Vikas Anand
DHL Supply Chain, the global market leader in contract logistics solutions, is on target to invest Euro100 million in India. The investments will cover transportation, warehousing, information technology network and manpower training over the last three years.
As part of the elaborate investment plan, state-of-the-art warehouses will be set up near high demand growth regions such as Navi Mumbai, where a new airport is expected to come up, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Ambala and Kochi. Long haul trucks are being used on the North-South Indian corridor for speedy delivery on long routes.
Owing to such expansion, the company’s growth in India has outpaced the overall sectoral growth in the country. The Indian logistics industry is annually growing at 10-11% while DHL is growing its supply chain business between 25-30%.
DHL Warehouse
“We anticipated and planned our investment strategy for India well ahead of actual demand generation and are on the way to complete our projects on schedule,” said Vikas Anand, the Mumbai-based Managing Director for DHL Supply Chain India.
Anand exuded confidence about keeping DHL ahead of competition with world class facilities in the Indian market so that the group continues to enjoy heavy annual growth in business volumes. “With our dedication to the Indian market, as a strategy, proactive investments in construction of Multi Client Sites or MCS has worked very well for us,” he said.
The company’s investment in new warehousing facilities in strategic locations is a major ongoing collaboration with Indian industrial estate developers. Its 147 warehouses across the country are employing more than 5,000 staff in India.
In an exclusive interview, Anand explained in great detail on how DHL has worked in setting up world class, high roof warehouses and logistics hubs.
Over the last three years, DHL has completed construction of five MCS at breakneck speed, said Anand. Its new multi client facilities are located at Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Bangalore and Chennai. These are world class, state-of-the-art warehouses customized to suit specific requirements of customers. The improved infrastructure includes seamless loading docks and dock levelers, high quality racking and traffic management for a continuous flow, advanced material handling equipment such as a telescopic conveyor, RF technology for barcode scanning and integrated IT solutions with warehouse management systems or WMS. These warehouses also have close circuit TV and offer best-in-class process for operational excellence along with green technology.
DHL’s first multi-client site at Bhiwandi, on the outskirts of Mumbai, was delayed by more than an year due to challenges involved in land acquisition by a local developer. It took more than 24 months to complete the project. Nevertheless, important lessons were learnt from completing this project which turned out to be very effective in implementing other initiatives. “We were able to complete subsequent projects far more expeditiously,” he said.
DHL Supply Chain engages in long-term leases for warehouses from the local developers and ensures that they are built exactly in line with its specifications. Its special team called DISCHA took the lead in identifying the sites and developing the warehouses.
DHL has set up the increasingly popular Full Truck Load, or FTL, business in India and is delivering goods across the country. The company’s 40-foot, curtain-sided trucks, called Road Kings, bring great cost efficiency into the operations and focus on high safety standards, Anand said. These large trucks are all synchronized with the Global Positioning Systems and run on long-haul routes from north to south of the country. Smaller vehicles are deployed for deliveries within the cities, towns and other industrial zones and locations, he said.
People are the pillars behind the success of DHL Supply Chain’s business. In India, its employees are given special training and put through various human resource friendly programs. The company is also striving to increase the gender diversity profile of its workforce.
“We have women working on the floor and we create good career options for them. DHL is a global leader and we add our value to the society,” Anand said. The company is training not only “manpower” but also “womanpower”, he said. The training is aimed at both, imparting skills for developing the supply chain industry and economy at large, said Anand. DHL accepts poaching of employees in the industry as a norm but looks at the silver lining of having contributed to growth in and development of the economy as a whole.
DHL’s IT network which covers the front-end and back-end of the transport management system as well as warehouse management system is the vital backbone that has made a big contribution in success of the company.
The finance, transport and warehouse systems are all integrated with each other and MCS operations are paperless. The warehouse system is integrated with DHL customers’ information technology network for seamless flow of information, Anand said.
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