Haier Appliances India success story continues with efficient scm support
Haier Appliances India, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Haier Group, is one of the fastest growing consumer durables companies in the world. Benzon John, General Manager – Supply Chain, Haier Appliances India unveils the success story of the company
a ccording to John, India is one of the key markets for Haier Group, and the company has major plans for the country in the coming days. “Our growth rate in India is far ahead of other brands,” he asserted. The company initiated its commercial operations in January 2004. “Our launch in India started with innovative products, which were designed keeping the day-to-day customer needs in mind – products that will transform the everyday living into inspired living,” he added. In August 2007, Haier acquired a manufacturing facility, located at Ranjangoan in Pune, Maharashtra. Spread over 40 acres of land, the plant has capability to manufacture refrigerators, CTVs and washing machines. Haier has upgraded the new facility with state-of-the-art equipment to create an R&D facility and additional capacity for production of refrigerators at the plant. The facility was acquired as a part of purchase of appliances business of Anchor Daewoo Industries by Haier India. With a philosophy of zero inventories and on-demand manufacturing and delivery, Haier adopted the user-oriented large-scale customisation strategy, thanks to a strong supply chain and logistics mechanism. “Supply chain is the backbone of every company. In the earlier days, supply chain functions were playing their roles silently from behind the curtains. But of late, critical decisions of the company are taken only after taking feedback from the SCM team,” John revealed. In his opinion, every rupee saved by SCM in their operations in turn goes back to the product, making it more competitive in the market. Ultimately, the customer becomes the winner. “We have adopted this policy successfully at Haier and the company growth is proving our SCM philosophy right,” he observed. John further maintained that good 3PL companies help manufacturing companies to save lot of money. 3PL service providers come with expertise in various divisions of SCM. Also they are having various verticals handled by experts from the industry. This helps the partner companies to discuss issues faced by them with their 3PL team and take appropriate decisions. “It’s very important that third-party logistics service providers gel with company’s vision and policies. In fact, they represent the company in many places. For example, when they deliver the products to customers, they have to ensure that the delivery is done as per the requested delivery time of the customer, whether the product is delivered in the correct packing without any damage, whether the documentation was done correctly and so on. As a 3PL service provider, these partners should work as an extended arm of the company. If the 3PLs fail to reach this level, chances of failure are very high,” he feels. John also highlighted some critical issues which are beyond a logistics service provider’s control. “Rising fuel prices is a major area of concern for the manufacturing sector. Apart from this, toll is applicable for all the new roads coming up in the country. Free movements of goods between states are still affected due to non-implementation of GST,” he pointed out.
recommendations for 3Pls and policy makers
According to John, the logistics service providers have to grow from the image of a “stocking and distribution agent” to a fullyfledged 3PL service provider with more value to client operations. In addition, policymakers have to implement GST faster. Also, road infrastructure needs more improvement. Because of poor road infrastructure, deliveries take much longer time affecting on time deliveries of materials and longer time to recover ROI for service providers.