IT to help TVS manufacture in Indonesia

GOA: The motor cycles of Chennai-based two-wheeler major, TVS Motors might soon be manufactured out of Indonesia. And IT would play a crucial role in setting up design and quality standards for them out of India. That the TVS top management is indeed envisaging such a plan was revealed by Venkatraman Iyer, CIO, TVS Motors, during the CIOL C-Change event in Goa.

According to Iyer, one of the strategies the company is contemplating in the face of stiff competition is to outsource the manufacturing part to Indonesia. However, if and when that happens the entire planning and design behind the manufacturing cycle would be done out of India only through the implementation of a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) application. Currently, TVS has shortlisted three PLM packages from e-Matrix, Windchill and SAP and once the final choice is made the actual implementation would be done next fiscal.

Other mega plans for 2005 include implementing a CRM solution, which when initiated would give the company direct access to end user information as well as standardize all the dealers. Prior to the CRM implementation, TVS is setting up a Dealer Management System (DMS) in 2004 with the help of Mindtree Consulting.

Says Iyer, "Standardization on a CRM is possible only after a DMS is properly put into place." From February 15^th onwards, TVS would have a month’s pilot with 35 dealers for the DMS solution, following which there would be a rollout in May with plans to cover 450 dealers by December. TVS has a planned budgetary outlay of Rs12 crore for only the PLM and the DMS projects.

Since TVS started SAP implementation in 2000 through L&T Infotech, it has till date spent around Rs.20 crore on IT alone. The majority of this, according to Iyer, has gone into a total revamp of the supply cycle chain through SAP implementation. The benefits of automation are plainly visible as from 7-8 days of inventory prior to SAP implementation, it has now come down to 2.5 days.

With all dealer orders now only made online, the entire delivery cycle from placing an order, raising an invoice to the money going to the bank has been brought down from 3 to one day. Comments Iyer, "Though even during the days of physical processes, TVS was a financially disciplined company, automation benefits can not be measured only in terms of RoI. What automation has done best is to remove a whole bunch of cumbersome manual processes."

CIOL Bureau