A very Happy New Year-2022 to all employees, colleagues, CWC Parivar and Stakeholders
Our corporation is on the cusp of achieving Rs.2500 crore turnover, coveted Navratna CPSEstatus and getting converted to Company. We are gradually giving up tagline of Warehousing Service Provider (WSP)offoodgrains to a sustainablemix of revenue streams of agriculture and other notified commodities, e-commerce, domesticandexport-import,trade & industry, general & dedicated warehousing andcovered & open storage, i.e., all eggs are not put in one basket”.
We started monetization of un/under-utilized vacant land and vertical space of warehouse, much before the Govt. of India launched, “National Infrastructure Pipelines andAsset Monetization”. This early initiativehas increased financials of our corporation. We are now focussing to minimize the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) by using Galvalume roofing sheet, CC paved area, PEB Grade-A warehouse and developing complete complex in one-go, doing Safety Audit and WDRA registration, with an aim to improve basic amenities and achieve economy of scale. Our delivery management (DM) has improvedby pursing 3Mprinciple (Measured& Monitored is Managed) and resource mobilization. Oursystem-based working, backed by SOP& DOPis ensuring Accountability-Responsibility-Transparency (ART). We have become a 100% digital CPSE with adoption of e-procurement, e-Office, BTS, e-Payment gateway, integration of Tally with WMS, and other e-tools. A robust ERP is being mooted for integrated and secured digitalenvironment.Soon induction of right manpower (regular & outsourced), will be done as per the Manpower Planning study by the National Productivity Council. With Ministry’s approval of restructuring of pay scale (E0 to E-9) and Group-C staff by BoDs, there will significant induction of professionals of very high calibre in our corporation.
Key to the success of any simple service sector, i.e., warehousing is “Grow Big or Vanish”.Force is equal to Mass (x) Acceleration. Rightly so, Hon’ble Minister has fixed a target of achieving Rs.10000 crore turnover, 300 Lakh MT capacity and revenue of Rs.3 crore per employee, by the 31st March’2025 and the Cabinet Committee has approved merger of CRWC into CWC. Let me re-assure that, there will not be any looking back, once we achieve a critical Mass of 300 LMT warehousing capacity. Suchexponential growth demands dedicated staff, passion to be the best, core-competency-commitment(3Cs) and can-do attitudeto provide warehousing services,at lower logistics cost.
It is a great honour to work as Managing Director of a strong self-motivatedteam of about 2500 staff. I have got unstinted support and results from one and all. I had visualized, making CWC/CRWCa company of outstanding quality. I am really happy that the Ministry has ratedtheMoU performance of corporation as, “Excellent”, consecutively during 2018-19, 2019-20 & 2020-21(provisional) and all of us are getting PRP/PLI, perks & facilities at par with any one of the best CPSEs.
Therefore, it is our bounden duty to honour the faith reposed inus by the esteemed Board of Directors and Ministry, who have always provided great guidance. We mustinnovate, experiment, communicate our mind, overcome biases, dream big, listen to mentor, use technology to serve stakeholders and society. Remember that we all are Managing Director of the site and seat under our direct control. So let us be productive & problem solver and decision taker, not the seeker. Recently, the top bureaucrat of GoI, the Cabinet Secretary has asked all of us to “stop passing the buck when you see file and get rid of may kindly see syndrome, speed up decision making by reducing maximum four level of decision making”. Its pleasure to convey that our corporation is already following such system with flat / linear structure.
Let us pledge to exceed the expectations of our Hon’ble Minister of CA, Food & Public Distribution.
Let us joyfully continue our relentless pursuit for excellence during the Year-2022 and onwards.
Around the year 2000, Infosys adopted the policy of Doing It All (DIA) by providing
end to end services, right from starting stage of technology consulting to re-designing the
client’s operation to strategy, writing IT system specification, developing, testing, installing
necessary software applications, upgradation of IT infrastructure and at the end, Operation &
Maintenance of software & hardware. By doing all, Infosys captured range of services of the
client company. It resulted into Customer (Client) Value Creation (CVC) i.e., Client Company
saved lots of money & time, achieved ease of doing business, became free from hassles of
coordinating 5 to 6 vendors for one job. This in turn helped the client company to concentrate
and develop core functions & products.
CWC mostly does storage function which accounts for 70% of its operating turnover.
We are also doing transportation, handling (receipt/issue) and inventory management for few
depositors, but not for all commodities & clients (depositors). Many depositors of CWC are
getting these services through outside labour & contractor.
Cost of H&T in the supply chain logistics is about 60% of total logistics cost whereas
storage cost is about 20%. Therefore, CWC is losing hugely, say, about Rs.1000 crore of
turnover. We are also losing on account of supervision charges on handling, transportation,
inventory management, Pest Control fumigation, disinfestation services, etc.
CWC is mostly doing storage for FCI, NAFED, CCI, CMSS, State Civil Supplies
Corporations, etc, but we are not doing handling (both at the time of receipt & dispatch) and
transportation (to & from warehouse) and inventory management, for all depositors. These are
varying from region to region. Thus, we are losing income from associated services, which
others are doing from CWC campus, though the stock is stored in central warehouses.
Therefore, all of us should study business profile of various depositors and their supply
chain logistics. We should propose plans to take-up possible logistics function of depositors
by following the concept of Do It All (Dia), for mutual benefits of all.
It is proud moments for me to join as MD of a Miniratna Schedule "A" corporation, CWC, which is continuously giving dividend to shareholders, since inception (1957). It has sound business streams, PAN India level diversified facilities and competent & committed manpower. With its core strength in the field of scientific warehousing, CWC is very well serving the growing need of Indian economy. It is operating in highly competitive service sector, lately though shifting from monopolistic to free market economics. Type of warehousing facilities required by 2050 will be different from 1950. About 60% of India's population will live in cities by 2050 compared to 31% as per 2011 census and number of million plus cities will cross 100 marks. India is vying to become the number one economy on GDP (PPP) basis, in the world by 2050. Our logistics cost (13% of GDP) & Logistics Performance Index (35) are on higher side compared to logistics cost of developed countries (8% of GDP). Farmers' income & liquidity require boost, as 58% of population still depend on agricultural income. Warehousing is the smallest part of logistic value chain, but it stores commodities for the longest period of supply chain responsibility. Food grain cannot bear high logistics cost of procurement, storage, transportation and distribution, because its weight to volume ratio is unfavourable for transport and it is price sensitive commodity. So, CWC mustposition itself to meet the demand of trade & industry atlower logistics cost.
CWC's turnover has been about Rs.1600 crores for the past few years, wherein warehousing & market facilitation charges contribute 85% and rest 15% come from CFS/ICD, CRT, ICP, PCS, interest and dividend income. The 1st Quarter of F.Y. 2018-19 has shown some improvement in the storage space utilization after the major repair of the non-operational warehouses in the last three years. Our endeavour should be to make all warehouses fully functional and world class, to be the 1st choice of Govt & private customers, for the storage of agricultural produce, FMCG, Industrial goods, E-commerce, open stock yard, cold chain (controlled atmosphere & temperature), distribution logistics, etc.
CWC must organically grow, for better utilization of scarce & costly land & space, by adding more warehouses, silos, mezzanine floors, high rise warehouse, perishable cargo centres, private freight terminals, etc. CWC must have strategic tie-ups with non-competing partners, particularly, Govt. organizations and PSUs (airport, railway, port &highway) for economy of scale and capitalizing on transport infrastructure being created through Bhartmala, Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridor and other growth drivers, like, GST, warehousing hubs, primary locations & facilitation centres, DMIC & AKMIC, freight village & other MMLPs, manufacturing thrust (Make-in-India) for achieving above 30% share in GDP by 2030, E-Commerce, exports, etc. Transportation of domestic cargo, particularly food grain by double stack dwarf container under electrified section of railway and coastal shipping, setting up silos & warehouse under PEGS (about 250 LMT), etc, will change the whole dynamics of warehouse location, size and numbers. CWC must tune as per the continuously changing canvas as well as embrace customer value creation ethos, to attract additional commodities for storage. CWC must cater service/quality, time and price sensitivity of customers. We must ensure & improve equity of all stakeholders, particularly, staff & customer by making use of modern tools, like, E-governance for paperless office working, real-time distributed decision making, WMS/DOS, digital marketing (web-based continuous visibility/monitoring of customer) for tapping potential customers and online booking of storage space, mechanised/automated handling of cargo, etc.
Let us pledge and join hands together to develop our core competency & commitment for the growth of CWC. Let us confront issues plaguing warehousing sector and be passionate about CWC and what we are doing here. Let us eliminate class distinctions & align all forces (management, culture, manpower, financial interest & technology) to become the best warehousing service provider. Lets us be focused, like, Lord Arjuna, on our customers & the single most important economic denominator, "profit per ton of storage". Let us make "warehouse for everyone, a reality".
1. I heartily wish you all Happy 72nd Republic Day. Now, let us take pledge to honour the essence of this National Festival, serve the society, CWC & Nation to the best of our ability, respect the law of land, act as per empowerment, duty & responsibility.
2.Today, we have released the e-calendar 2021. It is yet another digital milestone. It is well thought & prepared. I congratulate Sh A. M. Rao, GGM (Pers&MIS) and all team members of Personnel and MIS Divisions, for their nice effort & novel idea, intended to save trees / environment. We will improve it further with your suggestions in coming days. It will be a dynamic e-calendar, to be shared among customers employees & all stakeholders.
3. Today, we have launched the strategic initiative, that is, first ever Brainstorming session, on the alternative usage of vacant land. Remember, either we make the best commercial usage of scarce & costly vacant land or else, the Central Govt. will monetize land, but that will be at the great financial loss of Corporation. We have to perform or else we will perish, like many old days landlord. At this stage, I would like to congratulate GM/Commercial, Sh Samuel Pravin Kumar, for his proactive thinking towards the growth of Corporation.
4. Let me share memoir of IIT Delhi-1985. Late Dr.(Prof) Krishnamurthy gave a piece of plastic & postcard to all 25 students in brainstorming classroom, with project, "alternative usage of plastic material". My classmates came with various options, right from small button of shirt to spare parts of rocket for the journey of mankind to Moon.
5. There may be an absurd idea but do not stop your imagination. Be positive. Do not criticize. Do not laugh at others. Do not hold your ideas. All problems have more than one solution. Just jot down ideas and share and frankly discuss out. During final brainstorming session, narrow down to possible applied solution, i.e. implementable one.
6. At the end of each Brainstorming session, you should take action notes/ points. Remember, plans are mere piece of paper, till it degenerates into hard results. And CWC future lies in your meanigful/ well intended action. Catch opportunity at the first instance and match it to corporation diverse business profile and act.
7. Also remember my honest statement, "all of you are the Managing Director of your site, Central Warehouses, Regional Office". You must have pride & ownership. You must think, it is your Corporation. Dear, it's all a mind game, whether you want to climb Mt. Everest or not.
8. Last but not the least, I wish this first Brainstorming session, a grand success. Your team lead Sh Samuel Pravin Kumar has choosen a beautiful tagline, brain for business of the brainhouse of CWC.
9. Dear Pravin, I am personally thankful to you for making CWC a vibrant, full of energy & joyful Corporation.
