Our client is a large player in the logistics, supply-chain, warehousing and transportation business. They have a good infrastructure with air-conditioned warehousing facilities, large fleet of trucks and state-of-the-art technology for tracking consignments. They manage complete supply chain for multinational online stores, FMCG goods, fresh produce, furniture and white goods.

Situation

Due to Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns in India, there was sudden rush and spike in business for our client. Lack of staff, coupled with restrictions on movement of trucks and people resulted in delay of consignments. This caused major disruption and chaos in the supply chain management of our client in many locations. New clients also wanted to sign up with our client, but they needed to set the house in order before signing on with new business

Challenges

• Covid-19 restrictions in the country restricted movement of staff and goods
• Absenteeism and lack of trained staff (due to Covid) resulted in back log of previous consignments
• Sudden spike in business due to panic buying in India
• New client engagements came up suddenly, given the situation and need for supply chain

Action

Confiar Global searched for an interim manager, who had good experience in the supply chain business with large volume business houses. The interim manager had the ability to quickly determine the bottle necks, analyze the situation, suggest corrective measures, and execute the plan and release consignments on a war footing clearing all warehouses, making space for more.

The interim manager had good connections and associations, so he could out-source the back-log consignments to a reliable vendor, while creating a great infrastructure within our client’s organization to manage such a situation in the future. Training, mentoring of existing staff and upgradation of operating procedures and systems were a major task undertaken by the interim manager.

Results

The contract for the interim manager was for six months, and within the stipulated time, he managed to clear the backlog, train and mentor staff for such exigencies in future, restructure the operations, upgrade IT and other infrastructure and prepare for new clients to sign in with our client. This was a kind of Business Process Re-engineering for our client. Our client is pleased with the changes brought and despite the high cost of the manger, the net results brought in much greater profits and benefits for our client.