Everywhere the impact is seen. Business Process are split into bits and pieces like a Jigsaw puzzle, scattered everywhere and outsourced to different entities. Net result is that the big picture never re-appears. All blind men are touching the elephant in all directions, getting different conclusions. The big picture belongs to customer or the owner. Both suffer.
I thought this is only typical of modern Software Industry. Different fancy documents like Business Request, Functional Request, etc are generated by equally fanciful human resources and finally somewhere the customer request which was captured in one sentence gets expanded into a thick book of techno commercial interface guide, generating profit to all the partners until the last bit of his budget is squeeze and utilised. The main work of meeting customer requirement gets replaced with satisfying some "framework" experts have created after a long time by which time the customer would have forgotten what he had asked.
What started on 22nd at Mumbai, my consignment of One Tonne of steel parts for Wind Mill from ABS factory has travelled to atleast four "Logistics Hubs" through TCI-XPS, taken rest and finally arrived some 50 Kms near the farm. Whew !. While the physical consignment, unloading, reloading, lorry etc were happening in one slice of time, in parallel the Information technology that is supposed to track the barcode of consignment, and display on the screen of the customer was lagging way behind. Ideally what should result as customer online experience, becomes a night mare and frustration for the customer. Because you see on your screen your consignment not moving an inch and stay struck in each hub location cooling itself. You can do nothing about it through your browser. You hunt for the phone number from web, call that guy at the hub with no response. For him it is a daily routine.
You wonder why a 1 tonne should zig zag between 4 Ports and consume 10 days to reach in-land location ? Which according to your commonsense is an overnight journey. That is Linear Programming Problem solved by logistics experts for you !
When the parcel reached Madurai outscrits on 27th, itself I took charge of following it very closely. Numerous calls and followups, resulted in delivery to Tirunelveli Hub today. What is supposed to be door delivery consignment will start tomorrow through another vehicle and perhaps reach the farm, provided papers are in place. Where are the papers? They are missing as per Tirunelveli Hub. In the different stoppages it has been lost by drivers. Now ABS is mailing them again.
There is this task ahead. We donot have hydraulic cranes. We will employ 10 people to unload the three boxes, the heaviest is 700 Kg. (considering one man can lift 60 Kg and all of them can employ Archimedes principle) . We also need to somewhere intercept the vehicle and escort to the village/farm which has no address. Subbu is waiting for this .....
Tailpiece Added on 31st May.
The call from lorry driver was received at 6.30 AM by me. I alerted Subbu on a concall. The vehicle was guided on its own upto Emankulam and was escorted from there to the farm. By that time within 30 minutes, Subbu had arranged for 10 man power. I am not aware of their cost, but must be between 50 to 100 rupees each for 1 hour work. The material was unloaded. Subbu called after anxious 45 minutes to say that they are unable to move the bigger box (weighing 700 kg). This was expected.
Had it been say an urban folk, he would have called for a suspension of activity, paid the driver extra for waiting, get into argument with their HO and called for a crane from near by town. We did not do all of these, did none of these. Subbu promptly opened the trunk box with an axe, moved the content of the box little by little inside out (They were mostly tower assembly parts) and after few minutes the box which is lightweight was unloaded off the truck again put back to shape on the floor. Period.
*****
I thought this is only typical of modern Software Industry. Different fancy documents like Business Request, Functional Request, etc are generated by equally fanciful human resources and finally somewhere the customer request which was captured in one sentence gets expanded into a thick book of techno commercial interface guide, generating profit to all the partners until the last bit of his budget is squeeze and utilised. The main work of meeting customer requirement gets replaced with satisfying some "framework" experts have created after a long time by which time the customer would have forgotten what he had asked.
What started on 22nd at Mumbai, my consignment of One Tonne of steel parts for Wind Mill from ABS factory has travelled to atleast four "Logistics Hubs" through TCI-XPS, taken rest and finally arrived some 50 Kms near the farm. Whew !. While the physical consignment, unloading, reloading, lorry etc were happening in one slice of time, in parallel the Information technology that is supposed to track the barcode of consignment, and display on the screen of the customer was lagging way behind. Ideally what should result as customer online experience, becomes a night mare and frustration for the customer. Because you see on your screen your consignment not moving an inch and stay struck in each hub location cooling itself. You can do nothing about it through your browser. You hunt for the phone number from web, call that guy at the hub with no response. For him it is a daily routine.
You wonder why a 1 tonne should zig zag between 4 Ports and consume 10 days to reach in-land location ? Which according to your commonsense is an overnight journey. That is Linear Programming Problem solved by logistics experts for you !
When the parcel reached Madurai outscrits on 27th, itself I took charge of following it very closely. Numerous calls and followups, resulted in delivery to Tirunelveli Hub today. What is supposed to be door delivery consignment will start tomorrow through another vehicle and perhaps reach the farm, provided papers are in place. Where are the papers? They are missing as per Tirunelveli Hub. In the different stoppages it has been lost by drivers. Now ABS is mailing them again.
There is this task ahead. We donot have hydraulic cranes. We will employ 10 people to unload the three boxes, the heaviest is 700 Kg. (considering one man can lift 60 Kg and all of them can employ Archimedes principle) . We also need to somewhere intercept the vehicle and escort to the village/farm which has no address. Subbu is waiting for this .....
Tailpiece Added on 31st May.
The call from lorry driver was received at 6.30 AM by me. I alerted Subbu on a concall. The vehicle was guided on its own upto Emankulam and was escorted from there to the farm. By that time within 30 minutes, Subbu had arranged for 10 man power. I am not aware of their cost, but must be between 50 to 100 rupees each for 1 hour work. The material was unloaded. Subbu called after anxious 45 minutes to say that they are unable to move the bigger box (weighing 700 kg). This was expected.
Had it been say an urban folk, he would have called for a suspension of activity, paid the driver extra for waiting, get into argument with their HO and called for a crane from near by town. We did not do all of these, did none of these. Subbu promptly opened the trunk box with an axe, moved the content of the box little by little inside out (They were mostly tower assembly parts) and after few minutes the box which is lightweight was unloaded off the truck again put back to shape on the floor. Period.
*****
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