in India through its wholly owned subsidiary, which is divided into 3 business regions and 26 profit centres. Their business model includes manufacturing the beverage, distribution and sales, trade marketing and market execution.

The Situation:

When the client returned to India, it quickly acquired more than 25 bottling plants all over the country and invested close to $ 1 Billion US, between 1993 and 2003 (Source: a report by the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth). This frantic pace of growth led to creation of a huge distribution system with massive gaps in the MIS reporting at the corporate level. Each plant had its own system of accounting, monitoring and inventory and lack of integration between the plant systems compounded the overall collection of data in real time. Due to the company’s bottle refilling, they are distinctly different from other FMCG operations.

Hence project COLA (Countrywide Outbound Logistics Automation) was conceptualized with a goal to integrate all functions including manufacturing, sales, distribution, finance and logistics and streamline the flow of data from the corporate MIS.

The Challenge:

The client wanted to strengthen their enormous distribution system through integration across all profit centres, Manufacturing/Bottling Plants and Sale Depots (Direct & indirect sales) with a single application. The client were looking for an IT Services partner who could undertake this huge task of integrating various internal functions around their core MFG/PRO ERP and roll out the new COLA solution to approximately 80 locations. In particular, the client wanted a partner who could demonstrate:

Domain expertise in Food & Beverages sector
Credible technology and functional skills in MFG/PRO ERP
Custom applications development, integration and rollout capabilities
Localization knowledge

JKT’s Credentials:

JKT, with more than two decades of experience in IT services and consulting, has a proven track providing custom solutions and ERP services across industry sectors in Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, QAD & Progress. JKT’s Enterprise Solutions practice has undertaken many turnkey ERP implementations, migrations, roll-outs and consulting assignments for many leading names in the F&B sector. JKT has developed many bolt-on solutions for the F&B industry including Excise systems, Inventory modules, POS systems, Executive Dashboards, Mobile approvals systems. Further JKT’s QAD practice is one of the leading providers of MFG/ PRO based services to the industry for over 15 years and boasts of retaining several well known customers in the MFG/PRO space.

The Solution:

The overall JKT-COLA program involved:

Functional and Technical consultancy on MFG/PRO
Customisation of Financials, Logistics/Shipping, manufacturing modules
Solution for Handheld Terminals using RFID to capture Direct sales on various routes
Implementation of Sales Forecasting system
Roll-out across 80 locations including profit centres, Manufacturing/Bottling Plants and Sale Depots
Developing Interface with MIS applications for reporting, margin/profitability analysis etc

Due to the complexity of the project, JKT implemented a joint project governance plan and put in to practice with 3 tiers; Account level, Project level and Team level. Monthly statistics were created to analyse and quantify the efficiency of the team. Coding and reviewing best practices were created and enforced in order to achieve consistent quality and productivity.

The COLA Software was initially implemented at few pilot sites to identify gaps against business requirements, improve performance and freeze the template for implementation/ rollout at other locations. JKT rolled out the final software using ‘Wave Rollout’ methodology which prioritises the locations in a sequence based on business priorities, logistics considerations and infrastructure readiness.

What this achieved:

The new COLA solution enabled uniform transaction processing and real time MIS availability across all profit centres, manufacturing and bottling plants and distribution channels. The client was able to track the movement of products and the overall service status through a single application.

References

  1. ^PRLog (Press Release) (www.prlog.org)
 

Source  http://www.prlog.org/12276132-countrywide-outbound-logistics-automation-cola.html