Excel is Killing Logistics

Avinash Kumar had joined an FMCG company post-MBA in 2015 as a Manager of Supply Chain Planning & Operations. His job involved planning daily load movements from warehouse to distributors as well as look after warehouse operations.

If you ask Avinash about what his day to day work looks like, the image here summarizes his work experience since he started with the firm -

His typical day starts with the load file (an excel file) received by the sales team that tells him what load needs to be delivered to what distributor / warehouse locations.

Next, he starts breaking down orders (using excel filters) by distributors and check the total quantity and weight and volume that needs to be shipped. Once, he has prepared another sheet with the distributor wise load data, he checks what loads can be combined in a single truck based on location and weight limit.

He also needs to keep various other factors in mind like — whether a huge truck (say) 11 ton can reach the distributor warehouse location or not. Is the distributor a Modern Trade party (which implies strict time limits) and with all other factors, can he keep the costs down..!!

After, 3 mugs of coffee — 1.5 hours of battling with numbers and excel, he prepares a load dispatch plan — again an excel sheet.

This dispatch plan is shared with Mahesh, the warehouse manager, who procures the required truck from the vendor.

Next, he generates a pick list (the usual Excel sheet) based on the load plan he received from Avinash.

Though Mahesh is very proficient with Excel, it still takes around 30 mins of his crucial time to create a pick list. And remember, as a warehouse manager, he’s constantly battling with incoming phones, emails, and requests from different sales teams, vendors and yeah his wife :) !!

Once, the trucks line-up at the dock, Mahesh is busy generating E-way bills on the government site. Well, you don’t need Excel for generating E-way bills, but what about managing the E-way Bill IDs and mapping them against Truck Numbers and Order Numbers?? Yes, you guessed it right! Excel comes to the rescue (or should I really term this as a rescue?)

After loading and generating lorry receipts, the trucks go out for their deliveries. Now, Mahesh has no idea once the trucks leave the warehouse. So, in case there’s any issue with any of the truck deliveries he has to go back to excel to fish out the records.

However, it’s just not planning or operations where you’ll find the ubiquitous Excel!

Did I mention Accounting? Yes, the same team that gives out your monthly salaries or payments! Ever wondered how do they do all the reconciliations? Yeah, the excel files received from Mahesh & Avinash plus their own files.

And yes, everything goes back to Avinash — so that he could do an analysis on the health of the firm’s logistics and operations health!

So basically, Excel does help to keep everything in order but is that Productive??

There are so many excel files containing various information of day-wise load. Add to it commotion of silos between departments, different versions of data and numerous back & forth in mail… You can well imagine the state of Logistics!!

So, is there an easier way out?

Definitely! That’s what we at Quifers have been helping our client with!

Let’s see how Avinash’s life would change; if Avinash’s company had been using Quifers Logistics solution.

1. Our core algorithm helps save precious planning time, enabling the team to be more responsive and dispatch faster!
   Single Click & Avinash can import day’s load from the company’s system and Quifers algorithm provides all the dispatch plan with information on required truck types, truck numbers and order allocation.

That means Avinash can utilize this time to start his morning runs (something that he loved during college)!

2. ‍Avinash can directly procure trucks from Quifers Dashboard.‍

That means Avinash no longer needs to babble around on phone with different vendors!

3. ‍Picklists gets generated with 3D view on how to pack load into the trucks.

That means Mahesh can spend his mornings in peace without the need of shouting around the warehouse!

4. ‍Auto E-Way bill generation

That means fewer errors & lesser resources required to manage compliances!

5. ‍Full visibility of dispatched trucks

That means Mahesh doesn’t have to answer continuous calls to tell when & where the truck is!

6. ‍Easy Electronic Reconciliations

That means the Accounts & Operations team can be friends again! And of course, the vendors can be paid faster! You do know what happy vendors mean for a company.

7. ‍What-If Insights & Analytics

That means, with all the insights, Avinash can be “The Super Genius Employee” that he always wanted to be!

All in all, a situation where the whole company’s supply chain & resources are in ZEN mode!!!

If this is something that resonates with you, say hi to us!