The manufacturing scenario in India is undergoing rapid transformation, particularly in terms of how materials move within facilities. This shift in intralogistics, managing material flow through the warehouse, distribution, and/or fulfilment centre, redefines manufacturing excellence in the post-pandemic era. In such a situation, solution-oriented approaches to material handling can significantly impact operational efficiency across industries.
Today, manufacturing excellence extends beyond traditional metrics of output and quality. For the new breed of quick-commerce and e-commerce companies revolutionising India’s retail and delivery ecosystem, excellence is measured in minutes and cost per delivery. These metrics significantly affect the manufacturing and material handling systems that support these operations.
Most quick-commerce companies’ core promise to end customers is rapid delivery in less than 10 minutes. Underlying factors such as warehouse/fulfilment centre footprint, equipment, and space management are significant in this 10-minute promise.
This shift demands that manufacturers and solution providers move beyond simply supplying materials and equipment. Success now depends on deeply understanding customer needs and challenges.
The Solution-Provider Approach: A Case Study in Excellence
Manufacturing excellence in today’s complex supply chain environment requires a “solution-based approach”. This means going beyond the territory of a traditional equipment supplier to become a strategic partner in the customer’s success.
For instance, in the case of a prominent quick-commerce company, delivery agents’ pick-up times were identified as a bottleneck in meeting the promised 10-minute delivery window. In that scenario, Vidhaatri didn’t simply offer standard picking trolleys. Instead, we redesigned the company’s equipment to enable parallel picking, significantly reducing pick-up times and directly contributing to the client’s core business promise.
Because of this solution-centric approach, we at Vidhaatri could upgrade our picking trolley designs to enable parallel picking, thus significantly shortening the pick times. The end goal for any solution provider is a happy customer at the end of a project. This example shows how manufacturing excellence today requires a shift from product-focused thinking to outcome-focused innovation.
Optimisation: The Heart of Excellence
Cost optimisation remains critical to manufacturing excellence, particularly as businesses scale. For e-commerce operations, the delivery cost eventually becomes a significant performance indicator that can determine long-term viability.
Vidhaatri’s work with a leading e-commerce company demonstrates this aspect of excellence. By reimagining how existing real estate can be utilised with standard 40-foot and 32-foot shipping containers, we significantly increased the height of trolleys and cages that can be transported within the containers across fulfilment centres. This innovation maximised cubic utilisation of expensive transport space—a classic example of how manufacturing excellence translates to bottom-line impact. After all, real estate is money on land or within a container.
Engineering Precision: The Foundation of Solutions
Behind these solutions lies a rigorous engineering discipline. When tasked with improving cage stability during handling for the same e-commerce leader, Vidhaatri didn’t rely on intuition. We partnered with the customer on a Six Sigma project—the gold standard procedure for process improvement—to systematically address the challenge. This involved overcoming significant design challenges, which our expert 3D CREO modelling and simulation design teams successfully addressed.
This commitment to engineering precision—utilising advanced 3D modelling, simulation, and established quality methods—represents another dimension of manufacturing excellence that distinguishes intralogistics leaders from followers.
The Path Forward: Continuous Adaptation
The journey towards manufacturing excellence has no finish line. As consumer expectations evolve and business models transform, the definition of excellence continues to shift. At Vidhaatri, we endeavour to take a solution provider approach by supplying advanced material handling products that cater to rapid expansions. We continuously learn and adapt to the ever-changing ecosystem.
This mindset—positioning learning and adaptation at the core of organisational culture—may be the most crucial element of manufacturing excellence in today’s volatile business environment.
As India’s manufacturing and logistics landscape continues to evolve rapidly, the companies that excel will view themselves not as equipment suppliers but as solution partners deeply invested in their customers’ success.
The Vidhaatri approach highlights that true manufacturing excellence today requires understanding customer requirements, identifying critical performance indicators, and delivering solutions that directly impact those metrics. It’s about seeing beyond the immediate transaction to build lasting partnerships that drive mutual success. In this new perspective, the impact of what you enable is now a key measure of manufacturing excellence, alongside product quality.
