Making supply chain efficient through training
PRAN-RFL group is one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh. Both PRAN and RFL have their separate operations. PRAN has nine major categories, such as–juice, soft drinks, snacks, Bakery, biscuits, confectionery, culinary, dairy, frozen foods. These categories have many sub-categories. It includes 13 manufacturing plants and 21 depots throughout the country. Goods are sent throughout the country from depots to distributors at 700 thanas.
On the other hand, RLF specializes in CI products like pumps, tube wells, bearing, gas stoves, etc. The company is credited with the largest cast iron foundry and light engineering workshop in Bangladesh. At present RFL is the market leader in cast iron, PVC and plastic in Bangladesh.
PRAN-RFL is famous for its efficiency in business management. It reflects on their performance and liquidity. PRAN-RFL group has never defaulted on any of its loans despite borrowing thousands of crores of taka from banks to run its massive operations.
The conglomerate goes great lengths to ensure efficient supply chain management. According to Ashraful Hossain, Asst. General Manager Supply Chain Management, PRAN-RFL, the supply chain is one of the crucial parts to achieve the goals of this group. The supply chain has to support different teams including production, sales, marketing, distribution and other related departments who are engaged to grow the company further. PRAN-RFL has around 250 employees in the Supply Chain Department. The work category of every department is divided into few divisions which try to accomplish the desired job accordingly. To keep the skill level updated, Supply Chain employees always go through different types of training and conference organized by different banks, enterprises, and entrepreneurs, etc.
Employees who underperform has to go through various training sessions. Training includes a 3 or 6 months diploma course which is mentored by a renowned trainer of our country. To ensure streamlined communication with customers, PRAN-RFL has a dedicated team to reach out to them through the electronic and digital medium.
Ashraful Hossain states only supply chain is the department where the company can generate profit directly by saving costs. Therefore, cost savings are a critical factor in the supply chain for the value of the company. PRAN-RFL has daily, weekly or monthly meetings with different business units upon necessity and importance. The outcome of the meeting dictates operational changes. They also have a company SOP in different layers of management for strategy and implementation. A session is conducted twice in a month to review the slow moving and non-moving stocks, with concerned units. The use of technology in the supply chain has made the process more efficient than ever, and its importance is ever increasing. The company uses dedicated software to figure out the slow and non-moving stock. The efficiency of PRAN-RFL’s supply chain is emblematic of the dedication that goes into offering products to consumers with the best-streamlined experience.
