Archive for the ‘Logistics management’ Category

Supply Chain logistics and FDI in retail

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

FDI in retail will bring down inflation by investing in supply chain logistics, that is, by investing in transport and refrigerated storage necessary for perishable items. Typically, if a farmer were to sell his produce, he needs to bring it to the local market where he usually auctions it to the retailer, who, in turn, will sell to the final consumers.

This process of auctioning in the mandi (central market) is facilitated by the middleman, who charges a commission from the farmers. Add to this the cost of bringing the agricultural produce to the local market; the price difference between what the farmers get and what the consumers pay is what society loses out due to inefficiency.

By investing in supply chain logistics, the players in multi-brand retail will reduce the cost, and bring down inflation. They will procure the produce directly from the farmers, keep it in their storage, and transport it directly to their retail outlet. It is worthy to note that there is a huge investment involved to get the supply chain logistics in place – something that FDI in retail promises.

Those who have been arguing that the local kirana and the marginal farmers may be hurt – the former losing out on business, and the latter not getting the right price – are not right. Currently, the local kirana, and retail outlets such as Reliance Fresh, Tata-Tesco, and Spencer, to name a few, are co-existing comfortably with each other.

Marginal farmers also stand to gain. Recent evidence suggests that marginal farmers who have entered into contracts with Pepsi India have on average realised double the price in comparison with the local mandi and the local mahajan (in absence of the local mandi). This is an eye-opener for those suggesting that multinationals will squeeze the farmers by not offering them the right price.

Experience from around the globe suggests that the local kirana needs to worry from the spread of e-commerce, and not the presence of corporates in the retail sector. India badly needs corporatisation of the agriculture sector to even out distribution of income. The ITC and Pepsi examples have shown that, in their best interest, corporates directly get in touch with the farmers, and give them the necessary information on how to increase crop output and productivity.

It is to be noted that the agriculture sector receives minuscule investment, while supporting the livelihoods of around 55 per cent of the population.

Read full article here

Business continuity and web solutions for logistics industry

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Technology and vendor experience factors often plays a critical role when it comes to selection of any ERP software solution, be it for logistics industry or retail or healthcare. Few points to ponder…

  • Software maturity – Audit controls in the system for fail safe business practices
  • Management Information – Is competitive advantage today and tomorrow.
  • Data safety – Concerns over backups, hacking, unauthorised access by competition etc
  • Centralisation – branch data synchronisation for central reporting, monitoring and action plan.
  • Business continuity - Reliable data connections in smaller towns is a matter of concern.
  • Scalability – Supporting your growth as you add branches and associates to the network.
  • Vendor capability – existing software is out dated and there is no continued support.

Software architecture – SA-FMS is built on an award winning technology framework which supports a mix of off line and on line operational model. This means, if there is no internet connectivity, your business will not come to a full stop.

Availability - our largest client installation runs the application on their internal servers, serving 300 plus branches and 2840 Windows Home personal computers spread across the country. Our smallest client runs the application on a cloud hosted solution – connecting just two branches.. One at Mumbai and the other at Kochi (Kerala). The offline – online model ensures business connectivity.

Data volume – SA-FMS is built on a popular open source relational database which can support up to 1 Tera byte of information. The largest client database has over 100 GB of information stored.

Power users – Remember, your people are still traditional and at high transaction billing points, the keyboard still rules. Hence mix of powerful desktop and web interface would be a realistic solution.

Information – We provide data analytics services for insights into your business operations to help you improve customer satisfaction and bring optimisation into operational aspects.

Installation – due to simplified processes, it takes less than 10 minutes to configure a new branch using the software wizard.

Support – Superlative online helpdesk and troubleshooting tools manned by domain experts. Self diagnostic tools for auto correction.

Logistics software and SMS enquiry

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Logistics software to manage consignor and consignee complaints

The key to differentiation for any service industry business is speedy resolution of customer queries. The complaint register function in SA-FMS freight logistics management software has been designed with the objective of allowing our clients providing superlative freight logistics service to consignors and consignees.

  • Easy tracking of complaints across head office and branches
  • Linking of complaints with consignment short and excess reporting
  • Centralised complaint history tracking with user activity
  • Central storage of document related to complaints
  • Escalation of complaints in the event of delay in responses.
  • Connect with operations such as booking, dispatch, unloading, re-routing, transshipment and delivery
  • Branch, commodity, truck, customer based analysis for operational improvement through data analytics
  • SMS alerts for customers on status updates

SA-FMS is among the most preferred ERP software for freight logistics providers, backed by a 20 year old company, a committed team and great customer support. 

Logistics software & out of delivery area

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

The out of delivery area feature in SA-FMS plugs revenue loss, besides providing the consignee timely delivery of the consignment

The Indian postal system switched to PIN code system on 15th August, 1972. Since then, PIN codes have been used in addresses to ensure correct delivery of the mails and parcels. A unique six digit code was assigned to all branch post offices. Most of the parcel and courier services collect the entire address of the consignee including the PIN code which makes delivery of the consignment easier. Many parcel, cargo, freight and logistics providers use the Indian PIN code system for sorting the consignments and dispatching accordingly where door delivery is involved.

SA-FMS logistics software has the function to track the location of consignment delivery based on the PIN code. While entering the address of the consignee at the time of booking, the PIN code is verified whether it belongs to any area within the delivery circle. If not, the address is treated as “Out of Delivery Area” and pre defined door delivery charges are applied at the time of freight calculation.

Vaigai bus cargo saves cost by implementing Logistics software

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Logistics Software in Chennai !! Vaigai Travels located at Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu) has successfully implemented SA-FMS edition for their cargo division. Vaigai cargo has daily Volvo bus parcel service operations to major cities in Tamil Nadu such as Chennai,Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem etc and to tier 2 / 3 towns such as Virdhunagar, Sivakasi, Dindugal, Theni, Cumbum,  Cuddalore, Panruti, Neyveli, Chidambaram, Kumily, Periyakulam, Virudhachalam, Batalagundu, and Puducherry.

We had an opportunity to interact with Mr. Karthick Raj, owner of Vaigai travels about the changes in workflow and the benefits they acquired as a result of implementing the logistics software. Mr Karthick was very much satisfied with the logistics management system and the support provided and was willing to share few of the benefits caused by SA-FMS.

The easy to use booking and delivery modules have considerably reduced the effort and working time of the employees. The well designed finance module has reduced the paper work in the accounts section and improved the transparency of the work-flow. The SMS module was also included in the package and this helps to let the customer know when his consignment is booked / delivered. The use of SMS facility resulted in improved customer satisfaction.

Mr. Karthick also made a special mention on the various reports provided. Vehicle-wise reports provide a clear idea about the status of vehicles in different routes and inturn helps in tracking the revenue per truck. Centralised waybill enquiry module helps in tracking the status of the consignment and since it is easy to use, every employee is able to retrieve the status of the consignment using the enquiry facility.

Mr Karthick Raj and his employees are much satisfied with SA-FMS. The workflow in the organisation has changed now and they are benefited in different ways after implementing SA-FMS.

CTI Logistics, Kolkata

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

We take pride in announcing the acquisition of our first client in Eastern region of India, CTI Logistics Kolkata who will be implementing SA-FMS Freight Logistics management system ERP suite to power their existing branches in order to bring about operational efficiency and improved customer service, tight control over truck fleet, and the scalability to enable expansion into various parts of the country.

  • Brand CTI, replantation and goodwill
  • ISO Certified organization
  • Fastest connectivity to N.Bengal, Sikim and Bhutan
  • Fleet strength has increased by 4000% in last 6 years
  • High client retention ratio
  • Strength from a very diverse fleet, owned from 1 ton capacity to 36 ton capacity
  • IBA Approval
  • Impressive Clientele
  • Awards and Achievements
  • ISO Certification
  • AGSI Certification+ 

logistics software kolkata

Operational costs and pricing pressure in logistics industry

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

The recent diesel fuel price hike has considerably increased the operational and other costs incurred by the freight logistics firms. A hike of 3 rupee per litre on diesel fuel will increase the operating expenses considerably as most of the full load trucks have a fuel economy of 4 to 7 kilometres per litre.

A 30 MT truck that has a fuel efficiency of 5 kilometres per litre will now have an additional expense of .60 rupee per kilometre with the new diesel price. Consider a truck that covers 500 kilometres a day. The fuel price hike will bring in an additional cost of Rs. 300 per day. If there are 50 such trucks for the firm, the total additional cost per day shoots up to Rs. 15,000. This in turn produces as monthly value of Rs 450,000/-. Thereby the approximate annual operating cost goes up by Rs. 54,00,000/-. The hike will also affect the companies those hire trucks from outside. The rate for hiring the trucks will be increased by the truck owners and this will again cause a burden to the transport firms.

From the past trends, it is evident that the price of the diesel fuel will keep on rising and in near future we can expect the diesel price touching the 65 rupee per litre mark and the petrol price reaching Rs 100 per litre. With the series of hikes happening and the huge amount of additional cost incurring, the best way to improve your profits is by simplifying back office operations, reducing the cost of serving customer etc, and here, SA-FMS ERP advantage pays off with its cost saving benefits for freight and logistics industry.

Some features of SA-FMS include:

  • Incorporates best practices in Freight Logistics industries
  • Excellent controls for accounting and inventory to avoid pilferage
  • On time and within budget implementation practices
  • ERP with guaranteed return on investment (ROI) through operational efficiencies
  • Time tested ERP solution for large and small freight logistics companies

INR 100 = USD 2.2

Freight logistics ERP – end user perspective

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Joseph hails from an ordinary family who did not want to continue their traditional job of farming. He completed his pre-degree and went in search of some job which will satisfy his interests. After sending a series of application into various firms, he got a job in the Bangalore office of XYZ Roadways, an established transport and logistics firm, at the age of 19. It has been 31 years now since Joseph joined XYZ.

Being office staff, their clerical works mainly included handling receipts, registers, accounts etc, with a lot of files piled up. As the organization grew, the staff also had to be prepared for the growth from grass root level. It included partial change in their work process with the aid of computers.

Years later, the management decided to improve the process and minimize the workflow. For this, they decided to computerise the entire process and implement logistics management system. As a result, the earlier version of SA-FMS, the logistic management system  was introduced to XYZ. Joseph was much concerned and worried about this step, as many employees including him were not computer savvy. He had a feeling that computers may take up his job and he may become jobless. He was concerned about his work efficiency, once the logistic management software is implemented. He was also concerned about how difficult his further work would be with the transport software.

The change was not that smooth. Freight logistics software was implemented and computers became a part of their work-life. But ERP had all the processes simplified in place, interconnections between all the branches and a delivery tracking software.

There were many anxiety reasons for the staff. Reluctance towards a new technology they think they cannot master, confusions about what can be done by computers and what cannot be done etc. SA-FMS and XYZ management took care in handling the issue by giving training and support to the staff. The effort involved was mainly in dealing with the mind block of the staff. Once it was solved Joseph and his colleagues realized that the logistics management software had all the simplifications for a layman to work on it with mere common sense and organization knowledge. The staff was able to accustom gradually to the system. They realized that there is a considerable amount of time saved. There was no more a delay in communication between the departments and no question about updated information.

SA-FMS underwent several version changes and each time it evolved into a better version which makes tasks simpler for the employees.  Joseph has worked with all these versions and he is very much impressed with the system. According to him, “SA-FMS is very user friendly. I have not been trained in computers and I’m 50 years old. I don’t find any difficulty to use SA-FMS. The colors used are optimum, without causing much strain to the eyes. The interface is well designed and the sorted menu on the left side of the screen helps to select each function from the particular module.” Now Joseph is proficient in the software and he is able to clear the clarifications of his colleagues. He even provides the software training to the new employees hired. SA-FMS indeed has also improved his computer knowledge and he has started using various other features in computers including e-mail, web browsing, word, excel etc.

Freight Logistics industry – India trends

Friday, May 20th, 2011

Freight Logistics ERP solution from SA-FMS. Mumbai, Bangalore. Indore, Kolkata & Kochi

SA-FMS – centralised short and excess register

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Managing a volume based freight logistics business in the chaotic semi organised sector is challenging, and often results in waybills being dispatched in parts, wrongly marked or loaded into trucks scheduled for different destination. Reasons being many

  • Limited space available inside metro limits
  • Godown resource constraints
  • Abnormal peak seasonal traffic
  • Season based truck availability
  • Traffic restrictions during business hours in central areas
  • Clerical errors on marking waybill number
  • Similar sounding location names
  • Goods transferred directly into trucks from smaller vans / carts from suppliers
  • Odd working hours for loading and unloading consignments
  • Lack of standardisation in packaging
  • Wrong consignee business name specified
  • Incorrect entry in forwarding note from the consignor or supplier
  • incomplete list of statutory documents provided

The central short excess register is a convenient feature offered along with the SA-FMS ERP suite for freight logistics that enables all the customer touch points access the central information system to mark internal and external complaints on consignments such as short, excess, damages, wrong marking, wrong dispatches etc. These are subsequently match on common attributes by the ERP software in order to bring about efficient tracking, to deliver the waybills to the designated consignee on time and within budget.

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