5 Qs With Blue Dart's Ketan Kulkarni On Logistics

Globally and even in India, logistics is the backbone of the trade and commerce industry. Without a seamless supply chain, individuals, organizations and governments would not be able to facilitate business as usual. 

The role of logistics has been particularly pivotal, given the global crisis we are dealing with. The pandemic has been a crucial phase that dictated the durability and resilience of every organization that had to go through the challenges that came along with it. 

These logistics companies were cognizant of the criticality of their operations and stepped up their express logistics services to deliver the need of the hour – whether that was PPE, testing kits, COVID-19 samples or vaccines. They also consistently trained their workforce, innovated their products, upgraded their infrastructure and invested in market differentiators to align with the current times. 

In conversation with BW Marketing World, Ketan Kulkarni, CMO & Head – Business Development, Blue Dart reiterates how their shutters were never down and their lights were always switched on. 

Excerpts:

Q. Covid-19 has challenged logistics companies to quickly adapt to a dramatically altered landscape. With the pandemic hitting the globe, what kind of challenges & opportunities were brought for you on the table?

Challenges presented themselves initially as acclimating to a ‘new normal’ was completely unchartered territory for the world. Moreover, we had to understand and provide a solution on how to ensure efficiency without compromising on the health and safety of our colleagues and customers. Transport restrictions, providing for essential service passes, manpower migration to their villages, all posed difficulties that we had to navigate through. 

Leveraging the advantage that India’s geographic disposition provides us, we actioned our Business Contingency and Continuity Plan (BCCP). 

Accordingly, guidance was provided to all front liners and pilots ensuring ‘Safety First’ was practised, no matter what. Thousands of hours of Safety SOP training and introducing the Contact Less Delivery Service (CLD) ensured that our front liners and in turn our customers were safe and healthy. 

Transport restrictions posed as a potential threat and we navigated our way around that using our fleet of aircraft, which not only supported our customers by flying across the length and breadth of the country, transporting essentials but also supported the nation by flying cross-border to bring in essential medical and pharmaceutical equipment. 

Once we overcame the initial challenges the pandemic posed, potential vaccine candidate clinical trials began. Looking forward and predicting the challenges of the future, we ramped up our Temperature Controlled Logistics Services to ensure a smooth and seamless temperature sensitive supply chain for the vaccine against COVID-19. 

Q. How did the logistics sector help ensure the global flow of goods and provide an essential service to society?

Logistics played a crucial role as it attempted and succeeded at overcoming the disruption that was caused in the entire supply chain ecosystem. In the months following the pandemic enforced lockdown, all customer requirements from something as simple yet meaningful as a Rakhi to something as crucial as ventilators were facilitated by the Logistics Industry alone. 

We leveraged our Boeing 757 freighters, to operate across the nation as well as operate charters internationally in order to ensure supply chain and business continuity. Our aircraft were operated to destinations such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Dhaka and Yangon, providing a helping hand not just to our nation, but to our neighbours as well. We transported medical and pharmaceutical supplies including ventilators, PPE, testing kits, reagents, enzymes, respirators, surgical masks, goggles and gloves, amongst other critical material.

With our ‘First In, Last Out’ policy, we have always been the first responders during a national crisis. Our colleagues worked round-the-clock to ensure continuity of the essential and non-essential supply chain. During this pandemic, as a socially responsible corporate, our outreach towards communities included flying special food for paralytic children, medicines for senior citizens, pharmaceuticals for cancer-affected children and healthcare workers, temperature-controlled movement of COVID-19 testing kits, samples and vaccines to maintain their efficacy etc. 

Q. How did Blue Dart ensure a connected supply chain, that further confirmed visibility for every link in the network, allowing all parties to respond to any possible changes to the shipment?

The logistics express industry is extremely customer-centric and Blue Dart prides itself on mirroring this value at every juncture. Customer experience is what sets us apart in a very competitive environment. Ensuring a smooth and hassle-free customer experience is therefore a priority always. Application programming interface (API) based solutions for our customers have been enhanced to ensure an automated and seamless supply chain, from pre-pickup to post-delivery (inclusive of collections).

An indigenous network modelling system has been developed and implemented which has enabled us to dynamically respond to changes in network schedules and recommend fast and reliable network routes linking shipment origins with destinations. 

A Control Tower has been built for proactive ‘Track & Trace’ of shipment movement within the network. Our teams, using this real-time solution, can control nationwide activity, which involves First Mile, Middle Mile and Last mile delivery. 

We are the only Indian express logistics organization to use Cosmat IITM, which includes an advanced state-of-the-art track and trace system for all consignments. Consignments are scanned from pick up to every transit point till delivery, using barcoding and laser scanner technology, transmitting updates automatically to the Oracle database.

Q. With organizations and consumers pivoting to the digital route, where does the logistics industry stand in the digital/ virtual space?

Technology is the backbone of not just the logistics industry, but of almost every industry across the world. Blue Dart has been leveraging and advocating the use of technology-enabled solutions from the very beginning to be a Provider of Choice to all our Customers of Choice. 

The ability to work from home is simply the start of what is set to be a technological revolution in the future. We have been using technology-enabled mobility solutions for administering specialized pickup of product returns, which also includes quality control checks, product image verification and close coordination for timely pickups. Application programming interface (API) based solutions for our customers have been enhanced to ensure an automated and seamless supply chain, from pre-pick up to post-delivery. 

Our core values include a ‘Right First Time’ principle wherein we strive to remain error-free and bring great value to our service quality offerings. We, therefore, strengthened our offerings, to include digitally customized solutions built for our customers' individual needs

We also introduced the Contact Less Delivery service to ensure safe and secure deliveries that benefit our customers and our teams. We also recently launched our very own mobile application ‘My Blue Dart’ App, available on Apple Store and Google Play, to provide ‘on-the-go solutions for our customers. 

Q. What are some of the new trends that you foresee in the logistics industry?

2020 was the ‘Big Bang’ of change and its effects have rippled across the logistics industry as well. The new normal is here to stay and trends that have taken shape during the pandemic are setting the future of the industry. 

Going forward, the focus on the logistics industry will grow ten-fold given its newly highlighted significance in the new normal. The modern supply chain will include lean operators who can ramp up and achieve high service levels without compromising on quality, at a short notice. I believe, a big advantage for India is the resources we possess as well as the sheer talent of skilled manpower. This makes it a great landscape to find a balance between Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence. 

The logistics industry is noticing technological growth across verticals from First Mile to Last Mile delivery. Trends in the future include building a space where faster results can be expected without compromising on quality. Technological leaps such as real-time ordering, end-to-end inventory visibility, autonomous warehouses, drone delivery, significant use of robotics and contactless deliveries, are what we can expect the future outlook to reflect. The idea is to use manpower for more complex and rewarding tasks thereby increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire manpower–tech combination.