Planned supply chain necessary for long-term cost management

Nayeemul Islam Bhuyan is a supply chain executive at BSRM, the leading steel producer of the country. He started the job in 2016 after earning his master's degree in Chemistry at Chattogram University. The young man was awarded the Young Supply Chain Talent of the Year at the 2019 Bangladesh Supply Chain Excellence Awards by the IPDC.

He recently spoke with The Business Standard's Faijullah Wasif about his achievements and professional experience.

After the initial conversation, when the chemistry student was asked about his experience working on a supply chain, he said, "When I started working here, I could not do addition and subtraction in Microsoft Excel. Now I am trying to learn something every day. Since my academic studies were not about it, I am learning through working."

The planning for how to manage a huge workload, before and after production in any organisation, comes from the supply chain. Nayeemul Islam Bhuyan thinks that there is no alternative to this for long-term cost management.

"The challenge is to deliver a product within the purchasing power of the buyer on the competitive market. Therefore, every company wants to reduce production cost. In this context, besides buying raw materials at lower prices, everyone also wants to spend less on distribution channels. I created a solution to simplify this distribution channel," he said.

Asked how the "Delivery Performance Inspector" solution works, Nayeemul Islam Bhuyan said the Excel dashboard primarily deals with downstream supply chain channel management. "Being a heavy industry, our supply chain is a little different. Our calculations are done in tonnes. And large warehouses are required for proper distribution. This solution helps keep these calculations up to date."

The young official said, "About 60% of the products are shipped directly from our manufacturing units in Chattogram to buyers. There are nine warehouses across the country for the remaining 40%. From there, our products reach buyers via traders. The solution I created is being used to monitor this process at a glance."

He thanked the institutions and authorities concerned for IPDC's recognition and his contribution to the supply chain of BSRM. He said the organisation is benefitting from the solution.

"It has added a new dimension to my career. And receiving awards inspires you to do better in the future," he added.

Nayeemul Islam Bhuyan thinks that this solution for BSRM's downstream supply chain is playing an important role in the company's cost management. Through this, a planned supply chain has also been formed, strengthening the marketing management of BSRM.

He said that, currently, the company collects raw materials from 25 to 30 countries; most of which come from the United States, European Union and Japan.

"At present, the company has an annual production capacity of 1.6 million metric tonnes. The lion's share of it is being used in major government projects in the country including the: Padma Bridge, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Metro Rail, and Rooppur Nuclear Project," said Nayeemul.

Talking about expanding the market of BSRM's products abroad, he said, "We have started exporting goods to Assam in India, to a limited extent, after meeting the demand of the country. It will be further enhanced in light of our production capacity. We also have a plant under construction in Kenya."

Asked about his future plans, he said, "Like all other things, there will be major technological changes in the supply chain in the post-Covid-19 period. There will be challenges to adapt to automation."

The young supply chain analyst wants to work with enterprise resource planning to enhance the capacity of the institutional supply chain by building dynamic data management. He recommends that members of the young generation who want to come into this profession increase their technical knowledge as well as theoretical understanding.