Logistics and Warehousing

Case 1 - A leading provider of supply chain execution (SCE) solutions

Case 2 - A government planning and regulatory agency

Case 1
A leading provider of supply chain execution (SCE) solutions
Technology: Warehouse Management Solutions

The Customer:
The customer is a leading provider of comprehensive solutions that helps its clients add value and minimize risks to mission-critical supply chains. It provides products and services needed to install, integrate and manage world-class supply chain execution (SCE) solutions.

The Challenge:
Tata Infotech has been associated with the customer since 1993, providing joint development and customization of the customer's product for its various end clients.

The Solution:
Tata Infotech deploys its proprietary SertainSupport® Methodology for support using Onsite-Offshore Model. Tata Infotech's has a dedicated Indian facility as an extension of customer's facility at US. Work assignments of varying size are created through international private leased line circuit established between Tata Infotech and customer site for this program. The work is carried out on the customer’s servers located in the US with about 30 offshore consultants working from India.

Tata Infotech has provides expertise in the following modules of WMS:

a) Receiving
b) Putaway
c) Inventory Management
d) Fulfillment
e) Picking
f) Loading and Shipping

Benefits to the Customer:

• Control and reduction in operational costs
• Improved efficiency in business processes
• Reduction in time-to-market
• Increased focus on core business activities
  

Case 2
Customer: A government planning and regulatory agency
Technology: Technology: Vessel planning and scheduling system

The Customer:
The agency played a key role in the decision-making processes in the downstream sector, with particular reference to planning, coordinating and monitoring functions. While not formulating policy itself, it assisted the Government in the framing of policy by providing the necessary inputs and by coordinating implementation.

The Challenge:
Scheduling sea based bulk carriers/ tankers is important to petroleum, chemical and bulk export companies as well as to ship and fleet owners. The Tanker Scheduling System application leverages the advances in optimization technologies to provide an effective and contemporary system to aid in planning, scheduling and in assignment of sea going bulk carriers/ tankers.

The design is applicable to all transportation businesses that are covered by the prevalent chartering practices and costs. Physical entities like tankers, ports, lighterage points, jetties, storage tanks and pumps are treated with all real constraints.

The Solution:
The Tanker Scheduling System is implemented primarily using an appropriate blend of techniques from Artificial Intelligence (Constraint Propagation and Heuristics), Operations Research and Real Time Parallel Processing address the requirements of Tanker assignment.

The system equips users with a computerized decision support system that would enable them to generate and to study efficient options for the coastal transportation of petroleum crude to refineries and of products to distribution and consumption areas. The system can be used both in the long term planning and in the short-term scheduling modes.

The system is targeted to primarily support operational needs but it also provides significant strategic decision support. The utility of the system is not merely in planning which producing port supplies which consuming port with what commodity and when. It also identifies which tanker would do the task.

• Reduction the lead-time of schedule generation down to the day, permitting daily revisions.
• Audit support as the entire process is repeatable.
• Enhanced forecasting and usage of fixed and movable assets.
• Transportation cost savings would accrue from an early (second month) and detailed assignment of core resources permitting the planning of capacity utilization through the adjustment of parcel sizes based on the capacities and availabilities permissible when and where required. The savings results from not picking up residual amounts when the parcel sizes slightly exceed the size of an available tanker.
• Proper planning of fleet composition given the preferred parcel sizes and commodity types.
• Constants in operational constraints available as editable database fields.
• Reducing the dependence on experienced schedulers/planners using rule of thumb.
• The integrated and centralized capture of core data leading to design of more robust schedules.
• Balancing cost of transportation against inventory costs and risks.
• Effective early (second month) planning of cost-effective Voyage Chartering based on Time-chartered fleet utilization to meet expected demand supply.
• Assess the costs of alternative working options.
• Analysis of optimal fleet composition for known transportation patterns of operation and measurement of fleet utilization.
• Analysis of the cost implications of mitigating product dryouts by commodity, by port.

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