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Feature
Food & beverage: Value creation through warehousing
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Monday, 20 February, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ajay S Mittal
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Agriculture and horticulture production in India are among the highest in the world but a major chunk of this produce gets wasted on account of inefficient warehousing and transportation. This is primarily due to the lack of quality logistics infrastructure and unorganised service providers.
India’s population of 1.2 billion, which contributes to 60% of the GDP also makes India a huge consumption market for processed food and beverages. These products also have specialised logistics and supply chain requirements like seamless cold chain, and reliable service providers to ensure timely product delivery while keeping product sanctity intact.
Fresh produce and processed food industry today faces a lot of value erosion due to the lack of desired logistics infrastructure, fragmented and unorganised nature of the sector and high transactional cost of logistics.
Bringing down inefficiency
Arshiya International, with the 10+ years of experience in the supply chain & logistics field has worked with companies across sectors. The most valuable learning from these years of experience has been that the only way to bring down the logistics inefficiency and associated costs in India is through investment in quality logistics infrastructure and integrating it with soft logistics services. This has resulted in the formation of seven key asset light & asset heavy business entities of Arshiya, each integrated to ensure the customers get one-stop solution when it comes to their logistics requirements. These entities working together have capability to cater to the critical storage and transportation requirements of the agriculture, horticulture processed food & beverages industry.
If we look at the overall state of warehousing in India, it leaves much to be desired. Warehousing has always been considered as one of the least important aspects of the entire supply chain. Companies till few years back never thought of supply chain as an integral part of their value chain and was looked at as a cost centre. Warehousing being at the lowest rung in the chain never saw quality investments and skilled manpower being deployed. This over the years has become a practice and companies do not look at warehousing beyond storage and think of the value they can add in bringing down cost and improving efficiency. Technologically-enabled state-of-the-art warehouses with proper support infrastructure and trained manpower can go a long way in maintaining product sanctity, reducing cost and improving overall efficiency. Real-time product visibility enabled with technology helps to control inventory thus reducing working capital, proper handling and security help reduce pilferage, efficient material handling help to increase turnaround time. The ways warehouses are managed have impact from production to distribution.
Strategic locations
Arshiya has state-of-the-art warehouses across the country at strategic locations in its FTWZs (for EXIM cargo) and DDPs (for Domestic Cargo). These warehouses have modern safety & security systems like CCTV cameras, access control systems, fire fighting systems with fire tender, 24x7x365 water and power backup, top notch hygiene & facility management services. Arshiya's pan-India footprint of FTWZs and DDPs covers Mumbai and Delhi and will be followed by ones in central, southern and eastern India. These facilities will be interconnected by Arshiya Rail for cost-effective and quick consolidation & evacuation. The warehouses in Arshiya FTWZ/DDP include chillers, freezers, bulk cargo area etc. to cater to different storage requirements of the food & beverages sector.
Arshiya Rail ensures that the time-sensitive cargo is moved cost-effectively and quickly across large distance. Arshiya Transport & Handling ensures efficient last mile connectivity. These are supported by asset light entities: Arshiya Logistics for handling international freight, Arshiya Technology to provide complete cargo visibility and real-time cargo status and Arshiya Supply Chain Management to manage supply chain efficiently. The capability to handle the end-to-end logistics enables Arshiya to successfully partner with companies in the food & beverages sector in bringing down their logistics cost and wastage.
Infrastructure
Along with state-of-the art warehousing, Arshiya FTWZ at Panvel-Mumbai has a world-class infrastructure inclusive of
24x7 on-site Customs Clearance
Business Ancillary Services: On-site office spaces, banks, insurance, currency exchanges and CHAs that reduce operating costs for companies operating in the FTWZ
Key Amenities: Medical dispensary with ambulance, fire station with primary, secondary fire fighting systems and fire tenders provided with a toll-free number to cater not only to employees in the FTWZ but also to the residents around the FTWZ
Secure IT Connectivity: Comprehensive IT system with network infrastructure such as a server room within each warehouse & centralised data centre with uninterrupted data, voice & video connectivity through primary & secondary vendors & 100% data backup
Ancillary Buildings and Facilities: Covered ODC Yard, food court in addition to a Maintenance & Repair (MNR) Yard, Scrap Yard and an Empty Container Yard
Supporting Infrastructure: Weigh bridge, road network with up to 6 lanes to avoid congestion, fuel station in the processing zone, uninterrupted water & power supply systems and 100% power backup using DG sets
Storm Water Drainage System: Having a capacity to handle rainfall with peak intensity of 156 mm/ hour or 10 cubic m per sec, i.e. 3 times the highest recorded level of rainfall in Mumbai
Environmental Consciousness: The FTWZ emits no industrial effluents & contains sewage treatment plants, waste disposal units, rainwater harvesting facilities and green areas
FTWZ security features
● Central Operations Control Centre (COCC) to monitor & control facilities not only of FTWZ Panvel, Mumbai, but also of Arshiya’s entire pan-India infrastructure on a 24x7x365 basis from one single location.
● Centralised CCTV Monitoring of all warehouses & infrastructure with around 20 CCTV cameras per warehouse & capacity to store up to 50 days worth of footage
● Centralised Access Control to remotely manage & restrict entry to facilities in the FTWZ with the provision to quarantine specific areas within the warehouse
● Centralised Fire Alarm Monitoring across all warehouses that is integrated with CCTV, access control & IP telephony to enable real-time fire detection and to notify key stakeholders in case of any emergency
● Integrated Building Management System (IBMS) to monitor the entire facility provided by Cisco, supported by Evacuation & Announcement system for emergencies provided by Bosch & CCTVs, global access control systems & Edwards branded fire detection system provided by GE Security
● Security Infrastructure: Security personnel & supervisory staff to undertake physical checks of all manpower (supported by CCTV systems, access-enabled turnstiles) and vehicles (supported by CCTVs, boom barriers) entering the FTWZ
Regulatory, operational benefits
Arshiya Mumbai FTWZ through its state-of-the-art warehousing infrastructure and other integrated business entities is servicing many food and beverages companies. Apart from infrastructure benefits, FTWZ also offers many regulatory and operational benefits to such companies along with the capability to carry out many value optimising services (VOS).
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