“Pressure can burst a pipe, but pressure also makes diamonds. “
The Journey of my internship as a Management summer intern started on 9th April 2018 at GATI-KWE. Supply chain and logistics is a sector that has always fascinated me for umpteen reasons.
The initial three days were spent in the induction programme where I met other interns and excitingly in the same induction process we had few
Gati'ites (byname for Gati employees) with tremendous experience in the logistics sector and were new to the GATI family. The induction covered all the domains of the logistics sector starting from
SCM, Quality, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Accounts, IT, HR and Talent Acquisition team which has undeniably helped me without a hitch to understand the responsibilities of various functions of the organisation.
The expectation from interns of IIMs has always been high which I perceived during my interaction with operative functional heads. The three-day induction process in the sequel concluded, and then interns were supposed to report to their respective project locations, next day. Auspiciously, I was assigned to a project in SCM team at
Headquarters (HO) in Hyderabad which also was my hometown. I met the SCM team next day, the SCM head called for a meeting with all the members so that I can understand the vastness to my project and reconcile plans to achieve it. I had few apprehensions with my project title, as the logistics industry was new to me and the project involved interactions with multiple stakeholders.
I planned on going through their induction presentations, management case studies and reports to get accustomed to fundamental knowledge and terminologies of the organization. I then planned visits to
warehouses, EDC, GDWs and other OUs to be conscious of ground floor operations of
warehousing and transportation. As I have a bad habit of jotting down all the points based on my observations and interactions which eased my task during final report submission.
In few days I realised that my team was the busiest on the floor as they were handling solutions and SCM part as well, though they were always eager to help me with all that I wanted on the spot.
I started collecting details regarding various process from respective stakeholders and documented them with flowcharts to understand the irregularities if any. After this as I have to work on their
ERP system (GEMS) to help the SCM team automate their processes thus increasing the visibility and efficiency. With the help of all the stakeholders and those regular brainstorming sessions helped me to finalise my deliverables starting from
KPI mapping, Solutions, Rate & Space trackers, Contract & Asset management and other trackers needed in warehousing operations. Last few days were spent with IT and development team, I assisted them with UAT and recommended them solutions in case of any check fails.
Then the D day, Project Review day on
8th June 2018 started with my presentation followed by the presentation from other interns across the country. The presence of HR, Talent Acquisition, and SCM head made me little nervous, but then I calmed my nerves and without funk delivered my presentation.
The appreciation from all of them at the end of the presentation
marked my first feat in the management world. GATI-KWE has helped me develop profound insights into SCM along with an understanding of practical challenges faced by 3PL companies in this era.
I would like to thank all the valuable members of the company for sharing their knowledge and experience with me and of course, my commitment to this project was second to none. :)
Special Thanks to
Ekansh Chaturvedi (SCM Solutions Manager) for persistently guiding me with his expertise in the field.
The journey could not have been a joy without other three interns (Aparna, Bhavana, and Hruditya) at HO and Hyderabadi Biryani which has always kept me gleeful.