Wipro Limited
Wipro Limited
Wipro Limited
Wipro is an integrated corporation that offers a diverse range of products, solutions and services
in systems, software, consumer care, healthcare, lighting and infrastructure technology.
Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all
processes that transform raw materials into final products. It involves the active streamlining of a
business's supply-side activities to maximize customer value and gain a competitive advantage in
the marketplace.
SCM represents an effort by suppliers to develop and implement supply chains that are as
efficient and economical as possible. Supply chains cover everything from production to product
development to the information systems needed to direct these undertakings.
Due to the complex nature of supply chains today, it has become increasingly difficult for
manufacturers to address key issues like excess inventory, inconsistent operations and processes,
and unsatisfactory service levels. Supply chain efficiency, therefore, has become the chief aspect
of overall business strategy. Wipro works with its clients to develop and implement efficient
supply chains that dramatically reduce the delivery time. We recognize the significance of a
collaborative supply network, short product lifecycles, and manufacturing outsourcing involved
in a business. Having served more than a hundred manufacturing clients in varied industries, we
know what it takes to ensure profitability in existing and new markets. Our innovative strategies
and technical know-how helps businesses optimize supply chains. Wipro can help you optimize
operations in these areas:
Our, cutting edge tools, technologies, in-depth expertise across a wide range of categories and
services, information and well-integrated processes provides significant benefits such as:
Logistics
Wipro works with 3rd Party Logistics providers to innovate and ensure they reduce logistics cost
and increase effectiveness. We provide strategy consulting, process consulting, digital
transformation and outsourcing services to address the key challenges in the industry. Clients
benefit from our partnerships with leading software providers like SAP, Oracle, JDA, Microsoft
etc. that lets us implement solutions smoothly and quickly.
The 3PL industry is extremely varied in the types of services it provides. At one end are
conventional freight movers involved in transportation of shipments from one location to
another. Generally these services are restricted within a geographical area and use limited modes
of transportation. At the other end are 3PLs who can execute complex end to end supply chain
projects involving multiple countries and multiple modes of transport. 3PLs may or may not
owncarriers and warehouses. Accordingly they are classified as asset based and non-asset based
3PLs.
Currently the 3PL industry is in a state of transition. Players are adding more and more services
to their portfolio as customers demand more integrated solutions. 3PLs are viewed as strategic
partners who can optimize the supply chain, reduce the cycle time, and provide unprecedented
customer responsiveness. The key to effectively provide these services is Information
Technology. More sophisticated 3PLs have quickly embraced IT to enable better coordination of
activities by providing tracing and tracking facility to its customers. But this is hardly enough to
ensure sustained competitive advantage. To squeeze out the last drop of inefficiency from the
supply chain, eliminate bottlenecks, and continuously seek process improvement, the ability to
analyze all the activities in the logistics process is vital.
Transportation planning and management is a basic service provided by 3PLs.
They can deploy their own fleet or negotiate with one or more third party carrier companies.
Apart from this, 3PLs provide inbound and outbound traffic control, route optimization, delivery
using multiple modes of transport and payment services.
Business Intelligence tools can help gain insight into the complex process of transportation
management. Some of the possible BI applications in this area are:
Carrier Performance Evaluation: The performance of third party carrier companies can be
analyzed on various factors like on-time delivery, cost, adherence to supplier’s standards,
etc. This analysis can be used to assign quality points to the carriers, which can
significantly help in selecting the best carriers for future projects.
Mode-Cost Analysis: The costs associated with various modes of transport and the
corresponding vehicles employed can be analyzed. This can help in selecting cost
effective modes and third party carrier companies for projects.
Supplier Compliance Analysis: Often the suppliers do not ship products on time resulting
in delays beyond the control of 3PLs. Supplier compliance can be analyzed over a period
of time, across different loading points, so that the supplier can be intimated about trends
in such delays. Also the supplier compliance with respect to invoice payments can be
tracked for a detailed analysis of the supplier payment history.
Carrier Relationship Management: Third party carrier companies can be intimated about
specific delivery problems, and their improvement can be tracked over a period of time.
This can help in designing Carrier Relationship Programs/ Carrier Excellence Programs
that go a long way in establishing mutually profitable relationships.
Capacity Planning: Business Intelligence can significantly help in analyzing available
capacity, loss of revenue due to shortfall in capacity, and future capacity increments. It
can also help in short term capacity planning like engaging empty carriers returning after
delivery, thereby reducing ‘empty miles’.
Cycle Time Analysis: The importance of cycle-time – time gap between placement of
order and the actual receipt of shipment – cannot be overemphasized. BI tools can help
critically analyze the entire cycle-time for different combinations of goods, routes,
modes, weather conditions, etc.
Routing and Scheduling: BI tools can help in routing and scheduling by presenting an
updated view of capacity and manpower available at any point in time.
Truck and Driver Performance Analysis: Asset based 3PLs can use BI tools to monitor
the performance of drivers, trucks, and other vehicles over a period of time. This can help
in maintaining the vehicles and improving driver performance.
Root Cause and Claims Analysis: BI tools can help analyze the root causes for accidents
and damage to goods and the claims against these.
Warehouse Management
The various functions in this service include inventory management, cross-docking, metering,
picking etc.
Inventory Analysis: A host of analyses can be done on inventory in the ware houses. This
includes inventory by supplier, inventory by material class, etc. for a time period or at a
point in time. Key inventory performance indicators like inventory accuracy and
inventory turnover can also be tracked over a period of time.
Warehouse Performance Analysis: Compare the performance of various ware houses
along key performance indicators like picking accuracy, shipping (from warehouse)
accuracy, lines per hour (LPH), percentage over-time hours and percentage on-time
shipments. This analysis can be used to compare the performance of warehouse
operators/ managers.
Assigning Warehouse Costs: Warehousing costs depend on product dimensions and
handling requirements. Based on past data, warehousing costs can be assigned to
combinations of dimensions and handling require ments (on appropriate scale) and this
data can be used for pricing of the warehousing service.
In addition to transportation and warehouse management, many 3PLs provide various value-
added services like light assembly, handling reverse logistics, packing and labeling, kitting,
customs brokering, etc. Often these services are the key differentiating factors between two
3PLs. BI tools can improve the effectiveness of these services. Some of the applications in this
area are:
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Costs and benefits associated with a particular service can be
analyzed over a period of time. This can help in deciding whether to continue the service
or not.
Reverse Logistics: Reverse logistics – the ability to handle customer returns – is one of
the major challenges in this industry. BI can help effectively manage reverse logistics by
associating the returns with the right order, analyzing the reasons for returns, and by
analyzing returns delivery time to the supplier. It can also help identify patterns in reverse
logistics, which can serve as an important feedback to the supplier.
Assembly Analysis: Light assembly is a very common value added service provided by
many 3PLs. Business Intelligence can significantly help in analyzing and improving this
activity over a period of time.
Kitting: Bundling of parts in predefined kits for shipment is called Kitting. BI can help in
designing these kits based on part dimensions and handling requirements. This can
significantly bring down the overall transportation cost.
Companies are increasingly looking towards 3PLs to provide Information Technology based
services. With the emergence of Internet, 3PLs can now reengineer the customer’s supply
chainby providing online collaboration and synchronization via the web. Even before the
widespread acceptance of Internet, sophisticated 3PLs used custom developed software for
electronic data interchange (EDI) with the clients. Other IT based services that are provided by
the 3PLs are transportation planning, online ordering, automatic invoicing, forecasting, shipment
tracing and tracking, etc. Business Intelligence tools can leverage the data created by the existing
IT infrastructure to provide valuable additional services to the customers.
Some of these services are:
Supply Chain Visibility: Typically the order data and shipment data are available in
different operational systems. To provide complete supply chain visibility to the
customers order and shipment data needs to be collected in a real time data warehouse or
an operational data store (ODS), from where seam less online tracing and tracking can be
provided.
Forecasting: Sophisticated demand and supply forecasting models can be created using
the available inventory movement data. These forecasts can significantly help customers
optimize their distribution and logistics network by significantly reducing the inventory
costs.
Customized Reports and Analyses: To become critical business partners, 3PLs should
provide customers with knowledge pertaining to the customers’ supply chains. The
knowledge can be delivered in the form of reports and analysis created from the data
captured by 3PLs.
For any 3PL to be successful in this market, it is not just important to get new customers, but
also to maintain relationships with the existing customers. 3PLs should strive to provide more
and more value-added services that help their customers in meeting the challenges of the modern
economy. Some of the applications of BI that can help 3PLs achieve this are:
Human Resources
Business Intelligence tools can significantly help in aligning the HR strategy to the overall
business strategy. It can present an integrated view of the workforce and help in designing
retention schemes, improve productivity, and curtail costs. Some BI applications in HR are:
Human Resource Reports/ Analytics: Reports and analysis can be generated to support an
integrated view of the workforce. Various analyses include staff movement and
performance, compensation and attrition, and other customized analyses and reports. The
HR data can be integrated with benchmark figures for the industry and various reports
can be generated to measure performance vis-à-vis industry benchmarks.
Manpower Allocation: This includes allocating manpower based on requirements.
According to the need, temporary manpower like additional drivers can be hired to
maintain service levels.
HR Portal: Employers need to maintain accurate employee data, which can be viewed by
theemployees for information relating to compensation, benefits, retirement facilities, etc.
Payroll data can be integrated with data from other human resource management
applications in the HR data warehouse. This data can then be circulated within the
organization through the HR portal.
Training and Succession Planning: Accurate data about the skill sets of the workforce can
be maintained in the data warehouse. This can be used to design training programs and
for effective succession planning.
Financial Management
The role of financial reporting has undergone a paradigm shift during the last decade. It is no
longer restricted to just financial statements required by the law; increasingly it is being used to
help in strategic decision making. Also, many organizations have embraced a free information
architecture, whereby financial nformation is openly available for internal use. Many companies,
across industries, have integrated financial data in their enterprise wide data warehouse or
established separate Financial Data Warehouse (FDW). Some of the applications of data
warehousing in finance are:
Fixed Asset Return Analysis: This is used to analyze financial viability of the fixed assets
owned or leased by the company. It would typically involve mea sures like profitability
per kilometer of distance covered, total lease cost vs. profitability, etc.
Financial Ratio Analysis: Various financial ratios like debt-equity, liquidity ratios, etc.
can be analyzed over a period of time. The ability to drill down and join interrelated
reports and analyses – provided by all major OLAP tool vendors – can make ratio
analysis much more intuitive.