Introduction S.K Das established ABC Pharma in 1961 in New Delhi, marketed antibiotics and became brand leaders in Amphicilin and Cephalexin orals. The company went public in the year 1973. In 1983, ABC established a plant in Mandideep (MP, India) with various dosage form facilities. In 2004, it became India's largest pharmaceutical company, manufacturing and marketing world-class generics, branded generic pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. It was ranked amongst the top 10 generic companies worldwide. The company's product were sold in over 100 countries with manufacturing operations in 7 countries and ground presence in 44. The company had an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and representative offices across the globe with joint venture/ subsidiaries in US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, India, China, Brazil, South Africa, etc. While ABC aggressively pursued the internationalization of its business, the growth strategy equally foucoused on enhancing market share n India. The company had a strong brand marketing team and distribution network in India. Milestones By the end of December 31, 2004, global sales had reached US $ 1178 million and registered a growth of 21%. Overseas market accounted for 78% of the global sales. US accounted for 36%, while Europe and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries contributed 16% and 26% to global sales, with a combined turnover of US $924 million. The company's vision was to achieve significant business in proprietary prescription products with a strong presence in developed markets. It also aspired to be amongst the top 5 generic players with a US $5 billion sale by next decade. To translate these objectives into reality and to optimize value creation, the Company had adopted a multi-pronged strategy. The major thrust areas for future were acquisition of brands overseas, emphasis on brand marketing in the US and Europe and entering high potential new marets with value added product offerings. The company had established state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary R&D facilities at Gurgaon, India. ABC was one of the largest investor on R&D in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, with 7% of its sales during 2004. The company's major research focus was in the areas of Urology, Anti- invectives, Respiratory, Anti-inflammatory and Metabolic disorders segments. ABC's continued focus on R&D had resulted in several approvals in developed markets and significant progress in New Drug Delivery Response (NDDR). Fourth Party Logistics (4PL) The company believes in building strong and long term relationships with limited number of logistics service providers. They also focoused on outsourcing the activities like warehouse management, packing and custom clearance through Freight Forwarders. They always believed in their core competencies. The logistics service providers took care of storage and inventory management and ensured the availability of the right product at the right place and at right time. Through outsourcing, they achieved focus on the core competencies, cost saving, effective supply chain management, cross-pollination of better available practices and wider and effective geographical coverage. The company practiced Fourth Party Logistics (4PL) services by providing ERP as a backbone system for the third party logistics service providers. The palette packing services were outsourced from a local company including the packing material. The responsibility of complete documentation and custom clearance for import and export of goods had also been outsourced through Custom House Agents (CHA) and Freights Forwarders (FF) under the supervision of GM - Global Supply Chain. The warehouse management was done with the help of Bar-code Technology, which facilitied in tracing of materials on a single click of a mouse resulting into smooth inward and outward flow of materials. In future, ABC was planning to have Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology to manage the warehouse activities in a more effective and efficient manner. The company had divided its global operations into four regions viz., R1-Middle East with headquarter at India; R2-CIS, Africa and Europe with headquarter at London; R3-Far East ad Latin America with headquarter at Singapore; R4-US with headquarters at New York on the basis of convenience, market potential and market share. Collaborative Relationship The company established its global supply chain hub at Mandideep (near Bhopal, India). They managed their operations with one GM-Supply Chain, one Senior Manager Commercial and four Shipment Officers. Each Shipment Officer had four support employees outsourced through freight forwarders. These people were responsible for the day-to-day activities under the administrative control of ABC. GM-Supply Chain was responsible for managing the relations with Supply Chain Partners, Freight forwarders and Custom House Agents (CHA). The company had been a pioneer in launching the genetic versions of products on the same day at which the product to get off patent, which helped them in getting an edge over competitors. They managed to maintain the dignity, discipline and business ethics without violating the laws of patent. This was possible because of the strong and long term relationship with logistic service providers. There was a strong level of belonging, faith and trust amongst the supply chain partners. To maintain the good relations, the company practiced making timely payments to the service providers. They also opened the account in the same bank in which the service providers had their account so that prompt money transfer could take place. As a result of this, service providers were so concerned about the shipments of the company that they dedicated 25 refrigerated cargos each equipped with location tracking facility to track the status of the shipments. The relationship and commitments of service providers was endorsed on January 10, 2003 when Ramipril was going off patents in Europe. ABC having strong presence n Germany wanted to encash the oppournity by making its Rampril available in Germany right on January 11, 2003, so as to take lead in available generic market. However, ABC did not know the number and size of competition they would be facing. The underlying fear of getting the shipment late and therby losing the advantage of being first was very clear on the faces of ABCs top managers. The task was urgent and important; any delay in availability was to cost heavily. The D-day was January 10, 2003 and the shipment was to be airlifted from Mumbai so as to reach Germany after midnight of January 10, 2003 but before dawn of January 11, 2003. Two Boeing were chartered to lift the goods from Mumbai Airport, but the task was not simple, as the goods were to be surface transported from Mandideep to Mumbai in a carvan of 70 cargos. To worsen the things, the transporters had announced strike during that period. The urgency was briefed to freight forwarder, who was caught between relationship with ABC and membership of the Transporters' Association. He had the option of pleasing any one of them. The long association and the relationship with ABC got priority and the freight forwarder assured ABC's Senior Commercial Manager to carry out the assigned responsibility. Going against the directives of association, the freight forwarder contacted the police authorities and obtained a security cover throughout Maharastra. The freight owner consider himself as one of the responsible members of ABC and was personally receiving the cargo and getting it loaded at Mumbai airport. The scheduled departure had a lead-time of two days. However, he freight forwarder insisted and stayed at Mumbai at his own cost to see the goods leaving India successfully. It was a mission for ABC and the freight forwarder in which collaborative relationship surpassed all limitations and the goods landed in Germany-just-in-time. 1. What modification would you suggest in enhancing the existing logistics system? 2. Critically analyze the efforts of ABC in launching generic versions of products going off patents?