Through the travail of ongoing pandemic, out-of-the-box thinking must be the way forward. The future success we script as an industrialized nation might be decided by the role we opt now.

As a supply chain company, Schic Lattice considers itself a vital link wielding a significant role play. While businesses scramble to better their share of an already shrunken pie, it would be worth to catch up on insights drawn from our 2 years sojourn.

Ironically, a subdued demand creates a more “demanding” situation on service & profitability.

Factors defining serviceability have an inverse relation with profitability drivers, eg - a straight thinking belief that better service level comes with inventory. Inventory burdens profitability to varying extent, and this fallacy refuses to go away from our ‘comfort zone’ behavior.

Walking the tight rope is the answer.

Commoditizing steel distribution inadvertently leads to inflation. Lest, it leaves little room for sustainable competition, causing a price stampede. On the other hand, use of technology and scaling up the value chain provides fillip to simultaneously improve service and profit.

Multi-stage inventory, opaque arbitrage, multiple handling & logistics, rework, intangible cost on scrap, herd competition, using price as a sole marketing tool and opportunity lost on non-optimal productivity. A long list contributes to inflationary pressure in the supply chain. Resultant, stakeholders Top - down in the supply chain are adversely impacted or best deprived of profitable avenues. An overhaul of above drivers will reverse the trend and make room for better overall profits, which one can “reap”. Chains have to become “smarter” leading to sustained “rewarding opportunities”. Transparent and effective deployment of raw material manage-ment practices across the chain is recommended.

It’s time for a paradigm shift from “pushing” stakeholders ‘to part’ with profits as we move down the supply chain. This leads to supply chain disruption and choked supply partners. The poor creditworthiness of tier level partner stems from above. Theories point to a need for symbiotic and inward engineering of different supply chain stages to harvest the latent potential for profit.

Based on an experimental study at Schic Lattice, we ‘reaped’ 10% profit only by leveraging knowledge which could be further improved by complementing technology. Refer our web page for benchmarks.

Time has come;

1. Shed the “low cost hub” syndrome

2. Position as a quality and value deliverer

3. Use knowledge and technology as enablers

4. Develop and acquire indigenous manufacturing technologies rather than dependency on imports.

This can ensure an all round thriving industry across sectors for the coming decade. Now is the time to build the nation while our age demography is favorable.

Policy makers must consider this as a priority to make the big GDP numbers happen.