Jindal Stainless Limited

Jindal Stainless Limited with a manufacturing capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per annum is India’s leading manufacturer of stainless steel. The company manufactures and sells a broad range of stainless-steel flat products including slabs, blooms, flat bars, hot rolled and cold rolled coils, plates and sheets and special products including, precision strips and coin blanks.

Understanding that customer requirements were evolving rapidly and that the old ways of working was cumbersome, the company underwent a massive transformation to establish a high velocity supply chain, and an agile operational model. By disrupting industry paradigms, the company reinvented its entire supply chain by viewing it from the lens of the customer. Production transitioned from MTO (made to order) to “pull” replenishment-based MTA (made to availability/anticipation) for nearly 1,000 SKUs (~70% of total SKUs). Shop floors were aligned to respond only to colour based replenishment signals. The warehouse network was optimised to cater to customers in smaller batches at multiple locations. Procurement lead time was shortened to reduce risk of exposure to highly volatile nickel prices.

The exercise was successful in steering the whole supply chain, right from sourcing and planning, to manufacturing and sales, to a customer centric approach. This virtuous cycle of change in the company brought with it a flow of financial and operation benefits. A few of these are summarised here: