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In spite of new car manufacturers stepping into the In-dian auto segment,
Maruti Udyog still continues to hold a majority of the market share. Given that
the auto giant's business operations are spread all across the country, Maruti's
success can be attributed to its web-enabled supply chains.
E-solution
The maker of the little car that marked the beginning of a new revolution in
the auto sector, has been technology savvy right from the beginning. "IT at
Maruti has always been considered at par with other business operations,"
says IT head Rajesh Uppal.
When Maruti decided to go in for an automated management system about a
decade ago, there was no ERP vendor support available in the country. Without
losing any time, the company decided to do it all by itself. Using a combination
of software from Oracle and Computer Associates, the company built a variety of
applications that facilitated its business.
This homegrown system was extended to its sales and dealer network through an
email-based ordering system with about 250 outlets. For instance, if a dealer
has to place an order, he generates it in his own machine with all the
specifications (e.g. color, model etc) and sends it through an email to Maruti.
The system there automatically checks the order, classifies it accordingly and
sends it to the respective database. In order to standardize the data, the
company has provided the software to all its dealers. Even the suppliers are
being gradually brought online.
Benefits
For a mass production player like Maruti, an e-enabled supply chain has been
extremely instrumental in inventory management, both at the dealer level and in
the company. Reduction in paper work has increased efficiency and the speed of
processing orders and has improved working capital management.