Consequences of a supply chain Failure!

Welcome readers, This is Aswath A C from Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore. 

No one could forget the struggle of Indian freedom fighters against the British colonialism. One notable group during this era is Indian National Army popularly known as the INA. With more than 40000 soldiers who were part of British army surrendered to Japanese troops in Singapore. Mohan Singh formed the Indian National Army, with the captured Indian soldiers with the support of the Japan to overthrow the rule of British in India. The world’s first woman infantry regiment, known as the Rani of Jhansi regiment was also formed.

In 1944, they planned to enter India through the forests of Burma and enter Assam territory of India. The soldiers attacked fiercely and captured two posts of British army in Burma. The real problem of supplying them with the required products including food, ammunition, medicines became a serious problem after this.

Their supply chain was designed in such a way that the supplies enter through the port of Rangoon (1) into Burma, and then moved north to the city of Mandalay (2), then reaching the Japanese air base Myitkynia (3), which is north to the Mandalay. The movement of supply till Mandalay was not a problem, but forwarding the supplies from there was very difficult due to mountainous terrain after that. 

But, on the other hand British army went back to fortified bases and had got enough supplies through the available British and American air cargo planes. The monsoon started in May, became a big headache for the Japanese troops as the roads, terrain became even more difficult to transport the supplies. 

The Japanese base was attacked by the allied forces, which created more demand for the supplies in the base. This put a large pressure on the troops that were waiting for supplies from the Japanese bases. The soldiers almost ran out of ammunition, food, fuel and also they were dying of severe wound and poisonous insects due to the rain. The remaining of the troops was forced to retreat.

 They had lost the war mainly because of their strategy and supply chain design, not because of their opponents.

This case is yet another good example of importance of supply chain and design it such a way that it is agile, to know more about this war do watch “The Forgotten Army: Azaadi ke liye” in Amazon Prime video.

Germany’s supply chain strategy to invade Smolensk

Welcome to my blog, This is Aswath A C of Amrita School of Business.

World War 2 happened between Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and Allied powers (Britain, France, and USSR) for a period of 6 years i.e. 1939 – 1945.

To the surprise of the world, Germany emerged as a super power under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, and invaded Poland, which officially started World War 2. Their motto is to advance to Moscow in 1941. This move was done because of the reason that Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow were the hubs with regionally connected transportation network. So to advance to Moscow, they are required to capture Minsk and Smolensk. Minsk was captured without much trouble and within the planned period. The germans, then marched towards Smolensk and the battle happened over a period of 2 months, with German army already advanced approximately 500kms into the USSR. Their strategy depended on the continuous movement of troops, and continuous delivery of supplies. It began with two main supply depots in Prussia and Poland and was forwarded to Minsk. They have also captured a Russian oil refinery, which served gasoline to the army.

1. Prussia 2. Poland 3. Minsk 4. Oil refinery 5. Smolensk

The supply chain of Germany was modelled by four entities 1. Products – ammunition container’s size and weight, 2. Facilities –Storage capacity, demand for the product and on-hand facility at the forward depot, 3. Transportation – volume and weight of shipment, speed of the vehicle, 4. Route- round trip time

This case is a good example for the importance of supply chain that can help you to win battles. 

An Army marches on its stomach!

Welcome to my blog, This is Aswath A C of Amrita School of Business.

A thought about military logistics came to my mind when I was reading an article about the recent faceoff between India and China at Ladakh. This inspired me to write this blog with one of the most organized supply chain that happened long back in 329 BC.

After defeating the Persian king Darius, Alexander organized his supply chain that had farms and workshops to advance to Afghanistan and beyond. He established the base in city of Herat, which served as the logistical base for his army in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

 Also, the armies at the time of Alexander had a very different logistics structure, which had many carts carrying supplies including provisions and people exclusive to handle the carts. But, Alexander had a different idea; he trained soldiers to carry their own equipment and provisions. This made his army the fastest and most mobile army of that time.

Before entering a new territory, if a ruler of that place didn’t surrender, he would gather intelligence about the territory and takes a small army to attack the ruler, whereas the main army stays back at the logistical base until Alexander secure supply enough for his army. If a ruler surrendered, he would set up a supply depot with armies guarding it.

Alexander once told that “his logisticians are the first one to slay, if a campaign fails”