Name: Shimon Gowda
Email: [email protected]
A supply chain professional with end to end supply chain experience ranging from advanced analytical roles, evaluating supply chain systems, designing distribution network strategies, capacity and inventory optimization amongst other things with the ultimate goal to drive a balance between sales, planning and operation. I have worked with clients in pharmaceutical, electrical supplies, life sciences, clothing, jewellery, Toys, 3rd party logistics including freight and carrier consolidation projects. This wide range of domain exposure honed my skill to quickly learn, unlearn and re-learn in this fast ever-evolving world. Though these industries and their products are varied in dimension, operation methodolgy, supply chain system utilized etc., they are all driving towards the same goals with the same core values such as reducing costs, driving efficiency and improving customer service levels.
INSPIRATION: As it is rightly said, family is the first school of every individual. Many of our career aspirations are strongly influenced by the environment in which we are brought up. My father, a doctor and a son of a farmer balanced his profession well and took care of our agricultural land perfectly. As a kid, I would keenly observe the processes involved in running our estate. My initial brush with Supply Chain Process was when I saw how the milk from the cows was stored and diligently transported to the dairy for pasteurization, where it undergoes various processes before it is sent out to stores for sale. I was always inspired and awed by this mechanical yet very efficient chain of supply. This inspired me to develop a penchant towards Supply chain and the various processes governing them.
Having a bachelors and a master's degree specialized in Supply chain exposed me to the essential of supply chain almost 9 years ago and I have come to realize is optimization of supply chain is a cyclic process. As the principle of Lean Six Sigma teaches us, "there is always scope for improvement and potential to reduce costs", and this is what fuels my eternal passion in this field. My educational background, professional exposure has taught me to have a keen eye for optimzation of process, labour, infrastructure, and distribution network including all nodes of supply and demand to increase the three "R's": Revenue, ROI and Relationship building.
My experience in this field spans over multi-faceted domains included, but not limited to life sciences, luxury clothing brand, pharmaceutical, toys and largest jewellery retailer brand in North America. While most of their supply chain is unique, the underlying purpose remains the same. Based on the varsity and complexity of the clientele data, suitable software modelling tools such as Supply Chain Guru, Prologix, Anylogistics etc., is used to build simulation, network optimization, green field analysis etc., to optimize the distribution network, evaluate facility, labor and transportation costs, and reduce customer service delivery lead time. Below is a link with a very high level approach to Network Modelling: Distribution Network Modelling Approach
Worked with a leading supermarket chain in India, Big Bazaar to reduce the waiting time in the queue by 5.8 minutes/customer during peak hours. This was an End to End Optimization project involving collection of data, identification of peak hours, computation of average waiting time, performing root cause analysis and pinpointing the factors that caused the delay and thus implemented ways to overcome it. Several simulation and statistical tools such as Arena and Minitab were used for the analysis and visualization. The project accomplishment report can be found in the attached link:
Some of the major projects include building optimum inventory models and forecasting models using systems like Anaplan, Kinaxis Rapid Responses to achieve a fill rate of 99% and reduce holding costs by 20% thus improving service levels, designing inventory reallocation distribution network and product flow optimization route for the largest toys’ manufacturer in North America, reducing customer service times from 3-4 days to 1.5 days and saving $1.5M annually. Some of my pro bono work includes designing an inventory system for an old school tavern ($800k revenue/yr) by determining the EOQ, safety stock and restock level for all SKU’s by testing historical sales data and revamped the current transportation structure and projected a savings of 67.4 % of annual costs from the existing model. - Provided ABC analysis SKU categorization training and recommended actions to operations team to become self sufficient and independent.
Starting off my career with Mu-sigma, I was exposed to sophisticated BI tools such as Tableau and analytical tools such as R and SAS. I engaged with a 120 member team providing analyses for sales, prescription and marketing divisions for a pharmaceutical brand, performed portfolio segmentation of over 25,000 SKUs based on metrics such as demand, revenue, forecast accuracy and distribution ability. I believe it is an art to derive quick, actionable insights from plain numbers. Having the advantage of being experienced in both supply chain domain and understanding the ability and restrictions of data analytics, I have succesfully played the role of a Business Analyst to understand client requirements and translate the same into technichal requirements. I have been successful in setting appropriate client expectation and sucessfully delivered insightful dashboards in Qliksense, Power BI and tableau platforms.
1. Top 100 Women In Supply Chain 2021
2. Built a low-code Inventory Management App
3. Contributed to IBF Winter 2021 Magazine
4. Featured in Society of Women Engineers Winter Magazine
5. Co-authored article for SAP Insights
6. Moderated National Level NASSCOM Supply Chain Event
7. Founded 'Supply Chain Unified' to mentor and guide young professionals
"A little bit of me - outside of work"
I have been an active volunteer with "Youth for Seva" and "Make a Wish" foundation which works for the welfare of children who suffer from terminally ill diseases and works towards making their naive, simple, innocent one time dream come true. I chose this foundation in particular, because not only is it a wonderful heartfelt cause, but sharing the moment of joy with these kids while making their dream come true and having to witness this joy on their faces is priceless and brought me immense sense of satisfaction and gratitude. Proffesionally, I am a member and mentor at APICS and guide fresh graduates with their career paths.
My business plan idea was awarded the first prize at the reputed National level competition held at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. We were also finalists at the Business Consigliere competion held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for a Business case competition
I am a certified Indian classical dancer. I have been learning and performing since the age of 6. I also teach kids from under-priviliged background who express a keen interest to learn and perform. Below is a snippet of my certificates:
