A Reflection on the best practices of Materials Management in relation to Ice Cream Industry

1. BEST PRACTICES IN MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
USED BY GCMMF
(A REFLECTIVE APPROACH)
Prepared By:
SOUGAT CHAKRAVARTTY – PRN # 086

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
 INDUSTRY BACKGROUND
 MM BEST PRACTICES
 AREAS CHOSEN – SOURCING & IT IN MM
 INDUSTRY TERMINOLOGIES & LEARNINGS FROM THIS
ASSIGNMENT
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

3. INDUSTRY BACKGROUND
The Ice Cream Industry in India is, admittedly, not as huge as the
Manufacturing or Automotive Industry, though it is growing quite rapidly. This
is understandable, given that ice cream is a seasonal product. Even so, an
analysis of this industry has brought forth the underlying complexities of
supply chains, flow of materials, and so on. Although most analyses have
been on the Marketing, Sales & Distribution paths, I chose to look at it from
the view point of Materials Management. I have tried to relate most MM
concepts to this industry.
Some key points about this industry are as follows:
a. Valued at INR 4,300 crore
b. Has the Amul brand as the major market player (38% share)
c. Each brand has a different supply chain form associated with it.
My focus is on the ice cream brand Amul, owned, produced & marketed by
the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). It is a somewhat unique
organization because it is essentially a combination of various dairy
cooperatives. Another surprising fact is that most of these cooperatives are
run by farmers, the main suppliers of raw material (milk).
I chose the ice cream industry because of the following reasons:
a. It provides key insights into Procurement, Production & Supply Chain
Management.
b. I wanted to do something different than my peers.
c. The industry has been explored from the Marketing, Finance & Sales
angles. Not much emphasis has gone into the Materials Management /
Supply Chain aspect.
Below is the market structure of the Indian Ice Cream industry:

5. BEST PRACTICES IN MATERIALS MANAGEMENT:
In this section, I will try to reflect on the best practices used by Amul in
relation to Materials Management.
I have often come across the term “Best Practices” in many books & even
during my tenure as an IT professional, but never fully understood it until I
started researching for this assignment. From Wikipedia, I got the following
definition:
Best practices are generally-accepted, informally-standardized techniques, methods or
processes that have proven themselves over time to accomplish given tasks.
From what I have learned & experienced, I believe Best Practices are tools &
techniques used by organizations to achieve specific objectives over given
periods of time. You define a process, set the necessary guidelines & policies,
provide the framework, complete each task in the process and measure the
output, compare the methods used with past approaches & set them as
benchmarks against which all future tasks are measured. Best Practices would
also involve the appropriate strategies used to complete tasks in the least
possible time.
So what are Amul’s best practices when it comes to Materials Management?
Let’s list them down one by one:
1. An efficient cold chain network. Amul has the largest cold chain
network (over 18000 refrigeration units) in India. There are temperature
data loggers & RFID tags in place, used to monitor the temperature
history of the truck, warehouse etc. Additionally, there are Chilling Units in
place inside the Dairy Co-ops as well as in the trucks carrying the milk.
2. An efficient procurement mechanism – bringing the suppliers &
consumers closer. Suppliers do the procurement via Dairy Co-ops, who in
turn send the raw material to various dry & cold warehouses, and
ultimately it ends up as a packaged product sold to the consumer. This is
not followed by other ice cream manufacturers such as Vadilal, Havmor,
Mother Dairy, etc.
3. A precise Supply Chain – This is lacking in most ice cream
manufacturing units. Because milk is directly sourced from the farmers, it
is cheaper to procure. Most market players outsource this part to dairy

6. farms. Also the distribution channel is not as effective as that of Amul.
Plus, with their unique “Umbrella Brand” strategy, the Supply Chain
becomes even more effective because the amount of milk sourced would
be enough not just for making ice creams, but other products as well.
4. Effective Use of Information Technology & Automation – The
presence of EIAS, GIS and DISK makes Amul a formidable presence in the
entire ice cream industry. The integration of ERP with the military-
precision Supply Chain provides scope for effective forecasting, enhanced
milk production capabilities, and inventory tracking & management.
In further sections, I shall cover 2 main areas of Materials
Management that are vital to this organization’s success.

7. SOURCING & IT
In this section, we take a look at two key areas where Amul utilises key
concepts of both materials management as well as supply chain management.
Before going on to describe these, here is the Supply Chain of the Gujarat
Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which makes the brand “Amul” and its
range of dairy products:

8. The figure above is a simple form of GCMMF’s Supply Chain. However, it is
not all that simple – in fact, this Supply Chain is one of the most complicated
ones in the world. What intrigued me most about this network was the
impeccable efficiency & immense precision with which GCMMF has managed
all these years. The core aspects that make this network “tick” are:
a. Sourcing
b. IT (a relatively new addition to this set up).
SOURCING:
At first glance, it is easy enough to understand that any firm involved in the
dairy business uses milk as raw material. An image of cows being milked
immediately springs to mind. However, the farmers who collect the milk for
the various co-operative societies & unions (that make up the GCMMF) use
buffalo milk as the chief source of raw material for making ice cream. Another
fact that interested me was how the sourcing was done. Farmers take the
milk they have collected in cans (taking care to see that it doesn’t get spoilt)
to the nearest Milk Collection Centre. In the figure above, this Collection
Centre is also called the Village Dairy Co-op. There are many such units all
over the state of Gujarat. The farmers line up at the Centre, “deposit” the
milk, get paid for the amount they have brought, and leave.
Each Collection Centre has a daily target, something like 10 litres of milk are
to be collected (for example). Such targets are called Milk Quotas. Once the
Quota for the day is fulfilled, the collected milk is placed in Chilling Units to
ensure that it is fresh and ready for processing. If the designated Collection
Centre is not equipped with a Chilling Unit, it immediately sends the gathered
raw material to the nearest Co-op that has one. The advantage here is – all
such Collection Centres are very close to each other, so the milk has very little
chance of getting spoiled.
In summary – milk produced directly from cattle is sold by farmers to various
Dairy Co-operatives that form the GCMMF. Such Co-ops store this milk in their
Chilling Units, or send it across to other Co-ops that have such units. With this
kind of strategy, the federation’s daily milk procurement is a staggering 12
million litres per day. Also, the logistics & distribution of milk to customers
is handled by third parties while the federation focuses on core dairy
activities. Such activities include:

9. a. Preparing production plans at different Unions so that each gets a fair
return on its capacity & market requirement matches the different
strengths of each Union.
b. Maximizing the network surplus – excess milk generated.
c. Ensuring that all Unions have equity on realizing the surplus – this means
that if there is surplus milk generated, it is sent to those Unions who are
falling short of their Daily Milk Quota.
Why does this form of sourcing make it a best practice?
This is a tricky question to answer. I think that the sourcing used by Amul is
even more innovative than that of its competitors. The reasons are:
1. The “middleman” concept is eliminated here. Amul takes its milk directly
from the farmers. This is quite unlike the practices used by other ice
cream manufacturers.
2. There is a direct link between the producer & the consumer. By using this
strategy, Amul is able to maintain a healthy business relationship & stay
ahead of its competitors
3. It becomes a best practice in terms of the overall profits generated. Amul’s
sourcing is one of the key factors that helped it grab the largest market
share in the ice cream sector.

10. IT IN MATERIALS MANAGEMENT:
With such a large & efficient supply chain, GCMMF would be expected to roll
in profit. However, the following problems were encountered, which
necessitated the use of Information Technology & Automation:
1. There was an indirect connection between Producers (farmers) and the
Consumers (general public).
2. Producers were unable to forecast productivity accurately and in time.
Then came the solution – Information Technology. Within a short span of
time, IT enabled the Supply Chain to be carried out with even more military-
like precision. Following are some of the features that were implemented:
a. Installation of Automated Milk Collection System Units (AMCUS).
b. Implementation of Enterprise wide Integrated Application System
(EIAS). This covers a wide array of operations such as market planning,
inventory control, quality control management, etc.
c. Another brilliant initiative – establishing a Dairy Information System
Kiosk (DISK) – was undertaken by IIM Ahmedabad. Its purpose was to
ensure that the automated collection of milk would be supplemented by
comprehensive data analysis & choosing the best decision to help in
improving the collection process. More data means faster decision making,
faster decision making leads to better forecasting, better forecasting
enables creating precise MPS & Production Plans, which in turn facilitate
better Capacity Requirement Planning.
How does all this tie up with the Supply Chain? The answer is simple. At
each phase of the Supply Chain, EIAS can be plugged in. This
particular software is platform-independent (it can be used in any
system) and also facilitates quick decision making. I say this because
it is easier to get a consolidated report, at each stage of the entire supply
process, so that GCMMF can track the status every step of the way. In a way,
it incorporates the Monitoring & Control aspect of Project Management.

11. One final feather in GCMMF’s cap is the use of the Geographic
Information System (GIS). It is very similar to the Global Positioning
System (GPS). Using the map of India with the GIS, the federation plots the
zone/depot (milk depot) boundary, along with pointers for zone, depot &
distributor locations. The fun continues when, along with the various
locations, supporting sales data (for each product) also pops up. This provides
the following advantages:
1. GIS is used by Amul to plan business activity at the sourcing /
collection level.
2. Enables the company to forecast milk production according to each region,
& suggest corrective measures (if any). The Master Production Schedules
(MPS) & Production Plans can then be formulated accordingly.
Below is the Information Structure used by Amul:
Why is IT considered as a best practice in the industry?
All major players in this industry have now realized the importance of
Information Technology – more specifically, gathering, storing & delivering data in a
structured, presentable format. Some, like Kwality Walls (marketed by HUL), have
started implementing SAP by partnering with various service providers (such as Tata
Consultancy Services, Deloitte, etc.). Though these initiatives are quite recent, they
are well on their way to become Best Practices (per the definition given in the

12. previous section). I do not know for certain whether these will be replaced by better
alternatives, but ERP & IT are here to stay. If that is what it takes to generate
profits in the long run, then so be it – this is the motto followed by most ice
cream companies now. With the formation of the Indian Ice Cream Manufacturers’
Association, it is widely expected that IT will, in a short duration, establish itself as a
key component of this industry.

13. INDUSTRY TERMINOLOGIES & LEARNINGS FROM THIS
ASSIGNMENT:
Frankly speaking, I’ve never had an assignment that required me to go into
the nitty-gritties of one of the biggest industries ever. What this has done is-
it has made me stop, pause, think & review whatever I’ve learned so far.
Being a former IT professional, I didn’t think I could cope with the concepts
of Materials Management, Supply Chain, etc. So far, it has been the best
assignment ever given to us. The reasons are:
1. It forced me to think long & hard
2. It has generated curiosity in me to better understand the ice cream
manufacturing process & figure out ways to improve on the IT as well as
Sourcing portions of this Supply Chain
3. It has opened up a few interesting career choices.
I came across various industry terminologies while working on this
assignment. Some of them are:
Cold Chain
Warehousing
Inventory
Procurement
Sourcing
Supply & Distribution
Logistics
In conclusion – I hope to have benefitted from this assignment as it has
given me a clearer picture of the Industry. We could use some more
assignments on such lines to broaden our understanding of basic industry
concepts. And like I mentioned earlier, such an endeavour does open up a
few alternative career choices.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

14. www.amul.com (for the Supply Chain diagram)
http://en.wikipedia.org/Cold_Chain (for definition of the term)
www.rediff.com/business/the-extraordinary-story-of-Amul.html (for statistics)
www.dare.co.in (for the Market Structure)
One on one interaction with Mr Vipin Sharma (PRN # 96), who has worked in
the Projects section of GCMMF- for the Supply Chain & Material Flow