Asian Paints: Finishing Touches

Asian Paints is India’s largest paint company today. It has a turnover of

Rs 1,490 crore and an enviable reputation in the Indian corporate world for

professionalism, fast track growth, building shareholder equity, and dealer

networking. This market leader in the decorative and industrial paints segment

has had a colorful tryst with infotech.

Having started off in the late 70s, Asian Paints has kept pace with the rapid

transformation in technology. "It has been a relentless drive focused on

increasing productivity," says Manish Choksi, vice-president, strategic

planning and IT.

Business needs have always dictated the choice of technology, one of the

reasons why the company went on to deploy sophisticated supply chain management

(SCM) solutions even before it implemented an ERP application. Driving out

locked up cash in inventory was a strategy to achieve cost leadership and

implementing an SCM was the only way to fulfil this goal. Asian Paints went in

for Rhythm - an i2 Technologies SCM solution, now called TradeMatrix.

Company-wide restructuring in 1998 necessitated having an SBU-specific

visibility of business indicators like costs, profits, sensitivity analysis, and

the like. Also, the scale of operations was mammoth- between the SBUs, there

were 3000 sub-assemblies, over 15000 customers, four manufacturing locations,

six regional distribution centers, and 72 selling locations apart from the

retail channels and customers.

The entire capital expenditure and asset management system is available

online, which helps budgeting and management control processes. The information

substratum also serves the other application areas that the company has put up–call

centers, CRM, e-business, and a collaborative supplier management. Internal

management initiatives based on technology include administration, office

automation, knowledge management, and online training.