Category Archives: Supply Chain

Shankar Shinde, Chairman Elect, Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) has been elected unanimously as Managing Director of the International Federation of Customs Brokers Association (IFCBA). IFCBA enjoys the status of Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) representation on World Customs Organisation (WCO).The election of Shinde in IFCBA’s crucial position once again underscores the growing importance of FFFAI and India at large in the international Logistics & Customs Brokers business. Having more than 30 years of experience in Logistics and Customs Broking industry Shinde is very well-known for his huge contribution to the entire industry. Apart from FFFAI and IFCBA, he has also been associated with various industry associations including Nashik Customs House Agents Association as President, International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) as FFFAI nominated representative, Brihanmumbai Customs Brokers Association, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture, etc. In addition, from FFFAI Shinde is spearheading the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project collaborating with the Government of India. “The international trade community depends on the work done by Customs Brokers and IFCBA serves Customs Brokers by keeping them at the centre of the international trading system. It is IFCBA’s mission to promote the value and use of Customs Brokers worldwide,” emphasized Shinde while commenting on the importance of IFCBA. IFCBA works to bring about improvements in Customs policies and best practices on a global basis. These improvements benefit both Customs and Customs Brokers for achieving transparency in trade facilitation measures, brainstorming towards innovation for recommendation of seamless cross border customs processes and standardization with use of technology in achieving paperless transaction.

Enabling the ultra-fast delivery services of daily essentials and grocery under the Amazon Fresh Store on Amazon.in, Amazon India has announced the launch of Amazon Fresh in Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai. With this expansion, Amazon India has more than 25 such Amazon Fresh centres, with a 3X increase in processing space. The company has also expanded its infrastructure with new centres in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR with growing customer demand for the grocery category. The specialiaed infrastructure is designed to ensure safe storage of products in the category with freezer and refrigeration zones, special packaging for frozen food among others. “The investment in these specialized centres is in line with our long-term commitment to invest in India and create hundreds of job opportunities. We are also delighted to help Indian customers get what they need, while keeping our customers and our workforce safe. In the last few months, customers have increasingly trusted us to enable delivery of essentials safely at their doorstep. We have ramped up our operational capabilities in cities where we already offered this service, and added 4 new cities ahead of the festive season to meet customer needs” said Prakash Kumar Dutta, Vice President – Fulfilment Operations and Supply Chain, Amazon India. Siddharth Nambiar, Director – Category Management, Amazon India, said, “As part of our commitment to fulfil the needs of customers, we are launching Amazon Fresh in four more cities of Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune & Chennai to offer customers the convenience of ordering daily essentials on Amazon.in while staying safe at home. Customers can now order the freshest fruits and vegetables as well as everyday grocery and get them delivered within 4 hours. The …

Snowman Logisticshas announced that the company is reserving average 500 pallets (approx. 35 lacs doses of vaccine) in every location and in some locations more than 500 pallets. In total, the company will be offering around 10000 pallets (approx. 7 crore doses of vaccine) space. The company can increase this availability, within short notice and can significantly expand capacity over a short period to meet evolving domestic and global demands. Snowman has also mapped other cold storage operators with whom the company can partner on a need basis. This can further help Snowman to create similar amount of space, if required. “Snowman is already managing vaccine distribution of Influenza/swine flu and Typhoid vaccines. This experience of ours will come handy while managing covid19 vaccine storage and distribution,” states Sunil Nair, CEO, Snowman Logistics, in adding, “We have worked out solutions for small volume locations where there are no cold storages (Small towns, Taluka, Village etc.), and how we can use refrigerated containers, reach in freezers, etc for the delivery. We also have mapped out, as our partners transport capacities and how we can use them in short notice. We can dedicate close to 200 trucks for this purpose, nationally” “The task is mammoth, as it is not just about vaccine, but associated ancillary kits (syringes, needles, alcohol swabs, etc.) should also be distributed concurrently. This will need robust distribution planning and involvement of multiple players.” Sunil added. The company runs 31 temperature-controlled warehousing facilities across 15 locations in the country, offering combined capacity of 108,375 pallets and has a fleet of about 300 refrigerated trucks that will further augment its vaccine delivery capability.

NebulARC has introduced UBICUO, an AI-enabled Virtual Assistant for organisations helping them to take immediate actions based on detailed workflows, real-time alerts and analytics. The solution aims to help the companies to automate the entire supply chain and make supply chain management even smarter. With the growing need for effective logistics amidst rising customer demand for ecommerce and FMCG companies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find apt manpower to manage the supply chain functions. Leveraging the AI-enabled virtual assistant is a smart option for companies working towards faster decision making and enhanced experience. Being an innovation-driven company, NebulARC’s virtual assistant – UBICUO allows enterprises to keep a check on inventory, product perishability, supply trends, demand supply ratio etc. It is a cost effective solution that manages warehouse operations and follows up dispatched and stock in hand to inform the production requirements for smarter business decisions. Alok Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, NebulARC said, “Certainly positive about the market sentiment, we are thrilled to introduce one of our most-disruptive logistics solutions for businesses across verticals. Our one-of-a kind virtual assistant – UBICUO has been developed keeping in mind the various constraints that a company faces while managing its logistics be it for B2B shipments or for end-customers. With its unique capabilities, UBICUO will prove to be a key enabler for organisations by helping them to increase their productivity and optimise their operations at a significantly lesser cost. With this resource-saving project we are making yet another substantial effort towards accelerating digital transformation in the logistics space.” NebulARC’s AI-enabled Virtual Assistant not only manages the entire logistics ecosystem but also helps the businesses to significantly reduce risks of theft, pilferage and other …

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has opened a new Centralized Parking Plaza (CPP) for container tractor trailers with Customs facilitation, as part of its efforts to promote ease of doing business. The parking plaza spread across 45 hectares has a capacity to park 1,538 tractor trailers at a time. The plaza has been built exclusively to integrate the parking of tractor trailers carrying factory stuffed export containers at one location instead of multiple locations earlier. This will help integrate document processing by Customs with state-of-the art facilities and service provision. The plaza will be managed using Real Time Parking Management system and has a Wi Fi provision within the premises. It has a dormitory for truck drivers to stay, canteen for providing food to truck drivers, well-maintained toilets, area for vehicle repair and maintenance and commercial building. “JNPT is the only port in India which has planned for a facility of this scale and CPP is a key initiative to streamline the traffic movement and improve the port efficiencies using IT services, at the same time provide convenience facilities and amenities at very nominal rates to truck drivers who travel long distances to reach the Port. The Centralized Parking Plaza is an important part of our constant endeavour to provide the ease of doing business within the Port,’’ Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT said during a visit to the plaza today along with senior officials to oversee the functioning of the new facility.

Delta Cargo has approved the use of the DoKaSchOpticooler RAP container as part of its cold chain pharma service. The approval comes as the air cargo industry prepares for the widespread transportation and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. Key features of the DoKaSchOpticooler RAP container include: temperature ranges of 2-8°C and 15-25°C, which enable it to be used for the transportation of Pharma 1 goods without dry ice; a large loading compartment that accommodates five standard Euro pallets or four CP-1 pallets; a battery that requires two to four hours of charging time, operational times of up to 120 hours; and a large control panel plus quadruple redundancy for all critical parts, which help to ensure “backups for each feature in case of failure”. Shawn Cole, Delta’s vice president of cargo, commented, “The introduction of the Opticooler provides our customers with more choice when looking for reliable container options to support the growing global demand for pharma and vaccine shipments.” “Alongside our joint venture partners, Air France-KLM Cargo, we can now offer our customers a seamless experience across the trans-Atlantic, helping to keep supply chains moving and ensuring the safe delivery of temperature sensitive shipments during the current pandemic.” Andreas Seitz, managing director at DoKaSch Temperature Solutions, added: “This agreement with Delta provides more transport options for shippers of sensitive pharmaceutical goods, which is especially important for the upcoming transport of vaccines against Covid-19. Many of these will require a temperature range between 2°C and 8°C during transport, which is exactly what our Opticooler is made for. Delta further expands our extensive global network which allows us to offer our temperature-controlled packaging solutions at even more locations.”

Assam is all set to have country’s first international multi-modal hub, informs Chandra Mohan Patowary, Assam Industry and Commerce Minister. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to fund the project at an estimated cost of around Rs 600 crore. “The Government of Assam is planning to develop Jogighopa, a small township near Brahmaputra river, as a logistics hub or trans-shipment point for cargo moving from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland to Bangladesh,” the minister informs. In addition, the Munshiganj River Terminal in Bangladesh will be used as a customs station to handle third-party export and import cargo via Kolkata Port. “To bring about a significant reduction in logistics cost and faster delivery of Bangladesh export cargo, the Indian side has raised the point regarding permitting a third country export-import trade under the coastal shipping agreement and protocol on inland water transit and trade (PIWTT) by allowing trans-shipment through ports on the east coast of India. The Bangladesh government agreed to hold stakeholder consultations and revert on the matter,” Patowary said. “Increasing connectivity through air, water, rail, road offer a mutually beneficial opportunity for enhancing economic cooperation between Bangladesh and the Northeastern states of India and beyond. Standard operating procedures for the use of Chattagram and Mongla ports for movement of goods to and from India, particularly to and from the Northeast of India have recently been concluded and it is expected that it would create a win-win situation for both economies,” he adds.

Highlighting the need for a robust cold chain infrastructure to strengthen the supply and storage of perishables to suffice India’s population, Manoj Pant, Regional Business Manager West, Snowman Logistics, notes “India is home to 535 agri-tech startups that use technology to bolster agricultural productivity. Food security in India has been immensely impacted by the pandemic in four main aspects – availability, accessibility, stability, and utilisation of food. Disruption in supply chains and a decline in demand have caused a loss of production and income to the farmers and traders. Closure of mandis and QSRs due to the lockdown led to a surplus accumulation of perishables. Since post-harvest losses are highest in the fruit and vegetable sector, agri-tech startups can bridge the gap with demand-driven cold chains, warehouse monitoring solutions, and market linkages that can significantly boost farmer income. With innovations in technology like storage monitoring based on the Internet of Things (IoT), image sensing for quality grading and digitisation of mandis will prevent the wastage of perishables.

In order to cater to the upcoming festive season demand, Gati-KWE has revamped its express distribution, warehousing, and supply chain management services. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company expects robust 50 per cent growth in volumes during the October-December festive season. The company is actively building capacity, strengthening its supply chain and delivery capabilities to cater to the expected volume rush. “We are further augmenting our express logistics capacity by two-fold for the upcoming festive season. Our decision to expand resources and service bandwidth by hiring additional trucks is a consequence of our experience and understanding of the market underlined by our commitment to efficiently accommodate the increased and dynamic demands of our customers during this period. As we go about doubling our capabilities, we are also giving utmost attention to COVID-19 care and safety and ensuring 100% adherence to precautions for our staff members, operators, partners, and all other stakeholders working with us,” said Bala Aghoramurthy, Deputy Managing Director, Gati-KWE Ltd. The company is aggressively promoting various offers to drive sales. These intense efforts are expected to significantly drive logistics volumes and demand in the festive season. Additionally, the changes in buying patterns suggest that consumer sentiment in India is gradually improving. According to the recent Mintel research findings, almost 30% of Indian consumers surveyed, plan to spend more on clothes and accessories followed by other goods.

FourPL, an Australian IT consulting company specialising in supply chain and procurement, has announced a partnership with FarEye to bring predictive capability to help brands orchestrate, track, optimize and deliver goods faster. “Our customers are demanding real-time visibility in their logistics operations and expect to know exactly when, where and how their goods will be delivered.” says Brett Findlay, CEO, FourPL. FarEye helps businesses to orchestrate logistics processes in a multi-enterprise & multi-stakeholder environment to ensure seamless & efficient movement of goods. The leading machine-learning based platform is empowering global enterprises to shrink delivery time by up to 27%, increase courier productivity by up to 15%, eliminate risks by up to 57%, and achieve operational excellence. “Today’s increasingly customer-centric economy requires integrated and value-added capabilities to achieve competitive advantage. FarEye helps organisations to maximise productivity and minimise risk while continuously making logistics operations efficient. We are passionate about making movement of goods a positive experience through innovation, deployment of industry best processes and constant improvement. We make organizations future-ready by differentiating their offerings & making them best in class. This enables them to drive expected behaviour and underpin broader business objectives,” says, Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye.