Mobile logistics adapting with trend
the supply chain need to meet the important subtleties. Khosla says, “In recent years’ supply chain management become more critical as many of the big mobile brands outsource their core activities like manufacturing and logistics activities and implement deferment strategies. They focus their utmost attention on sales strategies and leveraging technology to accurately forecast demand and share that data with suppliers and other intermediaries. Outsourcing SCM activities reduces turn and dwell times, which are important considerations given the short shelf life of most mobile devices. These rescheduling strategies have speed-up the blurring of the lines between cell manufacturers and 3PL service providers. A slight shift in consumer purchasing habits can have ripple effects throughout the supply chain management.”
Goyal emphasises, “Due to the huge competition among mobile phone players right from top-ofthe-line players like Samsung and Apple, down to homegrown companies or Chinese companies, logistics requirements remain vacillating. Because the production is still in China (assembly lines have moved to India but we are dependent on them for parts), it is vital to understand their work culture and dynamics too. For instance, they have CNY twice every year and supply shoots up immediately before but drops to almost zero levels post-CNY. One must match up capacities and supply-chain-cycle to meet their dynamics.”
Commenting on the same note, Gupta points, “Timely movement, airline space availability and custom clearance of mobiles are the critical component of supply chain management of mobile phones. Once cargo reaches to main port like Delhi/Mumbai, local warehousing and distribution with in total time bound schedule is critical.”
“Now increasingly industry is moving on assembling and manufacturing in India. Instead of air, mobiles parts are getting imported through ocean container, which is more economical because of bulk movement and lower freight. However, since in ocean movement, time involves is more, better planning of schedule of vessel and movement of rail and road,” he adds.
“Now a day’s mobile companies are developing their product lines and adapting their inimitable supply chains strategies to meet the ever-high needs of consumers. Cell phone manufacturers challenged to shape their supply chain strategies around the growing needs of their consumers, which often mean outsourcing logistics activities to 3PL service provider. Mobile’s supply chain required efficiency and scalability so it could avoid needless capital investments in infrastructure and avoidable inventories. Outsourcing allowed it to control variable cost model to tackle needs of an impulsive market,” stresses Khosla.
Hence to keep up with rapidly evolving world of the mobile phones marketplace, Goyal notes, “Once one get a hang of things, how the industry works, what are its challenges, how suppliers never deliver on time and how consignees expectations are never-ending; one start making sense of it. Then it is important to anticipate. Read about trends, follow how trade matured in developed economies and try and pick-up how things will unfold in our scenario.”
Since the government has discontinued the currency notes
`500 `100 of and last year, it is imperative to understand and take mobile phones logistics service providers perspective on affects within the industry.
“Since mobile phone is a retail product; their sales dropped by more than 50 per cent immediately post- November 8, 2016. And due to the food-chaineffect, our trade has been in bad shape. Also with government pushing for e-transactions and in smaller centres; thrust of mobile phones is bound to increase and with it, the overall logistics trade,” points Goyal.
“Demonetisation has severally affected the industry. Demand has considerable slowed down during November and December. Because majority of mobile purchases is on cash. There has been pile of stock and new purchases has been put on hold. But now the industry is recovering fast and hopefully get streamlined by end of March 2017,” shares Gupta.
“Yes, it has effected for a short time. But the digitalisation will prompt more demand in the future too,” shares Singh.