Shubham Agarwal - Welcome to this episode of Counterpoint Podcast, where we delve deep into the dynamic world of supply chain management. I'm excited to introduce our guest, Abhishek Sharma, Vice President of Supply Chain and BlackBerry's menswear division. Abhishek joins us to share insights on the complex challenges his team faces in navigating the intricacies of the supply chain.So let's get started with him. Hi Abhishek, welcome to the counterpoint podcast.Shubham Agarwal - Blackberry is a very well-known menswear brand in India. Can you briefly discuss what kind of retail footprint and supply chain partnerships the brand has?Abhishek Sharma - We work with close to 1400 DOS pan India, which covers almost 300 exclusive business outlets of which 200 are company owned company operated, and 100 are franchisee owned franchisee operated. In addition, we have 800, multi business outlets, and 200 plus large format treaties like Shopper Stop, Pantaloon and Lifestyle.And we are also expanding internationally though we have opened up two stores in Nepal, recently. So, this is our retail presence talking about our strengthening with the partners are so we have 20 plus factories and in their garment factories and also 30 Plus Mills, which exist in India, as well as in China, Turkey, Japan, and so on.Shubham Agarwal - Can you give us some idea about how this industry works?Abhishek Sharma - Industry follows a seasonal paradigm over here. And pretty much in retail booking happens in the trade shows for that is that is a for the entire season.So, this is something where a brand represents its range to the entire retail world in terms of the channel partners, or in our own Coco's our franchise partners, they come it's a 10 to 12 days event where we display the entire range which will be coming in the upcoming season.So, there we you know, support our partners and display the trends and giving them confidence. And then the book is all my multiple outlets all my last one at retails franchise partners, including our own buying and merchandising team, which buys for our exclusive business outlets.&nbsp;Shubham Agarwal - What were the issues with this way of working?Abhishek Sharma - It's a long time scenario because season gets planned anywhere six to nine months before what we will put on store. So today we are planning for Autumn-Winter ‘23, supposedly, and the merchandise will start getting on the shelves anywhere from July until the month of November or December. So planning months before is never easy. The biggest disadvantage is you are exposing yourself in terms of huge risk you may create a more merchandise which eventually will block your working capital. It creates a huge damage it will go on discounting it will get exposed to end of season sale, which eventually reduces our gross margins. It impacts our EBITDA as an organisation. So, while an inventory can be in excess, and it can go short as well.And you also end up having stock-outs in some areas we were having more opportunity to sellso, our channel partners were disappointed in terms of availability, because as I said, no there was only one an ordering mechanism in the season. So in some SKUs, they were really finding good stocks in some SKUs on consistent unavailability which was not giving them the right sell through.This is one biggest challenge that we had at a SKU level, not giving them a stock out situation also not making them sit on the excess inventory situation.Shubham Agarwal - Your newly revamped supply chain is set up uniquely. Can you describe the rationale?Abhishek Sharma - So we have two category of business and one is a fashion category business, which is more seasonal, where we buy seasonal products focus on seasonal colour palettes, seasonal designs, and there are Core category of products which we call it as rock we named that programme as rock which is called around the clock.So, Core is the product which has bare minimum of two season life, it lives and has a possibility and probability to go more further, we were treating those core products as a seasonal product only and buying only once a season, which was not the right approach. Because end of the day, it was leading to either higher stocks or leading to the stock unavailability. We wanted to enhance or strengthen our position so that we have a better margins, better sales throughs, as well as better stock turns, though, we were only operating at 8% in the terms of the contribution and our endeavour was to take it up to 20% to 25%.Shubham Agarwal - How did you identify something as Core in your portfolio?Abhishek Sharma - So, getting a range and the data from last two to three seasons or four seasons in some areas, how are my colours, how my patterns, silhouettes designs are getting sold. And in what sizes we went to that depth and basis that repeatability in terms of any product which is having a survivor of more than two seasons, and having the highest sell through first price sell through of more than 70% those criteria we adopted and put them under Core.Shubham Agarwal - What steps were taken to improve the availability of the Core products?Abhishek Sharma - First we adopt a very basic step, where we deep dive identified, what is my demand pattern, how the sell through is coming, how gross margins are getting generated, and in terms of the viability of those products.So basis that we went into every SKU as an option, we created that and relooked at all those number of options. Out of those 150 which are selling more so they are only realised that almost 60 to 70 are contributing to 85% of my business. So, keeping them into more focus and taking that 100% that's the approach we take.Shubham Agarwal - Rationalizing the portfolio would have helped ease the supply chain. What next?Abhishek Sharma - We were working on a push-based model which was once a season and providing the inventory which we are giving it to our either our outlets or to our retailers, we changed to a pull-based mechanism which was a more real time based sale base scenario.Shubham Agarwal - How does this pull-based system work really?Abhishek Sharma - I will describe this pool into four different stages. So, let me start with the front end piece of it, where the actual consumer demand just gets generated. So, we got into a non-calibration process where as per my real time sale at a SKU level norms were getting calculated. From there we defined the store level norms and to fulfil that store level the second stage came into was a central warehouse. We also define central warehouse norms, so that keeping a surety that our availability at 90% at all pivotal across the stores, then to make that to make sure our central warehouse is full we had to partner our garment vendors as well as fabric mills there also we defined our norms clearly that in what form they will keep the finished goods as well as the raw materials.So, this is from an ordering process rather it became an auto replenishment process. As in like the sales are happening, it is getting auto replenish across all the doors. Auto replenishment at the central warehouse.Shubham Agarwal - How did you retail partners and your supply chain partners react to this new way of working?Abhishek Sharma - This was a huge paradigm shift, huge issue in terms of you know, getting them understand about this model and taking them away of regular ordering rather it is a sale based we will calculate what to be required at your shelf, and how much pieces in what size so that yes, they took time to get enrolled, but they saw the results of it. And now they're very happy how it is being adopted across pan India 500 plus stores. Similarly, our partners were also very likely more stringent in terms of you know, following the long process, keeping some inventory in the warehouse, as well as you know, keeping the WIP with them. But now they understand it is a regular product, which will be getting asked you know, in terms of the entire year, as well as they also work to capture their capacities separately from the same. Earlier,&nbsp; it used to be an overall capacity, which included fashion and core and at times fashion was getting prioritised because of the launches. But now core has a separate availability, separate capacity and separate focus.&nbsp;Shubham Agarwal - How was the solution implemented in fashion products different from the core products?Abhishek Sharma - See fashion as a category contributes to 80% of our business, which is like a bread and butter for the organisation. And for that on time delivery and on time, performance is the key. If we place our merchandise on time on the shelf, and giving them a window of 16 to 18 weeks of fresh sell through that's the game we play as a retailer.Shubham Agarwal - What changes did you make to the supply chain to make this possible?Abhishek Sharma - There is a model that used to exist also in the organisation about two slot model where we used to order pretty much at 80%-85% of the season in one go and remaining keeping it open 10% to 15% for the second go. The biggest disadvantage for that was planning seven to nine months before is you are exposing yourself in terms of huge risk ..So moving away from that and looking at like you know every season we go for a four phase ordering, which helps you know, minimising our risk optimising our an opportunity to the front end so that within the season we react to what is getting sold well in what sizes.Shubham Agarwal - Can you explain this further? How do you ensure that the supply chain is seamless?Abhishek Sharma - So we created our process and divided it into seven critical steps in terms of the time and action. And those seven steps are divided amongst what are my pre ordered delays, areas. How do we address that? And what are my post order challenges? How do we come across? So talking about pre order challenges? critical ones were about how do we effectively plan our capacity equal real capacity management? How do we create entire menu what is what is getting offered in the trade show with the partners what can be bought when and then accordingly it will be fulfilled on time. So that setting became a critical piece. So to address that, we created a supply planning team, we put it into a structure which never existed earlier. And similarly addressing the post order delays about how are we effectively now utilising the capacities? How are there are no peaks and troughs within the season? How are we you know giving consistent closures to our partners and regularly review. We also adopted digital platform where the entire time and action getting managed through that platform giving visibility to across stakeholders and cross functional teams. So from there post order delays are getting addressed with clear two forms. One is called the daily flow meeting. And the second structure was weekly war room, where we used to pin down our issues, solve them and take accountability.Shubham Agarwal - That’s really awesome. What were the major benefits you channel partners got?Abhishek Sharma - They were enjoying high sales because not just not getting stock out. And they were also enjoying in terms of their working capital not blocked in case something is you know having an excess inventory out there.Shubham Agarwal - What about vendors?Abhishek Sharma - Vendors are very happy because also they have certain secured capacity lines which is a secured business to them month on monthShubham Agarwal - The implementation in core products has been rolled out already? What about the results you have seen so far?Abhishek Sharma - We made that availability at the front end from 40% to 80%, as well as while we were you know, reviewing our sales on a day to day basis, that helped us to keep the right inventory at the right SKU. So we saw as an overall growth, we actually saw it at each channel level, not just at our own exclusive business outlets. The sales jump was around 60% year-on-year. Sell through was 60%, our inventory turns got improved from two to four, our overall raw contribution increased from 8% to 20%Shubham Agarwal -&nbsp; Nice. Lovely. Thank you so much, Abhishek. That wraps up our insightful conversation with Abhishek Sharma from BlackBerry's menswear division. We've uncovered the complexities of modern supply chain management and how Vector has played a pivotal role in reshaping the whole approach.We hope you found this episode as enlightening as we did. For more discussions on industry challenges and breakthrough steps, stay tuned to Counterpoint Podcast. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of innovation and efficiency. This is Shubham signing off. Bye-bye.

Listen Now

Explore the intricacies of supply chain management in the latest Counterpoint Podcast episode. Join Shubham Agarwal as he interviews Abhishek Sharma, VP - Supply Chain, BlackBerry's Menswear division, revealing how innovative strategies are transforming supply chain operations for better efficiency and growth.

Conversations with Business Leaders: Abhishek Sharma, VP - Supply Chain, Blackberrys Menswear

Shubham Agarwal - Welcome to this episode of Counterpoint Podcast, where we delve deep into the dynamic world of supply chain management. I'm excited to introduce our guest, Abhishek Sharma, Vice President of Supply Chain and BlackBerry's menswear division. Abhishek joins us to share insights on the complex challenges his team faces in navigating the intricacies of the supply chain.So let's get started with him. Hi Abhishek, welcome to the counterpoint podcast.Shubham Agarwal - Blackberry is a very well-known menswear brand in India. Can you briefly discuss what kind of retail footprint and supply chain partnerships the brand has?Abhishek Sharma - We work with close to 1400 DOS pan India, which covers almost 300 exclusive business outlets of which 200 are company owned company operated, and 100 are franchisee owned franchisee operated. In addition, we have 800, multi business outlets, and 200 plus large format treaties like Shopper Stop, Pantaloon and Lifestyle.And we are also expanding internationally though we have opened up two stores in Nepal, recently. So, this is our retail presence talking about our strengthening with the partners are so we have 20 plus factories and in their garment factories and also 30 Plus Mills, which exist in India, as well as in China, Turkey, Japan, and so on.Shubham Agarwal - Can you give us some idea about how this industry works?Abhishek Sharma - Industry follows a seasonal paradigm over here. And pretty much in retail booking happens in the trade shows for that is that is a for the entire season.So, this is something where a brand represents its range to the entire retail world in terms of the channel partners, or in our own Coco's our franchise partners, they come it's a 10 to 12 days event where we display the entire range which will be coming in the upcoming season.So, there we you know, support our partners and display the trends and giving them confidence. And then the book is all my multiple outlets all my last one at retails franchise partners, including our own buying and merchandising team, which buys for our exclusive business outlets.&nbsp;Shubham Agarwal - What were the issues with this way of working?Abhishek Sharma - It's a long time scenario because season gets planned anywhere six to nine months before what we will put on store. So today we are planning for Autumn-Winter ‘23, supposedly, and the merchandise will start getting on the shelves anywhere from July until the month of November or December. So planning months before is never easy. The biggest disadvantage is you are exposing yourself in terms of huge risk you may create a more merchandise which eventually will block your working capital. It creates a huge damage it will go on discounting it will get exposed to end of season sale, which eventually reduces our gross margins. It impacts our EBITDA as an organisation. So, while an inventory can be in excess, and it can go short as well.And you also end up having stock-outs in some areas we were having more opportunity to sellso, our channel partners were disappointed in terms of availability, because as I said, no there was only one an ordering mechanism in the season. So in some SKUs, they were really finding good stocks in some SKUs on consistent unavailability which was not giving them the right sell through.This is one biggest challenge that we had at a SKU level, not giving them a stock out situation also not making them sit on the excess inventory situation.Shubham Agarwal - Your newly revamped supply chain is set up uniquely. Can you describe the rationale?Abhishek Sharma - So we have two category of business and one is a fashion category business, which is more seasonal, where we buy seasonal products focus on seasonal colour palettes, seasonal designs, and there are Core category of products which we call it as rock we named that programme as rock which is called around the clock.So, Core is the product which has bare minimum of two season life, it lives and has a possibility and probability to go more further, we were treating those core products as a seasonal product only and buying only once a season, which was not the right approach. Because end of the day, it was leading to either higher stocks or leading to the stock unavailability. We wanted to enhance or strengthen our position so that we have a better margins, better sales throughs, as well as better stock turns, though, we were only operating at 8% in the terms of the contribution and our endeavour was to take it up to 20% to 25%.Shubham Agarwal - How did you identify something as Core in your portfolio?Abhishek Sharma - So, getting a range and the data from last two to three seasons or four seasons in some areas, how are my colours, how my patterns, silhouettes designs are getting sold. And in what sizes we went to that depth and basis that repeatability in terms of any product which is having a survivor of more than two seasons, and having the highest sell through first price sell through of more than 70% those criteria we adopted and put them under Core.Shubham Agarwal - What steps were taken to improve the availability of the Core products?Abhishek Sharma - First we adopt a very basic step, where we deep dive identified, what is my demand pattern, how the sell through is coming, how gross margins are getting generated, and in terms of the viability of those products.So basis that we went into every SKU as an option, we created that and relooked at all those number of options. Out of those 150 which are selling more so they are only realised that almost 60 to 70 are contributing to 85% of my business. So, keeping them into more focus and taking that 100% that's the approach we take.Shubham Agarwal - Rationalizing the portfolio would have helped ease the supply chain. What next?Abhishek Sharma - We were working on a push-based model which was once a season and providing the inventory which we are giving it to our either our outlets or to our retailers, we changed to a pull-based mechanism which was a more real time based sale base scenario.Shubham Agarwal - How does this pull-based system work really?Abhishek Sharma - I will describe this pool into four different stages. So, let me start with the front end piece of it, where the actual consumer demand just gets generated. So, we got into a non-calibration process where as per my real time sale at a SKU level norms were getting calculated. From there we defined the store level norms and to fulfil that store level the second stage came into was a central warehouse. We also define central warehouse norms, so that keeping a surety that our availability at 90% at all pivotal across the stores, then to make that to make sure our central warehouse is full we had to partner our garment vendors as well as fabric mills there also we defined our norms clearly that in what form they will keep the finished goods as well as the raw materials.So, this is from an ordering process rather it became an auto replenishment process. As in like the sales are happening, it is getting auto replenish across all the doors. Auto replenishment at the central warehouse.Shubham Agarwal - How did you retail partners and your supply chain partners react to this new way of working?Abhishek Sharma - This was a huge paradigm shift, huge issue in terms of you know, getting them understand about this model and taking them away of regular ordering rather it is a sale based we will calculate what to be required at your shelf, and how much pieces in what size so that yes, they took time to get enrolled, but they saw the results of it. And now they're very happy how it is being adopted across pan India 500 plus stores. Similarly, our partners were also very likely more stringent in terms of you know, following the long process, keeping some inventory in the warehouse, as well as you know, keeping the WIP with them. But now they understand it is a regular product, which will be getting asked you know, in terms of the entire year, as well as they also work to capture their capacities separately from the same. Earlier,&nbsp; it used to be an overall capacity, which included fashion and core and at times fashion was getting prioritised because of the launches. But now core has a separate availability, separate capacity and separate focus.&nbsp;Shubham Agarwal - How was the solution implemented in fashion products different from the core products?Abhishek Sharma - See fashion as a category contributes to 80% of our business, which is like a bread and butter for the organisation. And for that on time delivery and on time, performance is the key. If we place our merchandise on time on the shelf, and giving them a window of 16 to 18 weeks of fresh sell through that's the game we play as a retailer.Shubham Agarwal - What changes did you make to the supply chain to make this possible?Abhishek Sharma - There is a model that used to exist also in the organisation about two slot model where we used to order pretty much at 80%-85% of the season in one go and remaining keeping it open 10% to 15% for the second go. The biggest disadvantage for that was planning seven to nine months before is you are exposing yourself in terms of huge risk ..So moving away from that and looking at like you know every season we go for a four phase ordering, which helps you know, minimising our risk optimising our an opportunity to the front end so that within the season we react to what is getting sold well in what sizes.Shubham Agarwal - Can you explain this further? How do you ensure that the supply chain is seamless?Abhishek Sharma - So we created our process and divided it into seven critical steps in terms of the time and action. And those seven steps are divided amongst what are my pre ordered delays, areas. How do we address that? And what are my post order challenges? How do we come across? So talking about pre order challenges? critical ones were about how do we effectively plan our capacity equal real capacity management? How do we create entire menu what is what is getting offered in the trade show with the partners what can be bought when and then accordingly it will be fulfilled on time. So that setting became a critical piece. So to address that, we created a supply planning team, we put it into a structure which never existed earlier. And similarly addressing the post order delays about how are we effectively now utilising the capacities? How are there are no peaks and troughs within the season? How are we you know giving consistent closures to our partners and regularly review. We also adopted digital platform where the entire time and action getting managed through that platform giving visibility to across stakeholders and cross functional teams. So from there post order delays are getting addressed with clear two forms. One is called the daily flow meeting. And the second structure was weekly war room, where we used to pin down our issues, solve them and take accountability.Shubham Agarwal - That’s really awesome. What were the major benefits you channel partners got?Abhishek Sharma - They were enjoying high sales because not just not getting stock out. And they were also enjoying in terms of their working capital not blocked in case something is you know having an excess inventory out there.Shubham Agarwal - What about vendors?Abhishek Sharma - Vendors are very happy because also they have certain secured capacity lines which is a secured business to them month on monthShubham Agarwal - The implementation in core products has been rolled out already? What about the results you have seen so far?Abhishek Sharma - We made that availability at the front end from 40% to 80%, as well as while we were you know, reviewing our sales on a day to day basis, that helped us to keep the right inventory at the right SKU. So we saw as an overall growth, we actually saw it at each channel level, not just at our own exclusive business outlets. The sales jump was around 60% year-on-year. Sell through was 60%, our inventory turns got improved from two to four, our overall raw contribution increased from 8% to 20%Shubham Agarwal -&nbsp; Nice. Lovely. Thank you so much, Abhishek. That wraps up our insightful conversation with Abhishek Sharma from BlackBerry's menswear division. We've uncovered the complexities of modern supply chain management and how Vector has played a pivotal role in reshaping the whole approach.We hope you found this episode as enlightening as we did. For more discussions on industry challenges and breakthrough steps, stay tuned to Counterpoint Podcast. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of innovation and efficiency. This is Shubham signing off. Bye-bye.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Listen to Mr. Abhishek Sharma, VP-Supply Chain, Blackberrys Menswear, discusses innovative supply chain solution deployed. Listen to this episode here!

Let's Empower Growth