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Consumer Goods

Dealing with Variety in Supply Chain

Henry Ford once remarked; “ You can have any color of car, as long as it is black”. The quote highlighted what Ford had to offer, as a choice set, to its customers in the early 20th century. The Model T was produced in only black color.


Consumer Goods

The Cascading Effect!

With the rising consumption power of the population, the Indian automobile market has grown leaps and bounds in the last two decades. The choice set available before an auto customer has grown many folds. For example, three decades back Indian car buyers had just two models to choose from. Today there are at least 100 models of passenger cars available in the market. The same growth story is there in other segments like two wheelers or even the commercial vehicle segment.


Consumer Goods

Managing a Fashion Supply Chain

Implementing pull based supply chain solutions of Theory of Constraints involves significant paradigm shift from the conventional push based supply chain. When most companies, even the big names in many industries, are having push-based systems, the common experiential knowledge of most managers and even consultants are from such systems. As a result there is continual threat of a pull-based system being dismantled as most managers and consultants rely on their past experiences to “improve” systems.


Consumer Goods

An SOS for the OEMs

Auto Monitor, July 2011

The reason for the mess in the supply chain is lag in reaction to the change in market demand. The higher the lag in response, bigger is the damage. The lag in response is triggered because of a push mode of operations between the distributors and the OEMs.


Consumer Goods

The ‘Delhi Effect’

AFTERMARKET Sep 11

The stark reality for many distribution companies is the dominant presence of wholesalers who buy in large bulk and sell them to the lowest bidder without any territory allegiance.


Consumer Goods

Beating the Recession Blues

Management consulting industry and all IT vendors in enterprise space, promising productivity improvement have a business cycle well aligned with the overall economy. They grow fast when the overall economy is booming and they get into trouble when recession strikes the economy.


Consumer Goods

The Liquidity Crunch

Maintaining liquidity is providing to be a major problem for the automotive industry but it can be tackled. The auto industry is severaly affected by the liquidity crisis. What started off with the commercial vehicle segment now afflicts almost all segments.


Consumer Goods

Managing distribution chain: Is there a better way than gazing the crystal ball?

Living with the chronic problem and associated conflicts

Managing the supply chain of a distribution company (like a consumer goods company or a retail chain or a spare parts distribution for automotive/industrial applications) is extremely challenging. The challenge isinherent in the frequent conflicts that the managers face in handling the day to day decisions for the supply chain.


Consumer Goods

Thruput Accounting: An introduction

Management accounting method using the Theory of Constraints

Accounting Concepts: Why are they necessary? Accounting was invented to provide a fair answer to the question – how does one evaluate the performance of firm in a given specific time period? The question was complex as business of a firm is ongoing and does not start and stop with the period start and end dates.


Consumer Goods

The hockey stick syndrome

In distribution companies the sales are very high in the last week, usually 40%. The usual sales pattern is 10:20:30:40 over the four weeks (the ratios may vary from company to company but the pattern is more or less generic). This sales pattern is popularly described as the "Hockey Stick" sales syndrome and is accepted as a normal industry practice in distribution industry.