Operations Management-II

Report on:

E-commerce Logistics of Mahindra Logistics Ltd

Prepared By

Nidhi D
2210117

Under the Guidance of

Dr. PRS Sarma (IIM Visakhapatnam)

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 1. Overview of the company

Mahindra Logistics Limited is a part of Mahindra Group (which has presence in over 100+
countries). They are a 3PL service provider with a complex mix of various services. They provide
supply chain and mobility solutions all over India, working across diverse industries. They offer
their services in industries such as consumer goods, automotive, pharmaceuticals, telecom, e-
commerce, commodities and engineering. In this report we are going to focus on the e-commerce
logistics solutions that they provide. Mahindra Logistics being a leading supply chain solution
provider in India has a vast presence. They cater to the needs of 400+ companies, having presence
at more than 500 locations, utilizing over 19 million sq. ft. warehouse area. They have asset-light
business model and is technology focused. They have highly integrated and technology-based
processes. They focus on high productivity and high performance through their operations
excellence capabilities. The business is very customer centric by reducing cost and delivery time.
Following are the supply chain solutions provided by them;

• Warehousing: They provide customized warehouse solutions as every company is

different. Solutions such as order management, inventory control, labelling, audit support,
reverse logistics, packaging, shop floor management, and many more
• Transportation: Transportation solutions such as Inbound transportation, Long Haul, Milk
run, Last mile delivery and many more.
• In-factory logistics: They provide services like kit creation and building, physical
verification of materials, just in time (JIT), just in sequence (JIS) and many more.
• Freight forwarding- LORDS: Through their subsidiary LORDS, they provide freight
management services for ocean.
• B2B express Rivigo:
• EV Cargo Fleet- EDEL:
• Value added services:

2. E-commerce Logistics of Mahindra Logistics:

As we know Mahindra Logistics is a 3PL service provider, it provides services to many e-

commerce companies such as Amazon, flipkart, Myntra and many more. They provide
warehousing services for the fulfillment centers (first mile), sort centers (middle mile) and delivery

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stations (last mile). The warehouses are automated to drive high efficiency and high productivity
in operations. They also provide reverse logistics services and solutions. Reverse logistics is the
management of the goods returned by the customer to the company. Now, lets zoom into one
warehouse that provides middle mile forward and reverse logistics services to Amazon. The main
processes include:

2.1.Inbound Operations: Inbound process include unloading of trucks and taking all the
packages within the facility. The packages are sent to the facility by other sort centers or
fulfillment centers. Each package is scanned (scan name: Inbound) while taking the
packages inside the facility so as keep the track of every package at every step of the
process. Damage scan is used when the received package damaged.

2.2.In-Warehouse operations: In-warehouse operations include sorting the packages received

according to the next location. This include using the location scan. After scanning the
package, they are bagged using the bagging scan. After bagging, the bags are staged
according to the location waiting to be out bounded. At this stage the staging scan is used
to indicate that the product is in the bag which is staged in the respective location area.

2.3.Outbound Operations: Out-bound process include rushing out the packages from the
facility to the next sort center or the delivery station (last mile) from where the package is

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 shipped to the customer. A specific time is allocated for each location truck to depart,
known as the CPT (critical pool time). The trucks should be loaded, sealed and all the
papers should be handed to the truck drivers well before the CPT. The truck should leave
the facility before the CPT. Missing the CPT would disrupt the package delivery timeline
and the final customer will be affected. Hence adhering to CPT is very important.

Figure:1

Figure:1 shows the route of the package. The package is sent from CCU1 (Kolkata) center and
will be delivered to VTZG (Visakhapatnam) center from where the package will finally be
delivered to the customer.

2.4.Reverse logistics Management: Packages that customer return should be returned back to
the company. The same inbound, in-warehouse, outbound processes are followed in the
reverse order i.e. from customers to the company. Most of the returns occur due to package
not meeting the customer expectation, damaged during transportation.

2.5.Value added services:

• Damaged and orphan package management: The packages that are returned from
the customer can be damaged packages or many packages get damaged or invoice
of the package is lost making it an orphan package. Such packages are forwarded
to the orphan management department where they try to find the invoice of the
package based on the package, try to recover the damaged packages or dispose off

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 the packages. Managing this department efficiently and trying to recover as many
packages as possible can save cost and save the end customer from being affected.
• Kaizen: All the employees are encouraged to submit kaizen ideas every month so
as to continuously improve the process. New scans are introduced to better track
the package within the facility, color coding is introduced to manage assets such as
scanners, laptops in different departments.
• 5s: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain (5S) concept is used as a lean
management technique. It helps to organize the workplace so that the work is done
efficiently, and for safety purposes.
• Gemba walks: Gemba boards are deployed in each section namely inbound, sorting
area and outbound area. Gemba walk is done by the senior management to identify
the productivity of the section, any difficulties faced by the section and how did it
overcome that difficulty, total number of packages processed, how much man
power was deployed, how many damage packages were leveraged.

3. Conclusion:

All the processes are completed using technology such as the advance scanning labels. Moreover,
the entire warehouses are deployed with the conveyor belt system to easily carry the package from
one section to another. All the processes in the warehouse are integrated through the software. We
can find details of every package and the package location based on the scans applied in the
software. All the trucks are checked in and checked out using the software and invoices and papers
are downloaded through it. Since every activity is integrated, it helps in efficiently managing all
the processes and maintain the customer trust.