Business organisations forging ahead of the competition, are those whose management had the foresight early in the game, to evolve rapidly by re-designing their functions, processes & activities, they also re-trained their human resource and made them multi-skilled, knowledged & creative professionals.

Having worked with a reputed Steel Major for over a quarter of a century, the author has many Success Stories to recount, that substantiate the benefits which accrue from such foresight. The knowledge and experience gained from the ‘Out-of-the-Box’ thought processes will be very useful in any functional area of management. We w’11 concentrate in this article, on just one Functional Area viz; Stores Manage-ment, and within that, on one Commodity, viz; Stationery. All organizations use a lot of Stationery, a commodity which is generally over-looked, when considering the impact on Inventory or Costs. However when this Steel Major did an In-depth Analysis of this Commodity, the following ‘startling’ data/facts came to light. It had an independent Warehouse, of nearly SOOOsft area, housing all Stationery Items, manned by 4 persons, with a Store-keeper in charge. There were about 700-800 stock items with a total Inventory of about Rs.50 lacs. The T/0 Ratio was only around 0.60,which meant tha^ only 60% of the inventory was getting consumed. The study threw up the fact that there were nearly 200 non-moving, redundant items, mostly pre-printed forms, registers, log-books, report sheets etc; which had been discarded long back with improved systems in various departments, with no thought given to removing these stationery from the inventory, or canceling any pending orders at that point of time when they were made obsolete. This is a commonplace occurrence in most huge enterprises. The Study revealed also that many of the Reporting Forms used, were designed with a lot of redundant information, which were not of any use. So there was scope for Simplification. Then again, Letter-Heads, Internal-Communication Sheets, Registers, Plain Computer Stationery etc. were used by various Departments, in different sizes. Rationalization & Standardization , could bring substantial benefits by way of Variety Reduction, and therefore a task Force undertook this exercise on top priority. As a result the number of items required to be kept in stock, and which were ‘moving’ in nature, drastically came down to around 250. The next step in the Process, was to review the specifications of these 250 items, and ensure they were complete in all respects so as to fulfill the requirements of the several ‘end-users’. For example, in the case of computer stationery, the IT Dept: was consulted regarding the various types of Printers in use inside the Plant, and the specs: like gsm, and sprocket hole dimensions and spacing were all made according to the speed and duty of DMPs so that problems of tearing of sheets was avoided. Once all specifications were detailed out they were ‘frozen’. Then came consolidation of annual requirements to float tenders for finalizing Rate Contracts with a carefully selected panel of Vendors, after a series of meetings with several, where our specific needs were spelt out. The Task Force had come up with a recommendation that the Company did not need to maintain a Sub-Store for Stationery, and the whole Supply-Distribution Net-work could be Out-sourced. The discussions with the Vendors therefore centered around their Capability & Willing-ness to undertake this responsibility. The “Negotiations were conducted on the premise that more than 1 Vendor would be required to service the stationery requirements of 100s of Departments, spread out over the length and breadth of the Plant and also in the Administrative Offices. Four Zones were created and four Vendors were fixed, one to service each of these ‘zones’. Circulars went out to all Departments, to plan their ‘Monthly’ requirements of all types of Stationery, and give one ‘Delivery Order’ to their ‘designated’ Vendor, in the last week of one month for the next month’s bulk requirement, with weekly schedules if required. This in turn facilitated the Vendor to plan out his Supply-Distribution Logistics, and optimize his Service-Level.

The accrual of benefits to the Steel Company were manifold –

1. Once the existing stocks in the Sub-store were either consumed or written-off and ‘Disposed’, the staff could be. re-deployed suitably.
2. The Shed was now available for re-use, and this fitted nicely into the expansion plans of the Company.
3. The Inventory of Rs. 50 lacs was liquidated at one go and with the least degree of ‘Pain’ for the ‘End-users’.
4. The Departments were happy to save on man-hours spent in ‘collecting’ stationery from the stores.
5. The Company-wide ‘spend’ on Stationery, reduced drastically with the efforts at standardization, and simplification.
6. ‘Service-level’ on this one Commodity Group, improved drastically and a major ‘pain-area’ for the Stores Management and users vanished.

In conclusion: we can say that a huge ‘Success-Story’ was authored by a dedicated team of professionals, who thought ‘Out-of-the -box’, and re-designed the entire concept of Supply-Management, for one commodity group, and this provided the zest for further such BPR efforts, leading to more similar Inventory Reduction, Cost-saving, Manpower Reduction & Procurement Effectiveness initiatives . All it needs is Innovative Approach & of-course, Top-Management support .Any one of you young, enthusiastic Materials Managers can do it. So here’s wishing You All Success.