FMCG companies get IT savvy

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are looking at 10-20 percent improvement in production and efficiency levels this year because of the adoption of newer technologies to track expansion of product portfolio and manufacturing locations, besides aggregation of godowns and shipment warehouses.

FMCG companies will spend around 10-15 percent of their net profit on technology. Companies like ITC Limited, Emami and Marico have forayed into diverse businesses in FMCG alone. This has not only led to the rapid expansion of the supply chain but has also increased complexities.

ITC’s manufacturing locations have increased rapidly to about 200 from about a dozen-owned manufacturing facilities for its different businesses. In addition to these manufacturing locations, ITC’s aggregating of godowns and shipment warehouses have grown exponentially in a couple of years.

Emami’s recent investment in IT has ensured finalisation of its balance sheet in a record 35 days against the 60-day norm.

Mohan Goenka, director, Emami, says: “We foresee an improvement of 10 percent in production and efficiency levels at Emami for financial year 2008-09. This will be achieved by implementing sales and operation planning, demand management and distribution resource planning which will enable system control to forecast sales, check inventories at locations, plan manufacturing resources and logistics to meet the customer schedules.”

Marico, on its part, is investing in better connectivity through enterprise portals; wi-fi enabled offices and in unified communications.

Marico is investing in automation of many workflows like Writeoffs, insurance claims, and media spend management portal.

According to Udayraj Prabhu, head, business applications, Marico: “We have commenced Project Edge, an initiative to improve the budgeting, planning and review systems using the TM1 tool of IBM-Cognos. This will enable us to strengthen our budgeting, planning and review processes by making them quicker, error-free and less tedious. This should lead to a significant saving in time for those involved in these activities.”

The company has also launched HR portal platforms as active channels of communication within the organisation.

ITC Ltd is building an IT infrastructure to bar code its produce at the warehouse itself, even before it reaches the retailers.

This is expected to help ITC keep track of product manufacturing time, thereby enabling implementation of first-manufactured-first-out (FMFO) strategy, which means items manufactured first are shipped out of the factory and the warehouse earlier than products manufactured later.

Among other projects, ITC will also implement this year usage of ‘push technology’ for its sales force.

VVR Babu, chief information officer, ITC Ltd, says: “Each salesman is allotted specific locations and he has to track sales and requirements of all shops and stores of a particular area. We are working on an integrated IT system which will gather and push information onto our salesmen’s laptops so that they don’t have to waste time looking up details on the company portal. For instance, if a salesman is covering 10 outlets of a region, every evening ITC’s systems will push onto his laptop the sales, distribution and requirements of that region and also the target to be met.”

Build Wisely

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.

It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career. When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter. 'This is your house,' he said, 'my gift to you.' The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then with a shock we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently. But we cannot go back.

You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. 'Life is a do-it-yourself project,' someone has said. Your attitudes and the choices you make today, build the 'house' you live in tomorrow.

Build wisely! Remember... Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.

I am not sure about Pink Slips

Why God Doesn't Have Voicemail

We have all learned to live with "Voice Mail" as a necessary part of life. But have you wondered, what if God decided to install voice mail?"

Imagine praying and hearing this:

Hi! Thank you for calling GOD.

Please select one of the following options:

Press 1 for Requests
Press 2 for Thanksgiving
Press 3 for Complaints
Press 4 for All Other Inquiries.

Else wait for our Customer Support Executive.

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What if God used the familiar excuse... "I'm sorry, all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right now. However,your prayer is important to us and will be answered in the order it as received, so please stay on the line"

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Can you imagine getting these kinds of responses as you call God in Prayer:

If you would like to speak to:

Lord Ganesh, Press 1.
For Lord Hanuman, Press 2.
For Lord Krishna, Sorry He is on Annual Leave!
For a directory of other God's & Angels, Press 3.

If you would like to hear Naradha sing a Bhajan while you are holding, please press 4.

To find out if a loved one has been assigned To Heaven, Press 5, enter his or her PAN number, then press the 0 key. If you get a negative response, try area code 420 for(Hell).

For reservations and bookings in at "My Father's Guest House - Exclusive 7 Star Hotel " please enter Your Name , Date of Birth in mm-dd-yy format followed by 3-1-6.

For answers to nagging questions about Future of Indian Cricket, the age of the earth and where Majnu Ka Tila is, please wait until you arrive here.

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Our computers show that you have already prayed once today.

Please hang up and try again tomorrow.

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This office is closed for the weekend to observe a religious holiday.

Please pray again Monday after 9:30 AM. If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed, contact your local Priest at your neighbourhood Temple.

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Thank God !! He doesn't have Voice Mail and He listens whenever we pray !!!!

Why Planning is important?

One Night 4 college students were playing till late night and could not study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of a plan. They made themselves look as dirty with grease and dirt. They then went up to the Dean and said that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their return the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test.

So the Dean said they could have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked him
and said they would be ready by that time. On the third day they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as this was a Special Condition Test, all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of 2 questions with a total of 100 Marks.
See Below for the question Paper

Q.1. Your Name........ ......... ......... (2 MARKS)

Q.2.. which tire burst? (98 MARKS)
a) Front Left
b) Front Right
c) Back Left
d) Back Right.....!! !
True story from IIT Bombay ...Batch 1992

Moral of the Story: Be prepared to fool others, else ends up fooling yourself.

Change has come

Support Raj Thackeray

We all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by doing more...

1. We should teach our kids that if he is second in class, don't study harder.. just beat up the student coming first and throw him out of the school

2. Parliament should have only Delhiites as it is located in Delhi

3. Prime-minister, president and all other leaders should only be from Delhi

4. No Hindi movie should be made in Bombay. Only Marathi.

5. At every state border, buses, trains, flights should be stopped and staff changed to local men

6. All Maharashtrians working abroad or in other states should be sent back as they are SNATCHING employment from Locals

7. Lord Shiv, Ganesha and Parvati should not be worshiped in our state as they belong to north (Himalayas)

8. Visits to Taj Mahal should be restricted to people from UP only

9. Relief for farmers in Maharashtra should not come from centre because that is the money collected as Tax from whole of India, so why should it be given to someone in Maharashtra?

10. Let's support Kashmiri Militants because they are right in killing and injuring innocent people for the benefit of their state and community..

11. Let's throw all MNCs out of Maharashtra, why should they earn from us? We will open our own Maharashtra Microsoft, MH Pepsi and MH Marutis of the world

12. Let's stop using cellphones, emails, TV, foreign Movies and dramas. James Bond should speak Marathi

13. We should be ready to die hungry or buy food at 10 times higher price but should not accept imports from other states

14. We should not allow any industry to be setup in Maharashtra because all machinery comes from outside

15. We should STOP using local trains... Trains are not manufactured by Marathi manoos and Railway Minister is a Bihari

16. Ensure that all our children are born, grow, live and die without ever stepping out of Maharashtra, then they will become true Marathi's

Monkey and Wall Street

The following should help in understanding the current world financial situation.

Once upon a time in a village, a man announced to the villages that he would buy monkeys for $ 10 . The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man brought thousands at $ 10.00, but as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $ 20. this renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $ 25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to see e monkey, let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $ 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ' Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $ 35 and then when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $ 50.'

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!.

Welcome to WALL STREET.