Time-for-a-New-Sales-Strategy

Gone are the days when a client would call you with his complaint, he would rather post a review on social media badmouthing your company. So, when your customers have moved on to the digital world, why should you be struggling with old ways of communication?In the past few decades – with the global technology ushering in sweeping changes in the economy – the dynamics of the Manufacturing Industry has changed dramatically!

However, this has not yet translated into hyper-growth for the Indian Manufacturing Industry. There is a tremendous pressure from the competitive and substitutive forces in the Red Ocean of similar products. Still, the challenge is not the production of the product (we all aim to create the best out of given resources, don’t we!); it’s the sales that have lagged behind. It could be because of competition, undervalued product, or lack of serious efforts. Here’s the thing: It is none of these reasons, it is the communication that is not getting channelized properly!

Word-Of-Mouth Isn’t a Thing Anymore

It’s the world of busy - half the people don’t have time to listen to you and other half are not interested in what you are saying; by all means, your word is getting unheard. Yet, word of mouth seems the only way out for many businesses, especially B2B sector.
The manufacturers may be oblivious to the potential of marketing in the current scenario - contented with the word-of-mouth or cold calling and settle with the same.
But, the news is that the world doesn’t operate on the old ways anymore!
The world is evolving with the technological advancement- digital and compact. The size of the screen of our laptops, mobile phones have become small significantly only to have the world on our tips, a few clicks. The world, now accessible through social networking sites, operates on view-of-eyes.

Cold Calling Should Not Be Your Sales Strategy
Reaching out to someone is as simple as punching few buttons on a cell phone. Be it personal or official call, people enjoy the fancy the device can provide – it connects us to the people that are important– connections that matter.
The device with such a potential does appear as a good prospect for attracting clients, while you may be just pushing them farther. It is likely that your potential client blocks your number or even marks you as spam, dumping all the possibility of actually reaching out to him.
The mistake that most of the salesmen make is not to care for personal space. You may be barging in your customer’s space with your repeated calls. Your customer has a job too!

Tune in the digital channels
The rigorous social interaction today is impeccable. Be it debates for a social cause or voicing personal opinions, social media has always come to the rescue. Digital space has ushered marketing into its future
In 2004, when Facebook had gone live, as a social portal for casual interactions, revolutionized the communication altogether. Today, it is being used for personal and business promotions extensively, from the start-ups, small business, to global business and MNCs. What is more amusing is that Facebook is just a piece of the whole. To name few – there are portals – Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram, etcetera.
The new era calls for a different strategy for your sales. The time and space have shrunk and so should our communication. Instead of badgering your customers into a conversation, the attention must be gained in a time window of few seconds, with a human touch and play of words and colors & creative. The focus should be on the exchange of ideas than pitching the customers, and that must be done on a subconscious level. Instead of getting unheard and hung up, the business should focus on leveraging the channels where your prospective customers are!

If you are facing a similar problem, get Impalsified!

Innovations in Warehousing

Transforming over time from godowns to warehouses, warehouses have grown to become the backbone of the manufacturing and the service industry. Traditionally warehouses meant humongous spaces managed by a huge manpower. There have been businesses that have been solely dependent on managing warehouses. Today, the very nature of handling such space is changing. 

With supply chain getting advanced and evolved over time, warehousing  is on a continuous improvement process. The volume of material handling these days, demands use of automation instead of a large workforce. This is to meet the expectations of accuracy and on time delivery. In today’s world speed is everything, it can be your competitive edge.

Specially in the manufacturing industry, with lean manufacturing and lean inventory becoming the aim, having sophisticated material handling systems has become the need of the hour. Similarly, growing consumerism especially with modern retail and ecommerce in particular has led to ever increasing amount of logistics handling in the service sector, for which proper warehousing stands crucial for survival.

Warehousing in India

India- The changing scenario

Demand for modern and sophisticated warehouses has witnessed a tremendous increase in India in last few years because of influx of multinational companies as well as export-oriented companies who are ready to invest in the warehousing infrastructure.

Need for large scale warehousing or dedicated logistics parks is fast catching up in India. The industry is mostly fragmented and unorganized; dominated by many small players. Also, the role of warehouses has increased due to wider product range, emphasis on shorter lead times and constant changes in customer demand with changing dynamics of the country.

In a recent study done by World Bank, India has jumped 19 positions in the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) which means India is on the growth path as far as the Logistics handling capacity is considered. Also, in 2017, India made the highest ever jump to come within the top 100 countries in the “Ease of Doing Business’ index of the World Bank. This indicates that, India is becoming a preferred destination for global companies.  

 Although India is on the path of technological advancement, more needs to be done. Out of the many fields, warehousing and logistics management is one such important field that needs attention. The warehousing industry in India is growing at a rate of 10 percent every year. Considering the current scenario, the growth in Indian warehouse industry is led by various factors, prominent amongst them are:-

➢      growth in manufacturing, engineering and service industry;

➢      growth in e-commerce, modern retail, digitization, government thrust on cashless economy;

➢      growth in domestic consumption;

➢      fast growing exports and international trade;

➢      growth in private and foreign investments with government’s Make in India Campaign;

➢      introduction of GST integrating India into a unified market;

➢      increase in trade through foreign investments in the SEZs(Special Economic Zones)

➢      growth in openness of the Indian economy and market integration;

According to studies, Indian logistics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.17% by 2020 driven by the growth in the manufacturing, retail, FMCG and e-commerce sectors.

Why innovating in warehousing is crucial?

In today’s globalized world the cost of manufacturing a well specified product is pretty much the same anywhere in the world. Then there is the market price which is determined by the consumer base. So with the input and output prices being controlled by external influences, one of the few areas where companies can leverage competitive advantage is their supply chain of which warehousing is a part. So innovation in the warehouse become not only crucial but necessary for survival. Some other issues specific to industry and India are as follows:

Labour Problems- Labour in India though available in large number as well as cheaply, its not easy to manage them and they are highly unskilled. Compared to other countries, labour in India don’t receive proper training and thus lack industry knowledge. Hence, there are issues of labour union, regulation issues and differences between labour unions and company’s management.

Bulky Material- Industries like textile, iron and steel industry etc. handle huge quantity of bulky material everyday. A large workforce is required to handle such huge quantity and managing such a large workforce requires more management and safety is always a concern.

Environment issues- With mass productivity being the prime moto today, industries face problems of space availability, land issues etc. Sometimes challenging environment to work in like in cold storages, high work temperature areas also hinder the productivity of workers. In such cases replacing man with machines can be a boon .

Solution to problems of Warehousing

Automation and optimization are key to Innovations in warehousing.

Harnessing the power of technology and maximizing a facility's potential can be a competitive edge. This demands companies improve their warehousing facilities and advance their logistics handling with efficient supply chain management environment. One such expert in materialhandling solutions and logistics management is Daifuku.

Daifuku, provides its expertize in utilizing the warehouse space optimally with its custom-made solutions. Daifuku’s AS/RS helps pace up the movement and use the right amount of space with the least human dependency in a safe way.

A final word

Innovations in warehousing will most certainly help achieve improved operating efficiency, cut cycle time, prevent material handling loss and provide controlled access. Daifuku’s products such as AS/RS, Unit Load AS/RS, Mini Load AS/RS, Racking Systems help deliver speed and effciency for today’s supply chain management (SCM) environment. Daifuku caters to all types of customer needs and designs and builds ensuring high quality and long-term reliability.

About the author

Mr. Asim Behera is presently the COO at Factory Automation and Distribution Automation; Daifuku India. With his esteemed direction and guidance, Daifuku has become the fastest growing ASRS Company in India. He is a business veteran, a guest speaker at various industry platforms such as CII, ASSOCHAM, CEMAT, IWS, and Symbiosis University and an expert in automated storage & retrieval systems and material handling systems. His experience in varied markets such as India, US, Europe, & Japan helps companies set up market entry strategy for new technologies and services.

Contact him @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/asimbehera/

About Daifuku

Since 1937, Daifuku has been world-class Automated Materials Handling Company – conveying, storage, sorting, picking and controls. We have a global network of offices and subsidiaries that offer design, engineering, sales, installation and commissioning of an Automated Storage and Materials Handling System.

For more information, visit http://www.daifuku.com/in/

When Dreams are Exploited

Recently, on a Sunday evening, I was having a casual talk with my friend, when we came to discuss about challenges he is facing with his start up. The story is no different from mine or anyone, because be it a new business or old, the troubles we face are universal. Often we are not able to identify our problems, because of being caught in our own yes and no. But at the same time, it becomes easy for us to find the troubles in the other person’s business and give solutions. Vice-versa we also get the same suggestions, and I am sure we all here have such different experiences. There is nothing wrong in this, as simple corrections are missed upon by an entrepreneur; it is like editing your own article.

 The discussion finally came to the initial investments he is making on his marketing and branding activities right now, having no visible results, but all the resources are being spent vaguely following success models of established companies, which actually have different dynamics. Now this is where I feel the dreams of people are getting exploited. 

 Successful companies established earlier say 3-4 years back or more, grew up in a different business eco-system and today the eco-system is completely different. With changing time, the approach also needs to be different, but in reality this is not happening. There cannot be copycats or imitators. Every new business has to be dealt in a new way with innovations to gain opportunity in the market. Simply following success models would definitely lead to nowhere.  

 Today, the objective of a start up is not coming out with a successful sustainable business model, and get it run on its own, but rather get an investor on board. All the energies are brought in to convince an Investor, rather than concentrating on real work. This is where we get into a lot of jugaad work. With shortcuts being the mantra for quick results, I consider a ‘convinced investor’ as winning a Lottery, wherein the lucky one gets in, and all others try for another time.

 You cannot follow any successful models in establishing a brand, as the objective at each different point of business changes. The real effort is to understand this dynamics, which requires various understanding - about the product/ service offered, market conditions, customer behavior, technological advantages or disadvantages etc. It's easy to make strategies in B2B businesses, but it becomes more complex for B2C products. When geographic regions and customer age groups expand, the money and resources spent need to be high, which will be impossible for a start up to invest heavily. You need to check your strategies effectively and time to time.

 For a product to be commercially manufactured, making a prototype and ensuring its feasibility is must, and naturally the same should be applicable for a Start Up. I am always open to explore opportunities around us, and often able to come out with one or the other out of the box thoughts. I would like to hear from you if any of the points I discussed above make some sense, so that we can expand our knowledge base.

Happy Republic Day

Republic Day, is that time when the feeling of patriotism and pride runs high among fellow Indians. The day starts with the Republic Day parade at Rajpath showcasing India’s Defence capabilities and depicts the social and cultural heritage of every part of the country. The beauty and grace with which it is showcased is remarkable and remains fresh in people’s memories all through the year. 

The flying tri-colour shows the immense love for the country, and the passion and enthusiasm pouring from millions of hearts depicts the strong belief in “Unity in Diversity”.

On this 69^th Republic Day, taking pride in our service to the country, we at Daifuku wish India a glorious future.

It was not all Smooth: How Japanese revolutionized TQM

Is your product approved on Quality? How it is benchmarked with the available products in the market? How do you perform Quality Assurance at the manufacturing process? These are common questions of today’s customers, thanks to the ever growing sources of information. Today, a customer is well apprised of purchasing criteria. The manufacturers are choosing quality over price any day to achieve long lasting return on investment.

 But, where does this Quality come from? What are the dimensions that keep some companies ahead in competition with Quality? Quality in last hundred years has undergone four stages of changes as under Inspection (Stage 1), Quality Control (Stage 2), Quality Assurance (Stage 3) and Total Quality Management (Stage 4). TQM is today’s manufacturing and is the way of managing for the future. It is far wider in its applications than merely assuring product or service quality. The origin of Total Quality Management (TQM) can be traced back to early 1920s when statistical theory was first applied to product quality control. This concept was further developed in Japan in the 1940s.

The focus widened from quality of products to customer, continuous improvement in operations, employee involvement, leadership, training and education. Though the term took birth in US, but Japanese revolutionized it.  Kaoru Ishikawa’s synthesis of the philosophy contributed to Japan’s ascendancy as a quality leader. As an after-effect of World War 2, the Americans ignored Dr. Edward Deming's quality management philosophy. In 1950, he went to the collapsed post-war Japan. He contacted the members of Japanese union of sciences to help them to rebuild Japanese industry. Prior to World war, the Japanese didn’t emphasize enough on the quality of products. He spoke to around 100 Engineers about his Quality Theory and convinced them by providing statistical information to process control to trace the errors back to the origin. Additional training was given to provide customer satisfaction. By 1970s, US industrial sector had been broadsided by Japanese high quality competition.

It was a hard-earned lesson for Japan and today, they are having the highest level of quality infrastructure, operations and manpower to produce quality products. Daifuku India, one of the largest global material handling solution providers for factory automation and distribution automation is practicing TQM in all over their production and customer satisfaction process. Though many Indian material handling companies are also providing automated storage and retrieval system, Daifuku is committed to provide service through consultation.  It offers the best selling range of ASRS that delivers the speed and efficiency which helps to reduce cycle time and energy. Being a Japanese company Daifuku has enhanced the awareness and quality consciousness among the employees and stakeholders to ensure customer satisfaction in the supply chain management and warehouse management.

Daifuku India is evolving as a value innovator to create and provide best solutions for Indian customers with a competitive edge. Daifuku provides optimal distribution solutions most suited to the age of e-commerce by constructing systems which can quickly supply products to consumers.

Daifuku India helps to achieve the optimized space utilization of the warehouses in various manufacturing facility. The Daifuku caters a comprehensive range of products such as AS/RS, Unit Load AS/RS, Mini Load AS/RS, Racking Systems to its customers that meet their versatile needs in logistics and manufacturing. It provides and offers material handling solutions with the aid of automated storage and retrieval systems with higher speed and more accuracy.

For more information, visit http://www.daifuku.com/in/solution/storage

Contact Us –

Daifuku India Private Limited

SLV House, 2nd floor, Plot No. 14, Sector 44, Gurgaon, Haryana 122 002 INDIA

91-124-4246027

Think before you Act: Advantages of ASRS integration in your new factory

Modern innovations and technologies have revolutionized the way a factory operates. Labor intensive manual processes have given way to automated ones with minimal or no human intervention. Computer controlled automation systems are part of each value addition area of the entire production chain, so are the various applications based software for managing them, resulting in higher production level at faster speeds with lower costs in a modern factory.

Warehouse or storage is one area of a factory where automation and technology have had relatively late and moderate entry. However, given the scope of applications and the projected value addition it can make in the entire production chain, there has been spurt in the use of automated systems and technologies.

Automated Storageand Retrieval System (ASRS) is one such essential part of a modern warehouse. Primarily, ASRS comprises of storage racks, storage and retrieval equipment and warehouse management system (WMS) that is a software application. Advancing from the conventional storage and retrieval equipment in a warehouse like AGVs, ASRS system is programmed to operate according to the load dimensions and speed of delivery for a particular load type. ASRS sends information related to the load movement to the Warehouse Management Systems which processes the data and guide automated warehouse control systems (WCS) that maneuver other warehouse equipment in tandem.

Conventional material handling systems involves manpower or small machinery to move and store the products in a warehouse using pallets which are stored using a single or double deep rack. This method is extremely tedious as it requires a large amount of data to be maintained manually about the location and the quantity of the products stored. A large investment in the resource is required to maintain the conventional material handling system; also it requires a large amount of time which leads to slow process chain in warehouse.

Advantages over conventional systems:

·         Conventional forklifts and battery stackers offer increased resistance in capacity whereas ASRS offers the same working load at all the levels of storage system.

·         ASRS systems are self maneuvered and hence requires no operator throughout the movement of equipment.

·         Being the electrical equipment, no battery charging time or back-up batteries are required, hence ASRS offers uninterrupted availability.

·         ASRS is capable of moving both standard and nonstandard loads in a uniformly-sized volume (container, pallet, etc.).

Factory owners are fast adopting ASRS for their warehouses. But, if you are setting up a new factory for your business, integrating ASRS in the warehouse can be actually a much beneficial and prudent decision, as you can reap benefits of cost effectiveness ease of integration better than retrofitting ASRS to an existing warehouse set up.

Benefits to the entire supply chain management in the new factory:

·         ASRS requires small operating isle and are very dense system, minimizing floor space use and maximizing storage capacity and density.

·         ASRS helps in cost reduction as it minimizes amount of unnecessary parts and products in an inventory

·         ASRS reduces labor involvement in operations, thereby reducing the overall operational cost and increasing safety

·         ASRS helps in modeling and managing the logical representation of the physical storage facilities

·         It enables a seamless link to order processing and logistics management in order to pick, pack, and ship product in or out of the facility

·         ASRS generates data about the movement of the loads (tracking where products are stocked, which suppliers they come from, and the length of time they are stored), to help companies in better inventory management.

·         It enables the total production effectiveness in Raw Materials, Packaged Goods as well as Finished Products thus eliminating the chance of production failure.

Daifuku, one of the largest global material handling solution providers for factory automation as well as warehouses and distribution centers, offers the best selling range of ASRS that delivers the speed and efficiency required for today's supply chain management (SCM) environment.

Daifuku ASRS line includes the best selling Unit-load for pallet-size loads, automated warehouse system constructed as buildings, high speed mini-load, and vehicle type mini-load for smaller items stored in totes or cases.

Daifuku ASRS fits your specific load profile and weight, building dimensions, and operating environment. All systems feature high-quality drives for fast, smooth, and reliable performance.

Daifuku’s local intelligent network control system ensures comprehensive solution: from front-end controls to full-scale inventory management computer systems.

The fast and efficient high-speed ASRS reduces cycle time and reduces energy costs by using low electricity and regenerating power

Contact Us –

Daifuku India Private Limited

SLV House, 2nd floor, Plot No. 14, Sector 44, Gurgaon, Haryana 122 002 INDIA

91-124-4246027

Visit @ http://www.daifuku.com/in/solution/storage