Jaipur- they call it the city of Love, the city of Kings, the City of Heritage. I was excited about my first industry experience and the exploration awaiting in the Pink city. It all started on a summer morning, to be precise- on a sultry Rajasthan Summer morning with a guided tour to one of the largest, most modern warehouses in the country – Mahindra’s state-of-the art spare parts warehouse in Mahindra World City (MWC), Jaipur.

Spread over a 11-acre plot, the magnanimous warehouse houses around 4000 parts(approximately 32,000 SKUs) in the automobile and farm division sectors. The initial few days of internship enabled me to understand their business model, values and current operations strategy. In the subsequent days, I observed that in spite of being one of the most highly productive warehouses of Mahindra, there are various areas within the warehouse that can realize more productivity with subtle operational changes. This is when I truly realised the power of an efficient supply chain.

Performing ABC analysis on 32,000 SKUs, understanding why a part is destined to be in a certain location in the warehouse are some of the most rewarding learning experiences that I have ever stumbled upon. “Never speak jargons” – the most profound lesson from the Marketing sessions at IIM Udaipur, is the single mantra I adhered to while conveying my suggestions to the managing heads at Mahindra. By the end of two months, I perused a wide variety of concepts I learned in my PGPX journey ranging from Managerial Communications to negotiate with the workers in the warehouse to Financial Management while presenting the financial implications of the proposed changes in the warehouse. It was overall an experience that I will cherish for the rest of my career – a little Supply Chain, a little more of Microsoft Excel and lots of amazing moments involving my tryst with a non-native language.