Published on July 04, 2024
The fifth Tata Supply Chain Forum Meet held on July 4-5, 2024, brought together over 40 participants from over 20 companies for a deep dive into the pioneering practices that have made Tata Motors (TML) and Tata Steel leaders in their respective industries. The two companies have created numerous path-breaking practices that have been recognised on global platforms. The Meet provided the perfect opportunity for participants to appreciate the systems and processes that make Tata Steel and Tata Motors leaders. Shop floor visits supplemented the classroom learning and helped the audience see practices in action and take back learnings to their organisations.
Day 1: Learnings from Tata Motors, Telco Club, Jamshedpur
Ravindra Kulkarni, Plant Head, TML, Jamshedpur, welcomed the participants and provided an overview of the company’s operations. Thereafter, Manish Jha, SGM-SSCM Projects; Rajiv Bansal, GM-SCM; and Monojit Chakraborty, DGM-Industry 4.0, from Tata Motors, delivered presentations on key areas like digital transformation, Industry 4.0, Procurement 4.0, integrated sales and operations planning, RCCP, and Anaplan. They also demonstrated the ‘proof of concept’ through their digital experience centre. A tour of the Jamshedpur plant’s CV operations provide a first-hand look at these practices in action.
Adding to the day’s learning, Shailesh Solkar, Head, Supply Chain, Trent, shared insights into Trent's supply chain practices, while Santosh Subramaniam, Partner, Supply Chain Transformation, Retail and Consumer, and Sanjit Acharya, Partner, Tata Group Relationship and Transformation Platform, PwC, presented their findings from the ‘Global Supply Chain Survey 2024’.
Day 2: Insights from Tata Steel, Steelenium Hall, Jamshedpur
A video introduction showcased the entire steel-making process, from raw material sourcing to finished products. Piyush Gupta, VP, TQM, GSP, and Supply Chain, provided an overview of the company’s supply chain management and Tata Steel group of companies’ strategic procurement processes. Thereafter, Jagjit Singh, Chief Logistics, briefed the audience on procurement processes, logistics, transport management systems, and cost optimisation. Ranjan Kumar Sinha, Chief Procurement Officer, explained the details of the integrated shipping operations and associated digitalisation. Malabika Chatterjee, Chief Procurement, Supplier Management, and PI, briefed the audience on strategic procurement, inbound operations, digital tools used for distribution, tracking, and billing, and talked about centralised control towers. Suman Biswas briefed the participants on integrated operation management, supply chain management systems, and various optimisation models.
The two day meet offered not only valuable but also ample networking opportunities. The forum facilitated knowledge sharing between companies, paving the way for continuous improvement in their respective supply chain practices.
About Tata Supply Chain Forum
In line with group focus areas, TBExG has instituted group-level forums on internal audit, supply chain, data excellence, and treasury and investment management. TBExG, with the support of group companies, organises quarterly best practices sessions on subjects of interest for the respective forum. These forums have brought together over 500 subject experts from more than 50 group companies. Many companies have been able to leverage the learnings from these sessions to improve their existing processes. Companies that demonstrate improvements with a KPI impact are considered for recognition by TBExG.
The Tata Supply Chain Forum brings together over 120 supply chain experts from more than 40 Tata companies. BigBasket, Tata Play, Tata iQ, and Titan hosted the past Tata Supply Chain forum meetings. After learning from these sessions, Tata Power-DDL, Tata 1mg, BigBasket, and Tata Play could take back their learnings to improve their respective supply chain processes.
Participants Speak
The processes and measures adopted by Tata Motors and Tata Steel for effective and efficient supply chain management will certainly help in improving the processes in my organisation.
— Anup Dandekar, GM, Tata RealtyDigitisation, mistake-proof process, inventory reduction technique, and VMI for bulk components were the most effective in this session. I am using these learnings to explore the feasibility of implementing them in my organisation.
— Deb Kumar Paul, Engineer (Strategic Sourcing), TRF LimitedIt was a splendid experience. There were quite a few lucid discussions. I had the honour of meeting some of the finest people in the Tata fraternity. Overall, it's a fantastic opportunity to learn and network.
— Prashant Dave, Group Head Commercial Finance, Tata Power