| | DECEMBER 20208EXPERTS TALKLife today feels like in jail-house ­ exiled from normal lifecycle. We have been exiled to our respective homes by the invincible invading virus ­ COVID19.This phenomenon has allowed us a lot of time to think and my mind wandered to the phases of logistics that we have witnessed during the thirty-five years of professional life. Dabbling with stock and SKU happened to me early in my service life. As a fresh engineer in 1985, my experience with logistics began at an early age. We learnt that diamond studded drilling bits, each worth in lakhs, must be handled differently from that of iron pipes ­ for the sake of safety; but both are equally important at the drill sites and crores worth of drilling activities can come to standstill if either of them are not available in time. It was apparent that though few critical parts needed separate handling and priority, no SOP existed to treat such logistics processes separately. By Sujoy Guha, CEO & MD, CriticaLog IndiaSujoy is an engineer with 28+ years' experience in business. He has diligent knowledge in logistics.THOUGHT LEADERSHIPA LOGISTIC COMPANY'S LEGENDSTen years ago, while conceptualising CriticaLog, similar thoughtsoccurred tous again. Why can't we differentiate between critical and sensitive cargo from the mundane? Why can't customized and value added logistics be created ­ which brings competitive edge to our customers? While we have spent considerable time to create such differences in the logistics market during the last ten years, todays write up is to clear a few common folklores about innovation in logistics.First legend: A logistic company cannot survive on value alone; it needs volume.Like any other industry, logistics also has two distinct types of operation. Mass movement ­ where economy of scale prevails and niche operation ­ where addition of value and customization is preferred. A likely comparison in automobile industry would be between Mercedes and Maruti, in banking between HSBC and State Bank. Due to low entry barrier, there are tens of thousands of logistics companies in India. Almost all of them focus on volume possibly due
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