FMCG companies adopt enterprise applications
FMCG firms have tight supply chain schedules and face intense competition when they bring new products to the marketplace. ABHINAV SINGH says that these companies are now using enterprise solutions to gain visibility into their schedules, customer requirements and inventories
NAME any Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company and you will find that it uses some form of enterprise application software. ITC, Godrej, Hindustan Lever and Jyothy Laboratories are some of these FMCGs that have deployed enterprise solutions. The benefits? They have experienced better utilisation of resources, faster time to market, and have been able to formulate effective marketing strategies.
Says V V R Babu, chief information officer, ITC group, “Implementing IT solutions has led to an increase in service levels with our dealers through redressal of potential stock-out scenarios. This has been made possible due to better visibility of sales, inventory and production-in-progress data.”
There are two key drivers for implementing enterprise applications—to consolidate data, and to understand the market and customer demand.
Consolidating data
Many FMCG companies had been grappling with the need to consolidate their information base accumulated from different sources. These companies have operations spread across India. In order to bring efficiency to their processes, they needed to have online information about their manufacturing plants, distribution points, distributors and retailers. Says Mani Mulki, general manager, Information Systems, Godrej, “Consolidation of information is essential for any FMCG company as it helps monitor the company’s efficiency levels, inventory movements and brings greater visibility across its suppl ...