Published on December 17, 2021
The Tinplate Company of India (TCIL), a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has pioneered Tinplate manufacturing in India. The company celebrated its 100th year of existence (inception in 1920) in 2020, and has emerged as the leading tinplate manufacturing entity in India. Tinplate (ETP) and Tin Free Steel (TFS/ECCS) are the two main products from TCIL
Enhancing supplier capability through vendor-based competency has been at the core of the company’s strategy. Supplier management is a key support process and has been continuously improving through long-term relationships with surveys, meetings, interactions and reviews. Towards this endeavour, TCIL reached out to Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) for guidance, wherein the latter suggested interacting with Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals to understand their practices on vendor management.
TCIL wanted to know more about the following areas of vendor management:
- Decision on L-1 based on cost estimation, vendor capability, total cost of ownership etc.
- Ensuring service quality based on clearly defined SLA’s
- Vendor rating mechanism based on data rather than perception
- Evaluation process for vendor empanelment
- Integrating vendor rating with ordering process
- Evaluation of vendors
- Forms and formats related to vendor evaluation
Subsequently, TBExG facilitated an interaction between the three companies. During the session, the Tata Motors team elaborated on the following:
- Vendor management process
- Vendor rating process
- Selection criteria
- Decision on L-1 while ensuring service quality
- Interaction with vendors (frequency and points of discussion)
Discussion with Tata Chemicals led to better understanding on:
- Vendor evaluation process
- Method/frequency of evaluation
- Formats and forms used for capturing the inputs for improvements
The team from TCIL found the sessions extremely useful. They decided to evaluate the adoption of some aspects from discussion into their business processes:
- Decision on L-1 versus quality service
- Process for vendor rating
- Vendor evaluation
The adoption of the above processes has helped in ensuring the quality of service while deciding on L-1 vendor. At the same time, the vendor evaluation format helped identify areas of improvement in the existing process.
Business Impact
The learnings implemented have benefited TCIL in terms of ease of doing business /transactions. Improvement is perceptible in the process of vendor panel finalisation, where TCIL has started taking user input before request for quotation is floated. This has helped reduce the indent to order cycle time for service indent. Overall, there is reduction of 05 days in cycle time (24 days to 19 days).
Participant Speak
The Tinplate team has learnt immensely from these sessions and I am sure we will be able to add value to our current process by adopting the above methods.
Rajesh Roshan - Head, Commercial Services, The Tinplate Company of India