LOGISTICS 2001

The third International exhibition and conference on Logistics and Supply Chain Management by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was held at the Chennai Trade Centre between September 27^th and 30^th.  Logistics 2001, touted as India's only logistics event had a four-day International Exhibition, a conference (Logistics Summit) for one and half days followed by a CEO's conclave and a survey by CII and KSA Technopak. 

The exhibition

The exhibition this year focussed on the entire spectrum of logistics, supply chain, transportation, shipping, material handling, IT and e-commerce business.  The exhibitors and sponsors expressed that this time around there were more serious business visitors to the exhibition.  As V N Gopalswamy, Deputy Manager, Advertising and PR, Ashok Leyland put it, "We have had much more serious visitors this time around.  This is the second time that we are participating here.  We have had a lot of enquiries for our two products.  The rain has been a bit of a dampener though, because our exhibit is outdoors, but it has not been that much of a problem".  Chandrasekhar of Sintex, also shared the same view, "This year we have had excellent results in terms of the number of serious visitors.  The right people have come, purchase managers, key people from packaging and materials handling". 

This year's exhibition had quite a few attractions.  TNT's customised solutions for vertical segments like automotive, e-commerce, IT and FMCG were on display at their stall.  FLO-CAAR Systems had on display their Baka range of material handling, transportation and custom built handling equipment.  Logitra the integrated logistics system from TCI was an example of the increased focus on IT not only as a enabler and solution but as a network.

Vineet Agarwal, Executive Director, Transport Corporation of India (TCI) when asked about the general scenario for logistics in India said, "e-commerce is a emerging area, where a lot of the players are trying to establish themselves.  In fact, TCI itself has tied up with about 15 B2B portals.  We handle the entire transportation and logistics for them".  He did not paint a rosy picture about the ground realities for the logistics players in the country, though.  "The internal transportation costs in India are very high, thanks to the poor infrastructure like bad roads, coastal waterways, octroi tax and so on.  Just to illustrate the huge difference let me quote an example.  It costs $ 300 to transport a container from Mumbai to Delhi while it costs just $ 75 to transport the same container from Mumbai to Singapore.  The high internal transportation costs reduces our competitiveness".

Participants at Logistics 2001 are also hoping to make a lot of business.  It may be recalled that exhibitors and sponsors at Logistics '99 made more that Rs.250 crore worth of business.

The Conference

Logistics Summit, this year focussed on offering tools, solutions, knowledge and technologies improving supply chain performance.  The earlier editions of the summit had created a platform for the logistics industry in the country to interact, and create awareness about integrated logistics management.  It was pointed out at the conference, that companies by improving the performance of their supply chain could reduce inventories, eliminate stock-outs and improve service by nearly 25%.  The four key players of the supply chain -the shippers, service providers, industry, and the government had an important role to play.  Certain key areas where each of these players would have to work on to ensure the success of a supply chain were pointed out.  The existing infrastructure should be privatised and commercialised by the government to make operations competitive.  The conference also highlighted the fact that an integrated transport policy covering shipping, ports, roads, railways, air and pipeline should be brought out by the government. An independent and transparent regulatory authority should also be set up to implement the policy.

CEO's conclave and survey

The half a day CEO's conclave was held against the background of Logistics and Supply Chain Management becoming a competitive weapon for management and being used as a lever to increase return on assets and shareholder value.  CII is conducting a SCM Survey among Indian Corporate's along with KSA Technopak to study the existing supply chain practices of companies in India.

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