Players in the highly competitive Indian automobile industry rely on disciplined order management to deliver vehicles in a timely fashion to dealers while maintaining lean levels of inventory for superior business performance.
Here is how Mindtree helped a leading manufacturer of premium cars in India revamp its dealer order management system to align production with demand and drive down inventory levels.
The challenge
The customer's existing dealer order management system was unable to provide optimum functionality and support its business goals, leading to dealer dissatisfaction and swelling inventory. In particular:
- The existing system was not flexible enough to capture dealer orders at different levels
- Core functionalities did not provide optimal output
- The system would take hours of processing time to generate its output
- The system could not be used to prioritize sales orders
- Substantial manual effort was required to operate the system
Our solution
Mindtree and the customer collaborated to redesign the dealer order management system.
- Reduce inventory across the supply chain
- Increase visibility into orders and their status
- Offer a high level of flexibility and configurability
- Automate low-level operations
- Support re-engineering of certain business processes
- Reduce maintenance costs
Then, we proceeded through the design documentation, test case development and user acceptance testing stages to develop a system that met these needs, surmounting a number of challenges along the way. For example, to ensure a flexible system that could adapt to changing business needs without excessive IT intervention, we developed and optimized algorithms that would work across multiple business scenarios.
Where appropriate, we leveraged proprietary frameworks such as MOMENTUM to drive faster and more reliable outcomes. As part of the engagement, the team also used specialized tools and methodologies to ensure the highest levels of quality.
Mindtree also ensured application performance and scalability, and migrated data from the existing system to the new dealer order management system to ensure a seamless changeover for the business.
Business impact
- Production aligned with dealer requirements
- Inventory reduced from 4000 cars to 360 cars in four months
- Greater order traceability and visibility
- Wait time for system output reduced from hours to minutes
