Technology to drive Supply Chain Effectiveness

Over the last century, manufacturing has evolved from being a decentralized sector to centralized factories and very recently transformed into Giga factories to achieve economies of scale. It started with manufacturing using mechanization, then automation, and now robotics and industry 4.0 technologies that have contributed to centralizing manufacturing with heavy reliance on machinery and less reliance on humans and their skills. The textile industry is no different. In fact, textile is among the first industries to witness mechanization. The arrival of steam power during the early 18th century led to the beginning of mechanization that led to the textile industries in Manchester becoming the world's first center of mass production. As a result of mechanization, textile manufacturing switched from home to factories. The traditional craft sector is skill-based. It remains and is likely to remain decentralized. Decentralized manufacturing has its disadvantages. Multiple sites require a larger investment of capital to set up and higher coordination costs resulting in higher per-unit costs than mass-produced products made at a central plant. Maintaining organization-wide consistency in products and processes is also a challenge when production involves multiple sites. So, managing the decentralized supply chains need a technological solution that not only has to address challenges of industry structure but also infrastructure availability. Looms of Ladakh Women&#39;s co-operative is operating in the most challenging terrain at high altitude with limited mobility and telecom infrastructure. The supply chain management solution has been designed by Looms of Ladakh considering these challenges.Some of the salient features of the solution are:1. Mobile and Cloud Based: The operations can be carried out over an android smartphone with data being stored in the cloud. So, there is no need to invest in hardware to store data.2. Offline Application: The app can function even if the internet access is not reliable. This will help the operations in remote places. The information is synchronized with that of the central database when there is connectivity.3. Simple to operate: Proposed solution is designed for simple operations requiring little training. The application is designed for use by the Centre leaders who would be required to key in all the transactions in their respective centres.4. Scalable and Flexible: As an evolving organisation the production process can be configured for different products.5. Stock Management at Centre and Member level The benefits of supply chain management platform are:1. Enhanced decision-making. The system will collect essential data at a single location for obtaining real-time, up-to-date information. Increased insight, visibility, and control will give the managing team the confidence to make trusted decisions. Since the society is in the expansion mode, the system will enable them to plan expansion based on the capabilities and also plan capacity building based on the needs.2. Integrated information leads to collaboration: The system ensures prompt and clear communication between employees and members of the co-operative for better collaboration and greater productivity. Availability of information leads to better collaboration with the members of society. Manual systems e.g. payments are often not accurate and create challenges in communication with members. The new system will ensure payments on time.3. Operational Efficiency: The tasks will be automated and information consolidated on a single platform, thus eliminating the need for revising, searching for and storing paper documents. Reduced errors would save time, and improve efficiency.4. Better Inventory Control: Society is working with high-value fibers such asPashmina. So the cost of materials being used for production is high compared to industry standards. The inventory management system can be used to monitor the internal and also external stock movements accurately and in real-time. The system would also enable companies to identify the most plentiful and under-marketable products so that they can manage purchasing and procurement more efficiently and bring innovation to the market.5. Streamline Supply Chain: Supply chain management feature includes coordination, procurement control, stock management, and delivery of goods. By leveraging the system, society can ensure a smooth operation and timely client demand.6. Reporting: The end-users can run their reports without relying on the members to generate accurate reports.7. Improved trust level of the stakeholders: The improved visibility particularly with regard to the supply chain will provide an opportunity to improve the level of customer satisfaction and maintain exclusivity of the Looms of Ladakh products.

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Technology to drive Supply Chain Effectiveness

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