Arun Tewary, CIO and VP, IT, Emirates Flight Catering

His industry experience is impressive-25 years of work experience with organizations like Tata Steel, Al-Futtaim Group, and Emaar Properties, Arun Tewary in his current role is working as the CIO and VP (IT) at Dubai based Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC).

In an exclusive interview with Dataquest, Tewary doesn't mind admitting that after being a vociferous critic of cloud computing, he is on the 'road to becoming a convert to cloud' or how CIOs should lead from the front and acquire a position which doesn't require continuous 'blowing of our own trumpet'. Excerpts

You run one of the world's most modern, largest and one-of-its-kind flight catering facility in the world. What does your role entail?

As VP (IT) and CIO my primary job responsibility is to support my organization in exceeding customers' expectations. My role becomes clearer if seen in the context of EKFC vision statement: Global leader in aviation catering and allied businesses that delivers sustainable stakeholder value. I support my organization in achieving the vision of EKFC by providing the state-of-the-art technologies and solutions.

As a CIO, my emphasis is to provide technology vision and leadership by formulating, developing, and implementing organization-wide IT strategies. These will in turn ensure continuity and improvement of business processes leading to organizational gains, thus maximizing RoIs.

 

Critically, aviation catering is a time-sensitive industry, and there is a thin error margin with respect to delayed delivery of products and services.

Therefore our processes are fully integrated, starting from planning, raw materials procurement up to the preparation and final delivery of products to aircrafts; it's important to keep a track of work in progress. Also, due to various statutory and hygiene-related requirements, a number of parameters need to be monitored and recorded at various stages of the production.

At EKFC, what role does technology play?

Technology plays a very critical role in the overall operations of EKFC. The business at EKFC consists of tightly coupled and inter-dependent business processes. Technology acts as the lifeline for the industry, which ensures smooth, accurate, and on-time execution of all processes to achieve on-time delivery of quality food. Over the last few years, IT has been able to support the business to achieve massive business growth and expansion.

All major business processes are carried out using IT systems. EKFC is using a state-of-the-art enterprise application which is a tier-1 ERP system. This enterprise application covers all major business processes: Human resources, payroll, finance, procurement, supply chain, sales order, product data management, shopfloor processes, flight catering solution, plant and equipment maintenance, etc.

One of the most critical roles IT is playing is in the areas of menu development, product costing, and planning & scheduling. Another challenging and unique process to food industries is that of multiple units of measure. There are number of items which acquire different unit of measurement at different stages of supply chain within the process. This factor of multiple UOM makes the entire process quite complex, because at every stage an accurate conversion needs to be carried out.

At EKFC, you have deployed a monorail system, the third of its kind in the world for washing and then sending tray sets, stores, and everything else around the building. What's IT's role in it?

The ever-increasing airlines' passenger figures and the passenger growth rate at Dubai Airport raised the demand of an in-flight catering. It was clear that automation was the answer-a system that will dramatically decrease the manual handling, satisfy the hygiene requirement, and systematically integrate all aspects of operations. Thus we designed and built one of the most sophisticated automation systems for such a facility, now integrated into a centralized Building Management System (BMS).

The automation system, supported by aligned processes and equipment, ensures rapid delivery of meal carts right from the facility to the aircrafts. The facility is completely automated, where each station is clubbed with an Electric Monorail System well controlled by PLC & Scada Control System. This automation consists of following systems: Cart management control system and storage management control system.

Also, current information and previous records can be tracked when required. All commands and sequence of flow related to station priorities, charging, movement of meal carts/bins, default & final destination are well defined, well programmed, and well communicated to PLC through Profibus Ethernet combined technology.

What is the value addition that Indian CIOs bring to the table in global roles?

Looking at Indian CIOs community from outside India, they appear more inwardly focused. The Indian CIOs are cautious and good for their organization, but I would not be very sure about their contribution towards the technology as such.

Indian CIOs are unique and a force to reckon with, when it comes to volume handling. But, when we consider the influence/contribution of Indian CIOs on products' development, we do not come across very encouraging findings.

However, when you look at global companies, you find a large number of Indians (majority of them based overseas) in key roles. Also, these days, one finds many Indian CIOs based in India, managing international operations of their organizations, thereby managing multinational and multi-cultural teams.

As a CIO who believes in straight talk, what advice would you like to give?

CIOs should lead from the front. For the last couple of years, the role of a CIO is emerging and evolving and undoubtedly acquiring important dimensions. We all should draw maximum mileage out of this and acquire a position which doesn't require continuous 'blowing of our own trumpet' and keep reminding the world that CIOs are important for the business. Since we all are part of a new phase of 'Information Revolution', which has changed the civilization and promises to change it further, hence be proud of yourself and your fraternity!